Reviews

One of the things you discover when you get a book published is that you need to generate reviews for your book. See, whether you are self-published or indy-published, you are the one responsible for marketing. Even major publishing houses (should you be so fortunate to get published by them) are not going to spend much in the way of marketing dollars promoting your book unless your name is Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. So, you schedule book talks and signing events. You look for ways to promote yourself on social media, and so on. Unless you are planning on spending money on some seriously expensive ads (a lot of risk with a slim likelihood of reward) your marketing reach will not extend very far.

That is why reviews are so important. Reviews get your name and the book’s name out there to a wider audience. Also, as the number of reviews start to climb, places like Amazon.com start to take your book more seriously. At some point they start to put your book on their suggested reading list. Things can snowball from there . . . but only if you get enough reviews. So how do you get them? Obviously, you ask your friends and family to write reviews, but that will only go so far. A lot of your friends and family are not going to write a review even if they did buy your book. Also, for friends or family members that are too close to you, places like Amazon will not accept their reviews. They weed out reviews written by your brother, or your husband, or your girlfriend. That lends some credibility to the reviews on their site, but it leads to frustration trying to get reviews posted. They won’t even allow Ms. Brown to write a review of Mr. White’s book, if Mr. White has written a review of Ms. Brown’s book.

This has led to some innovative ideas on social media to produce reviews. Since you cannot directly exchange a review of someone else’s book for a review of yours, some places have developed a matrix of books to buy, read and review in exchange for someone unknown to you who does the same thing with your book. Writer A buys and reviews writer D’s book Writer D reviews writer M’s book Writer M reviews writer Z’s book, and so on until all the bases are covered and everyone gets their book reviewed by someone. Or, I have seen simpler schemes where someone posts the link to their book in a group. The next person buys and reviews that book while posting a link to their own book for the next person in the group to do the same. Most people in such groups are honest and do what they say they will. I have participated in such groups and have got some reviews that way. The only down side to this is that you are buying some books that you would not ordinarily buy. A high percentage of these are self-published books. And while that in itself is not necessarily a bad thing . . . I have read some books that were a struggle to get through. Let’s just say it: I have read some bad books. Sometimes the writing is clunky and awkward. Sometimes it has over elaborate descriptions that make me roll my eyes. Often the dialogue is unnatural. These are books that needed to be edited by a real editor (which they obviously were not).

One thing I would advise all writers to do is to speak your words out loud, or have friends read it to you. This is especially important with dialogue. You will be able to hear how awkward and unnatural it sounds if there are problems. This is the best way I know to develop an ear for dialogue. I have been fortunate to work in local theater as both an actor and a playwright. That has helped my ear for dialogue immensely. When I hear an actor reading my words and it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, then I know it is back to the drawing board . . . or laptop. When you are reading the words to yourself you have your own rhythm in your brain that may be fooling you about what you have actually written. You know what it was meant to sound like, but that may not be what you wrote.

Anyway, I do encourage you, when you read a book by an independent author (mine or anyone else’s) take a couple of minutes to write a review and post it on Amazon, Goodreads, or other sites. It doesn’t have to be long winded. Just a sentence or two will suffice. It makes a big difference for that author.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources)

Link to Star Liner