What Did You Think of My Book?

key, Pezibear from Pixabay

Getting reviewers and readers to talk about your new book provides peer-to-peer validation of your work and is key to promoting sales,. These days, “no one will buy a book with zero social validation,” says Jordan Ring at Archangel Ink, who prepared the online guide, “How to Get Book Reviews: The Ultimate Manifesto.”

Reviews work to your advantage in several additional ways in the Amazon ecosystem. The more consumer reviews you have, the higher your conversion rate from Amazon page visits to sales. Having reviews (especially verified reviews) will boost your book in Amazon’s search algorithms. Yet, Ring says, “most books on Amazon struggle to get even fifty reviews.” Around the time of publication, unverified reviews—those coming from people who’ve obtained your book from somewhere other than Amazon, say, as advance review copies—help jump-start the process.

The Strategies

Although Ring provides a lot of detail on how to implement these strategies, and writes in that breezy and grating you-can-do-it style universal to self-help books, he warns up front that these strategies “aren’t easy and take a lot of work.” It’s up to each author to decide how far to go.

  • Providing a request for reviews in the back of your book is probably the easiest (see “overcoming reviewers’ barriers” below); I see more of these all the time. You’re a writer, you love your book, make that request engaging and clever.
  • Search for reader-reviewers who have commented on similar books and compile a list. There’s even an app that will find them for you. Bear in mind that most people don’t want yet another way to be spammed, and find a balance between warm and too chummy.
  • Contact those reviewers by email. As a reviewer for crimefictionlover.com, I receive review requests occasionally, and the overly personalized versions weirded me out at first, the kind that sound almost stalkery. (“I saw your review of x, and . . .”) But that’s me.
  • Follow up. Ring says most authors may be willing to make an initial query, but won’t follow up, which increases total response rate markedly. He provides lots of details on how to do and track this.
  • Follow up with people who sign up for any bonuses you offer, although the sample text he offers would put me off. (People need to know that, in signing up for bonuses, they will be on an email list for further contact, of course.)
  • Using other reader-centric platforms—such as GoodReads or LibraryThing—repeat your search for reader-reviewers, outreach, and follow-up.
  • Be sure to use any endorsements or back cover blurbs you’ve acquired to fill out the “editorial reviews” section of your book’s Amazon page.
  • And do not try to boost the number of reviews by relying solely on friends and family, review swaps with other authors, or paying for reviews. Amazon sees, Amazon frowns.

Overcoming Reviewers’ Barriers

My friend, book marketing guru Sandra Beckwith, has looked into why people do not review the books they read. What she learned may help you craft your approach in the back-of-book copy or any email messages you send requesting reviews. She says:

  1. Readers are intimidated by the review process. They don’t know how or where to start, or what they should even share in a review.
  2. Haunted by memories of school book reports, readers think reviewing a book will take too much time.

Sandy has developed a reader-tested template—a fill-in-the-blanks PDF file—with writing prompts to help readers prepare a review in just a few minutes. She charges a nominal fee for the form, and authors can make as many copies as they want. She suggests including the template with every review copy, handing them out a book signings, emailing them to readers, and giving them to everyone on your launch team. If they encourage your readers to overcome “reviewer reluctance,” that’s a big plus!

6 thoughts on “What Did You Think of My Book?

  1. I love this, Vicki! Thanks for linking to my review forms — I just got a love note from an author about them that totally made my day!

    I’ll add that the biggest mistake authors make when requesting reviews is making it about themselves — “Your review will help me.” Readers write reviews for other readers, not for authors. So, if you stop making it personal and focus on how they will help friends and others who like the same kinds of books, you’ll have more success.

    Thanks again!

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