Greg Strandberg's Blog - Posts Tagged "reviews"
Reviews
It's tough getting anyone to notice your new books. Goodreads isn't much help I find.
I try to post my new books in the appropriate author folders, but we all know how useless that can be. Why would they want eyes on those anyways? Wouldn't it take away from the advertising revenue they can snatch from authors?
Oh boy, it sure is slow building up a base of people to even look at your books, let alone read them. I was happy to see that my fantasy perma-free book is on about 20 'to-read' shelves. I guess that's something.
Perhaps I'm just a little bummed because I thought/hoped January book sales would be a little better.
Oh well, I still have a really cool fantasy novel I'm working on called The Hirelings which I think a lot of people will like.
Once I can figure out how to get them to look at it.
I try to post my new books in the appropriate author folders, but we all know how useless that can be. Why would they want eyes on those anyways? Wouldn't it take away from the advertising revenue they can snatch from authors?
Oh boy, it sure is slow building up a base of people to even look at your books, let alone read them. I was happy to see that my fantasy perma-free book is on about 20 'to-read' shelves. I guess that's something.
Perhaps I'm just a little bummed because I thought/hoped January book sales would be a little better.
Oh well, I still have a really cool fantasy novel I'm working on called The Hirelings which I think a lot of people will like.
Once I can figure out how to get them to look at it.
Writing Lots of Reviews
Boy, yesterday I wrote nearly 3,000 words here on Goodreads. What, is there a new novel planned? Nope, I was just writing reviews.
If you’re anything like me you probably started using this site awhile ago, added all your old books, but never got around to writing reviews for them all.
Well, that’s what I did yesterday.
But I did more – I also updated all the covers on my “read” shelf so that they were the covers I wanted, or the covers I remember seeing each day while reading that book.
So should you embark upon a quest to get all your reviews done as well? I think so, and a good place to start is with series. Write a good review for Book 1 and then a shorter review for Books 2 & 3 and so on.
It’s a fast and efficient way to start, and maybe you’ll get a little more caught up, like me. Yep, only 373 books to go!
If you’re anything like me you probably started using this site awhile ago, added all your old books, but never got around to writing reviews for them all.
Well, that’s what I did yesterday.
But I did more – I also updated all the covers on my “read” shelf so that they were the covers I wanted, or the covers I remember seeing each day while reading that book.
So should you embark upon a quest to get all your reviews done as well? I think so, and a good place to start is with series. Write a good review for Book 1 and then a shorter review for Books 2 & 3 and so on.
It’s a fast and efficient way to start, and maybe you’ll get a little more caught up, like me. Yep, only 373 books to go!
Goodreads Author Groups are Silly
Today I left what I’m just going to come out and call a stupid group. This is The Firequill Book Group and it’s mainly for authors that want to get reviews or have their blogs get more traffic.
Alright, it might be about something else, but from all the threads I ever saw it was authors asking for reviews and some of the absolute worst – I mean these sites were pure shit! – sites that they wanted you to vote on.
Now, some people might like author sites where they talk about the same book each week for months or they talk about their friends books or write reviews for other books.
We’ve all seen these sites – the ones with about 28 likes on Facebook and an annoying neon green, pink, or purple background.
That’s about what I think of this silly Firequill Book Group.
It all started when an author began asking for reviews. I made a comment that soliciting reviews will in no way help you long-term. I guess if you think a book with all 5-star reviews interests readers, then yeah, maybe that’s for you.
But if you’re more interested in organic growth, readers finding your books without bribes, and making it as an author long-term, then that’s just not for you.
And that’s why I left the Firequill Book Group today, in case anyone cares, which I think you don’t.
Alright, it might be about something else, but from all the threads I ever saw it was authors asking for reviews and some of the absolute worst – I mean these sites were pure shit! – sites that they wanted you to vote on.
Now, some people might like author sites where they talk about the same book each week for months or they talk about their friends books or write reviews for other books.
We’ve all seen these sites – the ones with about 28 likes on Facebook and an annoying neon green, pink, or purple background.
That’s about what I think of this silly Firequill Book Group.
It all started when an author began asking for reviews. I made a comment that soliciting reviews will in no way help you long-term. I guess if you think a book with all 5-star reviews interests readers, then yeah, maybe that’s for you.
But if you’re more interested in organic growth, readers finding your books without bribes, and making it as an author long-term, then that’s just not for you.
And that’s why I left the Firequill Book Group today, in case anyone cares, which I think you don’t.
