TheCatholicCrow
Mystagogue
I was link hopping and came across "How To Get Amazon’s Top Customer Reviewers To Review Your Book". I thought it might be useful for those of you whose work is already live.
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Getting Reviews
- Thread starter TheCatholicCrow
- Start date
Journeyman- Thread starter
- #3
TheCatholicCrow
Mystagogue
I haven't published anything yet so - no I have not.
MineOwnKing
Scribal Lord
That article is 3 years old.
So much changes in that amount of time.
I can say from experience that it's pretty much a dead end.
Not only that but it's really grueling and time consuming. Getting no response from a reviewer is almost worse than getting no response from an agent.
If your book does well enough to get picked up by an amazon marketing team then you will undoubtedly receive hundreds of reviews.
But even well established self-pub writers can struggle getting reviews if they are still marketing solo.
So much changes in that amount of time.
I can say from experience that it's pretty much a dead end.
Not only that but it's really grueling and time consuming. Getting no response from a reviewer is almost worse than getting no response from an agent.
If your book does well enough to get picked up by an amazon marketing team then you will undoubtedly receive hundreds of reviews.
But even well established self-pub writers can struggle getting reviews if they are still marketing solo.
BWFoster78
Mythic Scribe
Though I have no experience with the issue, I can understand why MineOwnKing had a dead end experience.
Put yourself in the place of a top reviewer. Everyone and their brother is contacting them constantly for reviews. Same thing with top book blogs.
I wonder if some other advice I read would be more productive: Find books similar to yours. Look at the reviews for that book. Do a bit of investigation about the reviewer, and if that person seems like a match and has contact info available and has a decent but not huge amount of reviews, contact that reviewer.
Seems like this method would have more chance of success because:
A. You can say right off the bat, I thought you might like my book because you liked X book.
B. This person, since they don't have a huge number of reviews, is probably not approached often. Therefore, seems like there's a higher probability that that reviewer would be 1) flattered by the approach and 2) be available to do the review.
Put yourself in the place of a top reviewer. Everyone and their brother is contacting them constantly for reviews. Same thing with top book blogs.
I wonder if some other advice I read would be more productive: Find books similar to yours. Look at the reviews for that book. Do a bit of investigation about the reviewer, and if that person seems like a match and has contact info available and has a decent but not huge amount of reviews, contact that reviewer.
Seems like this method would have more chance of success because:
A. You can say right off the bat, I thought you might like my book because you liked X book.
B. This person, since they don't have a huge number of reviews, is probably not approached often. Therefore, seems like there's a higher probability that that reviewer would be 1) flattered by the approach and 2) be available to do the review.
- Thread starter
- #6
TheCatholicCrow
Mystagogue
Yes this would probably be a better approach.
I had never considered approaching reviewers or asking people to read & review your books which is why I initially posted it. When I finish all of the revisions & rewrites for Author of Death I know that I won't personally go after top reviewers (it's pointed out to me time and time again that Noir basically doesn't have an audience but I'm okay with the irony of my book that won't sell which is, in fact, about pulp fiction that doesn't sell). Like you said, I probably will consider offering it to reviewers of similar books maybe starting with fans of Chandler & Cain and possibly fans of Barbara Stanwyck & Humphrey Bogart films. But this is still hypothetical as it'll probably be quite awhile before I get to that point.
The article doesn't reflect my personal opinions nor was my posting it meant to be taken as an endorsement of it's every suggestion. I just came across the article which seemed to have a different approach than most that I've seen on the subject so I thought I'd share it. Of course everyone is free to take or leave as much as they want from it.
Outdated? Yes but I think the idea of offering a free book to your key demographic & asking for reviews still stands as a viable option.
I had never considered approaching reviewers or asking people to read & review your books which is why I initially posted it. When I finish all of the revisions & rewrites for Author of Death I know that I won't personally go after top reviewers (it's pointed out to me time and time again that Noir basically doesn't have an audience but I'm okay with the irony of my book that won't sell which is, in fact, about pulp fiction that doesn't sell). Like you said, I probably will consider offering it to reviewers of similar books maybe starting with fans of Chandler & Cain and possibly fans of Barbara Stanwyck & Humphrey Bogart films. But this is still hypothetical as it'll probably be quite awhile before I get to that point.
The article doesn't reflect my personal opinions nor was my posting it meant to be taken as an endorsement of it's every suggestion. I just came across the article which seemed to have a different approach than most that I've seen on the subject so I thought I'd share it. Of course everyone is free to take or leave as much as they want from it.
Outdated? Yes but I think the idea of offering a free book to your key demographic & asking for reviews still stands as a viable option.
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BWFoster78
Mythic Scribe
I spent about an hour and a half yesterday searching through people who had left reviews on Amazon for fantasy romance novellas. Five listed their email addresses.
Out of those five emails, three have already responded saying that they'd love a copy of Abuse of Power for a review.
It's time consuming, but a 60% success rate so far is really good.
I figure that less than half will actually follow through on the promise, so in order to get 10 reviews, I'm going to try to get 20 yeses.
I'll do a post on my overall thoughts on this process once I have some actual reviews.
Out of those five emails, three have already responded saying that they'd love a copy of Abuse of Power for a review.
It's time consuming, but a 60% success rate so far is really good.
I figure that less than half will actually follow through on the promise, so in order to get 10 reviews, I'm going to try to get 20 yeses.
I'll do a post on my overall thoughts on this process once I have some actual reviews.
Russ
Dark Lord
Let me know when your book is out. I make it a policy to buy and review from my friends on MS.
BWFoster78
Mythic Scribe
Russ,
Will do!
To be clear, though, I'm releasing three books in the next three months:
Abuse of Power on 9/1
Rise of the Mages on 10/1
Repulsive on 11/1
Assuming your generous offer only applies to one of those, I'd much prefer you wait until Rise is out.
Thanks.
Brian
Russ
Dark Lord
I don't have the patience to wait, and I think it will fit my budget. Wishing your every success in your launch.