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FreeBookService (FBS) Update ,

92K views 510 replies 77 participants last post by  Ann in Arlington 
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#1 ·
Hi everybody. This is William-- from William & Tom's Free Book Service. Some of you may be familiar with the service that I offer, some are not.

Basically we are an alternative to bookbub, a Promotion/Advertisement service that will bring you a huge number of eyeballs on your book during a free KDP promotion service. We currently offer 3 packages, where we offer a minimum guarantee of downloads (2500+ [$147] , 5000+ [$247] , 10000+ [$327] is the normal pricing), or your money back if we don't perform.

One of the main reasons why we offer this guarantee is because we noticed that self published authors often times buy "marketing" to their book, but this "marketing" never really stipulates what they are actually doing for you. We fill this void as we make a guarantee-- a hard target that we must hit. We have worked with over 200 clients since releasing this service to the public, and we also promote our own books, as we are Kindle authors too.

Where do we get our readers?
I have talked with Tom and we decided to give a better response to this question.
The bulk of our reader-base has come from including opt-in forms on our own books. We placed forms in the description area using HTML, and with that, were able to build our list. We kept this extremely close to our chests, because literally everybody would be using the same method to create their own reader-base, in effect diluting our own list that we worked hard on creating. Since then, Amazon has overhauled their description pages, and you can no longer add Opt-ins to your book page.

Some books are still grandfathered in... Note, that is not my book: (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F23Q9CI/) however this can no longer be done. All of our readers are double opt in and completely can-spam compliant, and this method of promotion, as with BookBub, is in accordance to Amazons ToS.


We have been selling this service WarriorForum, another forum that which is mostly comprised of marketers, but has a section for Kindle Authors that are looking to find ways to increase traction of their book. The thread can be found on warrior forum here: hxxp://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-special-offers-forum/850596-kindle-domination-free-kindle-download-promotion-service-hundreds-sales-afterwards.html

We have many reviews in that thread already, if you wish to see what purchasers of the service think about it.

But we don't feel those reviews alone are enough.

Some users of this forum do not put much weight in threads from warrior forum so we decided that we would give out 3 "freebies" to some members of this board. We are actually currently working on their books right now.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036Z9W00/
http://www.amazon.com/Smell-Leather-Files-Sullivan-SERIES-ebook/dp/B0081WTCQ2
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008X3NCRE/

These are the three books we are promoting today (dec 2), for members of this forum. We are asking them to be a test run for this service, so you guys, as a community have somebody you can trust telling you how it works for them.

We are here for the long run and intend to be a helpful resource for this community. We are here to prove ourselves, and the service.

If you are looking to contact us directly you can send us a message at "freebooksservice@gmail.com" (Please double check your spelling when you email us!).. Please note I am in the Eastern Standard time zone, to get an idea of when you might hear back.

If you are wondering if the service is legitimate, Estelle was kind enough to post her contact with amazon

I have added her email correspondence with amazon below:


eta: further communication from Amazon by members who tried this service indicate that using the service violates the ToS Authors agree to when uploading their books. Please see This Thread for more current information. -- kboard moderators
 
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#77 ·
Phoenix Sullivan said:
This is the question you still seem to be dodging. You may have "assured" us many times this isn't spam, but, in your words, "not to be rude," you still have not answered the question as to where the ads we're being asked to pay for wind up.

I need new services to promote just like everyone else. I'm willing to pay for effective ones. But honestly, wait 7 days isn't what I've found when it comes to selling series books while one is free. Even with the looooong reporting delay right now, we've sold 234 of the second book in one series over the last two days while the other book has been on free promo via BookBub (it hit #2). We're running another Top 100 Free book with far fewer downloads that's cross-promoting to another book in the same genre - not even the same series - and it's still sold 42 books of the cross-promoted book above it's normal volume.

I've run over 150 freebook promos through every algo change, with 6 books hitting #1 and a dozen more in the Top 6. Freebies aren't downloaded in a vacuum - especially not for folk who are savvy marketers in their cross-promoting (which I know 1 of the testers is, at least). I know what results free runs used to provide and what they provide today.

The long reporting delay is going to muddy the waters some, and I'm watching the results closely like everyone else. But when I purchase an ad, I do want to know where it's going, how it's being used, what the relevant demographics are, etc. I know of no other advertising venue that asks a client to purchase "blind." Give me the data any other advertiser will provide for the asking, and I'll happily become one of your best customers.
The question is not being dodged, to be clear, the answer is "no". I feel like a broken record when I say we made these business decisions when we started the service, and don't intend on changing it at this point, due to the reasons we already outlined in the previous replies when we answered this type of question.

Philip Gibson said:
Can you explain more about this from your FAQ? What happens if 1. We don't end the promo early? and 2. If we do end the promo early at the suggested times?

Thanks.

"One thing I would like to mention on this topic is, DO NOT under any circumstances let the promotion end on its own. You want to end your promotion manually within your kdp account on your second day of free when buyers are online (4pm-9pm EST). Ending your promotion during these hours is the only way to get good results. This is extremely important."
Sorry that didnt make sense. Our clients from the warrior forum do KDP promotions and not permafree books like those from Kboards. That statement in the FAQ applies to kdp promos only. I just modified it to make it more understandable. Thanks.
 
#78 ·
freebookservice said:
The question is not being dodged, to be clear, the answer is "no". I feel like a broken record when I say we made these business decisions when we started the service, and don't intend on changing it at this point, due to the reasons we already outlined in the previous replies when we answered this type of question.
It's just that a lot of people want to pour money over your head (A LOT), and while I'm sure there are many people already makin' it rain in Freebookserviceville, you could get SO MUCH MORE if you present yourself to be a valid BB competitor and can demonstrate a few simple things. Like...the legality of your list. I spend thousands of dollars on BB every year. I book an ad every single month. And I will dump the same amount of love on you if I can sign up for your list and see how it works from the readers' end, and if sell-through from the downloads supports the cost.

I know I'm not the only one gagging for a BookBub competitor.
 
#79 ·
freebookservice said:
Our clients from the warrior forum do KDP promotions and not permafree books like those from Kboards. That statement in the FAQ applies to kdp promos only.
Some authors here at Kboards will be considering using your service for 2-day promotions as well as those who are permafree. What is the intention behind that strong advice to not let the promo run its full course?
 
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#80 ·
SMR said:
It's just that a lot of people want to pour money over your head (A LOT), and while I'm sure there are many people already makin' it rain in Freebookserviceville, you could get SO MUCH MORE if you present yourself to be a valid BB competitor and can demonstrate a few simple things. Like...the legality of your list. I spend thousands of dollars on BB every year. I book an ad every single month. And I will dump the same amount of love on you if I can sign up for your list and see how it works from the readers' end, and if sell-through from the downloads supports the cost.

I know I'm not the only one gagging for a BookBub competitor.
Thanks for the insight-- Its something we may look into if we have problems with selling the service as it is right now.

Philip Gibson said:
Some authors here at Kboards will be considering using your service for 2-day promotions as well as those who are permafree. What is the intention behind that strong advice to not let the promo run its full course?
We recommend that because we see a huge difference in volume of sales afterwards when the promotion is ended during the evening EST, rather than 3AM EST (which is the default if you let the promo run out on its own) Its just a matter of when "buyers" are online. You need that initial bump of sales to gain rank and ultimately snowball into tons of sales. A book that used this method of promotion we were able to bring to 300 in the entire paid kindle store which as you know is hundreds of sales.
 
#81 ·
Freebookservice, because of these two main points:

1. Your service was born on Warrior Forum, the scammiest, scummiest place on the internet.
2. You claim to have a secret, massive mailing list of avid readers of in huge variety of niches. A service for readers that no one has ever heard of or seems to be able to find.

It's going to be pretty tough to convince people that you simply don't have a network of 10,000+ fake amazon accounts (which is probably the case here, based on warrior forums track record), particularly because of #2. If your for-readers list was as robust as the advertising claims it to be, I'd think it would be a challenge NOT to be known - not the other way around. If you haven't noticed, just being associated with warrior forum at all has people scrutinizing your service with a microscope, and hiding your for-reader service only makes that worse.

As for authors following this thread: You have to remember, 10,000+ fake accounts downloading your book will still bring "some" results because it pushes you up the lists, thus giving you actual real readers.

Personally, to me, this seems like nothing more than the old buying of Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers (something also born on warrior forum), in which all the action was done using fake, duplicate, or stolen accounts. The fact that you're claiming you must keep your for-reader service a secret because of authors stealing each others marketing (what?), only helps to bolster that belief.

I do hope this turns out to be a legitimate service with a very nurtured and well cared for mailing list of readers that has been built up over the last couple years (but somehow without anyone knowing about your service), but if it's not, I hope that authors using this service don't get penalized when Amazon starts banning the malicious accounts used to facilitate these downloads and manipulate their store top lists.
 
#82 ·
As I was typing...what Kat said.

Yes, it's hard to argue results, but it feeeels like there's a booger in the woodpile. If you're gaming the system, Zon will send its drones in to clean up. I'd love for this to be true (there's a need for another Bookbub!) but I think I'll wait on the sidelines to see how this shakes out. Or at least until there's more disclosure on where the readers come from and why new ones can't sign up.
 
#83 ·
ETA: Kat typed up her response at the same time I did mine, but I agree with everything she says! :)

VydorScope said:
The point I was making is that the quality of the 10,000 leads is what matters, far more then the quantity. For all we know they are running a bot network and not a single one of those 10,000 is actually a person. The conversion rate will give us a clue to that.
^^ This is my concern. That these downloads are from bots or fake accounts.

The refusal to share how we (many of whom, like me, download free books all the time) might sign up for these lists is a MAJOR red flag. You say you're protecting your business secrets--but if you're *guaranteeing* 10K downloads to multiple books a day across various genres, your reach should already be HUGE (I'm assuming not every person who opted in will be interested in downloading EVERY book you promote, so the reach must extend far past the minimum guarantee). You're concerned about *us* learning your business secrets, but not the tens of thousands of people who are downloading these books through your promotions? How do you know that none of them are authors or entrepreneurs or might steal the idea? Frankly, your lack of openness about this in particular is what makes it sound like these downloads might not be from real people at all.

This is a not-uncommon strategy in the world of apps: using bot downloads to bump an app way up the charts where it gets more visibility so more organic downloads take place. It's not a strategy that I'm particularly interested in paying for myself.

Obviously, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes at your business--all of the downloads these people are seeing may very well be from real people. But I did want to point out the specific part of your explanation that turned me off. I don't need to know all the inner workings of something like this, BUT if I were to give you money, I'd like to know HOW you let real people know that my book is free. If I purchase an ad on a website or mailing list or something, I'm not just concerned with the number of downloads. I'm also concerned with 1) impression that ad gives of my brand and my book, and 2) QUALITY of those downloads. Withholding information about how you're targeting potential readers of mine makes me question the methods you're using.
 
#84 ·
Kat Lilynette said:
Freebookservice, because of these two main points:

1. Your service was born on Warrior Forum, the scammiest, scummiest place on the internet.
2. You claim to have a secret, massive mailing list of avid readers of in huge variety of niches. A service for readers that no one has ever heard of or seems to be able to find.

It's going to be pretty tough to convince people that you simply don't have a network of 10,000+ fake amazon accounts (which is probably the case here, based on warrior forums track record), particularly because of #2. If your for-readers list was as robust as the advertising claims it to be, I'd think it would be a challenge NOT to be known - not the other way around. If you haven't noticed, just being associated with warrior forum at all has people scrutinizing your service with a microscope, and hiding your for-reader service only makes that worse.

As for authors following this thread: You have to remember, 10,000+ fake accounts downloading your book will still bring "some" results because it pushes you up the lists, thus giving you actual real readers.

Personally, to me, this seems like nothing more than the old buying of Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers (something also born on warrior forum), in which all the action was done using fake, duplicate, or stolen accounts. The fact that you're claiming you must keep your for-reader service a secret because of authors stealing each others marketing (what?), only helps to bolster that belief.

I do hope this turns out to be a legitimate service with a very nurtured and well cared for mailing list of readers that has been built up over the last couple years (but without anyone knowing about your service), but if it's not, I hope that authors using this service don't get penalized when Amazon starts banning the malicious accounts used to facilitate these downloads and manipulate their store top lists.
Nailed it.

Bookbub have a million members to get all their downloads. And freebookservice has to have something similar if his service is legit (if he's showing books to lots of readers and having them pick the ones they want and deciding to read them). Yet instead of advertising looking for readers (Bookbub spent a lot of money doing this), he somehow collected this million strong reader list by keeping it secret. And he doesn't want any more readers on his list! And, unlike Bookbub, his readers don't care about the quality of books he is recommending.
 
#85 ·
Philip Gibson said:
Some authors here at Kboards will be considering using your service for 2-day promotions as well as those who are permafree. What is the intention behind that strong advice to not let the promo run its full course?
freebookservice said:
We recommend that because we see a huge difference in volume of sales afterwards when the promotion is ended during the evening EST, rather than 3AM EST (which is the default if you let the promo run out on its own) Its just a matter of when "buyers" are online. You need that initial bump of sales to gain rank and ultimately snowball into tons of sales. A book that used this method of promotion we were able to bring to 300 in the entire paid kindle store which as you know is hundreds of sales.
From two of the Kboarders in the test run:
OJ Connell said:
Update:

My downloads have slowed to practically nothing. I've been sitting within a few downloads of 9800 for nearly an hour now. I know, I know. I probably shouldn't be monitoring the downloads constantly. Strange that they should drop off so rapidly, though. This could be due to a number of factors. I mean, it's pretty late at night, so that's likely to contribute. Perhaps the promo's magic has worn off? KDP's reporting is still bungled or is currently slowing down? Hard to say. As of this post I've sold 3 books in my series. This morning, before starting the promo, that number was 0.

Let's see where this goes from here.
Monique said:
Oddly, the downloads went from nearly 1000 an hour to only a handful. Just like that. Never seen that before.
Anyone who has any experience with sending out emails to a mailing list knows that not everyone opens a promotional email at the same time, or even on the same day. Mailing to a list capable of producing these volumes of downloads in such a short amount of time should see a gradual and steep decline in opens as days and weeks continue to pass, not a 90 degree drop the moment the promotion days are over. Naturally, this wouldn't be noticed when advertising books that aren't permafree, because the books go back to paid status.

Not saying I have any proof either way, just playing devil's advocate, but this result here screams malicious account activity to me. Advocating people end promotions early seems like a ploy to hide the immediate drop off.
 
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#86 ·
David J Normoyle said:
Nailed it.

Bookbub have a million members to get all their downloads. And freebookservice has to have something similar if his service is legit (if he's showing books to lots of readers and having them pick the ones they want and deciding to read them). Yet instead of advertising looking for readers (Bookbub spent a lot of money doing this), he somehow collected this million strong reader list by keeping it secret. And he doesn't want any more readers on his list! And, unlike Bookbub, his readers don't care about the quality of books he is recommending.
Please read the first post (the paragraph in bold) as to how the list was originally built.

I realize that no matter what I say there will be skeptics. Please read the reviews of the service and choose whether to purchase or not from those.
 
#87 ·
Here's the thing: I'm a fairly voracious reader. But I am not an author. As a reader, I watch bookbub, ebooklovers, and kboards blog for free books.

But it seems that I can not sign up for notifications from your service. Which makes me really skeptical about its legitimacy.

I also looked at the website you linked to, and I have to say, it just screams "SCAM" to me, sorry. :(

Sent from my Kindle Fire HDX.
 
#88 ·
freebookservice said:
Please read the first post (the paragraph in bold) as to how the list was originally built.

I realize that no matter what I say there will be skeptics. Please read the reviews of the service and choose whether to purchase or not from those.
I read that. Your explanation doesn't add up for me. How many readers in your list? How many downloads for a 4.5star rated romance with great cover and great blurb? How many downloads for a 3.2star literary novel with only 5 reviews and no cover? Both get over 10K if they pay you the full amount, right?

I believe you can get the number of downloads you say. I don't believe that there are actual readers at the other end.
 
#89 ·
Other freebie sites push books, while you are only pushing an obscure, blind service to authors that new readers can't be added into. Is your reader list continually growing by your secret methods? Can you post a sample ad that you mail out or at least say what goes in it?  Do you send multiple books in one day or one at a time? What are the more popular genres? I write YA? Do you have YA readers or some for all genres/categories? What about smaller, specific markets like Christian or literary?
 
#93 ·
I did some research into freebookservice and the results are at least worth taking pause if nothing else.

1. I did a domain search for freebookservice.com and came up with this
2. The nameserver the domain is attached to is casualmeetup dot com (This won't take you to the pornographic site, just a listing showing ownership of the site)
3. I found the email address that registered the domain and you find that here
4. When I did a search for that address I found another site that was registered to this email address with the same nameserver. This site is adencounters dot com.
5. Both sites require an email address to 'register' and nothing else. This leads me to believe the 'registration' form is really just a mailing list in disguise. The terms on the sites seem to indicate that as well.

Both of those sites are for hooking up and it really makes me wonder why they share the same nameserver as this free book service.

I would just caution any of you before you jump on this bandwagon without proper investigation. We're not wrong to question the validity of this service when we are expected to pay 150-300 dollars for it. Some other things to also consider, don't you find it just a tad bit strange that everyone is seeing the same results? We're used to seeing good results with bookbub but the rate of downloads vary widely. Not being able to subscribe to the list is also concerning.
 
#94 ·
K.B. Parker said:
Both of those sites are for hooking up and it really makes me wonder why they share the same nameserver as this free book service.
It just means that the websites are hosted on the same server at the hosting company. You can have a ton of individual websites/services running off a single server, which would give them all the same nameserver address.
 
#96 ·
Here's a BB comparison for email behavior.

BB claims around 2 million unique subscribers, built with venture-capital backing.
Historical Romance has 390,000 subs, or 19.5% of the total subs.

Day 1, our book got 25,353 clicks from BB (yes, their results are trackable). That's about 6.5% of the Historical Romance list that clicked. We had about 26,000 downloads, so not all the clickers purchased. I work with an 80% purchase rate on a freebie for BB. That means about 20,000 DLs on Day 1, or about 5.1% of the list that downloaded.

Day 2, we saw 4381 clicks from BB. So about another 1000 downloads can be attributable. That's another 1.2% of the list that clicked.

So, Day 1, we had twice 10,000 clicks in a highly popular genre with a pro cover, a hot theme, and a previously trad-pubbed author out of 390,000 subscribers looking specifically for Historical Romance.

BookBub is heavily weighted toward Mystery/Thriller and Romance, as are ENT, POI, etc., so that 5.1% "buy"-through out of interested folk is probably fairly normal. That's 5% of 20% of the entire mail list. Or, 1%.

Which means this book service would need to have 1 million subscribers to get to that 1% download rate (10,000) for popular genres. To guarantee same for science fiction, fantasy, YA, etc, the mail list would need to be substantially larger.

That's a lot of sign-ups off of description pages on Amazon...

There is a reason we are skeptical.

Obviously, we had about 9000 DLs that are from other small site mentions, folk finding the book in the free lists, etc. Anything past 1 day becomes nearly impossible to suss out where the bulk of the sales originate barring a mention on another megasite. We also had 180 sales above normal daily sales of the second book in the series on Day 1. That's about 50 sales per 10,000 downloads -- on the same day the freebie was downloaded.
 
#97 ·
K.B. Parker said:
Every one of my domains I have hosted have had the domain name as the namserver. For example, if I had www.example.com, my nameserver has always been ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com. If it is the case as you stated I wouldn't want to be running a professional site on that server.
I think it depends on the hosting company you're using (if any) and how the nameserver is titled. I know my domains would be shown as mysuperawesomesite.com or thisawesomesite.com but the nameserver for both sites would be based on my server, which would resolve to something like: XXXX.hostgator.com and XXXX.hostgator.com - so regardless of domain, all my domains would have that same nameserver.
 
#98 ·
The hookup site isn't a hosting site. In my experience when I had example.com and another site that I was personally running off the hosting service, they both had the same nameserver, which was the name of the first domain.

And again, this could be nothing. But there are serious warning signs besides the domain registration.
 
#99 ·
freebookservice said:
We are protecting our business, and we have made that decision from the start. We also have authors who do not want their competitors knowing exactly what their promotion methods are, which is another reason for this decision. If we changed our mind now, we could lose those clients which have been loyal customers for quite some time. We have had authors coming to us asking if we are promoting another author in the same genre. For what reason, we do not know, but while those of you on kboards may be happy sharing your earnings, promotion methods and tactics, not all writers are the same.
So ... you're passing up the opportunity to add several thousand avid readers (that's what KB is) to your subscriber list because the occasional (totally irrational) author might throw a hissy-fit if he finds out his is one of two thrillers you promote that day instead of the only one? Or because the occasional (paranoid weirdo) author may not want other authors finding out that she ... gasp! ... advertises her free book?

Since the size and quality of your subscriber list has got to be your No. 1 priority, and since KB is an outstanding source of new subscribers, the choice you're making here seems very strange. Self-sabotaging, really.

You seem very prepared to tell the many worried authors on this thread, "Our service is not for you." Why not save that message for the occasional obnoxious/weirdo person who gives you trouble for an unjustifiable, irrational reason?

Aren't you at all concerned about the accusation of running thousands of fake Amazon accounts? If I were you, I'd do whatever it took to disprove that idea, even at the cost of losing the business of the occasional author who wants to run a super-secret, NSA-proof marketing campaign. Those who value legality and transparency will more than make up for that loss. And the risk of drawing the enraged attention of the 'Zon ... well, that's not to be taken lightly.
 
#100 ·
Phoenix Sullivan said:
BookBub is heavily weighted toward Mystery/Thriller and Romance, as are ENT, POI, etc., so that 5.1% "buy"-through out of interested folk is probably fairly normal. That's 5% of 20% of the entire mail list. Or, 1%.

Which means this book service would need to have 1 million subscribers to get to that 1% download rate (10,000) for popular genres. To guarantee same for science fiction, fantasy, YA, etc, the mail list would need to be substantially larger.

That's a lot of sign-ups off of description pages on Amazon...

There is a reason we are skeptical.
This. So far, I'm seeing Horror, Romance, and Fantasy represented in this thread, all showing strikingly similar results. Which, once you start to do the math and compare it to the industry leader, Bookbub, doesn't add up.

The problem for people trying to suss out the legitimacy of this service is that even if they are downloads from "fake" accounts, once you're pushed up those lists, you start getting real people/downloads/sales from the Amazon site itself.

The telling thing here, to me, seems to be the secrecy behind the multi-million user subscriber list necessary to sustain an operation that can have literally any genre thrown at it and get similar results. The primary reason being that lists have attrition rates, and in order to maintain a multi-million user reader list, you've got to have a huge, daily influx of new subscribers - never mind the fact that this service seems to support reader lists across multiple genres. Which means of all the voracious readers on this forum, someone would have a good idea who these guys are and what their reader recommendation service is.

Note that the book linked in the OP, the one abusing the Amazon description field, where Freebookservice claims to get his reader list from, was published Nov 13, 2013.

Even if this is how they're getting subscribers, you can bet Amazon is none too happy about someone manipulating their onsite features in this manner (adding popups, facebook links, mail forms and the like). Not even sure how they're getting these modifications through the review process, but you can be sure they're probably losing accounts and republishing books under different titles and what-not to continue siphoning users from the Amazon site itself.

Which means, they're either gaming Amazon to siphon off email addresses from browsers of the store, a practice you can be sure is nothing more than a cat and mouse game until it's nuked. Or, more likely, is that it's a simple ruse to distract from the more likely possibility of an army of "fake" Amazon accounts used to supply these downloads.

In either case, in my opinion, everything points to this being a "service" that will likely be nuked once Amazon catches on. And one is left to wonder if there will be any fallback on unsuspecting authors once the jig is up.

Personally, there's nothing I despise more than seeing the toxicity of Warrior Forum and its ilk seeping into other areas and trying to prey on hard-working people. And if all this stuff is completely off the mark (which I highly doubt) I would offer my apologies, but the cryptic nature in all the responses regarding your service won't permit me to. You've brought the scrutiny, for better or worse, on yourself.
 
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#101 ·
Becca Mills said:
So ... you're passing up the opportunity to add several thousand avid readers (that's what KB is) to your subscriber list because the occasional (totally irrational) author might throw a hissy-fit if he finds out his is one of two thrillers you promote that day instead of the only one? Or because the occasional (paranoid weirdo) author may not want other authors finding out that she ... gasp! ... advertises her free book?

Since the size and quality of your subscriber list has got to be your No. 1 priority, and since KB is an outstanding source of new subscribers, the choice you're making here seems very strange. Self-sabotaging, really.

You seem very prepared to tell the many worried authors on this thread, "Our service is not for you." Why not save that message for the occasional obnoxious/weirdo person who gives you trouble for an unjustifiable, irrational reason?

Aren't you at all concerned about the accusation of running thousands of fake Amazon accounts? If I were you, I'd do whatever it took to disprove that idea, even at the cost of losing the business of the occasional author who wants to run a super-secret, NSA-proof marketing campaign. Those who value legality and transparency will more than make up for that loss. And the risk of drawing the enraged attention of the 'Zon ... well, that's not to be taken lightly.
Yes I am concerned about the accusations. Im saddened that the pitchforks come out at the first chance, instead of the common courtesy to wait it out and see how the free promos I gave away to long standing members of this community turn out. :(

You mention that I should lose customers to prove people that haven't even purchased-- why exactly would I do that? I appreciate your input into my business, but I see it differently.

Kat Lilynette said:
This. So far, I'm seeing Horror, Romance, and Fantasy represented in this thread, all showing strikingly similar results. Which, once you start to do the math and compare it to the industry leader, Bookbub, doesn't add up.

The problem for people trying to suss out the legitimacy of this service is that even if they are downloads from "fake" accounts, once you're pushed up those lists, you start getting real people/downloads/sales from the Amazon site itself.

The telling thing here, to me, seems to be the secrecy behind the multi-million user subscriber list necessary to sustain an operation that can have literally any genre thrown at it and get similar results. The primary reason being that lists have attrition rates, and in order to maintain a multi-million user reader list, you've got to have a huge, daily influx of new subscribers - never mind the fact that this service seems to support reader lists across multiple genres.

Note that the book linked in the OP, the one abusing the Amazon description field, where Freebookservice claims to get his reader list from, was published Nov 13, 2013.

Even if this is how they're getting subscribers, you can bet Amazon is none too happy about someone manipulating their onsite features in this manner (adding popups, facebook links, mail forms and the like). Not even sure how they're getting these modifications through the review process, but you can be sure they're probably losing accounts and republishing books under different titles and what-not to continue siphoning users from the Amazon site itself.

Which means, they're either gaming Amazon to siphon off email addresses from browsers of the store, a practice you can be sure is nothing more than a cat and mouse game until it's nuked. Or, more likely, is that it's a simple ruse to distract from the more likely possibility of an army of "fake" Amazon accounts used to supply these downloads.

In either case, in my opinion, everything points to this being a "service" that will likely be nuked once Amazon catches on. And one is left to wonder if there will be any fallback on unsuspecting authors once the jig is up.

Personally, there's nothing I despise more than seeing the toxicity of Warrior Forum and its ilk seeping into other areas and trying to prey on hard-working people. And if all this stuff is completely off the mark (which I highly doubt) I would offer my apologies, but the cryptic nature in all the responses regarding your service won't permit me to. You've brought the scrutiny, for better or worse, on yourself.
That publication date of the book in question is modified. It has been up for much, much longer than that. They are grandfathered in with all of that HTML in their description pages. We simply had an opti-n on many book descriptions, which you were able to do before the end of this October. You can no longer add HTML in descriptions.

Another grandfathered-in book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Ashly-Lorenzana-Blog-ebook/dp/B00EAEXHTI
This is an example of one thats doesnt have as many add-ons (click the show-more to see the optin)
 
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