How to get reviews

[Sue]

My books been available for some time now it gets some sales but it's so hard to get reviews any tips welcome

[Jim]

Sue,

The vast majority of avid readers, for whatever reason, choose to never post a rating or review. Those that do are merely expressing their personal, and therefore subjective, opinion. One reader's Best book ever! might very well be another reader's Worst book ever! which is why most astute readers seldom allow a generic rating or review to influence their purchasing choice.

Many novice authors are unaware of the fact that sales drive reviews, not the other way around. Focus more time, effort, and resources upon striving to continuously improve upon technical writing, promotional, and marketing knowledge and skills, then sales will increase and reviews will follow.

Very few novice writers achieve notoriety and/or commercial success within this extremely competitive field. That said; some have. There is no reason why you might not eventually become one of them. I wish you success.

[Sue]

Thank you, that is very helpful. I hope to improve as I go on. I started out with poetry compilations but I have published a collection of short stories. I’m not overly ambitious but sales would be nice. I love writing and the lack of interest hasn’t put me off. You’re right, of course, each reader reads a different story in the same book. I do not know much about marketing and I’m beginning to understand that there is a lot more to it than just writing. I will plod on, again, thanks, Sue

[Ricky]

Jim wrote: "Very few novice writers achieve notoriety and/or commercial success within this extremely competitive field. That said; some have. "

Every successful writer was once a novice.

[Diana]

A good friend who is a top notch editor AND an author tells me you need on average 100 SALES to get ONE REVIEW.

The field is becoming ever more competitive. Amazon bookstore went from 4 million books a few years ago to 17 million.

After holding back, all the commercial publishers have decided to hellwithit and are jumping into Amazon with all 4 feet including their entire back lists. Com. Publishers have all their reviewers set up and can get 100 4.5 star reviews BEFORE the book is even published! This is why you see books in the Amazon Top 100 and not even published yet. The books are still on PREORDER.

Independent writers need alliances to develop marketing and promotional programs. Going it alone won't get it anymore. Indies are spending thousands to launch a book. Then the book just flops when the promo is over.

[Gail]

I'm curious, Diana. Where did you acquire all this info?

[Margie]

FYI: I make an effort to read any free book I really enjoy. It's my way of tipping the author. I won't give a negative review of a bad book, because the author might improve. Free books are those from bookbub, a kindle promotion, the library, etc.

[Diana]

Gail wrote: "I'm curious, Diana. Where did you acquire all this info?"
I've written 10 Romance books so I've been publishing for awhile. I read Indie blogs, publishing articles and have contacts in the field. What I've said is all fairly obvious if you check it out.

Is there something you disagree with, would like to discuss or want me to elaborate on?

[Cam]

I've only written one novel and after spending the last 6 months learning as much as I can about publishing, marketing, promotion, sales, etc., I wholeheartedly agree with everything Diana said. It only takes a little bit of experience for an indie author to realize they're competing against a massive, well-oiled machine that is working harder than ever to suppress self-published authors. It's a shame really because I've read so many indie books that are vastly superior to products pumped out by the big 5 publishers.

[Jim]

It took me 14 months of writing, re-writing, polishing, proofreading, and having others proofread the manuscripts for my one and only novel before I felt I had a completed work worthy of publication. However, it turned out to be not quite complete or ready for publication.

11 additional months interacting with and giving serious consideration to the suggestions and advice from a copy editor, conceptual editor, and layout design artist finally did produce a completed manuscript ready for publication.

The novel was released Aug. 9, 2011 and was commercially available until Dec. 31, 2016 when the publisher declared bankruptcy and went out of business; perhaps due to signing too many authors like myself.

During its approximately 5 1/2 years of availability, a total of 1,029 units were sold (485 paperback books - 480 e-books - 36 audio books on CD - 28 audio downloads).

Even though my work did not possess whatever it takes to become commercially successful, I consider the learning experience alone to have been well-worth the expenditure of time, effort, and resources. We may not all have the talent and skillset to become a successful author, but one will never know if one does not at least try.

Trust me, I am not being modest. I do not hesitate to take credit for the successes I have enjoyed during my 73 years of life, but have no problem accepting full responsibility for the times I did not succeed.