Pubby

I'll go ahead and address the customer service issues upfront. Yes, too often the response is canned, copied, and pasted. I'm okay with that. For the small monthly fee, I am not expecting a dedicated customer service rep. Each time I have pressed Pubby on a missing review or been dinged when an Amazon review I posted did not go live, the Pubby team honored my effort.

I have used Pubby since the fall of 2019. I have reviewed hundreds of books through Pubby and received over a hundred reviews in return.

Not all the reviews of my books are favorable. I have received 1 star reviews that came close to personal attacks and 3 star reviews from those who didn't read the book, but I have also received many 4 and 5 star reviews.

Any review service is only as good as those reading the books and writing reviews. This includes NetGalley. Pubby does seem to attract a lot of self published authors, so that needs to be figured into your review expectations. If an author cannot get published by a traditional house they may not be able to recognize quality writing when they read it.

But overall I have found that for great books, books traditionally published or professionally edited and proofed, Pubby is a good option.

I absolutely love PUBBY! I have 5 books on the platform all of which have received verified reviews as a result of the PUBBY platform. I also am a 5x Amazon Bestselling author and an author coach and I recommend PUBBY to all of the authors I work with to help them get eyes on their books and get some REAL feedback from readers.

I had some success with Pubby at first, but soon discovered that the luster fades quite quickly. To start: customer service is atrocious. If they do respond to you right away (normally it takes several days even using the chat function) there are few answers provided, but most answers are generic and rehearsed. I often wondered if "Mary" was a bot since the rest of the system is heavily automated. My second issue is the inconsistency of pricing and plans. Three times I had to address my membership in the lower-cost "essential" plan because Pubby changed the price or services offered within the plan WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. This is what eventually sealed the deal for me and led me to cancel my membership. Another huge problem and red flag for authors to stay far, FAR away from Pubby is the fact that they refuse to remove uploaded content from their servers even after your membership has been canceled. I removed everything I could of my work from my dashboard, but who knows what they have access to and what they might do with it. Thankfully my work is all copyright protected. BUYER BEWARE. Pubby is a waste!

Pubby is basically a reliable tool to get reviews for your book. If you read and review enough books, or render whatever services are needed to gain enough "snaps", you can spend those "snaps" to put your own book up to be read and reviewed on Amazon. The negative reviews here on SiteJabber that complain about nobody reading the books and just giving rubber stamp five-star reviews are not true. I, for one, read the books I review, have given some negative reviews, even one-star ones to awful ones (though those are thankfully rare). And it seems a good majority of the people who have reviewed my books have read them enough to include details that are not easily found without reading the text, and include unique observations that are not merely repeating other reviews. That being said, there are some reviewers/reviews that are slapdash, or suggest maybe the reviewer didn't actually read the book. But that is a slim number, and they might just be being lazy when it comes time to review, who knows. I only ding Pubby a star because there does seem to be issues from time-to-time verifying my reviews, which are clearly there on Amazon, and occasionally books I signed up to review disappear from my account. These issues have been, and are, eventually handled satisfactorily by Pubby, but it can get annoying when it happens more than once. Otherwise, this service is just a functioning tool to get readers and reviews, there is no guarantee that the books you read/review are going to be brilliant every time (all though most are very good and I'm purchasing these books and look forward to the authors' future works), or that you will get a well-written, five star review for your own work every single time (though some are so to-the-point and complimentary I want to use them for advertising, if I could think of a way to do it) especially if you haven't done the necessary work to craft and edit your book properly.

Terrible customer service from "Mary" (nonexistent person, I'm sure; the thumbnail is a stock photo). Just so rude. Otherwise a pretty good service.

I had a review and it was nice up until I seen where the reviewer cut me all the way done to nothing.

Pubby is very easy to use and gets my book lots of reviews. I recommend it highly because the reviews are organic and they are spead out over time

I've used the Pubby service and, for the most part, the users are on the up and up. Very rarely do I suspect a reviewer hasn't read the book. ALSO, it's not like the authors just blow each other all day, giving each other five-star review after five-star review. To my own frustration, I've received a number of 3 and 4-star reviews, but usually the review shows that the reader was an idiot. For example, one of my books is titled "... BOOK FOUR..." and the reader didn't realize it wasn't a stand-alone book until she was half-way through and got mad about it and gave me a full star penalty because she was hoping to read a stand-alone book. She also didn't understand a certain grammatical rule that's actually quite common, and counted a point against me because I "kept getting it wrong" (though I was actually doing it right, she was just a moron, like one of those people who don't know the difference between "then" and "than" or "their", "there", and "they're".).

HOWEVER... I will say that I'm ending my pubby subscription because their customer service is absolute garbage. I once asked a question that all it took was for the support person to look at my account to resolve, but she was being lazy and didn't feel like bothering to look, so she just gave me a quick BS answer and tried to get rid of me. Also, they seem incapable of verifying when you post your reviews to Amazon, and when they can't do their job properly, they lock your account so you can't get more reviews until they can finally figure out what they're doing. I've had to send them screenshots of my last dozen or so reviews to prove they've been posted, and my account is still currently not allowing me to be reviewed.

Overall the service would be good, and I find it to be as ethical as possible given the setup, the problem is that the staff is lazy and incompetent and penalize their paying customers for their own failings. Also, as with all reviews (I suppose), you're still subject to idiots giving you bad reviews because they're not bright enough to know what they're doing.

Great resource for authors to kick off their book launch! It's quick and easy and the platform great.

**DON'T PUT TOO MUCH STOCK IN THE WHINY ONE STAR REVIEWS HERE**

Pubby does exactly what it claims to do: Creates an environment where authors have the opportunity to review the works of other authors in order to generate tokens which allow your work to be reviewed (Not a swap). The dashboard is simple to use and easy to learn. Customer service is a bit slow at times but generally handles any issues you might have.

The authors who have attacked this service for getting bad reviews USUALLY DESERVE BAD REVIEWS, they're just not able to admit that their book baby might actually suck instead of being the ray of creative genius they believe it to be. In my experience the reviews have been fair - good reviews for good work and bad reviews for sloppy work. Authors are, after all, some of the worst critics. You have to know you're throwing your work in a shark tank. But if your work can survive there - good things await. I've boosted several of my works up in reviews through this system. It works. But you have to put some time in and read/review honestly.

Only three drawbacks keep this from being a five star service IMO.

1. The pool of books available to review can sometimes be slim.

2. The price is a bit steep. $150 I could see. Almost $250 seems like a lot.

3. Considering #2 above - An option is offered that allows authors to force reviewers to first buy their book. This sucks. If I'm paying for a service AND taking the time to review - why should I have to buy the book too? That's downright stupid and borderline abusive. All books available on the service should be a free download or available via Kindle Unlimited. Period.

If the admins will change this policy - I'll change this review to be 5 Stars.

It's otherwise a great service to consider. Check it out.

There are no ACTUAL READERS just other authors, who are reading and for the most part, trashing your book. The membership cost is $240 per year. If your book is on Kindle Unlimited, that will cost you an extra $14.99. If your book is to be 'purchased', it will cost you an extra $14.99. Want a 'recommended reader' who likes your genre? That will cost you an extra $14.99. If you provide a PDF copy of your book, that will cost you an extra $9.99 -- like baggage fees at the airport, it all adds up. All of these costs are REAL and required just get your book listed with the service. Although calling Pubby 'a service' is a joke.

Now after being 'listed,' you'll want to get your book put into rotation, so that 'readers' can see it, select it, read and review it. This will cost you too. You have to use SNAPS -- the currency of Pubby's website. Here's an example: If you read a book that's free and about 50K words, you'll earn about 1200 SNAPS. But it will cost you more than that to have someone purchase and read YOUR book. My book is 4.99, so it costs about 3500 SNAPS every time I request that it be put up for selection. So you should expect to read 2 or 3 free books for every review you request. Or expect to purchase a book that is the same cost and word count as your book. And even then you may not get a review for a week or two. The website says you can expect to get up to 5 reviews a week, which is a total lie. It may take a week or more for someone to select your book to read.
Then after a few weeks or months, the reviews which you have paid for in terms of time and effort (gathering SNAPS by reading other books) and writing & posting your own reviews -- will simply disappear. And Customer service will do nothing about it. Total rip-off.

Pubby delivers as advertised providing endless unbiased reviews. Customer support is always prompt and helpful. Highly recommended!

***FYI***
Pubby offered rewards for positive reviews on this website, so take any reviews from around September 2021 with a grain of salt. (Screenshot below)

I have been using Pubby for almost a year, and I have gotten several good reviews from it. I have also been able to find other authors' work that I otherwise would never have picked up.
The idea of anonymous reviews to support other indie authors is good, but you have to execute that idea well. As of right now, Pubby is not executing their idea well at all.
While most people who sign up for a verified purchase of your book, there is an increasing number of people who sign up for a verified purchase but leave a B. S. review without even looking at the book synopsis.
This is extremely dangerous and unfair for the author's standing with Amazon because they can and will actually ban an author from publishing with them. I have reminded the Pubby support team of this several times, and yet, all they do when I report a fraudulent review is give me a partial refund of their point system "snaps". As far as I know, those fraudulent reviewers are going on their merry way with all the extra snaps I paid while Pubby keeps inflating their snaps every day.

I still think Pubby is a good idea, but they need to listen to constructive criticism and CHANGE if they want to stay in business. I am going to give them a few more chances after I have made my requests clear to improve, but if I don't, I will be forced to pull my book from the site for the sake of my struggling author career.

If it comes to that, then I will be VERY vocal about Pubby and why authors should run the other way from it, because if they do NOT improve VERY quickly, then I will come to the conclusion that they are simply another scam that struggling indie authors fall for, and I want to protect my fellow writers from that.

If they DO improve, and I can actually get quality, verified purchases from Pubby readers, then I will tell my author friends about it and let them choose if such an expensive (because it is very expensive) investment is worth it.

Do better, Pubby.

Pubby is great for authors who are looking for readers to critically examine their novels, as well as enjoy them!

I have used Pubby for over 6 months.
Here are my thoughts:

Site Administration
I have had to contact the site's admins a few times. Sometimes for things they controlled, other times for things (in the books on the site) that they might want to know about. (Like a file not loading.)
Each time I used their "chat" feature I got a response within the time indicated on the chatbot. Sometimes it's just a few minutes. Other times, like weekends or late at night, it's a few hours or the next work day. But I have always gotten a good response in a polite, helpful tone.

The Service For Authors
I have used Pubby to find reviewers for my books. So far, all but one review have been excellent--after 40-some reviews. They are not all "automatic 5-star" reviews. They have been, for the most part, very, very helpful and thoughtful. I honestly think a mix of three, four and five-star reviews are much more helpful to potential readers of the book--so I am not worried about that, and I do not think Pubby is a place where you get "rote" reviewers all giving 5 stars. Look elsewhere for that.

The Service for Readers
This is the fun part. If you join this site, you are agreeing to review other writers' books. I have gotten to read many, many great books by new and established authors. I have dabbled in genres I had not looked into previously and thoroughly enjoyed them. I have reviewed a "book II" of a series and immediately after gone and purchased the "book I" because I just had to know the full backstory because the book was so engaging.
Before I accept a book to review, I usually go to Amazon and check out the author and that book, and any other books the author has written. Most often I find the titles in question already have a good number of reviews, which then validates my opinion. If I find the book not to my liking, I don't accept it as an assignment, and go look for something else.

PUBBY is a unique investment of time and money.
I read and reviewed up to the limit of books (7 first week, 7 second week)
This was my first time for all things self-published, so the learning curve was a factor many times.

I had the poor luck to draw a harsh critique my second review, and it really stung for 2 days BUT MY POINT IS on the third day I received a 5-star review that healed my drooping wings and had me smiling again because I truly had achieved my dream of being a self-published author. I now have 8 reviews for my debut epic fantasy, and life as an author sparkles and seems full of bright promise.

You need 1500 snaps for each reviewer PUBBY request for your book, and you are given enough free snaps at the start so that once you've uploaded your book, you can immediately request a reviewer. The books you review have different numbers of snaps, mostly depending on length. You can also earn snaps for inviting friends to read for free and review the books available. When they turn in a review, YOU earn the snaps for the review. Haven't done that. I've reviewed 14 books to earn my 8 reviews, and most of them are 5-star, with thoughtful, encouraging comments. To know that I have readers who honestly like my work is priceless to me.
Happy 2023, and I hope you have a similar experience during the trial period.

For your book, you'll see the STAR value only when the review comes in. This is followed days later by a button that appears on the review near the star value. Pressing the button generates a URL link to the review that has gone live on Amazon.
The 12-month fee is paid as soon as the trial subscription ends, assessed annually.

Pubby works pretty simply: you review other authors and they review you. It gives you options for offering free of purchase reviews, Kindle Unlimited, or Verified Purchased reviews. All the reviews are on Amazon (not on Goodreads or any other site). It might seem like paying for reviews, but I think it skirts around the issue by using a token system they call "snaps". Essentially you can't "offer" your book for review in their marketplace unless you have enough snaps. The only way to get snaps is to read and review other people's books through the site. So all in all it's really a "authors helping authors" situation. They have a "reader's" program, but my gut feeling is there are less pure readers and most of the users are also other authors. It does cost like $20 a month to access the service, but it's well worth it! If you organize yourself, you can get A LOT of reviews (about 3-4 a week), which is the whole point.

The reason you're using Pubby is because Amazon reviews are real currency for your book. Not just ratings but reviews. This is super important, especially when your book is new. Pubby really get's your review count higher and higher. There are a few things to keep in mind:

1) The quality of the reviews is not good. Most people who are reviewing do not read your book. Don't expect them to do so. Again, this is mostly authors helping authors, and they don't have time to read the book.
2) Make sure the information you post is informative and has some key buzz words. Reviewers will use these words in their review.
3) Don't use Pubby until you have ten reviews yourself (friends and family). This is because Pubby reviewers are a waterfall: they build upon each other. If you have a bunch of 3 star reviews, then a Pubby review will come in with a 3 star review even though they didn't' read the book. Because they want to be "fair" and base it off of what others have done. So if you have like 10 4-5 star reviews already on there, you're more likely going to get that same ranking form Pubby reviews.
4) This is a quantity play, not a quality play. Make sure your expectations are appropriate.

All in all Pubby is an awesome site for getting reviews on Amazon. Super easy to use, very intuitive. If you organize yourself and set your expectations correctly it'll be worth it!

En definitiva es muy útil para escritores, más para los escritores auto publicados, ideal para conseguir tus primeras reseñas, lo único malo es que muchas veces los lectores no leen tu libro y dejan una reseña muy general basándose en el resumen que dejas de tu libro, pero creo que eso ya es conciencia de cada lector, ser responsables de leer lo que se reseña, otras reseñas en verdad son muy importantes y te dan retroalimentación positiva, a mi me encanta leer y he disfrutado leyendo mucho, para mi es genial recibir un premio por algo que me gusta hacer.