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How to send a good review quest
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I've gotten requests by writing a review query.This article explains how to write one:
http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/publi...
Moved into the author help folder.There are at the moment many threads on this topic. I would suggest starting with this one:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Do keep in mind that the importance of reviews is largely overstated as has been proved by some of our more successful members.
I wish I could help more but I don't understand the motive. Before I published my novel I paid to have it reviewed by Kirkus and Forward. I see on this page that many writers are anxious to have some of you review their manuscript free. What is the motive behind this? Paul
Mod
While I appreciate every review I get, positive or negative, I have never requested a review nor have I ever paid for one. I don't place a lot of importance on them.
But, that is for me. Others may see reviews as a necessity in their marketing strategy and that is why they seem anxious to get them. Should they be anxious for them? I can't say. Maybe they've had more success with the books that have reviews and feel that getting more reviews will equate getting more sales.
I hope that helped.
I think one motivation for getting reviews, especially for new authors, is that all the big advertising sites (Bookbub, ENT, KBT, etc.) require a minimum number of reviews in order to get accepted.
Well think about it this way. A book with a lot of positive reviews and renown will be much more appealing and will make you want to purchase it more than just a book with no reviews, no one talking about it.
Mod
That is a common thought and it may be true at times, but not always. As Christina pointed out, some of our more successful members have found this is not true for them or their work. I know from my personal experience this is not true of my work. My best seller in August has two reviews on it, now, but when it was selling well for about a week there, it had no reviews on it. My overall best seller has two reviews between Goodreads and Amazon and it's been out for about a year. The book I just released a few days ago has seen a lot of activity since I first put it out, both in pages read and sales and it has yet to get a review.
At the same time the stuff I have that has the most and grandest reviews are not selling.
I do appreciate and enjoy getting reviews, but the only thing I think I really gain from it is the knowledge that people are enjoying my work - which is important to me, but it doesn't really seem to help in sales.
Everyone has different buying habits, too. I almost never look at the reviews when I buy books. I realize some do look at the reviews, but not everyone does.
Mod
And yet I know authors that sell TONS of books with only 1 or 2 reviews. It really does just depend, as some books seem to sell well just by word of mouth. Still, I am doing a little experiment with my next release, to try and test how important they are.
As for how to send a good review request, I myself have found personal and simple to be the best way. Make each letter to the person, and type from the heart. And don't forget the blurb!
I try to make sure everything is organized and there is as much information as possible. Genre, word count, title, description, social media links and such. So they do not have to go look around for it. I also include a statement on how I found them and a compliment on their site.
Mod
This is a perfect model of what I was talking about!
Previous comment deleted due to violation of our Respectful Code of Conduct Rules. Please see the introductory text by Ann for further explanation: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Mod
Mod
I'm not a fan of paying for reviews and I've read and had others say the same, although that is what other people prefer and it works for them.When it comes to requesting reviews I would say it's always good to be polite and tell the person your requirements, it's your request after all. Be sure to set a deadline because a lot of times by not doing so people may tend to forget your book or push it off. I've been doing a lot of review requests lately lol.
So you're telling me you do not actually need reviews to sell a lot of books per say? Well how else would you get a lot of sales?
At Sarah; thats a pretty good idea! Does it seem to help from your experience?
Thats actually quite true, gotta make sure that they are actually interested in what you write, otherwise why would they? Thanks V.M.
Justin, what do you mean by deadline?
Mod
What I'm saying is that some feel it is a necessity, but that has not been the case for myself. I won't say I am highly successful, but my sales have been increasing. The most activity I see is on books with no reviews or few reviews. I know some of the more successful writers here have found that there's no real connection between getting sales and having reviews.
So, no, I would not say you need reviews, but there's little I would say all authors need. Different strategies work for different authors. If you feel getting a lot of reviews will help you get sales, go for it.
What is working for me are just a very few things:
1. Work hard and keep writing. Hit the publish button when you are no longer finding errors in the work. Then write something else and keep going.
2. Promote. Get the word out there about your book, in appropriate places.
3. Be active on Goodreads and let others get to know you. Don't make every post about your book(s).
4. Offer something free now and then to get people to read your work.
And that's really about it. It's working for me and some really exciting things are starting to happen to my books. I can't guarantee it will work for others.
Again, though, I do appreciate getting reviews, I just don't actively seek them out. And I am certainly not trying to discourage anyone from seeking reviews (unless you're doing review swaps). I am just saying that many are finding that reviews don't seem to have a strong impact on sales.
A deadline meaning if someone agrees to review your book you give them a certain amount of time like 2-3 weeks, up to you. If you don't specify a deadline then the more like that person is to read your book whenever they feel like, finish it whenever they feel like or even push it off until a future date.
Everything I've seen for the past 2.5 year shows that reviews are a trailing indicator of success, not a forcing function. Keep this in mind: Bookbub (et al) know the market vastly better than we do. If we think: "Hey, Bookbub wants 50 reviews. I'll do *this* to get 50 reviews," what is Bookbub going to do? Look for 500 reviews, or 1000, or whatever number of reviews we cannot get out of gaming of the system.
You can never beat the market, or those who follow it. All you can do is write.
Well I'm really glad I know now that reviews don't necessarily translate to sales, thank you everybody :) Ill also probably use deadlines!
An obvious way to get reviews is to send an email/some sort of online message and asking people to do this.
Now the odds of them actually accepting your request, well they probably are not too high, of course that really depends on your situation.
However, I am wondering if there is a way you can make your request to them seem more appealing somehow, maybe more professional, outlining what is good about your book, stuff like that.
So I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how that could be done