SHOCKER! Greatest Book Marketing Service Of All Time May Be a... SCAM???
A Literal Literary Loser Logs Losses
If you’re read my posts, Is This the Greatest Book Promotion Offer Of All Time (Part #1) and My Conversation With the Greatest Book Marketing Service Of All Time (Part #2), then you know that I spent literally weeks going back and forth on Instagram Messenger with the Spring Reviewers Book Club, which promised me hundreds of thousands of book sales, interviews in The New York Times and USA Today, and a complete money back guarantee if I did not receive the services - and results - they promised.
They spent so much time and effort on trying to convince me to hire them (if you haven’t already, you really should go back and read our verbatim conversations at the links, they are sitcom worthy), that I had to wonder what their revenue model was. Though they assured me that they had “thousands of clients,” I can’t imagine how they could turn a profit, if each one took as many man-hours to entice as I did.
I’ve been approached by “book marketers” before. As I chronicled here, all folded as soon as I asked a few simple questions, the main one being the contact info of previously satisfied customers.
Spring Reviewers Book Club (or, sbrofficial1 on Instagram) went so much further, for so much longer, and were so much more insistent, that the writer in me just had to see how far they would take this act.
So after weeks of huge promises and puffery on their part (again, I strongly urge you to go back and read what’s at the links, it will make this post much funnier), I went ahead and Venmo-ed them the money for their lowest priced promotion package ($175). They’d tried to up-sell me for the highest priced one, but my curiosity didn’t cross the $1000 dollar mark. (Again, I have to wonder about their revenue model if it takes weeks of sales effort, even for the most expensive option.)
This was on Tuesday, March 21. When I messaged them to report that the money had been sent, I was told: Okay we will check it on our Venmo account. Let you know after confirmation.
And since then… radio silence.
I followed up on Instagram (where they told me they do all of their business, not via their spelling-mistake plagued website). I followed up via the email address (info@bookreviewer.club) they used to send me a contract which prompted me to ask: You want me to sign a contract promising to pay, but the amount I am promising to pay is not printed in the contract?
I followed up with the two authors they’d urged me to reach out to as proof of how wonderful their service is:
Martha Teichner, a CBS correspondent, who assured me via IG: I've worked with them for two of my projects. They delivered what they offered. I got 3K sales and the reviews were brilliant. They published articles for me in The NY Times. I was a bit nervous initially but I had an inner feel or gut that this would work and it worked. I invested and got the returns. Somewhere somtime we've to bear the risk.
And Susanna Clarke, who confirmed: Everything was perfect. I was a bit nervous initially but things went as offered by them. I got a huge number of sales through them for my book.
But when I told both that SRB had taken my money, then cut off all communication, and whom did they suggest I reach out to for help in solving this problem, neither deigned to reply.
You know what, Gentle Reader? I am starting to suspect that The Greatest Marketing Service Of All Time May Be… a SCAM???
Hard to believe, I know. But what other conclusion can I draw?
Among their many, many promises was that, if I used Venmo to pay, my money would instantly be refunded. I’m going to try that now. Will keep you posted on how it works out.
In the meantime, I hope that as you sort through all the amazing book promotion offers that must flood your email boxes as much as they flood mine, you’ll remember my little piece of performance art…. and hit SPAM/DELETE on:
Every… Single… One.
(If you want to try a fun experiment of your own and reach out to these guys… let me know what they say. I am always down for a laugh.)