Tips for Self Promotion, Sales, and Advertising discussion
Amazon Tips
>
Is our presence on Amazon COUNTER PRODUCTIVE?
date
newest »
newest »
In my opinion the traditional way of selling books is becoming obsolete. People use online distribution sites like Amazon and B&N to buy products- espicially with new products like the Kindle and Ipad. All of those authors you mentioned are indeed "bestsellers" but they got there before this internet boom came into play. Amazon is a portal you can now use to become best-sellers. It is a new unchartered path where you can achieve great results. Amazon already has the following its just up to you to give your book that little edge to make it stand above the rest. Amazon is essentially a giant computer. Do you think the Amazon staff really has time to read every single book review on the site and then judge who they promote? No they use the same principles as SEO but slightly different. Let's take an example- book A has 10 one sentence reviews all with 5 stars and book B (the better book) has 5 great content reviews with 5 star rankings. Based only off this information which book do you think Amazon will promote? Book A even if the reviews are worse. Amazon is a computer they look at how many reviews you have and their rankings. Amazon picks up on how many times product links are mentioned on their site for your book. It is like a big tally system. If you dont start the hype about your book who will.
It's even more complex than that, though your general explanation is correct, of course. Amazon mines data like crazy and things such as how many people look at the page, how many people purchase the item, how many people put it on their wish lists, how many times it appears in listmanias, and so forth are all taken into consideration when it comes to narrowing down "hot" titles.
That is correct. I would never say anything like that. To my sensibilities it would be a very unprofessional thing to do.
I think this is something that every author has to answer for themselves. Clearly everyone has a different threshold as to what they find acceptable.In my case, I rarely ever ask anyone to review my books. Even here on GoodReads or in any other venue I try stay away from suggesting that people review my books. It is just something that I don't want to do. If readers feel the book is important enough for them to write a review, fine, but I am very trepid to sort of urge them into it.
Again, that is just my sense of how I want to do business and how I want people to perceive me as an author.
Guido wrote: "I think this is something that every author has to answer for themselves. Clearly everyone has a different threshold as to what they find acceptable.In my case, I rarely ever ask anyone to review..."
I go a little farther in that not only do I not ask for reviews, I don't give away books expecting anything in return, nor do I tag, beg, or play the you do mine and I will do yours game. I simply compile a list of interested readers and sometimes interesting readers. I want to write books that have honest appeal and give people a chance to relax and enjoy a little quiet time. I want honest interest, no hype and a 1000 year progressive increase in the sales of my books. I am not interested in any recognition during my lifetime, I want to write books that will stand the test of time and one day some little boy or girl down my heritage line will pick up a book out of the school library and say, "Wow, my great great grandpa's name is on this book." Simple as that.
Dr M
Am I different? I hope so. But, I honestly enjoy reading all of these comments and appreciate all of you who spend time on these pages.
I completely understand how some authors may not want to solicit reviews, as that is not their priority. However as we all know book sales are becoming increasinly virtual. Purchases are made via the internet and this is only going to expand in the future. I shop on Amazon weekly, that is how I find new books. I like the way Amazon recommends me items but when viewing them I largely make my decision on whether or not to buy off the reviews books may or may not have. Of course I am just one person but younger generations look for these sort of things, they are not going to care what the back of the book says or the "editorial review" sections says. They look strait to the reviews, where people give their honest opinions about the book. I polled over 300 contacts and asked them what factor most influenced their purchasing decisions on online distribution sites (i.e. Amazon and B&N) and the clear winner was reviews.Every person is different but in my opinion trying to get your book reviews on Amazon can only do more good than harm.
I also read the Amazon reviews, but I do not put as much credence in them as I used to. I have had too many experiences where I've bought a book that had rave reviews and then found out I didn't like it. In fact, I've bought self-help books because reviews have said they have a ton of practical information and exercises, and then found out the books do not have what the review said they'd have. I realize that's probably because people are getting friends and acquaintances to give them positive reviews, and some of the reviewers probably haven't even read the book. I think the review system on Amazon is useful for getting some general information, but I don't put too much faith in it unless there are at least ten reviews. If there are enough reviews saying the same thing, then I will trust them.
I agree that reviews are incredibly important, there is absolutely no question about that. But that still doesn't mean that I will go out and actively solicit readers to review the product. To me it is a matter of ethics.Reviews are only honest if they come naturally, not when they are urged upon you by the author of a book.
Mod
In your example, where is this reading group meeting? Most reading groups that I know of meet in either bricks and mortar bookstores, indie bookstores, or libraries.
Obviously it would be a terrible discourtesy to the host to implicitly suggest that bookclub members should visit Amazon. One would pretend that they buy all their books wherever they are.
In order to write a review on Amazon, one must have purchased something from Amazon.
Guido wrote: "I agree that reviews are incredibly important, there is absolutely no question about that. But that still doesn't mean that I will go out and actively solicit readers to review the product. To me i..."You are the man. That is precisely the way it should be. Reviews should be honest, truthful and promote good work, and I totally agree with your entire comment here. Again, I say as I have said before: to ask for a favorable review and offer the same for something you wouldn't buy yourself, is rather unethical in anyone's book. Good books will sell and this may be the slow way to the top, but hey, what's wrong with being true to yourself and to your readers? There is more to being a good author than selling a lot of bad books just for the income, standing or recognition. There are a lot of wonderful books from this group of people but one of the problems is that they are hard to find among the chaff. I do book reviews for authors, not for money or to trade reviews, but I try to give my honest opinion. The last review I did I gave a glowing report on the storyline, the action, and connectivity of events and characters, but I also added that the base, low standard description of certain events just to attract readers was not only out of character for the book, but cheapened the whole thing. We all get out of life what we put in and generally what we want, I hope you are all doing well.
Dr
Thanks for the kind words, Dr.Like you, I also review pretty much every book I read. I review it here, on Amazon and on Facebook, because I know how important reviews can be, especially to unestablished authors.
Mod
GoodReads authors could, if they wanted to do so, improve that situation.
http://www.amazon.com/tag/goodreads%2...
And
http://www.amazon.com/tag/goodreads/r...
I do not know it to be true, but it seems to me that humans are naturally inquisitive, and love to eavesdrop on other people's conversations.
I do know it to be true that active discussions in "related" communities on Amazon show up on the front pages of much larger groups.
So, for instance, if Tom were to start an agonizing conversation such as this one (very carefully worded because we know Amazon readers could tune in at any time) on the GoodReads Author community, it would show up on every other community that any of "our" books are also on.
Obviously, it would be morally wrong to lie, but I'm sure it would be possible to give a grand impression of how important GoodReads is etc etc etc
I don't know about other authors, but it's not like I'm going doing an interview and as part of it tell my readers to go and review the book on Amazon. That, I agree, would be extremely detrimental.