Why giving my book away on Story Cartel was a BAD idea...

I am now going to STRONGLY advise that authors do not do this until Story Cartel makes some significant security improvements to their platform. People who join their site to read and review books are not verified through any sort of third party method like the texting of a verification code etc. As a result, users can join the site, download as many books as they want and leave zero reviews. Even if Story Cartel cancels their account as a result of their behavior, nothing stops them from creating a new dummy email address, creating a new Story Cartel account, and then going right back to ripping off hard working authors.

I can say with some confidence that this is happening because of the list of email addresses I got from Story Cartel. This was a list of who had downloaded my book, and was given to me so I could email them to encourage them to leave a review. (On a side note... Why do I have to do this? I just PAID Story Cartel to list my book on their site for people to download. I would think they could throw in an automated email or two. Hell, maybe even put in a direct link to where they can leave that review?) Over 80% of those addresses were so obviously throwaway email addresses for accessing Story Cartel that they might as well have been titled "ImGoingToStealYourBook@bookstealers.com."

So chuck this service into the bin of things NOT to do in order to promote your book. Save your money and use it in a way that helps to build your subscriber email list.