Lindsay - September 10, 2020This week, Andrea, Jo, and Lindsay discuss why book reviews are important, how to go about legitimately getting them, whether paid review services are worth it, and how to start your own review crew or “street team.” These are, among other things, volunteer readers that you can send advanced review copies out to in exchange for reviews.
News:
Before jumping into the main topic, we shared some news in which Jo talked about having his entire series bootlegged by another author and how he resolved the problem.
Andrea mentioned that she was a guest on the Wish I’d Known Then podcast: Andrea Pearson On Growing Your Writing Career Incrementally.
Lindsay reminded everyone that this fall will likely be a little crazy (crazier than this year has already been?) due to the presidential election in the US. You might not want to schedule a book launch in the weeks leading up to that, especially for a new series.
Here’s what we covered in our big discussion on book reviews:
- Social proof and how may reviews you should try to get for your book.
- Having enough reviews (usually ten or twenty) to be accepted on the sponsorship sites.
- How reviews can lead to better conversion for your Amazon ads (starting with a better chance of being clicked).
- Using pull quotes from reviews for creating ads or for enticing newsletter subscribers to check out a book.
- How reviews can help identify issues with the book that you weren’t aware of.
- How we got our early reviews and whether book bloggers/BookTubers (YouTube book reviewers) are worth approaching.
- The power of asking readers for reviews in the afterword of your book.
- Making your book (especially a Book 1 in a series) free for a time in order to get more reviews (combine this with asking for them in the back).
- Whether it’s okay to ask friends/family for a review (note: Amazon tends to delete reviews if they sniff out a relationships to you).
- Sending out advanced review copies to a review crew or, if you’re doing something like Patreon, select early readers.
- Whether giveaways can lead to reviews.
- Whether paying for Kirkus reviews is worth it (this article at Self Publishing Advice says no: Watchdog: Is A Kirkus Review Worth The Price?)
- Staying professional and not complaining about negative reviews in author groups or on social media.
- Managing and running a review crew (and how this varies slightly from a “street team,” which typically involves more than reviewing early copies).
- How you recruit people to be on your review crew.
- How to organize them and get books out to them before the release.
- How strict you should be about making sure people review.
Book review services:
Thank you for listening, and thank you to Joshua Pearson for producing the show. You can join our Facebook group Six Figure Authors here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/504063143655523/
