(The sound of a pen scratching.) LOGO
Hellooo everybody! Today we’re talking about one of the most
important parts of the publishing process, and that’s book reviews.
Everyone’s always saying that book reviews are vital to a book’s
success, and that’s true. The
problem is there are roughly a bazillion different
types of book reviews. Plus, it’s not always easy to get
reviews, which is why this topic can be a LITTLE confusing at
times. Because of this, I am answering the ten (10) most
popular questions I get about book reviews. Before we get started,
I want to give a shout out to Skillshare,
who has generously sponsored today’s video. If you are
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marketing, graphic design, illustration,
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On to your ten (10) questions all about book reviews! Number One (1):
What is a book review? A book review is a
review of a book!
Bet ya didn’t see that coming! It’s one person’s opinion
regarding the book’s quality and entertainment value.
Reviews can be written by industry professionals
like editorial pros or by other published authors,
in which case their opinion is based
off of experience and credibility. Or, reviews can be written by
readers, in which case their opinion is based
off of personal preference and taste.
Number Two (2): What are the different types of book reviews? First up, we have
consumer reviews. This is the most
obvious category - it’s anyone and everyone who
buys a book and leaves a review for it. Second, we have
influencer reviews.
This is not a technical term. Many industry pros would classify
influencer reviews as consumer reviews, however,
as influencer culture grows,
I personally think it’s important to understand
the distinction between the two. An influencer is
someone who has a following on social media, such as
Instagram, Youtube, TikTok,
whatever. There’s a large community of bookish influencers, for example bookstagram and
booktube. They review books on their
platform, sharing their opinion with hundreds of
thousands of readers.Third up is trade reviews.
Trade reviews, sometimes known as
editorial reviews, are written by professionals
within the industry. They typically focus on the technical aspects
of the writing, as opposed to more subjective points.
Unlike the other reviews I mentioned, trade reviews are not
free. Either you or your publishing house is
going to have to pay the source in order to receive one.
However, the benefits of a trade review are one (1),
they add a certain level of credibility to your work, and two (2),
these reviews are often followed by publishing
professionals within the industry when making
decisions regarding the distribution of books.
Fourth is peer reviews. A peer review is when a fellow
author reviews a book, typically for the
purpose of endorsing it. Peer reviews are usually
very short. One to three sentences, tops.
Sometimes they’re just a few words.
“Thrilling, dazzling, a high stakes adventure!”
These reviews are then used to promote the book.
Sometimes they are displayed on the front or back cover,
sometimes they are displayed within the book itself, they
might be on marketing paraphernalia, they might
be on social media banners. Lastly, we have
ARC reviews. ARC stands for advanced reader copy.
It’s a review of the book before it’s been published.
ARC reviews can come from any of the people I listed
already. Peers, consumers,
influencers, trade professionals, it just
depends on who the author decides to send their book to.
Number Three (3): Why are reviews so important?
The number one reason is credibility. If your book doesn’t have any reviews,
it’s not a good look. If you only have
a couple of reviews, even if they are all five (5) stars,
people are going to assume the book is not selling.
And that’s not a good thing! The second reason is exposure.
The more reviews a book has, the more people are going to see it. This is
especially relevant with Amazon reviews.
Amazon algorithms are set up in a way that will
increase a book’s exposure
based on it’s number of reviews. As your
book accumulates reviews, it’ll start to be featured across
Amazon or through their newsletter, and that’s some
really helpful free marketing! Number Four (4): What’s
the deal with Amazon reviews? A lot of people complain about
Amazon’s review policy because it can be really
strict. For starters, Amazon can be picky about unverified
reviews, which are reviews written by people who
did not purchase the book specifically through Amazon.
This is to prevent people from leaving fake or
dishonest reviews about a book they haven’t read, however,
just because a review isn’t verified, doesn’t
mean the person didn’t read the book. It’s possible they
bought it somewhere else, or they received a free copy
in return for an honest review. Regardless, unverified
reviews are sometimes deleted by Amazon, which can
be a big bummer for authors. Additionally,
sometimes Amazon won’t allow reviews from relatively
inactive accounts. Last I heard, Amazon will not allow
a person to post a review of a book if they haven’t
spent at least fifty dollars ($50.00) within the last
twelve months through their account. This, again, is to help
prevent fake reviews. However, not all people
shop on Amazon, so it can be really frustrating. Please
keep in mind Amazon changes it’s policies constantly.
By the time you watch this video, it may have new
policies, or the policies that I already mentioned don’t exist
anymore. My point is, do your due diligence, and be mindful
of Amazon’s review policies when recruiting reviewers. Number
Five (5):
How can an author accumulate reviews? The most obvious way to
accumulate reviews is to recruit ARC reviewers. It’s
very important to get reviews of your book as soon as possible and ARCs
do exactly that. They also help to generate hype
around an upcoming book release. Some writers create
sign-up sheets, they may also contact
potential reviewers
through e-mail, social media, or different reading and writing groups.
There are also different mailing lists, blog hops, and
newsletters that you can look into for recruiting
ARC reviewers. Some are free, some are not,
and they tend to have a varied success rate. If you want
influencers to review your novel, or
you’re seeking a trade review, you’re going to have to hit
up the necessary sources. Influencers
and trade review sources are going to have guidelines
available on their platform - be sure you follow
them to a “T” or else you’re gonna get ignored or
rejected. Lastly, there are websites you can join
that are designed to connect reviewers with specific
authors, the most obvious one being Net
Galley. NetGalley will make your
book available to reviewers in return for a fee,
but it ain’t cheap. Keep in mind you need to be active
about recruiting reviewers. This is not
something you can coast through. According to bestselling author
Mark Dawson, you can at
BEST expect one (1) organic review for
every one hundred (100) books you sell.
And that ain’t good! This means you’ve gotta make sure you’re making
an effort to get those reviews because it will NOT come easily.
Number Six (6):
Should an author pay for reviews? Unless it’s a trade review,
probably not. As we already covered, trade reviews
are conducted by well-established professionals, and they are
not free. Additionally, services like NetGalley are
not free, however, you’re not paying
for the review. You’re paying to have your book made
available to reviewers. It doesn’t guarantee that you’ll
get reviews, nor does it guarantee that you will get positive
reviews. That said, there are people who
offer services, sometimes on sites
like Fiverr, where they will give you a bunch of
five star reviews on Amazon or Goodreads,
for a fee.
This is unethical for a variety of reasons, but the most obvious one is
these people usually aren’t reading your book.
If you feel like you have to buy fake five
star reviews, that might tell you something about
the quality of your work. Instead of seeking out
fake reviews, improve the quality of your writing,
so you can receive REAL ones.
Number Seven (7): Who are book reviews for? The standard consumer review
is for readers, not the author. Some writers
don’t seek feedback during the writing process,
they just wait for their reviews to come in
in order to gather feedback
...and that’s STUPID!
Companies releasing products beta test their
designs with sample audiences. They
create research groups so they can fix any bugs before
launch. Same goes for books! That’s what alpha readers,
beta readers, critique partners, and editors
are for. Reviews exist to let other readers
know whether or not the book is suitable for them. Number
Eight (8): Should authors read their reviews?
When it comes to consumer reviews, nine times out of ten,
the answer is no. As we already covered,
consumer reviews are for READERS. They’re to
let other readers know whether or not the book would be a good
fit for them. They DON’T exist to stroke the author’s
ego. There are many reasons why it’s widely considered
a bad idea for authors to read their reviews. First, books
can generate hundreds, even THOUSANDS of reviews.
Ain’t nobody got time to read all that. Second,
book reviews are subjective. Not everyone is
gonna like your work, just like not everyone likes chocolate,
or exercise, or cats.
Exposing yourself to subjective opinion isn’t
necessarily going to improve your writing, but it could
send you spiraling into a nervous breakdown! If you still
want feedback, it’s very popular for an author to enlist a
friend or co-worker to read through their reviews, and give them an
overview of the positives and the negatives. That
way the information is coming from a supportive voice, as
opposed to a stranger telling you to eat shit and die.
But PLEASE keep in mind you should be seeking out feedback
BEFORE your book is published, so do not
consider this step a means of skipping the
necessary editorial process. Number
Nine (9): What are the best practices for authors
when it comes to reviews? For the love of
God, don’t be that jackass who scours consumer
reviews just to pick fights with your readers.
These people are allowed to share their opinion! And if they’re not tagging you
or bringing
the negativity directly to your doorstep,
they have done NOTHING WRONG. You, on the other hand,
look like a big baby for picking fights with people on the internet
and harassing them, all because of their
‘misguided opinions.’ Here’s an idea: get a life!
Or at least, a hobby. Reviews are for the readers, not
for you, so you shouldn’t be perusing Goodreads,
anyway. Unless someone brings that
shit directly to you, you are NOT entitled to run
your mouth, so zip it! And Number Ten (10): What are best
practices for reviewers? STOP tagging authors in
your shit reviews - they know what you’re doing... It’s not because
you think they could benefit from the feedback, it’s ‘cause you want to piss them off.
Calm down.
Just like it’s not okay for authors to harass reviewers, it’s also
not okay for reviewers to harass authors.
Your opinion is NOT more valid than everyone else’s, so leave
it on Goodreads, or Amazon, or your blog where it
belongs. Besides, if you are desperate for an
author to read your *spicy* criticism, that means you’re
probably not reviewing the book for the right reasons.
But you already knew that, didn’t you? So that’s all I got for you
today! A HUGE thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring
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