Reviews Blog part 2: for the Writer

For the first part of this, I asked readers to leave a single sentence and a couple stars and call it a review. But then it occurred to me—getting people to leave their opinions is not the only struggle in the big bad game we call book reviews. What happens after you get them? And thus we have blog number two: for the writers.

So you’ve got some reviews on Amazon. Excellent. Congrats. 90% of the reading population gets their fiction fix from Amazon at this point. Unfortunately, less than 1% of them will leave a review. Oh they may have liked it. Maybe even really liked it. They may have even told their friends, or even you. But they’re probably (even after reading the first part of this) not going to leave a review. Because why? I have no idea. If you figure that out, let me know.

So let’s, for this portion of the show, think outside the box, beyond the storefront, to review sites and journals and other places. To this I say, have a hit list. Where do you want to be reviewed? (Again, I’m not talking about Amazon anymore) Who do you trust because they’re thorough and honest and if it’s not good, they won’t fluff it with Atta’boys. Where are your heroes reviewed? Your peers? Make a list.

Now contact them all.

Yes, all. Because a.) they won’t all be able to get you on the TBR schedule, and b.) many of them don’t have the same audience—grow your audience by spreading your reviews out.

What to say? Easy. Short and sweet and “hey, I have a book, would you like a review copy?” Because yes, you’re going to give away copies of your book. Whether they prefer printed review copies or are kind enough to take arcs, ebooks, and/or pdfs, you are going to give away your book. With a smile. And a prayer.

So now you have a list. You’ve sent the book. (Jump forward in time…) And they’ve reviewed you! Now what? Because this is the spot where my thought occurred the other day. So now that we’re all up to speed and have these reviews, those not on the storefront, what do we do?

Sure, we post them on our blogs, our websites, our twitter feeds, and our facebook pages. We point and smile and say, “look what I did!” It might get liked, it might get shared, and you get that warm fuzzy feeling.

But then, like everything we post, it get swallowed by the neverending feed monster and disappears into the depths of posts forgotten. The archives. The annals. The things forgotten beyond the “load more” button.

Then someone wants to buy the book and they wonder what others thought of it, so they look at the reviews on Amazon or B&N or where ever. And they see “didn’t finish it, it sucked.” Or they see positive reviews in the form of single sentences and a smattering of stars because those readers read the first part of this two-part blog. But what if they were looking for that in depth review. What if they were wondering whether or not Cemetery Dance or Rue Morgue or Gingernuts read it and what their thoughts were? They would have to dig to find those buried in the feed monster. But they won’t dig. They won’t hunt. If you don’t provide it, they won’t ever see it once it’s been swallowed.

So to combat this, I’ve done the following, and gladly welcome others to do the same.

First, I’ve taken the juicy bits of the reviews, and put them on the product page of Amazon or B&N in the “reviews” portion between the back cover copy and the readers reviews. You can get to this section through Author Central (amazon), or in your book details on B&N, or by having your manager and/or agent take care of this for you. (I also use these little blips, blurbs and highlights in ads, tweets, gentle reminder posts, etc)

Then, I took those same juicy bits and put them on the individual book pages of my website, with links to the full review. And just like that, those pretty words they said are no longer lost to the ever scrolling feed demon. Now if that reader finds you because of a different book and goes looking through your catalog, they’ll be able to click and read those journal reviews. You’ve saved them. Shared them and kept them safe for future sharing.

And that’s it. Get the reviews. Share the reviews. Post them in a place they won’t disappear forever… and then get to writing the next thing. Because no matter how good this book is received or reviewed, the question on everyone’s tongue will be: What’s next?