Fiverr (Part Two?)

With Dark Spirits coming out in a week, I decided to go to Fiverr and splurge on a few small advertisements. I used one buyer who I know does the work, then chose two others who seemed like they knew what they were doing.

Always verify the work you’ve purchased.

The one buyer, who I know does the work, brings in a few purchases each time, but it’s still more than I would have had before. And who knows, maybe it’s my book/cover/description that’s turned people off?

Bookkitty will send you a message (after you purchase and the order is scheduled) with links to all the Facebook pages she (he?) will post your book. They are actual pages and they update a couple times a day so your book doesn’t just disappear in a mishmash of other posts.

This is also one of the few advertisers (or anyone really) who uses freaking punctuation and actually sounds like they know what they’re doing and would be professional. The others give me hesitance but for many of them English is not their second language.

Up until a few days ago I was actually wondering why there weren’t more people who natively spoke English advertising English language books to English language readers.

Of the other two gigs I purchased one came back with photos. To which I said, “What the fuck?”

Photos can be faked. Very, very easily. I’m not stupid and I have a bit of a way around search terms thanks to work and just researching what I’m looking for.

… I couldn’t find any of the sites. Not the closed groups, not the public groups, not any of the names used. All the users on the pages were exactly the same in the snapshots. Only the banners changed.

After a frustrating hour of trying to find the pages, I requested links and came right out and said why I wanted the links. Snapshots can be faked.

Then the second one came in and it too had snapshots. I was then sitting on my couch and choking on my coffee because… come on!

Except in the second case the seller did actually do the work, they took a picture because the groups they posted on, while legitimate groups, were filled with mishmash and anyone could post about their books. So my book disappeared down the line.

It did net me about two units, and the seller did provide exactly what they said they would. Am I impressed with that work? No, I could have done it myself, but it was still provided as I requested.

So fast forward twenty-four hours, Bookkitty is about to deliver and I’m about to contact Fiverr about seller one. All of a sudden I’m getting a refund from seller one with an apology saying their facebook was hacked?

… is… is there a report button on Fiverr? An investigation button?

I don’t know for certain that this person doesn’t do as they’re asked. However…

Fiverr approaches you the moment the order is “filled” to review. Most people just hit five-star and go on their way. I wait until the order is actually filled and I’ve verified that what I was told I would get was what I actually got.

So I was still sitting on my review for the first buyer when my refund came through. If any trouble was caused I would have left a one-star review stating my experience and my issue while making no accusations. I would have then contacted Fiverr and checked out their customer service and fraudulent seller program. If they have one. I still have to find it because this other person could be defrauding hundreds of people, hundreds of authors.

And that’s the problem with indie publishing. There are so many people who will come and take your money and say they delivered you invisible services, but they did nothing. They’re just taking your money. You worked hard for that money and now they’ve just stolen it from you.

If you take anything from this, let it be this: verify the work you’ve purchased.