Reviews: Do you Really Like Me?

At Intrigue Publishing we send 25 Advance Reader Copies of each new book to a carefully curated list of reviewers. Why? Because ultimately, almost all books sales are the result of a personal recommendation, and reviewers are powerful recommenders. However, some of our books might get one or two reviews while others get 10 or 12. I’d love to know why… but it remains a mystery to me. We were stunned when we got the first couple of Publishers Weekly reviews, and just as stunned when other books were ignored.
One thing we DON’T do is pay for book reviews. I have always been skeptical of the value of praise that you paid someone to give. However, I can’t deny the truth that there are a lot more books coming out than the reputable reviewers could possibly read and paying the reviewer is one way to move to the front of the line.
Of course, authors can pursue reviews without their publisher’s backing, but those who choose to pay for them need to look closely at the sources. There are paid review sources that are held in pretty high esteem. Kirkus Reviews is probably at the top of that list, followed by IndieReader, BlueInk Review and a few others. Readers may not know, or even care, that you paid someone to review your book.
Before paying for a review, consider the quality of reviews you’ve seen from that source, and how many people will see it without your efforts. As an example, IndieReader offers more exposure for better books. They posts reviews on their site and they are shared by Ingram. Books that get a 4 or 5-star rating are included in a “Best Of” round-up on their site every month and are pushed to an email list of about 5,000 readers.
Quality matters, in part, because if Amazon doesn’t think your review is legit they’ll delete it. Short reviews that don’t refer specifically to some aspect of your book  could disappear. “Great read by this exciting author” could apply to any book. This is the kind of thing Amazon may well pull down.
Of course, the most treasured reviews are from professional sources, but they tend to want the book well in advance. When authors ask us why it takes so long to bring their books to market I mention, in part, that if you want a review from Publishers Weekly, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal and other professional publications you have to get the book to them four months to six months prior to release. It is of course a crap shoot, but it’s well worth the wait for a chance to be reviewed by any of these sources.
We’ll explore getting reviews in more detail next week.