What it costs to market a self-published book with software instead of a service

Here are the actual numbers, not a quote request. Book Review Machine is $97, one payment, with 1,000 credits included and a 7-day money-back guarantee. Credits meter the work: 35 for an illustrated review page with its ad, 10 for its social posts. The starter credits cover about four books' worth of five-review campaigns.

The rate card

Every price shows in the app before you run the action, and credits are charged when work completes. A failed run costs nothing.

What costs nothing

Reading your manuscript, building the reader profile you approve, scheduling, and publishing are all free. You spend credits on the writing and the art, not on the plumbing.

The honest ongoing costs

1. More credits, eventually. When the 1,000 run out, top up through Masher Credits, the pool shared by every Masher tool.
2. Your ad budget, if you advertise. The machine writes one Meta ad per review and pushes it to your own ad account after you approve it. What you spend from there is your call; the builder runs his own books at a few dollars a day.
3. Your approval time. The machine will not publish, post, or push without your yes, so budget an evening per book for reviewing what it built.

Questions authors ask

What does Book Review Machine cost, all in?

The software is $97, one payment, no subscription, with 1,000 credits included. Credits are the only metered cost inside it: a review page with three illustrations and its ad is 35 credits, its social posts are 10. Reading your book, approving the reader profile, scheduling, and publishing cost nothing.

What do the 1,000 starter credits actually cover?

A five-review campaign costs 225 credits, so the starter credits run about four books at five reviews each, or two books at ten, or one book at twenty, and every path leaves roughly 100 credits for touch-ups like re-imagined illustrations or rewritten pages.

What happens when the credits run out?

You top up through Masher Credits at mashercredits.com, one credit pool shared by every Masher tool. Paste the API key into Settings and the machine draws on it automatically. Credits are charged only when work completes; a failed run costs nothing.

Do I still need an ad budget?

Only if you run ads. The review pages and social posts work without one. The machine's builder runs his own books on a few dollars a day per book and lets the strong ads surface, but that is his practice, not a promised result.

Why is this cheaper than hiring a book marketer?

It is a different thing, not a discounted version of the same thing. A marketer sells time and judgment. This is software that does one job: turn your manuscript into story pages, posts, and ads you approve. If it is not for you, there is a 7-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.