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How long did it take for you to start getting reviews
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Angel
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Feb 11, 2015 05:42PM
One month.
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It took about a month for me as well and that was after a couple hundred downloads.
My first book was with a publisher, so I got some reviews pretty early on. They weren't many, but some. I do, however, remember working my butt off contacting bloggers asking if they would read and review my book.
Three months. Published Aug. 9, 2011. The first review appeared on Amazon.com Nov. 13, 2011.
I don't know. A few days. A couple of weeks maybe? Don't worry. Reviews will come.
I would say I got my first review within the first 2 months or so maybe 3. As for getting reviews on a consistent basis I couldn't say because they come sporadically.While we all like to see those reviews come in just remember that reviews aren't for the authors they are for the readers.
It seems like it varies with the book and author. It seems like some get them within a few weeks and others take a few months. I have gotten one or two within the past 8 months or so.
Justin wrote: "I would say I got my first review within the first 2 months or so maybe 3. As for getting reviews on a consistent basis I couldn't say because they come sporadically.While we all like to see thos..."
Reviews are for readers to help them decide if a book is for them, but they are a plus for authors. If somebody takes the trouble to write one, always thank them, but remember that comment box is not the place to advertise other books, unless the reviewer specifically asks it there will be another in a series, and there is or will be shortly.
Authors also want reviews. They can add a different perspective on your book from your own blurb. Amazon bar relatives, and anyone mentioned in the acknowledgements, from reviewing, and personally I hate books that ask for reviews inside, but asking a few friends to review a new book can get the ball rolling.
Nobody can deny good ratings are a plus for advertising either, and if your book is good, and you push it on the social media, reviews will come. The ratio of reviews to sales, in my experience, is only two or three percent so nobody should worry if they are slow in coming if the book is selling.
Reviews come with sales and hard work to get yourself noticed. Have conversations on goodreads, not specifically about your book. Every time you comment on a thread, your picture pops up, which is another opportunity for someone to look at your work.There are groups on goodreads which do non-reciprocal review swaps, this is where the 'work' comes in.
Becoming a reviewer yourself, beta read for other people, it all helps to get your name, and your book out there. Marketing is often far more difficult that writing the book.
I've heard the ratio of sales to reviews varies from 100 to 1 to over 1000 to 1. Keep plugging away.
It takes me forever every time... in spite of the quite impressive number of reviews my works have accumulated, there is a significant rift between the number of books sold/given away etc. and the number of reviews received. It, sometimes (well, yes, OK, more often than sometimes) makes me sad... as even bad reviews are reviews and I appreciate any and every opinion about my work. I am sure that the same is true for every author and person who creates stuff and presents it to the (cruel, more often just positively uninterested) world :)
Sherri, did you have any luck with bloggers?I have so far had no replies to any of my carefully written, personalised, messages to bloggers, selected individually with reference to their review policy and the kind of books they like. It's a bit soul-destroying when they don't even consider you worthy of a one-line 'thanks but no thanks' response.
two years -_- ive been in several writing / review groups and my work doesnt translate easily to something average joe/jane would pick up. it wasnt til i found goodreads i got 3 reviews (3 separate works) and that was by doing even more work. if your stuff is mainstream or genre specific you have a better chance. if you cross genre maybe. if you write in a format that hasnt been popular in a decade or so good luck. i keep writing because it keeps me relatively sane. ive long stopped worrying about sales and reviews... sad i know. but thats life
Sarah, your right and make a good point. Reviews can be for both readers and authors alike in their own ways. Collectively a person whether reader or author should take value in a review and use it as a way to decide whether the book is for them or how they wish to use the review to gain more.I think when it comes to asking for reviews it has to be done so the author doesn't come off as needy. Author or not no one wants to come off as needy and forward.
Readers post reviews for other readers, not authors. The intent is to merely express a personal opinion of a book for consideration. Keep in mind that the vast majority of readers never post a rating or review. Be patient. If your work is read by enough people, reviews will eventually appear.
Emma wrote: "Reviews come with sales and hard work to get yourself noticed. Have conversations on goodreads, not specifically about your book. Every time you comment on a thread, your picture pops up, which is ..."Great advice. Thanks!
Getting the ball rolling depends how proactive you are in my experience. I did the contacting bloggers thing and was reasonably successful, though it probably helps that I'm writing in a popular genre (chick lit/ romance), and that there are a lot of blogs out there to contact.Weirdly, I've found that reviews come along like buses: nothing for months, then 3 or 4 within a few days.
Good luck!
Justin wrote: "Sarah, your right and make a good point. Reviews can be for both readers and authors alike in their own ways. Collectively a person whether reader or author should take value in a review and use it..."My reason for never asking for reviews is I don't like to feel I'm being pushed to give one. I do review, almost always. If I don't it might be because I can contact the author privately and give constructive criticism - up to them whether they take it, it's only my opinion - or because I get to the end of a book that maybe I have enjoyed and read the words *please review"... and that is polite! Sometimes it comes over as an order.
Publicity is down to the author, and it is hard work. I try to think of catchy titles for reviews and, once or twice, I've seen an author use them on Twitter. That's fine... a compliment really. I agree reviews come in bunches with dead patches: no idea why because it never seems to coincide with surge in sales from a promotion, it just happens.
When I published my first novel, it was pretty much ignored. I offered it for free for one day and had almost a hundred downloads. Not a single one of those downloads resulted in a review. I finally did get reviews as a year passed, but they came slowly. When I released my second novel, after a year of interaction on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, etc., it sold pretty well. It's now my best-selling work, and it has absolutely no reviews.
So while reviews can help in various ways, forget them for now. Just continue to interact here and elsewhere, make yourself known without becoming a spamming pest, and write that next book. Never buy, sell, or trade reviews. They'll come without asking.
So while reviews can help in various ways, forget them for now. Just continue to interact here and elsewhere, make yourself known without becoming a spamming pest, and write that next book. Never buy, sell, or trade reviews. They'll come without asking.
Interesting comment, Ken. I am currently in the space of soliciting and trading reviews. You're right. Not much has come of it (yet). And now I'm obliged to provide a review for a book that is pretty terrible in return for a review for my book that I hope is favorable.In the meantime, I'm trying to set up some more readings/signings at local independent bookstores. I would like to hear how this tactic has worked for others.
In case you or others are interested, here's the link to my YA dystopian book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
About a month in Amazon.co, about four months in Amazon.com and Goodreads..Phewww it was hard work!
so, ladies and gentlemen, what is your rating average and the number of ratings here in Goodreads? Mine is an average of 4.50 based on 523 reviews and 12 distinct works.
Ken wrote: "When I published my first novel, it was pretty much ignored. I offered it for free for one day and had almost a hundred downloads. Not a single one of those downloads resulted in a review. I fin..."Good advice, Ken, especially about getting the second book out. What are the people who read your first, and enjoyed it, supposed to do? Remember your name? Even if your eBook is still on their Kindle it will be pages back out of sight, dozens of pages if they read a lot.
It depence. Sometimes I have review in a few days. Sometimes even free promo didnt help.
Thank you so much for this discussion. I'm also new in this and my first book is out for a month and I only had one review. I was a bit depressed, but if it's normal to take more than a month, then I can hold tight and keep walking. Thank you for the valuable info. You give me hope :)
Skiagraphy wrote: "Thank you so much for this discussion. I'm also new in this and my first book is out for a month and I only had one review. I was a bit depressed, but if it's normal to take more than a month, then..."A month isn't that long, but a lot depends on how much work you put in to publicising it. Try twitter, if you haven't already. You can find me @sasspip if you want a start. I follow back, and retweet anybody who retweets for me.
Following on from Ken's comments, if you're going to offer your book for free (as I have) you need to do an incredible amount of work in advance of the promotion. There are many sites who will advertise the fact that your book is going free. And never put it on only for one day. A free promotion done well should gain momentum over three days at least. One day doesn't impact the Amazon algorithms at all. You need a lot longer. I've had many thousands of downloads when I've put my book out for free for 3 days. A lot of work has preceded the promotion, and then the reviews flood in. After a good promotion, it's possible to get tens of reviews within the first month. KDP Select has been excellent for my book, but I've had to learn how to maximise the promotion.To borrow JFK's words, Think not what readers can do for your book, but what your book can do for readers. If they don't know about it, they can't read it or review it.
I have a message at the close of my book, asking readers to please leave a review. I don't see the problem with that. If they loved it, they're happy to help. Most readers don't understand the value of the review, but when you point out that they are valuable, they'll take two minutes. Whether my message has had an impact on netting reviews or not I don't know, I only know that a lot of people have bothered to review my book, for which I'm grateful. Reviews are important. Word of mouth is what sells books.
Another question that could be asked based off other comments here is whether time is a factor in receiving reviews based off simple promotion or freebies. You may think if you made your book free and 10 people downloaded it what percentage of those people would review? I don't mean to answer a question with another question I'm just trying to make a point that free and buying the book may or may not have to do with the possibility of how long it takes someone to review your book.I know a lot of people and places say it's good to get a couple reviews before you release the book as sort of a selling point from reviews right from the get go. Perhaps that first true review after publication comes faster if there's already some reviews prior to its release.
Thanks for starting this thread, E.P. It has been an interesting discussion, with some wonderful answers. I just published my first novel a few months ago, and after a free Kindle promotion, I had 150 downloads. So far, only three mixed reviews on Amazon, and nothing on Goodreads. I think the issue is that there are SO many titles being published all the time in both traditional- and self-publishing avenues, that it's difficult to expect readers to keep up in general.
From my first effort, I am planning a six-book series, so it will be interesting to see if sequels help gain traction that a single-book can't. I'd be interested to hear whether other self-published authors have seen any trends in sales/reviews for series vs. stand-alone novels.
Michael wrote: "Thanks for starting this thread, E.P. It has been an interesting discussion, with some wonderful answers. I just published my first novel a few months ago, and after a free Kindle promotion, I ha..."Well I'm about to publish a sequel, Michael so I'll let you know. I wrote my book absolutely as a stand-alone, but the response was so positive that I decided to build a much bigger picture around the first book, and after a 14 month struggle, have finished the sequel and am about to publish. It's scary actually, having to meet an expectation. I'm very worried about disappointing readers. My problem is finding all the people who've read book 1. I already have reviewers. Four people have read it pre-publication. These are fans of the book who have kept in touch, not friends. I let them have it early just to comfort myself that it isn't a pile of old rubbish! It's hard to tell from our perspective!
Tori wrote: "Michael wrote: "Thanks for starting this thread, E.P. It has been an interesting discussion, with some wonderful answers. I just published my first novel a few months ago, and after a free Kindle..."Tori, have you put your sequel on Pre-order with Amazon? If you do the contacts who've read it can post a review fairly quickly for you. I intend to do that with my second book. Like you, I don't actually know most of my readers, even those who reviewed, since family are barred, but I've made friends here on Goodreads I'm hoping may help.
Sarah wrote: "Tori wrote: "Michael wrote: "Thanks for starting this thread, E.P. It has been an interesting discussion, with some wonderful answers. I just published my first novel a few months ago, and after ..."Hi Sarah. No I haven't done that yet, but I intend to. I'm still in the process of finalising a front cover, and cannot upload until I have that. I hope to have it on pre-order for a couple of weeks or so in the very near future. Unlike most self-published authors I don't even have a blog or website and am on FB and Twitter through obligation only. GR is the only social media interaction I actually enjoy. I have no time at all for blogging; I'm just too busy. It was probably short-sighted of me not to retain my readers and chain them down and hold them in a dark room somewhere until my sequel was complete, but hey! I'm hoping they'll crawl out of the woodwork and find me! How's that for the worst marketing technique of all time? I hope that I'm not the only one who finds it challenging to be a writer, marketing campaigner, front cover designer and social media wizard (chance would be a fine thing) as well as having a day job and being a wife and mother. It isn't a job for one person really, but here we are, flying solo without an instruction pamphlet. I'll let you know how the pre-order goes. Fingers crossed.
Hi Tori,Thought I'd jump in with a couple of thoughts in the from of feedback from my experiences as someone who is, like you, just starting down this road. First up; Website and Blogging. I think this is a great thing to do, but only after you gain some traction in the form of followers. I set up my website and did a fair amount of blogging, all to no avail - no feedback whatsoever.
With regard to giving books away for free, I would certainly agree that it is not just preferable but an absolute must to have a second or third work ready for sale to allow interested readers the opportunity to actually purchase something.
Sarah's suggestion of doing a pre-order is a good one for your follow up book. Please let me know how you do in that regard. I would be very interested.
My book's been out a month. Twitter has been useful with establishing a presence. I also wrote to dozens of bloggers. I was super excited when I lined up a few bloggers late December and early January, but now I'm getting antsy and a bit worried that I haven't seen any from those who told me it would be a couple weeks. Now I'm like, "Oh no! They must not have liked it and quit reading it." Ultimately, all I can do is keep waiting. I keep reading that the second book is key, so I guess I'll just have to be patient until I release it next January. In the meantime, I've realized that I need to support self-published authors in my own reading. I've been searching for my next book to read and decided that I would only consider books that had fewer than 20 ratings and that I would be sure to leave that ever-important review once I finished it. After all, there's enough readers to go around, and no reader ever complains about reading too many books that they enjoyed. Perhaps if we self-publishers approach it like that - not review swaps, because I feel like there's an unspoken obligation to leave 4 or 5 stars, or the fear of being stuck reviewing a book that you don't like and want to give up on reading. Instead, I mean a commitment to finding our next book to read amongst the pool of our fellow self-publishers. My goal is only to pick from the self-published arena until George RR Martin FINALLY releases Winds of Winter. So, I have a LOT of time to commit to the 20 or fewer ratings pool of books.
2 days and my first Amazon KDP giveaway hadn't even ended yet, BUT it was a 1-star review. I was crushed. But a few weeks later, a few 4- and 5-star reviews started trickling in. For comparison, I had about 500 downloads from that giveaway that resulted in about five or six reviews on Amazon. I've noticed that you get the quickest response from readers in posting reviews when they either loved it or hated it. And even then, only about 1% of the giveaways/sales. I'm sure with many of the other downloads, my book is probably sitting on their e-reader 'To Read' list with many others. So even though you're excited to get that initial feedback, set yourself some reasonable expectations.
I was lucky. I already had a few supporters who were waiting for me to publish and 10% of them rated and reviewed. But ever since it's rather hard to increase that.
I found it hard to get reviews at first but after blogging and giving my book away and kindly suggesting they leave a review, has helped. Also other Author's would swap reviews, but I'm going on 3 weeks so far so good. I would recommend Author's Marketing Club.
When my book was published I was selling many of them myself on the streets which generated a cash flow but not as many reviews as I wish I had. Now it sitting without the reviews that's needed to really generate the commercial success that I was hoping to achieve. I recently dropped my kindle price to$.99 due to some advice I received here on Goodreads, hopefully that brings results...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B1ZN...
A positive review may inflate an author's ego and a negative review may deflate it. Just remember that it is merely an opinion and, therefore, subjective. Its effectiveness as a promotional tool is debatable. Readers may often recommend a book to an acquaintance, but the vast majority never post a formal review. A book that is technically written and narrated well, interesting, and entertaining will eventually sell; how well is something no one can accurately forecast. Occasionally, even a badly written book will become a commercial success, if it attracts the attention of a certain fan base and catches on.
Author presentations, book signings, push cards, business cards, websites, blogs, interviews, and interaction with book clubs and book stores are far more effective promotion options than reviews.
Sarah wrote: "Skiagraphy wrote: "Thank you so much for this discussion. I'm also new in this and my first book is out for a month and I only had one review. I was a bit depressed, but if it's normal to take more..."Thank you! I'll do that. I am @Skiagraphy_ in twitter.
I appreciate your offer :)
Jim wrote: "A positive review may inflate an author's ego and a negative review may deflate it. Just remember that it is merely an opinion and, therefore, subjective. Its effectiveness as a promotional tool is..."Your first sentence is so true and spot on and it's this very thing that people take too lightly. When an author gets a positive review they share it everywhere they can and a negative review can be more beneficial then a positive one but sometimes authors aren't so quick to praise and take it then they would a positive one.
Jim wrote: "A positive review may inflate an author's ego and a negative review may deflate it. Just remember that it is merely an opinion and, therefore, subjective. Its effectiveness as a promotional tool is..."100% with you on your last paragraph, Jim, but one more point. There are a lot of free newsletters from sites advertising a free or cheap (Countdown) books and they can afford to be picky.
Many are inexpensive and some are free but few will feature you without a rating of 4+ stars on Amazon. Unfair perhaps if you're starting from scratch, but they send out weekly, sometimes daily, offers.
I subscribe to two so I see them, and presumably readers would unsubscribe if the books on offer weren't good. A high star rating is no guarantee of quality, but it is the one used.
Justin wrote: "Jim wrote: "A positive review may inflate an author's ego and a negative review may deflate it. Just remember that it is merely an opinion and, therefore, subjective. Its effectiveness as a promoti..."Astute observation, Justin. A long-held marketing adage: "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
Sarah wrote: "Jim wrote: "A positive review may inflate an author's ego and a negative review may deflate it. Just remember that it is merely an opinion and, therefore, subjective. Its effectiveness as a promoti..."Sarah,
Thank you. I did not think of the type of newsletter recommended by you. It is a shame that the star rating impacts acceptance though. In my mind, if a book is rated honestly, 4 or 5 stars would be the exception, rather than the rule. 3 stars, indicating a book is good, would be the norm. Few books are "Amazing" (5-stars).
Skiagraphy wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Skiagraphy wrote: "Thank you so much for this discussion. I'm also new in this and my first book is out for a month and I only had one review. I was a bit depressed, but if it's norma..."I'll find you on twitter later. Follow me back, and make sure you have a pinned tweet that can be retweeted, and change it every now and then.
The question at hand is how long did it take you to start getting reviews and Jim's comment really stood out to me because say an author gets a negative review, are they going to be angry? Especially given they waited so long for that first review? You can't really know what the reader will think and let's say an author is waiting and waiting for that first review, if it happens to be negative there is no reason the author should be upset in fact be happy that you got your first review, share it and take the criticism, its the best thing they can do.
If you are self-published or small publishing company published, the site below is a good one to find reviewers who will do it for free. There are over a 100, however not so many willing to review non-fiction. It takes time to go through them all, but worth it. I sent out about 20 requests and received 6 that would review my book. Some have a backlog so it may take them longer to get the review out.http://www.theindieview.com/
Like some of the other authors, reviews don't seem to affect my sales all that much. Honest reviews do help me write better books, though. If I review for other authors, I do my best to follow the golden rule: treat others the way I want to be treated.When reviewing for others, I always give typo fixes (when there are not too many) and editing feedback. Getting high rating reviews is nice but getting honest reviews is where it's at.
There is nothing sadder than spending time and money marketing something that nobody really likes but that people review as great.
Also, I agree that it's best to email the author when something is wrong rather than post it.
Justin wrote: "a negative review can be more beneficial then a positive one... if it happens to be negative there is no reason the author should be upset in fact be happy that you got your first review, share it and take the criticism, its the best thing they can do."When I got my first negative review on Amazon, I appreciated the feedback, since it gave me a couple of key points to work on (editing and dialog). My only hope would have been that the reviewer leave a little more detail, since some of the comments were fairly vague. I guess if a review is truly for readers, then there is no need to post exactly WHY you didn't like a book, but it sure would help the author not make the same mistakes twice.
Like most everyone here, it took a month after I published my first book on Kindle. And I agree with what Dwayne said, don't worry they'll come, believe me. Readers just looovvve to give their opinion of what they've just read good or bad.On the other hand, I've only heard from a few of those that I've given or gifted books to review. The deal was that if I gift you a free copy would you review it? Yes, they promised. Only a few have kept their word. Even if they didn't like the book, they could have at least emailed me to let me know. The majority of reviews I received are from those that actually bought the book.
And in line with what Justin said about authors not being too eager to share negative reviews: I was like that once, but other fellow authors and my bookaholic daughter helped me to see that bad reviews are a badge of honor. One day you're a rock star and the next you suck! Bad reviews, especially the ones that go along the line of "this book sucks", only draws other readers to want to check it out. My daughter is like that. If she reads a "this book sucks" review, she'll get the book and read it, and nine times out of ten, she likes it!
I'm actually proud of my sucky reviews. My readership is starting to pick up and my books are doing well.
So, don't despair. Your die-hard fan readers will find you from the sucky reviews.
with each book, it seems to take me a while to get reviews. My first book, my reviews came when i joined a paranormal romance group on goodreads and did their read to review program. It was a big help on my first two books, but seven books in, it's gotten a bit harder and that group doesn't seem to be as much help. Guess it's the m/m aspect in some of the books in the series that makes it harder to get reviews. After that, they come in kind of randomly, and some of the bad ones are amusing since i can tell they didn't read anything more than the sample before they reviewed.I will say, I can make decent sales some months, but still not get many reviews. My last two books have started off selling well, but only have one or two reviews on them
