Review of Pump Up Your Book

 

Pump Up Your Book is usually on the other side of reviews — either giving them, or arranging for others to give them. The company specializes in putting together virtual book tours for authors who want to get some buzz going for their books across the Internet. Today I’m putting them on the hot seat.

Let me start by saying that I plan to rebook with them for the release of Secrets and Lies, the second book in my Cassie Scot series. My overall experience with PUYB has been positive, both personally and more importantly — in terms of success. Cassie Scot wasn’t my first book, it was my third, but it was the first book that sold well. PUYB had a big hand in that.

When you book as many services as I did, it’s hard to isolate the success of any one method over another. Before my tour with PUYB started, I had a publicist get me some early reviews and interviews, and I booked a release-day review blitz with Innovative Online Tours (who will also be getting a positive review from me soon). So when my sales release week shot up and stayed up, which part was PUYB?

I don’t know for sure. I do know that from May 16-July 1, they were the only service providing publicity for my book, and my sales stayed high throughout that time. They got me exposure on some high-traffic sites and they tweeted my stops to their thousands of followers.

Now, let’s break down their services by category:

Price

Please note that I have no control over PUYB packages or pricing and they may change at any time. My commentary is based on current pricing only.

There are many cheaper services out their than PUYB, which starts at $299 for its cheapest package. (That’s top-tier for some providers.) Their platinum tour is currently $899, which I feel is a fair price. I paid more for it for my Cassie Scot campaign and felt it was a bit overpriced. I had tentatively planned to downgrade to a gold tour until I got the new pricing information. Now I will rebook at the platinum level.

Price isn’t just about the dollars and cents, of course. It’s really about value. But I’m sure you’re on a budget so I wanted to bottom-line the price range we’re talking about here.

Value

Speaking of value, is it a value? We’re talking hundreds of dollars, so is it worth it?

Yes.

That’s the short answer. The long answer is this: You can get more stops at lower prices from many other tour service providers, but those tour providers don’t have the access to top-notch blogs that PUYB has. Not every blog stop is created equal. PUYB deals almost exclusively with bloggers who have thousands of followers (hundreds at a minimum). You can visit a hundred blogs with twelve followers and not get the same kind of exposure.

Look and Feel

I thought PUYB came up with a gorgeous banner for me, utilizing my cover art magnificently. I also got a personal tour page with all my information and links to tour stop. Also a rafflecopter for the kindle-fire giveaway.Follow the link. Look. Feel. Decide what you think.

Professionalism

PUYB was always courteous and professional when we communicated. I worked more closely with Tracee, who was friendly and enthusiastic. She was responsive, courteous, and quickly corrected any problems that arose. She worked hard to make sure my tour was a success.

Communication

If I have one complaint about this company it is that communication was sometimes a problem. Early on I’m not sure if e-mails got lost or something, but I didn’t get the information I needed to put together my book trailer until I contacted them and asked when we were going to do it. They said they’d sent the information previously. I learned not to let too many days go by before following up on an e-mail. If they didn’t respond quickly, the message had usually gone astray.

Going back further… PUYB is one of the older service providers out there. They came to my attention years ago when I was putting together my campaign for The Immortality Virus. I didn’t use their services because they never responded to my inquiry e-mail. And actually, I sent two of them. When it came time to promote Cassie Scot I was wary of approaching them again, but I had seen enough positive reviews of the company that I decided to give it a try. This was last summer, and they did get back to me. (Obviously or I wouldn’t have booked the tour.) Communication there still isn’t perfect, so don’t be shy about resending e-mails until you get a response.

Bottom Line

I highly recommend Pump Up Your Book.