What an author should look for in a reviewer...

[Richard]

At their most basic, Book Reviews are specialized analysis of any given read, with the implication that the comments will help readers make a decision on whether they should purchase or read that book. They are a publisher's single biggest marketing tool after the recognition of the author's name and previous, well-received work. Reviewers and publishers have always had very close relationships, sometimes fraught with disagreement. One of the industry's oldest, most reliable tools is providing Advance Reader Copies to specific reviewers before release to help build awareness and reinforce the press that has been carefully cultivated and released. ARCs, are usually unedited galley proofs which are not in saleable form, but are sufficient for the reader to determine if the voice and plot and characters make for a moving or enjoyable reading experience. When a publisher sends out ARCs, they don't just shotgun them into the stratosphere, hoping that some likely readers will leave helpful reviews. They send them to carefully selected reviewers with a track record, whose reading tastes, genres and preferred story lines are known quantities. While the reviewer may not be expected to always rave and leave a great review, it isn't as much of a gamble as you may think. The publisher has done their homework and sent their ARC off to someone they can be reasonably sure will appreciate and enjoy it.

Self-published authors would do well to also emulate the marketing review strategy of the big boys. Providing your book, FREE, isn't by itself a studied and developed marketing plan. The explosion of online review blog sites and review forums shows that while free books might be a motivation to solicit reviews, the results may not be in the author's best interest unless they try to narrow down the recipient pool to those readers with a review track record in the actual genre where the author's book is marketed. By seeing the body of an online reviewer's work, their tastes, genres and reading preferences can be determined, as well as other factors such as cultural connections and age. A reviewer's public profile should contain all of these in order to be seriously considered by thoughtful authors and publishers.

Just putting your free titles out on a table in Grand Central Station, for example; does not provide any real indication that there will be a marketing benefit to the author. But, if the author writes SciFi, for example and puts that table in a highly visible location in a SciFi or Trekkie Convention, the results will be much better or at least, much more useful. If someone wants to set themselves up as an online book reviewer, it will help to know exactly what authors and publishers expect from them. They don't expect a great review, but they do expect an honest appraisal, based upon your reading of the material after you have approached their work with as open a mind as possible. They don't want a troll-speak schoolyard bashing; but if the reviewer didn't like the book, they expect the reviewer to explain why in clear terms without resorting to attacks upon the writer or publisher. They also expect to be able to find your previous reviews easily, preferably in one location as well. Jus' sayin'.

[Barbara]

Very interesting post!

[Richard]

I felt motivated to write it after seeing a new "reviewer" put up a request for books while keeping their profile private. If you're self-published, you generally don't have the time to run down all the "offers" that come in, let alone a marketing dept. to do the footwork for you, ahead of launch. Many who enjoy reviewing don't really know the industry side of the process or the long history, so it seemed like I might share some of those facts. I'm glad you found it of interest.

[Barbara]

Indeed you make me thinking about my profile...

[Noorilhuda]

@Richard you make good points.

My short (1-year) experience in churning out fiction (2 books; one historical inspirational romance The Governess, the other about-to-release psychological thriller Catharsis) is as follows:

1. It is tough for self-pubs to get reviews from established sources (NYT, Guardian, Stephen King ;) etc. etc.).

2. Amazon's Top 1000 or BlogMetrics Top 20 bloggers are generally not interested in reading yet another random self-pub book.

3. You will get spam of reciprocal one-plus-one reviews from authors - some authors will not ignore this and take up the offer, others (like me) will.

3. I've had to rely more on GR groups (the very good GR Reviewers Group, Indie Initiative and GR based bloggers). But I've checked the profiles of each blogger fully before handing them the book - because GR has bully bloggers too!

4. I've had reviews by independent ebook purchasers (both books are enrolled in KDP Select/ KU program; the paperbacks are non-exclusive). Generally when you do a free book promotion or a countdown deal, 1-2 buyers will leave their thoughts on the book. So I've not had the problem you mention.

5. As a non-reciporcal ethical reviewer (and reviewing under a pseudonym), I've shown laxity to self-pubs in rating them even when I would not have read the material twice. This is for the simple reason that for some authors, this is vanity publishing, not a career-goal. They like participating in discussions and enjoy good feedback. And the serious, carerr-oriented ones have so many great reviews that 1-2 bad ones don't matter to them.

6. The quality of the review is more important to me than the quantity.

6. As an author seeking non-reciporcal ethical reviews (I've only had experience with The Governess to date), I've had a brady bunch of reviewers - some are constructive, some say the book is too long, some say the monologues are great, some say they aren't, some get offensively personal (as if I'm the neighbor with the barking dog!), some are the grammar police and don't care what you write as long as you have done as much work on your story as 'they' did! A recent reviewer even hated the cover of ebook The Governess saying I probably got it off the public domain (!) - I did not react though I got the said cover by taking a picture of roses in my garden because I wanted something classy as opposed to bosom-baring usual covers!

7. Some 'reviewers' are actually competition and dump on your page to belittle your book. For the psychological drama Catharsis, I was recently approached by a person who apparently read a lot of thrillers. Seemed like a good option - that was before I noticed how many times she had reviewed and liked a single self-pub author's books and that too in a single click! (either a publicist, assistant or the author herself!) - I don't know but there are cases of fishy networks.

So my advice will always be to tread carefully and hope for the best because rejection is part of the biz and waiting for a good review part of the roulette!

[Richard]

Noor, it's all an uphill struggle, but you seem to have figured out some important points early on. The trolls and sock-puppets are out there in force, and while we don;t like to tip-toe through the net... sometimes we have no choice but to remain as safe as we can. The main thing I've taken to heart is that the learning will never be complete! ;)

[BR]

It helps to look at a reviewer's previous reviews. I've learned that if someone gave 50SOG or Twilight a 5-star review, they're going to hate my book. Some expect that because my romances have young MCs, they are YA or conform to the current limited NA tropes. It has led me to put a warning on the books to try and steer away certain types of readers.

[Richard]

That's very important, BR. We have to do our homework when it comes to checking over previous reviews to see if books with voice, trope, genre and characters similar to ours are something the reader enjoys. Otherwise it will not be a helpful review. I know my own readers are not much below 40 in age. Even my last book, for older YA readers was mostly appreciated by adult readers. Go figure...

[Noorilhuda]

At the very least it shouldn't be the following:

IS THIS AMAZON'S TOP 100 REVIEWER ASKING FOR MONEY?
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

[Barbara]

incredible!

[Richard]

I'm not surprised at all -- when you look at some of the "top reviewers'" reviews and the frequency of new reviews being posted, I'm pretty sure many of them don't actually read the books, but cobble together a review from existing reviews, then put their name on it. Asking Amazon or Amazon authors to pay them seems to be the lowest common denominator kind of thinking about "monetizing" a service. Of course, legitimate, review providers with serious industry cred, also expect payment. Midwest Book Review asks a $30 (back in 2009) payment to expedite new reviews; Publisher's Weekly has a whole Indie Author package that costs in excess of $200; Kirkus also will review your book for $145 if it's self-published, so... the apple don't fall far from the tree. Turns out pay to play is really nothing new at all...