A Review of Booksprout- Is it worth it?
Getting reviews for your books is often one of the most difficult parts of the indie book publishing process which is why I recently did an experiment with BookSprout. Needless to say, the results were far from spectacular.
What is Booksprout?
Booksprout is one of the many ‘services’ that exist online claiming to support indie and self-published authors and help them succeed. In their case they boast of a 75% review rate. You see how misleading that claim is? 75% of what? How many reviews exactly? Well, let me tell you, do not believe it and do not fall for it.
Booksprout markets itself as an online review service where authors can post their books (you must upload your book formats to the website) and request reviews. Its noble goal and purpose is to bring together readers with authors looking for reviews.
I signed up to Booksprout’s bestselling author tier which cost just under $30. Previously it was a free service but obviously now that they’ve suckered in enough authors, they were confident enough to start charging.
I submitted two of my bestselling books and my brand-new book Unconquered: Blood of Kings. Two fantasy novels and one historical fiction. Within a few hours just one reader had ‘claimed’ the books, all three of them at the same time.
Now, I know there are ferocious readers out there who probably can devour three rather chunky books in a few days but call me a cynic as I have the suspicion that this ‘reader’ will just claim the book and not bother posting a review on any of the storefronts I requested.
Despite paying my books just got 2 claims in two weeks.
The Issues with Booksprout
I left my books on Booksprout for a full fortnight and in that time each book was claimed just two times. That’s one claim a week, that thirty dollars would have gathered me more interest in my books if I’d set it on fire!
There’s also the problem with the tier system. An author is presented with several options, although what each tier claims to do seems to be a bit dodgy at best. The lower tiers for example do not promise much in the way of piracy protection. It’s a gold mine for those nefarious crooks who pillage books and just slap them up onto pirate sites. I am amazed that they’re allowed to get away with it to be honest.
My advice is to not use the cheaper options at all or only put up a book you don’t mind making a loss on like a reader magnet that you’d give away for free anyway to newsletter subscribers.
I’ve also got issues with the fact that reviewers who claim a book and don’t post a review face nothing in the way of punishment for being a freeloader. Whether you opt for the cheaper or higher tiers you have little in the way to take them to task. You can block repeated offenders from claiming your books, but in my experience not enough claims were made to even justify using that option.
It's full of Erotica and Romance
One major reason why fantasy and sci-fi books seem to get a raw deal on Booksprout is the fact that it is overrun with books with bare chested blokes on the cover. Romance and erotica novels dominate the reader pages highlighting the audiences’ preferences.
Is it worth it then?
Paying so much to then not be guaranteed any reviews, having your books put at risk to pirates and having to deal with freeloaders certainly makes Booksprout not worth the investment. It’s a terrible value for money and you should spend your money elsewhere.
Services such as Bookfunnel (which I’ll be reviewing soon) deliver far more bang for your buck and have far more features than what’s on offer at Booksrpout. Avoid it.
