Why Book Reviews Matter!

How many of you have purchased a book due to word of mouth?

I know I have. And I’m betting you have at some point too.

Like a good recommendation from someone you trust, reviews are must-have social proof for prospective readers because they help identify: 1) If your book delivers on the promises you make in the blurb and cover. Depending on the answer to the first question, that will determine whether 2) the book is worth reading (or not). Those are the main reasons reviews are important for readers. But what about writers?

For the writer, reviews are vital because they help with marketing your book. Without reviews (positive ones in particular) it will be an uphill battle for marketing your book. I would even say that it would even be best to hold off spending a lot of money on advertising/marketing until you gain some reviews for your book. Why do I say this? I’ll explain my reasoning further. 

Let’s dig a little deeper about what reviews tell readers.

Reviews Inform Readers

Besides a beautiful cover and an enticing blurb, reviews will help the reader make an informed decision about whether your book is worth picking up. Reviews tell readers what they can expect from the book. The more reviews you have, the better it is for readers to get an objective look at the content of your book so they can decide if this is something that interests them. When I select a book and look at their reviews, I expect to learn just enough about the book to convince me to read the book for myself (or not). Is there a critical development in your plot or subplot that wasn’t captured in the sales blurb? Without spoiling all the plot twists or the ending, the reader should get a clearer picture of what the book is actually about, especially if the blurb was ambiguous. Readers can then compare their impressions of the cover or blurb to the customer reviews to determine if the book matches their previous impression. If the review matches or surpasses the reader’s initial impression, you have a higher chance of converting that reader into a paying customer. As a writer trying to make money from your writing, that’s what you want!

Reviews can also help reveal the demographics of the readers who may like this book. For example, if the book reviews talks about baseball, guess who that’s going to attract? Baseball fans. Or if the book takes place in a city you grew up in, you, the reader, may feel an extra connection to the story, and therefore feel more compelled to check out the book.

We can also learn from the reviews of who the intended audience should be. I say should be because sometimes the book can be marketed to one demographic or age group, but may be better suited for a different target group. Certain genres have certain conventions they follow not just in cover design but even from the sales blurb down to the structure of the plot. For example, if this is a romance book, the chemistry of the lovers should be electric and excite your readers. Or if this is a how-to book, your book will start with a problem your readers have and then you will propose a solution or course of action for the reader to follow.

In fiction writing, if readers are complaining about a certain scene, chances are 1) the execution was off, 2) It sounds implausible 3) you broke a convention of the genre, or 4) you added something that your reader wasn’t comfortable with. If these are honest reviews, you will find any “trigger warnings” or things that might offend readers. This often includes sensitive content such as rape, incest, abuse, graphic sex, strong profanity, or graphic violence. To be fair, these subjects don’t trigger every reader. But it will trigger some. The blurb may not reveal some of those touchier subjects only for the reader to find out after they already purchased the book. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read reviews that complained about the content they were not expecting to be in the book.

Review can also help determine the quality of the writing. So if something has a lot of mechanical errors, reviewers are not bashful about pointing it out. Or readers might point out historical or scientific inaccuracies. You, the reader, can decide if you will overlook those errors or not. Knowing the strong points and the weak points of a book will help the reader make a more informed decision before purchasing a book that will make them cringe or straight-up hate!

Reviews Help Market for you

I can’t stress enough how important reviews are for authors, especially in the marketing department. Having a certain amount of reviews helps you market your book, which is what you want.

Remember what I said earlier about social proof. Social proof tells other readers “this book is worth buying.” We can illustrate it this way. You are shopping for a new vacuum cleaner. Let’s say you are looking for one that sucks up pet hair, has a detachable hose, and has good suction. You go to the sales page and you read to see if it includes those features in the description. But you notice there are no reviews! Would you still buy the vacuum even if the sales page promises those features? Some of you may. However, if you found another vacuum that has all the features that you wanted, plus the customers confirmed the features worked, you’re more likely to buy the 2nd vacuum.

Likewise, reviews help convince the prospective buyer that the product delivers on what it promises. Again, that review acts as your endorsement or what we call social proof. Other people see those reviews and guess what their review gets someone else to buy your product, especially if those reviews rave about how good the product is. You may be suspicious if you saw all five star reviews with zero complaints. You can expect some critiques or downright negative reviews. If you get reviews complaining about the same thing, chances are you have a problem that needs to be corrected immediately or something that can be improved on in the next book. If the review is someone bashing the book because it wasn’t their “cup of tea” then likely what that reveals is that they are not your target audience. Time to keep it pushing.

Now, if you have a solid product, you should have more positive reviews than negative reviews. If you did your homework, your target readers will appreciate your book. It’s the glowing reviews that will get other readers excited about your book.

What can amplify the power of a positive review is getting it from an influencer. This “influencer” could be an individual book blogger who does Podcasts or has a large social media presence, a celebrity, or a successful author in your genre. It could also represent an entity, such as a literary magazine or newspaper (e.g. Publisher’s Weekly or The New York Times). Really anyone that has a large following, whether on social media, online traffic (if it’s a site), readership, or email subscribers would count. There’s a reason they have the following they do. They have a consistent brand and have built a great rapport with their followers. So whatever they promote, their thousands of followers are more likely to at least listen. Now granted, if you are a newbie indie writer, finding celebrities or the New York Times to vouch for your book may not be realistic.

Instead, start with bloggers or authors who write in your genre. Start building relationships months before the book’s release because you want to leverage their influence and insight. You can use their feedback as editorial reviews for marketing. An editorial review is typically more in depth than your typical customer review, but if it’s long, you don’t have to include every single word. You can highlight one or two sentences that sell your book on the flap of your print book, your online sales page, or in an ad banner when you get ready to promote your book.

Not only are reviews free marketing (unless you pay for your review) but it can give you an added edge when it comes time to promote your book. For example, if you are planning to run a free or discounted promotion for your book, you may enlist the help of promo sites such as BookBub, Freebooksy/Bargain Booksy, ENT, RobinReads, just to name a few. However, some of these sites will not promote your book unless you have a certain amount of reviews. Sites like BookBub that have a huge readership base have strict criteria for what books they accept. One of their criteria besides having a professional-quality book is having several reviews. Having at least 5-10 reviews will qualify you to leverage more robust promo sites to promote your book.

I think you get the point. Reviews are important for readers and absolutely vital for all authors. But where can you find willing reviewers? While I can go on a rant about how difficult it is to get them, here are some places to start with.

Email Subscribers

If you have an email list, subscribers can also be potential reviewers. That would be one of the first places to tap for reviews. People you’ve already built a relationship with are more likely to be supportive of your works. Of course, you’ll get better results if you have a larger, active mailing list that already enjoys reading your works. You can offer your mailing list a free review copy for an honest review. You can also invite them to sign up on sites like BookSprout, where you can upload electronic copies, provide the sales pages where the reviews can be posted and automate reminder alerts.

But what if you have a small mailing list? Or worst you don’t have one? You should still build an email list. Sites like Voracious Readers, StoryOrigin, or BookBoast.

Review Blogs

While you’re building your list, you can reach out to other reviewers. Look for reviewers who enjoy your genre/style of writing. You don’t want to waste your time and the reviewer’s time by sending them a book that’s not one of their preferred genres. Not sure where to find a list of reviewers by genre? Start with Book Sirens.

Book Sirens – Once you click on the link, you can begin by typing the main genre (s) your book fall under. It will then take you to a page of reviewers that accepts that genre. At a high level, it will tell you the accepted formats, where reviews are posted, and each reviewer’s social reach or how many followers they have across their social media channels (which is useful if you are going for someone with a larger audience).

If the reviewer has a site, read their review policy. What types of formats they accept? What sites will they post their review on? They usually cover those questions in their review policy. If not, you can reach out to them via email or some other contact method.

Note: Read each reviewer’s policy carefully because some reviewers will not accept unsolicited requests. Failing to heed their rules is a quick way to get your request ignored or blocked.

This is just the tip of the icebergs to find potential reviewers. If you want to check out more review sites, check out my resource page here.

To my writers reading this, it is vital it is to come up with a list of reviewers who may be interested in your book. Considering most reviewers will either ignore or reject your request, I highly recommend to have at least 20 reviewers lined up. But don’t stop at 20. Even well-meaning reviewers can forget to review your book. It happens far more often that it should, but that’s the reality.

To My readers,

If you take nothing else away from this, remember this point, reviews are incredibly valuable to the writer. But they are also valuable to other readers too. If you really enjoyed a book, you could keep it to yourself. But how much better it would be to share it with others so others can discover amazing new books to read. I have to admit I would read a wonderfully well-written story and then I would forget to review it. I’m trying to do better myself and plan to review more books by the end of this year.

To my writers,

Attempt to reach out to reviewers before your publication date. You need to give them enough time to read the book. If possible look up other reviews the person did. That will give you a taste of the books they like and their style of reviews. It’s easy to become discouraged if you don’t get a lot of reviews or you receive a negative review. Don’t respond to negative reviews. It only creates negative publicity. Focus on the readers that enjoy your genre and style of writing.

There’s a lot to be said on reviews. If they were easy to get, I would have hundreds of reviews on my books by now, but I don’t. How can you work around this challenge? Stay tuned for a future post where I discuss the contested question: should you pay for reviews?

Together we’ll find the answers to your burning questions.

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