Some answers for questions before publishing.

[Christi]

Hello again everyone!

It's been a while, but I have been extremely busy finishing up my novel. It's currently on its way to the editor and now the real work starts.

I am publishing in about a month and I just had a few questions that have been on my mind.

Here they are:
1. When would be the best time to add my novel to Goodreads? Should I do it the same day it releases and then create my Author profile as well? Or should I do it before then even though it is not out yet and some things are subject to change?

2. What order do I do it in? Upload novel then request my author page, correct? I just want to make sure.

3. Do I add all of the links to different stores myself or are they done via ISBN searches on the respective stores?

4. When would be the best time to start asking for reviews? I was thinking of doing it when my novel is finished but not yet released.

That is about it for now. If I think of anything else I will just ask. Cover reveals and marketing will at least be done a few weeks before release so I have no questions about that.

Thanks again.

[Owen]

Christi wrote: "Hello again everyone!

It's been a while, but I have been extremely busy finishing up my novel. It's currently on its way to the editor and now the real work starts...."

I'm going to throw my usual two-cents in here. When we got close to publishing our first book, "... now the real work starts" is something we heard quite a bit, the "real work" referring to marketing and related. Three years later, I have reached the conclusion that this one of the bigger mistakes indie authors tend to make. A writer's "real work" is to write. Losing sight of that leads to problems.

I'm not saying don't market -- even though we don't and are quite happy about that -- but that everything except writing is optional -- it can be delegated, set aside for later, even ignored.

As for questions, 1 - 3, we found those things pretty much took care of themselves once our book was published. It is possible to add a book before it's published, but for a first book especially the benefit is questionable.

As for #4: In my view, never. Reviews will happen, let them.

We write sci-fi, and in our experience, our attempts at marketing our first book fell into two categories: things that were a waste of time, and things that were detrimental. Of course, every situation is different and every author may find that different things work for them, but my impression is that our experience is not that atypical for sci-fi.

Last opinion: there is no need in this business to hit the ground running. That idea probably comes from the fact that in traditional publishing, there is a set period each book is given to meet a sales target. This time pressure does not exist for us. We have all the time we want to observe and learn, build a backlog, and learn some more.

Because every situation is different and every path to success is different, hitting the ground running, IMHO, runs the risk of running into something or off something. And it makes you tired.

{End two-cents}

Best of luck with your book launch!

[Anthony Deeney]

Christi wrote: "Hello again everyone!

It's been a while, but I have been extremely busy finishing up my novel. It's currently on its way to the editor and now the real work starts.

I am publishing in about a mon..."

I would echo pretty much everything that Owen has said here and emphasise this;


As for #4: In my view, never. Reviews will happen, let them.


I have differed with Owen, over the value of reviews. I think they ARE important, but I concede that they are just one thing in many that sell your book and 50+ reviews do not sell your book any better than 10+ reviews.

We get many people in our group requesting reviews. We even have a thread specifically for this. However, this is really because many group members desire such a thread.

We also have a few avid readers that offer to read and review work for free.

The general feeling of the group is don't pay for reviews. Certainly don't pay some "jack the lad" $10 per star reviewer. Such practice would be fraudulant. But many of us discourage the payment of 'reputable' reviewers like "Blue Ink" and "Kirkus." Though some might disagree with me here.

We don't advise review trading, Amazon and Goodreads frown on such activity. My one attempt at this, when starting up, did not go well!

As Owen said, there is no hurry. Trad publishers need to make a splash! With limited print runs and considerable up front expenses they need a quick return.

Indie publishers can coast and hopefully gather momentum, like a rolling snowball. Unlike trad published books that go out of print and "fail." Indie books just keep rolling.

You can be sure, like death and taxes, reviews will happen.

[Owen]

I'll offer a small clarification on the review point. Our experience has been that our readers are a bit suspicious of reviews, and tend to assume that we indie authors try to "stack the deck" there. So it's a question of credibility, and "received this book in exchange for an honest review" appears to undermine that for our readers (and potential readers). So letting reviews come in naturally avoids the risk of potential "credibility hit".

But this is our experience, in our genre. In other genres, getting such reviews appears to work better, if they are from a source that is considered credible (often a blog). So it all depends. This is an area where investigating the behavior of similar books can pay dividends.

[Christi]

Thank you for the replies. I agree with you Owen that the writing needs to be the area of most importance, I just feel one cannot overlook certain handy areas of getting your book out there for more to see.

Thanks as well Anthony. I was not planning on requesting or paying for reviews, or even doing review exchanges. I was planning on sending my book to those people asking to do reviews on the forums on Goodreads. Many people want more to read and want to give their opinions to others so they can make up their minds. Those are the ones I will be targeting and sending my novel to.

I will upload my novel the day of release and then sign up for my author page.

I only asked because I don't want my book to just sit on Goodreads unclaimed. But from what I understand if I add it under my books it automatically belongs to me. Or am I wrong? copyright is a major issue for me so I don't want to leave anything up to chance.

[Christi]

Owen wrote: "I'll offer a small clarification on the review point. Our experience has been that our readers are a bit suspicious of reviews, and tend to assume that we indie authors try to "stack the deck" ther..."

That is maybe a better way. Let it happen naturally first then send out review copies of sales are slow to get some exposure. Thank you Owen. My novel is also in the Science Fiction genre, so glad to talk to a fellow enthusiast.

[Owen]

Christi wrote: "I only asked because I don't want my book to just sit on Goodreads unclaimed. But from what I understand if I add it under my books it automatically belongs to me. Or am I wrong? copyright is a major issue for me so I don't want to leave anything up to chance. "

This is good thing to check with a GR librarian about, if you have questions and to ensure things go smoothly. For our first book, it was added to GR (not by us), and I set up my author page and claimed it. Since then we've added them ourselves. We did have one glitch adding a book, which a librarian fixed.

Good luck!

[Owen]

Christi wrote: "Owen wrote: "I'll offer a small clarification on the review point. Our experience has been that our readers are a bit suspicious of reviews, and tend to assume that we indie authors try to "stack t..."

Also you can consider making your book free for a day, and simply informing people you think would be interested that it's available for free without asking for a review. That avoids the disclosure issue.

[Christi]

I did some more research and you can immediately add your book and then claim it on the unknown author profile once it is online.

Thank you for the suggestion Owen. Everyone loves a free giveaway.

[Anthony Deeney]

Owen wrote: "I'll offer a small clarification on the review point. Our experience has been that our readers are a bit suspicious of reviews, and tend to assume that we indie authors try to "stack the deck" ther..."

Once you take in my concessions and Owens clarifications, it is clear that we hardly differ at all!

I agree that nothing looks dodgier than a small cluster of 5* reviews.

[Ai]

1. When would be the best time to add my novel to Goodreads?
I'd say after. I only put up Felicia's Second Life on Goodreads four days after the confirmed release on Amazon. Then someone added link to my Amazon book page, I don't know who that was, because I didn't do it. I assume either it was automatic (goodreads use bots to scour the net) or an admin added it for me.

2. What order do I do it in? Upload novel then request my author page, correct? I just want to make sure.
Yes, that's correct. In my limited experience, it seems like you need to have at least a book listed to request author badge.

3. Do I add all of the links to different stores myself or are they done via ISBN searches on the respective stores?
I'm wondering about that myself.

4. When would be the best time to start asking for reviews? I was thinking of doing it when my novel is finished but not yet released.
Reviews can wait. You need to sell something first before you can get reviews. If you get reviews before your book sells, people will not have much confidence in that review. Reviews will come in good time.

In my case, my first positive review came out on Day 2 after selling 17 copies on the first day. My first negative review came out on Day 3, probably one of my competitors (the light novel scene is a small pond with plenty of competing fishes) and since then, he has systematically downvoted every positive review I've gotten. The truly helpful review only came out about a week after, but it didn't help sales at all.

What helps sales, at least until you managed to sell 100 copies, is sales. People are more willing to give a new author a try if they know other people already bought it and have no real complain about it. On my second week, my debut book punched through to top 100 in one of the categories, but has now been pushed back to beyond top 100. :(

Anyway, as a recently debuting author myself, I know how important reviews feel to us. However, apart from stroking our own ego, reviews do nothing unless people already know you. So you should be focusing on getting sales. Reviews will come along on its own later.

[Christi]

Shiina wrote: "1. When would be the best time to add my novel to Goodreads?
I'd say after. I only put up Felicia's Second Life on Goodreads four days after the confirmed release on Amazon. Then someone added link..."

Very helpful post, thank you Shiina. I appreciate the help, and I think, from what the others have said as well, I will be waiting for the reviews to happen naturally. Forcing it is just asking for trouble.