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I have been studying the entertainment industry as a whole: music (Nashville), screenwriting (Hollywood), video games as well as writing.Everyone has the same problem. They have a product. There are a couple of high profile people that can broadcast that product to their own audience. And those exact same people have a TON of email hitting their monitors everyday.
There is a scale issue. When your new, you read everything. When you have a little scar tissue under your belt, you read some things. After you have been around a while, you have an agent-only submission process.
As for when people are contacting you, is it possible to run them through some kind of gauntlet? A site like typeform.com or one of their competitors. Even a disclaimer on the page that says: "I cannot TK" above the contact field.
As for sending out query letters, email in modern parlance, that is a skill as well. I would have kept mine much smaller.
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Dear TK-person-being-addressed,
I noticed that you have an interest in Fantasy fiction. I have just recieved back my very first novel from my editor. I am looking for Beta readers. Do you know any whom would be interested in a standard RPG magic styled book?
Sorry for the intrusion.
Thanks for your time!
Sincerely,
TK-me
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Or something like that. Getting reviews is part skill-part art. In all honesty, how many of those can you reply to before you just start hitting delete?
Mod
I used to write those letters for my son and I developed a huge mailing list. Things have changed. Amazon is deleting reviews now- they almost deleted all of mine. I read books I buy- but that's me.
When I wrote my query years ago- I wrote one line and never asked for a review. I just offered to send them the book- my question is- is this a viable way to get reviews anymore- or do we let them grow organically?
Why is Amazon deleting reviews? I have noticed that there are a lot of 5 star reviews ... which makes me suspicious. Hence, I have lost faith in all the glooey reviews on Amazon.As for answering your question, passive does not seem to work.
I did a bunch of reading in regards to eCommerce and building an eBusiness a while back. There was always two or three calls to action in an email. All of the literature that I read always pointed to getting the reader of your email to act. So what does that mean? If your sending an email, just like everyone else, to a person, they will delete your emails. Too much volume, so they remove the volume. But how does one get someone to go out of their way to post a review? That seems to be the gimmick.
Sitting back and waiting isn't going to work. That has been proven. Harrasing people isn't going to work either. "If you like this book, please concider creating a review for it."
There seems to be a lot of dialog on the web about it. What it seems to come down to is relationships. Building that personal relationship through social media et al. Once that is established, the person whom has read the book is more likely to create a review. Always be sure to ask for an honest review. A three star or four star is fine, too!
Having something on the last page as a gentle reminder seems to nudge me sometimes. "I hope you enjoyed reading ToFo Made Edible: This Time With Yellow Plates (....) etc."
Wish I had something better to write!
Carole wrote: "I used to read everything- then after the fourth year, I started hitting delete. I maybe read one in twenty that come in- Usually- it's the way they write the letter.I used to write those letters..."
Lately I’ve just been obsessed with getting my books in the RIGHT hands. I mean, you can have 70 reviews but if all those reviewers only write a review and then move on to the next book then yeah, nothing happens.
I want to reach the reviewers who tell their friends about a book, who fangirl about books they love and who really have an influence.
Now I just have to find them lol.
Oh Carole, I feel for you.I think there are two ways of looking at this person's request.
1. He has gone to some trouble to push his book forward into the 'right' hands. If one is running a business with a product that is brilliant - then that is the right thing to do. BECAUSE the right hands can also benefit from taking a look at the product and they are being paid by a company to do this. I could say more on the same lines as this but I'm sure you get the point. There's a lot in it for him but it is not a win/win situation unless you are in a position to profit from it. "Profit" might simply mean that it is a real joy to read.
2. This person is a queue-jumper. He is confident of his product (and it is likely to be good from what I see of his approach to you). You are known for freely reviewing. You only have one life. People (other than dependants) do not have a right to your time - you may generously offer it, but then you will get known for doing just that. If you have a 'calling' to write or a mission or stirring in your heart to do certain things in your life, then no-one should be allowed to hinder that path. That path may be to help others (yes - that's definitely who you are - thank God) but then it is your life and time on Earth is not forever. (Well, not as far as I know!)
There's probably other ways of looking at this!
Mod
Sometimes it's in the appeal- Like this psychologist wrote to me about his book on anxiety. I ran and bought it- I wanted to review that. it felt like an important book and I could name five people in my orbit I wanted to read that book. It was terrific.
Other times- the tone of smugness bothers me- I built up many people on my mailing list by doing this- I sent out letters for all of our genres- You must have figured out Michael hates doing this end of the business- lol.
I actually liked this letter- it did push all the right buttons- but I have so many others in line- I did push it to the side. However- now I suggest they get on our threads.
As fingers, we don't have much strength- but as a hand, we can be powerful.
Whoooooooa. OK. My issue is I'm just not pushy/self-confident enough to submit a request like that. I can send to agents and publishers and weather the rejections because ultimately they stand a chance of making money. But sending to reviewers makes me think 'who the hell do I think I am?' People have too much going on in their lives and they're not even being paid for their time. That's a lot of my problem-justifying the notion that I am worthy of submitting the request in the first place. I sit on the side of organic reviews rather than sought after ones because I don't have the balls to ask. Excellent! Perfect outlook to have. If we had emojis mine would be the one with the raised eyebrows.
Mod
In a perfect world, D.J. that's how it should be! But there's always someone - no make that plural - lots of someones who see things differently: survival of the fittest.Carole is a gatekeeper to a near-perfect situation. We write books, she reviews what she wants to review. However, then someone climbs onto the gate and, very politely, presents a case for her to open the gate and deal with his offering.
That's not to say, D.J. that you shouldn't jump up and down in your own space (your thread) and sing and dance to draw attention to your writing. I've read a little of what you write and it's worth a little singing and dancing. I know what you mean though - it's not easy, is it?
D.J. wrote: "Whoooooooa. OK. My issue is I'm just not pushy/self-confident enough to submit a request like that. I can send to agents and publishers and weather the rejections because ultimately they stand a ch..."Which is why it’s nice to have someone to do it on our behalf LOL. I’m going to let a friend send them for me like a proper coward and tell her to just let me know in case there’s good news.
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When I was getting ready for the release of Ice on the Bay, I did some looking around at bloggers to see if I could set up my own virtual tour. I discovered that many book bloggers get so may review requests that they no longer accept them, or if they do they only accept them if the come through a promotional outfit they are signed up with. So no, I wouldn't try this "cold calling" technique for fear of irritating a potential reviewer. But then, I admit I'm not a very good marketer, so what do I know?I have sometimes asked people I personally know if they would read and review my work. I don't do that often. I prefer to have someone read and review because they are genuinely interested in my work without being asked. But, well, again, what do I know?
Anna Faversham wrote: "That's not to say, D.J. that you shouldn't jump up and down in your own space (your thread) and sing and dance to draw attention to your writing. I've read a little of what you write and it's worth a little singing and dancing. I know what you mean though - it's not easy, is it?"Thanks Anna. No it's not easy.
I'd like a friend like Alexis has. I could delegate this one right out the window!
Regarding marketing, I have found a few sites suggesting to do exactly what the above letter did, request a top reviewer to review one's material.The problem is that the inboxes get full real quick, hence the reason for Agents.
Agents exist throughout the entertainment industry: film, TV, books, music. All do to the same thing - volume control.
As an Indy, one of the chief problems is getting people to read and review your work. This is the same problem that the big guys have. They usually try to solve it by throwing a lot of money at the equation. How well those marketing budgets work, I'm not sure. But it always comes down to word of mouth. I agree with Alexis. My goal is to get the right people to read my material. Making that goal a reality ... is something else.
I ran a free KDP promotion for my book, Aaru back at the end of march. It was a three day promotion, and I offered it on consecutive days through Book Cave, Book Sends, and Read Freely as well as a Facebook ad campaign through my FB writing Website. I'll say in advance, I have always been skeptical of paid services for anything IndyPub related because there are so many bogus promotion sites out there that just want to take your money without much demonstrable benefit. However, these sites came highly recommended, so I was willing to give it a try just to see.Over the course of the promotion I got just under 3,000 downloads and the novel hit #2 for Kindle New Adult & College Fantasy, #4 for Kindle SciFi, #4 for Kindle Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and it peaked at #93 for all Kindle Books. Also, I'm still getting a pretty steady stream of KENP reads every day since, which was not the case before this promotion.
Needless to say I was pleased with the results, but after reading so many comments on here regarding struggle with getting accepted to these types of services, I think what I did most right (without any conscious planning or skill at all to be perfectly honest) was I didn't try to run the promotion the day the book came out.
Aaru came out in July 2017. The promotion was March 2018, so I had eight months to promote on my own and get reviews. By the time I submitted to the above sites, I already had over 80 reviews on Goodreads and in the 40s on Amazon (with 3.84 and 4.2 respectively star ratings). All three of the companies mentioned got back to me with approval in less than an hour of submitting, and I think their excitement was based on the book's preexisting, demonstrated appeal - demonstrated through a fairly large number of positive reviews.
I have done some advertising for Aaru on FB with mixed results, but the bulk of my efforts in terms of getting those initial reviews was probably 95% or better through the use of Twitter and E-mail. First, I made sure my query was tight (concise request with vital book characteristic info, professional sounding blurb) then I went to Twitter.
On Twitter, I searched the terms "book reviewer," "Book blog," "Book Reviews", "vlog", "book blogger" or anything else similar. Then I'd click on the "Latest" tab and just scroll down the list of recent book review posts. By clicking on the links to new book reviews it would take me to the reviewers website or blog. Virtually all of them have submission guidelines and contact info listed on their sites. This would then let me send requests to the reviewers who were most likely to accept my work AND to those I know are still active because they are posting review links to Twitter in real time, which cuts out virtually all the orphan blogs and prevents wasting time sending queries to inactive reviewers. I did this every day or two for a couple of hours - maybe send a dozen/couple dozen requests a day and as a result got a fairly steady stream of reviews
Mod
P.S. If you’re interested in possibly having me do a book review of your book please email me at darkrose04@Gmail.com or tweet me on Twitter @Booknerd0486
Hello! xxxxxx here contacting you from Cleveland, Ohio. Thank you for reading this email. I’m sure you probably get a dozen requests a day, so my hat’s off to you. We authors couldn’t do our jobs without you. I appreciate it.
I’m a dark fiction/supernatural author who writes cross-genre stories. I’m also a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), although my stories only dip a claw or three into that stream from time to time. I teach by day and write by candle light… when the power’s out.
As you’ve probably guessed, I’d love to get a book into your literary hands. I noticed that you reviewed The Ghost Files and thought my new release xxxxxx would be right up your alley. It’s a supernatural mystery trilogy I just finished, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If you have the time and inclination, start with the first and see where it goes… if it’s your cup of tea, etc. Now, you’re probably asking yourself, what makes this one different?
I’ll tell you… I hate books with two-dimensional characters you can’t connect with. I’ve taught writing for the last 11 years and honed my craft. As a result, book 1 is a coming-of-age story with heart. One thing readers rave about with this trilogy is how they love the characters and how they love to hate the villains. Here’s a description:
Ghosts are speaking to Alex, but can he bring them justice? Alex has a checkered past, a broken home, and a surprising psychic ability. But who will believe a troubled teen, especially when murders implicate the town’s founding family? For a powerful supernatural trilogy fraught with adventure and emotion, heed the call. Ghosts are speaking, and they want answers.
Here’s the link if you’d like to read the full description and previous reviews: xxxxxx
If you’re available, I’d love for you to read and review the book. It's free on Kindle Unlimited, or I can send you a copy. Just let me know. Unlike my main character, I can’t hear beyond the grave, time or space, so shoot me an email. It would make my day, and I'm interested to hear what you think about xxxxx.
In the past week or so, I've gotten about four or five requests like this a day. I figure it's because he's seen my review of the book he's mentioned and saw that I am ranked as a top reviewer.
He put a lot of thought in his letter. It's one of the better ones- I should tell him he can't ask for a review but I'm so tired of repeating it. I always invite these people here to meet all of you and learn from the best.
What are your thoughts on this method of getting reviews? Does it work for you?