How I got more than 80 reviews of my indie books

It’s funny how often I find myself looking for answers on the internet and on my social networks that can help my books gain publicity, readers, and hopefully some reviews. This post is going to discuss what I have been through so far, attempted, and worked on to get my books to where they are now.

So, you may be wondering, where are my books now? Depending on what channel you look at will give you a different answer. I can proudly (hand on heart) say that in everything I have done, that I can hold my head high to say that I took no shortcuts and I never asked anyone for anything outside of their honest opinions in their reviews.

As it stands, I have 80+ reviews on Goodreads, and 58 reviews on Amazon.com. Some of them are posted in both, and some are not. Most of them are favourable, many are critical, and I have a few “haters” in the mix as well. However, Legends of Marithia 1 is averaging 4.2 stars on Amazon, and Legends of Marithia 2 is averaging 4.5 stars.

 

So, let’s get cracking into my story:

1) My original book 1, which was published by iUniverse.

This was the hardest road for me to travel, because as gamers would put it nicely, I was a complete noob. Aside from telling people on Facebook, starting up Twitter, and having a successful book launch… it all basically stopped there. My publisher did nothing to promote the book, but were happy to ask me to buy packages to market my book to their readers.

Things I learned:

Just because you have a publisher put out your book, does not mean that they will do anything to market your book. Unless you are a celebrity, already famous, or insanely lucky.
Readers and reviewers are hard to come by, and if you publish your first book with high expectations… then you will likely find yourself falling to your butt on the pavement and wondering what to do next. Don’t despair, because you should never give up
Listen to your readers and reviewers, and if they give you feedback which is constructive or critical and has merit, then take it on board
Keep writing!

2) Writing my second book as an indie release, and re-releasing a new ‘Uncut and Extended Edition’ of Legends 1, again as an indie

I took everything I learned from the publishing process, and applied it to being able to do it myself. After I discovered that my publisher was going to charge me a lot of money to do anything with my first book, even just changing the cover… I realised that I am far better off to just cut out the “middle man”. After all, they were doing nothing that I couldn’t actually do myself. One thing you find though, as soon as you go indie, is that many people will judge you because you are not published by a “real publisher”. I say bollocks to that, and think that these days… you can actually be worse off to go through a publisher, but I digress.

I took on-board everything that I received in my reviews and improved my craft for Legends 2 and Legends 1 uncut. I purchased amazing artwork from Claudia at www.phatpuppyart.com and they grace the covers.

The most important thing you need to learn here is: You need to make your books as marketable and publishable as possible!

If you have an amazing book that has a cover which looks like a 12 year old put it together, or that it was done in paint, then you will have a serious problem. Don’t be fooled by the whole “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Everyone does. What is the first thing that you think of when you see a truly awful cover? For me, it is “If the cover sucks that bad, then the book will be terrible. Move on”

Also, you can’t sell a book just with a great cover alone. I released my books, 6 months apart, and did endless research. In the end, I learned and realised the following:

Make your books high quality with amazing covers, so that they catch the eye and are nice to read
Make sure your books are truly publishable and aren’t just taken from your proofread, a friend’s edit, and then published
Your social media platform and website need to be looked after. You don’t need to blog all the time and tweet fifty times a day, but when you do, make sure that it’s decent
As an author, have you taken the time to make a decent website? bio pages and updated details of your books on Amazon, Shelfari, Goodreads, etc? You better do so!
Do you interact with others? Or do you just post links to try to sell your books? If it’s the latter, do NOT do this… it’s going to shoot massive holes through your feet

3) Marketing without spending a fortune

There is not one single method that works for everyone, and this is going to take hard work. Don’t expect a “click here for 500 purchases” as that is just not going to happen. I will list out what I tried, what the estimated results were, and what worked/works for me:

Amazon Kindle KDP

I took the bait with this program and signed up my books for KDP exclusivity. What this did was a double edged sword, as I alienated anyone who didn’t have a Kindle device or app, but also made a good amount of sales. But what did I have to do to get those sales?

I ran multiple giveaways, and even attracted many free kindle sites to promote them, and paid one time for marketing of my giveaway. Did it pay off? a little, but not much. I gave away thousands of copies of my books and I am yet to see a review come from the KDP giveaways. My feeling is that people either just freeload everything they can, and may never read it, or they just don’t want to review

Facebook and Twitter

I have a Facebook fan page, which I try to update regularly and I have plenty of likes there. I ran giveaways on Facebook, and they helped a little. I think that a fan page is a great idea, but make sure that you keep it up to date and don’t spam your friends. I use Twitter, although I don’t use it quite as much as I used to. Partly this is due to time management, and it is also due to the many contacts that I was close with on Twitter… not really talking much anymore.

Goodreads, where I found the most success

If you are not on goodreads, then you should not consider yourself a modern author. And it’s not just about being “on there”, but you need to make an investment of time and books. I ran multiple giveaways on Goodreads, and not eBooks… but paperbacks. Ah yes, they cost money, and there is no way around that… but this is allowing you to market directly to readers.

But, you may ask… how did I get so many reviews? I suppose that I should answer that, being the subject of this post and all.

The first thing I did was to run giveaways, but then I spent a lot of time going through the entrants of my giveaways and speaking with them. Now, let me make this abundantly clear: Do NOT spam your entrants with “buy my book here”, as it will bite you on the butt faster than you can say OMG

I didn’t take that route, but instead… I went through and not only checked out the entrants, their profiles, and books that they like to read, but I personally sent them a message about the giveaway, their profile, my books, and an offer to give them a copy of my book in exchange for a truly honest review.

Carefully selecting who you wish to contact is also key. There is no point giving a book to someone who never writes reviews, or hates your genre.

There are some rules about this and some common sense, but the biggest one is to be kind, courteous, and respectful to the entrants. After all, you are essentially contacting them “out of the blue”

The response to my messages, being that they are legitimate, genuine, and generous… has been overwhelmingly positive. Now, you will run into the fact that you will get some reviews that you won’t like… but welcome to the real world! If you can only handle fluff being thrown at you, then you have no place in a commercial environment.

Having said that, there will be those that just want to tear you and your work down with no merits. Those are the ones I affectionately call “haters”, and I have no qualms with them, as everyone is entitled to their opinion. Readers see through haters, and so long as it’s a few voices and not the sound of the choir of 90%+ of your readership, then you know that it is what it is.

I gave away a lot of books, and you may think that’s crazy… but not only do you get reviews in return, but you make some friends, and gain exposure. If they like your book, then they will tell many others about it.

It’s that simple, and it works… because it’s real. This is not “selling someone something”, but giving someone something that they wanted in the first place.

Peter