By Janet Lane
E-books need public shows of affection
You’ve written the perfect story, and you’ve led your book through a series of hoops – careful revisions, professional editing, a web site, a blog, and a beautiful new cover, complete with book descriptions for the on-line retailers.
Now it’s time to get really brave, and get reviews. Ah, reviews. We love ‘em when they’re good, and hate ‘em when they’re bad, but to effectively market your literary e-babies, they’re as vital as an enticing book description.
So in what rivers can you fish for reviews? I started collecting my reviews by asking my critique partners if they would help me out by reviewing my books when they were first released by Five Star Publishing. Later, my publisher cancelled its Expressions Medieval line, under which my novels were published. Overnight I became an orphan author, and suddenly these early reviews became critical to my new role as epublisher. Even if one publishes traditionally, nothing is certain, and those early reviews of your traditionally published book can (unless you substantially change your novel), carry over to your ebook.
Perhaps you’ve heard some horror stories about Amazon yanking reviews. It can happen. Some authors have visited their Kindle pages, only to learn that some or all of their great reviews are gone. Little can be substantiated, but stories abound that Amazon may pull reviews from published authors . In another incident, a review was pulled from an author’s page because Amazon discovered that there was a close relationship between the author and the reviewer. When pressed for an explanation, it was noted that the reviewer had placed an order with Amazon for products other than books, and the order delivered to the author’s address. This, it was explained, would affect the objectivity of the review.
Other denied review stories include writing a review without a verified purchase, or submitting more than one review from more than one reviewer on the same computer.
Amazon is not the bad guy here. All these stories are examples of Amazon’s attempts to retain the integrity of the book reviews. Simply put, they don’t want your mom – along with any other relatives she can recruit – clogging up their pages with biased reviews.
So here are my suggestions on how to get the dozens of reviews your book will need to get noticed:
1. Ask for reviews in your ebook, in the back matter.
2. Don’t ask for five-star reviews, or ask readers to give you a good review, even if they don’t like the book.
3. Don’t pester your critique partners! If they haven’t responded to your request that they review your book, it could mean they don’t like your book enough to publicly lie about it. Or they might not have the time. Or maybe YOU didn’t respond to THEIR request for a review. Or, even if you have written a strong review for their book, they still might not reciprocate. Don’t strain a great friendship with this issue.
4. Look into review services. I used Choosy Bookworms, and their review process is excellent. I’ve heard horror stories about some review services, so be sure to post a question about a potential review service on RMFW’s yahoogroups site to learn more before you commit.
5. Once you have solicited a review, be civilized. If a review doesn’t materialize and get posted, accept it. (See #3). If the review is negative, wait three days before reacting in ANY way, especially in writing. And if it’s negative, still send a note of thanks to the reviewer, and milk the review for all it can be worth. Are there valid points made among the criticisms? If it’s scathing and deliberately hurtful, lick your wounds and turn to your critique partners for support, so you heal more swiftly. After all, even negative reviews stir interest in a book. And remember, even Stephen King gets negative reviews.
Why all the fuss for reviews? They can become a strong marketing tool. With a hefty collection of reviews, your book has a good chance of being accepted on the bargain-book offerings of such valuable outlets as Book Bub, E-Reader News Today and Book Sends.
Good luck! May you never receive a 1- or 2-star review, and may you enjoy great book sales!
Personally, I never give book reviews on Amazon. I only give reviews on Goodreads.com because I can link Goodreads to my blog.
Thanks to 2015chronicles for the nudge to get over to Goodreads and change the url feed from my old discontinued blog to my site. 😀
I try to add book reviews to both Amazon and Goodreads but am sometimes guilty of just clicking a rating on Goodreads if the novel is already well reviewed and the ranking pretty much agrees with my own. When I read a book that hasn’t been reviewed or ranked much, and if I can honestly give it 4 or 5 stars, that’s when I’ll go to the extra trouble. I’m also doing a book review Monday on my new site at http://patriciastolteybooks.com.
The tough part for me is getting reviews for new books, whether traditionally or self-published. I hate asking my friends, and so many of the online reviewers are swamped that it takes too long to even find one or two. It’s a tough game we’re in.
Thanks, Janet and Patricia. I’m finishing up the third book in a series and haven’t been taking (or making) the time to reach out for reviews. I appreciate your comments. Here’s to more reviews for us all. Cheers!