Get Prizes "Buzzing" for Libboo (now closed)
Update:
Apparently the owners of Libboo agree with my rather negative assessment as they closed Libboo on 1/31/14. The most similar site that is still in business would be Inkspand, link below. I am also investigating OnlineBookClub.
Other Paid Review Sites
Would you like to be paid for reading books? I know I would. This is my first hub analyzing the various websites that offer to pay for book reviews or critiques.
I can't remember where I heard about Libboo, but I heard it was a way to use social media to promote books, and get prizes.
So I thought: what the hell, why not give it a go?
I mean, I am pretty good online, so why not us it to get stuff I like? I had in mind prizes like hard copy books or other book related swag (posters, bookmarks etc?).
So What's the Deal
The way they put it is: "Libboo's mission is to solve the timeless problem of talent getting lost in crowded spaces and aims to help all talented authors - published traditionally or independently - be discovered by the audiences they deserve."
What this actually means is that Libboo posts books and each author or publisher who submits a book gets to decide how much social media buzz you need to create, and what prize you get as a result.
You are given points for posting about the book on Facebook, Twitter and various other places, and for the number of people who click on the links you post.
The Books
The books are purely ebooks, and predominantly self-published. That said, they are mostly high quality and cover a range of fiction genres and non-fiction subjects. There are also some small and large press books, especially in the romance and erotica genres. I think most people would be able to find a book that interests them in the Libboo selection on any given week.
My Experience
I signed up and found that I could pretty easily rack up 50 or so points on a book just by posting to Facebook and Twitter. And so long as I choose books of the type I like, it didn't look too much like spam.
The site runs on a cycle that starts on Monday and ends on Sunday night which is when prizes are awarded and all points are then deleted--so you start again from scratch.
However to get a really good prize you would need more like 300 points. To rack up that many points I would need to really make an effort--not something I can easily do for a book I have not read.
...And a Few Months Later
Over time the number of listings that offered Kindles and Amazon gift vouchers dwindled, eventually to nothing. So now there are two kinds of deals:
1) Promote a book to get a free copy of the book. Isn't this kind of backwards?
2) promote a book to get "recognition". As far as I can tell "recognition" is code for "nothing at all".
It has been some time since an offer with a tangible prize has been posted and I think those days may be gone for good.
One Sentence Summary
Thumbs Down: They never have good prizes anymore, so you might as well just get books for free (at other sites like Amazon Kindle) rather than tweeting to "win" them.
Conclusion
There is no real need to post to social media to get free books. You can get a similar range of books for no effort at all by searching for free books on Kindle or Smashwords.
And what really put a nail in Libboo's coffin for me was when I left some freebies unclaimed for a while (i was thinking about using them as prizes on my blog as they are transferable) and Libboo just deleted them! No fair!