Archives for September 2012

Readers may judge a book by its cover, but they are often swayed to buy a book (or not) by the reviews.

Honest, authentic reviews from top reviewers and avid readers are respected by prospective buyers.

A book without reviews may be passed over by potential buyers.←Click to tweet (affiliate link)

Do bad reviews hurt book sales?←Click to tweet (affiliate link)

When Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy
was at the top of many literary conversations, I visited Amazon to see what all the fuss was about. I expected to check out a few reviews, but I was amazed to see that it has received 12, 666 reviews as of today.

Most of the reviewers seemed to criticize the book for being poorly written, even amateurish, but almost all of them ended with one telling phrase: “but I couldn’t put it down.” While this trilogy received its fair share of put-downs, slams and outright scathing attacks, it still enjoys best-seller of the year status.

What does all this mean?

Even critical reviews may sway readers to buy a book, if for no reason than to confirm the bad reviews.

Who is responsible for getting reviews for your book?

At one time authors counted on publicists, newspapers and magazines for reviews, but no more.

The publishing landscape has changed.

You must go after reviews as a central part of your book promotion strategy, especially if you are a self-published author.

As a matter of fact, you must start seeking reviews long before your book is published. But where do you start?

Where do you get reviews for your book?

You’ve probably already heard of Goodreads, the popular site where more than 7.3 million readers are creating bookshelves with books they’ve reviewed and recommended. But this is just one of many other sites where you can find eager readers ready to review and recommend your book.

You could comb the Internet for months and find these rich review sources on your own, but that would take a huge chunk of your time that could be better spent making contacts and requesting reviews.

For this reason I was thrilled when Joan Stewart, aka the publicity hound, offered a webinar called “Where to Find Millions of Readers Online to Review, Recommend & Buy Your Books.” (affiliate link)

You will not be able to find this many review sources in one place anywhere else. Even though I’m now one of Joan’s affiliate, I’ve been a customer for a long time. I started buying Joan’s products when I began my first Internet business back in the late 90’s before webinars existed. She was shipping audio cassettes then.(Look it up if you’re under 25.)

I consider myself a pretty good researcher and yet Joan always uncovers sources I haven’t found. What I like best about this presentation is the insider information such as the right way to approach reviewers.  The last thing you want to do is commit a faux pas.

I also admire and respect Joan’s keen knowledge from her years as a journalist that makes her savvy about on and offline sources.

In her usual manner, in this webinar Joan not only gives a content-rich presentation but has made available the following bonuses:

1. a handy directory of all the sites she mentions, by category.

2. a link to the mp4 video recording so you can watch it again and again (and you will want to)

3. a pdf of the PowerPoint slides that she used during webinar ( I watch the slides from her presentations many times to review what she shared)

4. an mp3 so you can listen on your iPod

5. a selection of the best forums and listservs where authors and publishers can learn about writing and publishing.

I recommend this webinar to all my clients as part of their marketing plan.  I know  you will find it a tremendous boost to marketing your book as well.  Get more details and grab your copy now here