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Putting Your Best Foot Forward BGS has always been there for my advertising choices. They go above and beyond in assisting the author to maximize their profile and their profits. Getting noticed today is no easy task for the best of writers. BGS helps me in composing effective ads and descriptions for my work to put my best foot forward and reach a larger audience. I never hesitate in recommending them and their services.

Clients are valued As a first-time author of historical fiction, I had no clue as to how to market my books. I was guided through each step of the way by Tanja and her team who could not have been more considerate. As I live in Australia they were wonderful about finding times when we could chat and went above and beyond. They were very honest in giving advice and could have upsold the service many times but rather than that they continued to make suggestions which worked to my advantage. The owner of the business, Laurence, has thought of many creative ways in which customers can promote their books and for the most part these are freely given. Unlike other companies who seem to forget you once you have signed for the service, BooksGoSocial offers a very personal service responding with a genuinely welcome reply where you have questions. The team understand the ever changing market for authors and are up to date with new technologies. It has been a worthwhile experience for me and I would otherwise have floundered.

They came through beyond any expectations One month, I thought. I’ll give Books Go Social thirty days to see if they can help get more parents’ eyes on my children’s books. The month isn’t quite up. But the numbers speak for themselves: visits to my author site- up nearly 50%. From as far away as Russia and India. And book sales exponentially increasing as well, especially for my featured book, ‘The Mayfly and the Methuselah Tree.’ I am thrilled with the results. Five Stars are well-deserved. This is a very encouraging way to begin the year.

Books Go Social service could be better, not what I expected I really want to like this service, but I don't. I hired BGS to help with Amazon ads management, and do some other promotions for my book. Long story short, Books Go Social dropped the ball multiple times, changed the terms of their service after I already paid for said service (and gave a perfunctory apology after I nagged them about it), and didn't perform some of the promised social media promotion/advertising and book review promotion. They did eventually do the SM promo and book review promo, but they initially didn't want to do the book review promo as advertised. Eventually, they relented. BGS’s general approach to the Amazon ads is interesting and, to a certain extent, works. In that respect, I do appreciate the ad setup and maintenance. The ads did bring in more book sales, so I consider that aspect of it a success. But, overall, the service didn't work as advertised on the BGS website—BGS wasn't able to bring ACOS in line where it needed to be, and while conversions were part of the equation, a big part of this came down to the keywords they used and some of the bidding strategies they employed. When I contacted Mr. O'Bryan about the growing number of problems, his response was to minimize the problem, push the blame onto my book (e.g. you need more reviews, you need better ad copy, etc). I did take one of his suggestions and changed the ad copy to his suggested copy. Result: conversions held steady for a little while, then tanked. This isn't the fault of the book. This comes down to his poor ad copy. This is exactly what I suspected would happen given the quality of my ad copy for the book, but wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. As my doubts grew, I started questioning some of the decisions being made, and pressed Mr. O'Bryan for more answers and more transparency. It finally came out that he didn't understand the USP of my book (which is right on the cover and in the subhead), nor did he understand the premise of the book (which was clearly laid out in my ad copy for the book). Nor did he even know I had published another book in the same general category, with some audience overlap to the book he was helping promote. This is not the level of service I expected. Mr. O'Bryan writes this off as "Some books don't sell well" and "You're in a competitive niche". Yes, I know I am in a competitive niche. I know this because I came to BGS *after* hitting #1 in my chosen book categories, and top 5 in several other categories, and after the book already had some sales under its belt. Mr. O'Bryan knows this because it was disclosed during onboarding. It was a grind to get those sales, which is why I hired BGS to help augment sales from other promotional efforts. What would have made this a much better experience is if Mr. O'Bryan and BGS had set better and more realistic expectations for what he could do (and couldn't do), and also take some time to read the book (skim it, even), read the ad copy, and really take some time to understand what he's promoting. He could have also owned his company's mistakes early on, and worked to correct them. Being more transparent about his business, not changing terms mid-project, and fulfilling all promised services as advertised would also help improve his business. Edit (1/8/24): Four days ago, I received an email from Mr. O'Bryan stating, "We don't have any unspent budget so nothing to refund you". Meanwhile, I didn't ask for, nor did I expect, a refund at this point. I did, however, express my dissatisfaction with BGS's services, but assumed it was far too late to be refunded for anything and so I didn't even bring it up. Almost immediately after my negative review was posted, I receive a refund notification and several emails from Mr. O'Bryan. He apologized for the bad service, but went on to "ask", "I ask you to not try to wreck out business". I am not in the business of wrecking businesses, but I do occasionally leave reviews when I think a service was exceptionally good or bad. In this case, I received exceptionally poor service, and (finally) an acknowledgement from the business' owner (in his words) that, "I have not got this right with your book." As a final note, Mr. O'Bryan flagged this review for "containing harmful or illegal content." I invited Mr. O'Bryan to correct any misstatements of fact or errors on my part, and to spell out exactly what part of my review is "harmful" or "illegal". If there are any errors, this review will be updated and corrected. As for whether you should do business with him, I can't answer that for you. You'll have to decide for yourself whether it's worth trying.