When it comes to book marketing, let’s face it: most of it’s expensive and rarely results in real sales. There are so many facets to marketing your story, it can be confusing and overwhelming.

That’s why, as an Indie Author in the never-ending struggle to get your book noticed, it’s important to talk to other authors and search the blogosphere to see what others have done and if it really worked for them.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve re-posted a few reviews of my books that were done through onlinebookclub.org.

I don’t know if any of you indie authors out there have ever heard of them, so here’s a brief summary:

Online Book Club is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a book club that exists via the interweb. You sign up for their mailing list to join (which is FREE to readers and authors alike) and then you get to read through the thousands of topics and threads that cover books and related topics.

I’ve been a member since 2015-ish and haven’t ever had an unfavorable experience with them. The club has tripled in size over the past year or so with no signs of slowing down. Right now, they’ve got roughly half a million members on their daily mailing lists and very thorough book reviewers. As a matter of fact, it was their crazy-thorough book reviews that led me to have three of my five books reviewed through their service.

Back Then It Was Free

Like I said, I’ve been a member for several years, and they used to offer different levels of reviews, beginning with free. It used to take months for a reviewer to choose your book. But since they don’t do free reviews anymore, the turn-around time is minimal. Like I said, now, they only offer honest paid book reviews ($97 OUCH!), but with the price, they will now post the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads (or not, if the review is unfavorable) which they didn’t offer before.

In case you were wondering, that’s why all of my rave online book club reviews  (all 3 books got 4/4 stars!) are only available on their website.

Why I’m Telling You This:

Now, I’ve told you all of that so I could tell all you authors out there, the ones that are willing to bust out a little dough for exposure that will result in real book sales and improved Amazon rankings, that any advertising money spent through online book club is (IMHO) money well spent.

When I had my books reviewed, there was a moderate spike in sales, but nothing to write home about. Consider, though, that I hadn’t spent any money at all, and shooting from the 3-millions, up to the 20-something thousands over a period of a few days was a big deal. Now, the club is booming. According to emails I’ve gotten from the club, thousands of new members are joining every day. And even if only 1% of their 500k members see your review or even a quarter of those who read it look closer at your book, then it’s worth it.

I’m Building Up To Something… … the reason I’m going into detail about their review service:

Because you have to get your book reviewed by them and receive a favorable rating if you want to purchase a Book Of The Day Promotion. Which is exactly what I did earlier in February and I will be blogging about the expense and pay-off next week!

So stay tuned. And in the meantime …