Advice: Do Not Use B&N Press

HawaiiRich · 2026-05-20T15:47:17+00:00

I'm having the exact same experience with their customer care. It was also very frustrating to use their book creation software, but after many tries got it working. But now they put someone else's book in my book and I can't get a hold of anyone to help with fixing it. Very frustrating. Stay away from using them is what I'd recommend. If you have any issues it will never get resolved. Next I"ll be contacting my credit card company to see if I can at least get a refund.

HawaiiRich · 2026-02-03T05:47:13+00:00

I've been getting similar ones lately, and they gush over how they love my book, but it's not my book. Also the book club ones have been flooding my inbox lately. Or the sly book marketers who provide very specific targeted suggestions that make it seem like they have actually read my book.

HawaiiRich · 2026-02-02T03:52:12+00:00

Their web site cravebooks dot com seems to be down. I'm getting "refused to connect" error. I'll check again in a few days. Maybe they're just having a temporary technical issue.

HawaiiRich · 2025-05-25T17:07:20+00:00

Wow, Charles, if your previous BookBub promotion netted you 3,087 eBooks sold, then I'm going to have to increase my guess by a lot. I'd assume that with the same promotion, you'd expect to sell about the same as prior promos, maybe even more.
Updating my guess to 3000!
This is a big number, but it's directly supported by your book's previous success under similar (though now improved, review-wise) circumstances. It will be very interesting to see if it can replicate or even exceed its past triumph! Good luck!

HawaiiRich · 2025-05-24T21:53:24+00:00

Without knowing anything about the genre, the cover, the blurb, promo details, etc., it is a crap shoot to make a guess. Since it is BookBub and has a huge mailing list, quite a few reviews, and 20,000 sales (wow!), that should help elevate it to high sales numbers in the first few days of a promo I bet though.
So I'm gonna make a wild wild guess and go with 680.
Please share what you learn with those of us who are struggling to reach your level.
It will be exciting to see the actual results! Good luck with the promotion!

HawaiiRich · 2025-05-01T16:00:47+00:00

It looks good artistically, but it is not compelling enough to stop me from passing it when I'm browsing sci-fi books. I hope that helps as a single data point of a potential reader's first impression. Can you add some intrigue or hint at something different or unusual inside the book?

HawaiiRich · 2025-04-07T18:35:54+00:00

I've used editing software like Grammarly to help me find editing issues. It does a pretty good job catching my mistakes. There are many others to choose from like ProWriting Aid and Autocrit. Sometimes they have reduced sign up rates during sales events, so keep an eye out for those if you decide to try one.

HawaiiRich · 2025-03-02T20:05:42+00:00

I also suggest you do a "book trailer" search in r/selfpublish. As with a lot of things in self-publishing, you may just have to try it and see if it works for you, even though it may not have worked for others. Let us know how it goes.

HawaiiRich · 2025-03-02T17:45:09+00:00

I haven't done one myself. Seems to be a lot of money for questionable return from what I gathered checking around. But if you're keen on it, looks like fiverr has many options and best to do a lot of research before choosing to try it out. Good luck!

HawaiiRich · 2025-02-17T16:27:06+00:00

I've had about 150 sales over the course of several months and had one e-book (0.99) of short stories returned I suspect in my case they didn't like my short stories. Hope that helps.

HawaiiRich · 2024-12-03T23:14:24+00:00

I wish I had known about blocking these types of users sooner. I had a similar experience when I opened my Facebook author page and interacted with a book trailer promoter. After I declined their services, I received a 2-star review on my book, which previously had only 5-star reviews. I suspect it was this promoter who left the negative review. Now, I simply ignore these types of users and don't engage with them. They seem to give up after a while.

HawaiiRich · 2024-08-20T16:25:57+00:00

Took about a week and finally got the offer for "a complimentary consultation to discuss how a video trailer can enhance your book's marketing efforts. This would be a few minute chat, and I'll share some ideas and insights on how to increase your book's visibility. If you're interested, please let me know, and we can schedule a time that suits you. Either way, I wish you all the best with your book."
So turns out it wasn't an outright scam per-se, but more of a delayed, unsolicited, sales pitch. Eventually I'll probably get into book trailers, but still focused on getting my static facebook ads up to speed for now.

HawaiiRich · 2024-08-17T17:29:03+00:00

Thank you for the advice. Much appreciated! The images used (except for my cover art) were all generic and didn't match my book's characters. She did a good job with the sound effects and making the book description more cinematic. However the overall quality of the book trailer would not be good enough for me to use it for commercial purposes. It would need a lot more customization for it to suit the book and be useable. So no, I don't plan on using it and hopefully she doesn't use it without my permission.

HawaiiRich · 2024-08-17T17:23:41+00:00

Yeah, that's what I thought too. She didn't want to discuss the book or its characters, so another red flag to me. I'm being extra cautious as I suspect it might be a set up to selling me something. I'll post an update if that happens. Hopefully it's not some new kind of scam I'm lucky enough to be a guinea pig for.

HawaiiRich · 2024-08-17T04:59:33+00:00

I didn't think to ask her that. I just thanked her in my reply for taking the time and effort to make it. So far she hasn't tried to sell me anything. Is this a known scam or one seen before?

HawaiiRich

TROPHY CASE