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.

BGS is the best book marketing company BGS is a wonderful company to work with. I used their Editorial Review service, which was thoughtful, constructive and accurate, and I highly recommend it. You can read this review on the book's Amazon page. I also purchased their NetGalley service for three months, which was excellent in providing quality reviews for my book, "Holmes's Complete Guide To Stop Drinking Alcohol; The Easy, Mindful and Pain-free way", which you can also read on the Amazon page. BGS is simply the best book marketing company in the world.

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Books Gone Social is my secret weapon… Books Gone Social is my secret weapon to cracking better sales on Amazon. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Laurence and Tana of BGS for the past four years and two books. They are both pros, share their knowledge, and are responsive to me, the customer. Most importantly, their bills for 3rd-Party Amazon advertising have paid for themselves for years. The results of their advertising campaigns for my two books were easily measured and well worth the cost. I do not consider these services optional for any of my books. Amazon has essentially created a system where outside help like that offered by BGS is required, and anyone thinking that you can just put a book on Amazon and it will sell is deluding themselves. In my case, when I first bought BGS services, I had a reasonable flow of sales that grew very clearly as soon as Lawrence and Tana worked their advertising magic. The before and after graphs were very compelling. So, thanks to BGS for such fabulous service. I am working with them now on a new book and consider them part of my book launch team.

Initially a disappointment, but they recovered and improved I have been a client of BGS for almost three months, and chose the Platinum membership, which cost almost five hundred dollars. Since the start, I have sold exactly five books. The staff I have had contact with are very pleasant and helpful, and I have been contacted by Mr. O'Bryan, the founder of BGS. He was very generous in offering to help me directly, and I am going to give it a shot. I am amending my review to three stars for now, simply because they are trying to help me. I will post a final update later. Final update. I changed my review to five stars, not because I've sold any books (I haven't), but because the staff and owner of bgs have bent over backward to help me improve my listing, my cover, and even my sales strategy. Whether I actually sell many copies or not, I cannot fault them for lack of effort.