Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Jul 31, 2018 6:34:47 GMT
This service has been around since 2013 and it is the perfect example of the type of service you want to stay away from.
A couple of warning signs to look for with any book promotion service is if they will not let you sign up for their email list, or join their exclusive FB group, or see their private promotional site. If you can't sign up for the newsletter, or join the group, or visit the website where your book is going to be promoted, then this site is not to be trusted and is likely using black hat promotional methods.
Also, stay far away from any service which guarantees a certain number of downloads. Organic downloads by real readers can't be guaranteed ahead of time. If you're being promised a certain number then the service is probably paying or incentivizing readers or using bots.
freebookservice.com/
This service popped up on Kboards in 2013 and led to two long, informative threads and an author being threatened by amazon not to use them.
www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,169160.0.html
www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,179247.0.html
"From Monique in the second thread"
"It recently came to our attention that you may have used the third-party site, www.FreeBookService.com, for your title, [My Book]. While we will always support legitimate efforts of KDP authors to promote their books, this site uses improper practices to artificially inflate sales ranking in the Kindle Store.
We take activities that jeopardize the experience of our customers and other authors very seriously. We wanted you to be aware of the nature of www.FreeBookService.com�s offering and ask that you not work with them or other services that attempt to manipulate the KDP platform. If this activity continues, we will have to take appropriate action (which may include removing your title from Amazon and/or terminating your account)."
And when the service owners read the thread they accused Monique of lying about it. So yeah, excellent customer service, too.
