Book Reviews: A Discussion
My last post, which in a nod to quantum physics is simultaneously my first, began a journey of discovery to uncover the secrets of eBook selling. Today, that road brings us to reviews. This will not be comprehensive since the subject's complexity and scope will require a few more stops. Instead, overture and preamble will serve to provide what I've not found elsewhere: context.
An independent author with even a modicum of online presence is likely swamped with all manner of websites, marketers, eBook promoters, SEO specialists, and experts promising to write your blurb, pitch, query, synopsis, or polish your tome to a more professional shine.
I equate them with online carnival barkers and lump them under the heading SPG's (self-publishing gurus). All cost money and some quite a bit but none will answer what seems to me would be a decisive marketing edge. What are your results? What is your success rate? Indeed, all want to help you sell more books but are quite brazen in admitting they offer no guarantees except to cash your check. Which is why their common refrain, "Reviews are essential.", has made me a bit circumspect.
When I decided to go independent, I spent months studying SPG advice before first testing the book promotion waters by including only the websites that charged nothing for listing a book promotion. I also engaged in blog interviews for the exposure to their readers.
I include the link below for those who would like the names, requirements, and URL's of the sites I used. Of course, anyone downloading the spreadsheet should click the included site links to verify the information is the latest available. For those who might not have Excel, PM me so we can see if I can put it in a more convenient format for you.
Book Promotion Sites
Above is a table displaying the book promotion's aftermath. Needless to say, I was pleased with the results. That's for my British friends. For my American friends, I whooped and hollered. The SPG's were right! It worked, I thought.
I settled down to perform six successive halvings. Half would hate the book. Half would not write a review. Half might write a review but wouldn't in this case. Life circumstances would prevent another half from writing a review. Half would not write a review for reasons I could not imagine. And I halved it again, just because.
I had every reason to expect my paltry to-date review total would jump by at least 35. I whooped and hollered some more then sat down to plan my next promotion. I would not only expand the number of free sites and blogs but this time I would budget $200 to buy ad space and spread it out among the sites that charged. If I could get my review total to 100, surely I'd be on my way. Wouldn't word of mouth begin to factor in?
Three months later, my review total had not budged. Not even one review. When the number zero sank in, I made the only conclusion possible. I had to be the worst writer on Earth.
I came to the GR Review Group with the express purpose of learning what specific areas I had to work on. My fellow authors were kind enough to restore my shattered confidence with excellent reviews and thus force me to re-think this whole review process. Let's circle back to the statement, 'Reviews are essential'.
That's an SPG's sales pitch and a worthless one intended to sell their service, not your book. Sue Charman-Anderson, Business Contributor to Forbes' online edition, observed the following.
"Half of Amazon book sales are planned purchases (interjection mine: think about that for a moment). 10 percent of Amazon book choices are made because of its ‘bought this/also bought’ recommendation engine. Bestseller and top 100 lists influence 17% of book choices, with 12% down to promotions, deals, or low prices (bold italics mine). Only 3% came through browsing categories. Planned searches by author or topic, however, make up a whopping 48% of all book choices.
"Amazon is a destination for purchase...not a discovery mechanism in and of itself. People are simply not browsing for books based on Amazon’s recommendations, not in any significant numbers.
"Self-published authors have limited resources for promotion and these figures show that you should focus not on trying to woo Amazon’s algorithm, but on building awareness outside of Amazon. Rather than hoping to gain traction within that 10 percent of people who pay attention to Amazon’s recommendations, or trying to crowbar your title into bestseller or top 100 lists, you should be focusing on building an independent fan base. No one can search for your books if they don’t know you exist."
So the statement, 'Reviews are essential.', should be a question. How many reviews are essential?
Every day, books come across my email inbox with 15,000, 7,000, 600 reviews. Even if a reader thinks reviews are important in making a purchase, no one is going to read that many reviews. And as we saw above, only a tiny percentage are going to browse on the basis of reviews.
I'm going to suggest an independent author should not spend any more effort than needed to acquire about 45 reviews, with the sweet spot being between 15 and 30. I believe a minimum of 10 establishes a book's credibility, especially if they're good ones. Five or below and the competition will swamp it. And 10 is the maximum number someone will read. Most will select the two most negative, two most positive, and a few others.
Once you've established your book's credibility, any further effort to garner reviews is wasted. Why? Because the Law of Diminishing Returns must set in. There is a reason why it's a law and though I'll accept arguments for a higher number, I suspect once you've reached 45, its descent to zero is rapid.
And as we have seen, almost half of Amazon's book purchasers already know what they want, reviews be damned. Conclusion? Reviews don't sell books. Interested readers buy them. A subtle but crucial distinction.
One more point for debut authors. GR' Review Group is an invaluable resource. Unless you're a literary genius or Amanda Hocking, you should not see reviews as selling tools. For you, the sole purpose of a review is to identify your book's strengths and weaknesses. One, two, or three-star reviews should be cause for celebration. They spotlight faults and flaws.
On re-write, eliminate the legitimate criticisms, implement the suggestions that suit your style, edit and polish, then submit the same book to the next review group of fresh readers that forms. You will not only be building your book's credibility, you'll see your writing strengthen.
What's more important than reviews? In my opinion, concept originality, the plot's description (blurb), and the opening chapters. These will be the subjects of coming posts. Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
First, a quick detour. 84% of Romance readers are lady persons. The remaining 16% are not males but definitive proof extraterrestrials are already here. I fell upon a random nook among the Internet's infinite crannies. The link below is to Sonal Panse, a writer/artist in India, who posted a review titled 'Five Romance Heroes to Avoid'. She is a compelling writer.
Sonal's Review
Nobel Prize winning author, Ernest Hemingway, who must shake his head at my attempts to incorporate his insights, had a concept of writing he called "The Iceberg Theory". Snooty literary critics who probably sniffed at such a pedestrian title, refer to it as the 'Theory of Omission'.
Hemingway believed a story's deeper context and meaning should not occupy the foreground but exist within implied shadow.That like an iceberg whose surface masks the massive bulk beneath, what one leaves out of a story is as important as what one puts in.
But with great respect to Mr. Hemingway, stripping a sentence down to its essential components is not a modern construct. The word 'laconic' comes to us, meaning intact, from the ancient Athenians.
In their time, Laconia represented a region in southern Greece that had Sparta as its capital. Then, the city was known as Lacedaemon and its residents as Lakons. That is why their battle shields bore an 'L' (lambda) which to us looks like an upside down 'V'. History is replete with stories of the feared lambda appearing on the battlefield and enemies fleeing in terror.
The Spartans inculcated into their culture a style of speaking and writing renowned for its terse succinctness. They never used two words when one sufficed. Their communication patterns were so minimalist, the Athenians invented a word for it, 'laconikos', which of course comes down to us as laconic. How laconic were the Spartans?
In 348BC, King Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander you-know-who, became enraged the Spartans, enamored of their independence, refused to join his League of Corinth, formed to end the strife between the warring city-states. Philip sent an emissary to Sparta.
"If you force me to enter Laconia under arms, I will raze Sparta to the ground."
The emissary, fortunate he had not been asked to demand earth and water, returned to Athens with the Spartans' reply. Philip opened it to read, "If."
Note how what the Spartans left out did not eliminate its consideration, or dilute the power of what they left in. Your re-writes and edits should reach across the millennia to bond with Leonidas and Gorgo.
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.
An independent author with even a modicum of online presence is likely swamped with all manner of websites, marketers, eBook promoters, SEO specialists, and experts promising to write your blurb, pitch, query, synopsis, or polish your tome to a more professional shine.
I equate them with online carnival barkers and lump them under the heading SPG's (self-publishing gurus). All cost money and some quite a bit but none will answer what seems to me would be a decisive marketing edge. What are your results? What is your success rate? Indeed, all want to help you sell more books but are quite brazen in admitting they offer no guarantees except to cash your check. Which is why their common refrain, "Reviews are essential.", has made me a bit circumspect.
When I decided to go independent, I spent months studying SPG advice before first testing the book promotion waters by including only the websites that charged nothing for listing a book promotion. I also engaged in blog interviews for the exposure to their readers.
I include the link below for those who would like the names, requirements, and URL's of the sites I used. Of course, anyone downloading the spreadsheet should click the included site links to verify the information is the latest available. For those who might not have Excel, PM me so we can see if I can put it in a more convenient format for you.
Book Promotion Sites
Above is a table displaying the book promotion's aftermath. Needless to say, I was pleased with the results. That's for my British friends. For my American friends, I whooped and hollered. The SPG's were right! It worked, I thought.
I settled down to perform six successive halvings. Half would hate the book. Half would not write a review. Half might write a review but wouldn't in this case. Life circumstances would prevent another half from writing a review. Half would not write a review for reasons I could not imagine. And I halved it again, just because.
I had every reason to expect my paltry to-date review total would jump by at least 35. I whooped and hollered some more then sat down to plan my next promotion. I would not only expand the number of free sites and blogs but this time I would budget $200 to buy ad space and spread it out among the sites that charged. If I could get my review total to 100, surely I'd be on my way. Wouldn't word of mouth begin to factor in?
Three months later, my review total had not budged. Not even one review. When the number zero sank in, I made the only conclusion possible. I had to be the worst writer on Earth.
I came to the GR Review Group with the express purpose of learning what specific areas I had to work on. My fellow authors were kind enough to restore my shattered confidence with excellent reviews and thus force me to re-think this whole review process. Let's circle back to the statement, 'Reviews are essential'.
That's an SPG's sales pitch and a worthless one intended to sell their service, not your book. Sue Charman-Anderson, Business Contributor to Forbes' online edition, observed the following.
"Half of Amazon book sales are planned purchases (interjection mine: think about that for a moment). 10 percent of Amazon book choices are made because of its ‘bought this/also bought’ recommendation engine. Bestseller and top 100 lists influence 17% of book choices, with 12% down to promotions, deals, or low prices (bold italics mine). Only 3% came through browsing categories. Planned searches by author or topic, however, make up a whopping 48% of all book choices.
"Amazon is a destination for purchase...not a discovery mechanism in and of itself. People are simply not browsing for books based on Amazon’s recommendations, not in any significant numbers.
"Self-published authors have limited resources for promotion and these figures show that you should focus not on trying to woo Amazon’s algorithm, but on building awareness outside of Amazon. Rather than hoping to gain traction within that 10 percent of people who pay attention to Amazon’s recommendations, or trying to crowbar your title into bestseller or top 100 lists, you should be focusing on building an independent fan base. No one can search for your books if they don’t know you exist."
So the statement, 'Reviews are essential.', should be a question. How many reviews are essential?
Every day, books come across my email inbox with 15,000, 7,000, 600 reviews. Even if a reader thinks reviews are important in making a purchase, no one is going to read that many reviews. And as we saw above, only a tiny percentage are going to browse on the basis of reviews.
I'm going to suggest an independent author should not spend any more effort than needed to acquire about 45 reviews, with the sweet spot being between 15 and 30. I believe a minimum of 10 establishes a book's credibility, especially if they're good ones. Five or below and the competition will swamp it. And 10 is the maximum number someone will read. Most will select the two most negative, two most positive, and a few others.
Once you've established your book's credibility, any further effort to garner reviews is wasted. Why? Because the Law of Diminishing Returns must set in. There is a reason why it's a law and though I'll accept arguments for a higher number, I suspect once you've reached 45, its descent to zero is rapid.
And as we have seen, almost half of Amazon's book purchasers already know what they want, reviews be damned. Conclusion? Reviews don't sell books. Interested readers buy them. A subtle but crucial distinction.
One more point for debut authors. GR' Review Group is an invaluable resource. Unless you're a literary genius or Amanda Hocking, you should not see reviews as selling tools. For you, the sole purpose of a review is to identify your book's strengths and weaknesses. One, two, or three-star reviews should be cause for celebration. They spotlight faults and flaws.
On re-write, eliminate the legitimate criticisms, implement the suggestions that suit your style, edit and polish, then submit the same book to the next review group of fresh readers that forms. You will not only be building your book's credibility, you'll see your writing strengthen.
What's more important than reviews? In my opinion, concept originality, the plot's description (blurb), and the opening chapters. These will be the subjects of coming posts. Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
First, a quick detour. 84% of Romance readers are lady persons. The remaining 16% are not males but definitive proof extraterrestrials are already here. I fell upon a random nook among the Internet's infinite crannies. The link below is to Sonal Panse, a writer/artist in India, who posted a review titled 'Five Romance Heroes to Avoid'. She is a compelling writer.
Sonal's Review
Nobel Prize winning author, Ernest Hemingway, who must shake his head at my attempts to incorporate his insights, had a concept of writing he called "The Iceberg Theory". Snooty literary critics who probably sniffed at such a pedestrian title, refer to it as the 'Theory of Omission'.
Hemingway believed a story's deeper context and meaning should not occupy the foreground but exist within implied shadow.That like an iceberg whose surface masks the massive bulk beneath, what one leaves out of a story is as important as what one puts in.
But with great respect to Mr. Hemingway, stripping a sentence down to its essential components is not a modern construct. The word 'laconic' comes to us, meaning intact, from the ancient Athenians.
In their time, Laconia represented a region in southern Greece that had Sparta as its capital. Then, the city was known as Lacedaemon and its residents as Lakons. That is why their battle shields bore an 'L' (lambda) which to us looks like an upside down 'V'. History is replete with stories of the feared lambda appearing on the battlefield and enemies fleeing in terror.
The Spartans inculcated into their culture a style of speaking and writing renowned for its terse succinctness. They never used two words when one sufficed. Their communication patterns were so minimalist, the Athenians invented a word for it, 'laconikos', which of course comes down to us as laconic. How laconic were the Spartans?
In 348BC, King Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander you-know-who, became enraged the Spartans, enamored of their independence, refused to join his League of Corinth, formed to end the strife between the warring city-states. Philip sent an emissary to Sparta.
"If you force me to enter Laconia under arms, I will raze Sparta to the ground."
The emissary, fortunate he had not been asked to demand earth and water, returned to Athens with the Spartans' reply. Philip opened it to read, "If."
Note how what the Spartans left out did not eliminate its consideration, or dilute the power of what they left in. Your re-writes and edits should reach across the millennia to bond with Leonidas and Gorgo.
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.
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I tried Indie book promo. No sales. Although it is inexpensive, the email they send isn't likely to draw people to check out the title. This is what is sent:Indie Book Promo is happy to welcome E.G. Manetti to the blog. She's here to share about her work, The Twelve Systems Bundle to the blog. If this book sounds like something you would be interested in reading, please find buy links below and pick up a copy or two. ***** ~A woman in trouble. […]
Read more of this post
'Read more of this post' is a hyperlink, but not one I would feel compelled to click.
Thanx, EG. I've got my fingers crossed people see your post. Forewarned is forearmed.
Another excellent post, Rafael. So, as new guy to this process my initial impression is that book promoters are predators and Indie authors their natural prey. I have never bought a book or even clicked on a site based on an email or a Tweet, so I have trouble believing anyone else would. Putting my skepticism aside, I dipped my first tentative toe in the the Twitter waters, but this just seems like a bunch of Indies tweeting each other to no effect.My book is at thirty-nine reviews and, especially the early ones, pointed out areas for improvement. They were pretty gentle, but on target. I have no idea if they do any good, but I do know they do not help people find you...which is the basic problem, No?
Welcome back, George, and glad for it !!Your insight is spot on. I view Twitter as a downstream technology, i.e., one to utilize once your reader building efforts begin to reach critical mass.
I too am very dubious few readers are going to read a book based on an anonymous tweet unless they have chosen to follow a particular author or if a book reaches the critical mass I referred to, think Amanda Hocking or E.L. James or J.K. Rowling for that matter.
Twitter is an excellent means to engage already committed followers but to build those followers in the first place, one's marketing efforts, IMO, are better directed elsewhere. Especially if time and disposable income are limited assets.
Nice list of promo sites. I didn't get any traction from Book Daily, but I find different sites do better with different genres.