Booksprout

Links, please.

If it's this one (https://booksprout.co/), it looks like a service that manages your existing ARC team for you, not a discovery platform.

I think it could be useful if you issued a general invitation to anyone on your email list, since they say they filter those who download to pirates or don't review.

I'm pretty careful with who I invite to join my reviewers, so for me it would be better handled just within MailerLite. I don't need another moving piece to deal with. YMMV.

I used Booksprout for the novel I published in December. I agree with Cathleen that it's not likely to result in new readers. The two reviews I got there both came from contacts I already had. What it will do is give you a piracy-safe way to share your books with ARC reviewers.

Since joining Booksprout, I've had two different book pirates contact me through Booksprout's portal claiming they were unable to download my book there and requesting that I send them a mobi, epub or PDF file directly. Each time I mentioned it in a FB writers' group I'm in, dozens of other people said they got similar requests from the exact same pirates. Never send your book file directly to a stranger. There is a reason they don't want to download it from Booksprout: the service ads piracy trackers to your files. Pirates don't want that so instead they pretend they're unable to download it.

I disagree about Booksprout not resulting in new readers. I guess maybe if you import your own ARC list then that's the case but I don't. I upload my books and let people get the ARCs and so far they are new readers because many say so. They mention in the reviews, "This is a new-to-me author." I've used it for two books including my latest release. I'm content with it except they need to do better with the pirates and scammers who keep contacting authors. The rule is never send a copy to anyone who is writing you out of the blue. I always forward emails to Booksprout and let them handle it. As for the amount of reviews, some authors claim they get mostly all who got a copy to review. I say my ratio is decent. So far (my book came out Tuesday), I have eight reviews from Booksprout and 16/20 got ARCs so already got half back. That's pretty good considering I gave up on my personal ARC list because they'd stopped reviewing. I got tired of running after them so I tried Booksprout. I use the free plan. I intend to keep using it. It's such an easy process. Just upload your book and when it's time for the reviews, request them.

The two things I love the most is Booksprout penalizes people who don't review so you don't get overloaded by freeloaders. If someone keeps getting ARCs and not reviewing Booksprout will kick them off the site. Also, authors can manually block someone from getting their ARCs. I also like how you can pick what retailers the reviews go on. I am wide and it's super hard getting reviews on sites outside of Amazon. Even with all the Bookbub Featured Deals I have had, I don't have any reviews for most of my books on the sites outside Amazon. And I have about 60 titles. I remind readers to review in the front of my books, but there are still crickets. No matter how well a book sells, nothing. I recently had a bestseller at Barnes and Noble from December to March. Had the blue bestseller banner and everything. That book is also a big seller on other sites and had a Bookbub Featured Deal and STILL has no reviews on Barnes and Noble. I have some for that book on Apple and of course Amazon. But it sells very well at Amazon (been on Amazon bestseller lists for a year) and as I said made Barnes and Noble's list too for four months and STILL no reviews for Barnes and Noble for that book. I guess the readers on the other sites aren't big reviewers. Let's face it, it's hard as heck to get reviews on Amazon these days too.

So Booksprout is a good alternative. Is it perfect? No, but what is and it's free so we can't do too much complaining. Book Funnel focuses more on building your mailing list but BS is good for reviews. Some authors praise Book Funnel but I never felt the need to pay for what they offer so I don't use it. I'll stay with the free plan from BS. It's good enough for me.

Thanks for that write-up, cool pop. I wonder if the difference between your experience and the others is a matter of genre?

I may try them for my YA historical fantasy release this fall, and see how it does.

Marissa D said:

Thanks for that write-up, cool pop. I wonder if the difference between your experience and the others is a matter of genre?

I may try them for my YA historical fantasy release this fall, and see how it does.

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Marisa, good point. Maybe it does come down to genre. Good luck using Booksprout with your book and I hope you get a lot of reviews. So far I've found it a good option. We'll see if it stays that way.

KBooks said:

I wondered about that (genre.) Most of the books I've seen on GR that used it have been romance of one flavor or another. I figured since it had a level that was free to try, might as well give it a whirl for my next release and see what happens.

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I'll test the genre theory with my next release. It's going to be a thriller. I write in multiple genres but yes the two I've put up on Booksprout so far have been romance. I have seen other genres on there but not sure how they've done. Good luck to you as well when trying it out!

Is BookSprout mostly for self-published authors or can you use it for other indie published books?? Or is it a case of just asking my publisher's permission?

Sorry, I am forgot to come back and respond. Could be a genre thing concerning readers, but I write in several genres. So far I've used BS for two different genres. One was a contemporary romance/women's fiction and the other a thriller. I still catch new readers though the longer I use BS I am getting more repeat readers who like my books and continue to review. Some also joined my mailing list so that's a plus.

MaryLennox said:

Is BookSprout mostly for self-published authors or can you use it for other indie published books?? Or is it a case of just asking my publisher's permission?

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You would have to ask your publisher if they'd allow you to use it. When I was with publishers they had a cap on how many ARCs I could share.

Okay, thanks. I went ahead and asked and they were cool with it.

MaryLennox said:

Okay, thanks. I went ahead and asked and they were cool with it.

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Great.

I was just posting about Booksprout in a thread about NetGalley and thought I should come back and post my experiences, since I have used them twice now. This is the same thing I posted in the other thread, I hope it's okay I'm posting it twice:

I have used the free service for two different books. So far, my experience was that only 3 ARCS were downloaded per book but I believe all three posted reviews. The reviews can be quite short, only about 2-3 sentences, but I still think a short review is better than no review. It was also free and super easy to use. Oh, and the reviews were positive.

Both of my books I put on Booksprout were MG, one a collection of short stories and the other a ballet novel for MG readers. This may play a big part of why I got so little reviews, because it seems like romance is the biggest genre being posted there. Also, my target audience of middle graders are most likely not using this service! I didn't post on any of my social media that I had ARCs available, which I would probably do next time. I was just testing it out with these two books.

The free service allows up to 20 ARC requests (and 3 pen names). If you think you'll get more requests (or reach 20 and want to release more) then you have to pay a monthly membership fee. You get to choose where they post their reviews and you get reminders from Booksprout to send reminders to the people who downloaded your ARC that their reviews are do soon, and then another saying their review is now due.

Another feature I liked is that if the people who got your ARC liked your book, they can choose to follow you and be notified when you have a new ARC available.

I was only contacted through a private message once, requesting to be sent my ARC to their e-mail. I reported them to Booksprout as a scammer.

Izz said:

Booksprout has just removed the free plan: https://booksprout.co/pricing

For those who've already used booksprout, do you think it's worth signing up to a paid plan?

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Yes, I saw they revamped everything and took away the free plan.

I've been using BookSprout and BookSirens for a few books now. I only ever used the free option on BookSprouts and didn't really have a good experience. In most cases I would get 7-10 downloads but only 3 or 4 reviews. The reviews would come in only after the deadline was reached and they just regurgitated the blurb or are just generic nonsense. I get the sense they didn't read the book before the deadline and don't want to get penalized. They do usually give it 4/5 or 5/5 stars...but still. It just looks stupid.

However, with BookSirens - there's no subscription, which I like. I think $12 is fairly reasonable compared to places like NetGalley. If you bring in your own reviewers with the link they provide, you don't have to pay per reader. Otherwise, you pay $2 per person who downloads. You can set it up so people can apply to read/review and then you decide if they're a good fit (by checking out their profile/book social media/previous reviews/etc), so your $2 doesn't get wasted. For my books, every person who downloaded to read actually left reviews, they were posted within a timely manner, and it felt like they actually read the book and submitted a review that was grammatically correct and with no typos. Some of my reviews from BookSprout read like they were typed on a phone while driving.

The customer service at BookSirens usually replies pretty quickly and are helpful and friendly.

I also like that readers can read a preview of your book on BookSirens, so they can get a better idea if it's something they're going to like before downloading and being committed to leaving a review. I wish NetGalley did this.

All in all, I'm definitely not going to bother paying a subscription fee to BookSprouts based on previous experiences. I used to do because it was free, and figured might as well, I received one or two decent reviews in the past, but I won't be using them in the future.

I also think subscription fees are just not a good fit for this type of service. I don't know about you, but I only write/publish 1 or 2 books a year...or less. Why would I pay a monthly subscription fee?? Paying per book just makes so much more sense!

I realize I just gushed a bunch about BookSirens. lol I am in no way affiliated with them, I've just been happy with the service they provide.

Here's the link if anyone wants it: https://booksirens.com/

And the thread about BookSirens here: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/in...rens-has-anyone-used-this-review-site.349339/

P.S. I guess you could sign-up for one month only if you want to promote a single book for one month, right? Then on BookSprout it would only be $6 (eventually $9) for up to 25 readers, compared to the $12+per reader fee. I just saw the very first subscription plan, which was $21 and was like...noooooo.

Does anyone know if this is a viable option? Is it easy enough to sign-up for one month and cancel as soon as the month is over?

Yes — at least with the previous version of Booksprout, when I used the paid plan, I only subscribed and paid for the one month I needed to run my ARC. Very easy to cancel.

Tavia said:

Yes — at least with the previous version of Booksprout, when I used the paid plan, I only subscribed and paid for the one month I needed to run my ARC. Very easy to cancel.

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Okay, thanks! Hopefully it is the same now.