Posts
 |
| Free Image courtesy of Pxhere |
Today I come before you all with my thoughts on book reviews. First, how to prepare your book before you ask for reviews, and second, how to ask for book reviews, so they will best translate for you and the book you wrote.
We all know that reviews are essential for sales, especially with Amazon. Amazon uses an algorithm. The computer that runs the algorithm does not necessarily care about the content of the review, but it does care about the star rating. Higher reviews mean more recommendations from Amazon by the coding computer that does the code, lower ones mean fewer recommendations. So, it's important to get reviews. The content of the reviews matters to the people who are going to look into purchasing the book. That's where the stars stop having as much power as the content of what is written about your book.
It is also important to get the highest reviews possible. Therein lies some trouble. How do you do that if you are publishing your book baby on your own? It's your book. You just poured endless hours into writing it, but you don't have some big publishing house behind you working on polishing and using public relations to spread the word.
I cannot help you with PR, and I'm not the best person for editing by any means, but I am someone who at least can help you with ideas on what to do before you get people to review your book.
1. This is the most important thing that keeps reviews from the highest of scores. Either get an editor to review for grammar, spelling, and content, or, make sure you have several beta readers read it for those three things.
I cannot stress this enough. Grammar and spelling issues are not the end of the world, but they can take what might be a high score, to a deficient scoring review. There are some real sticklers out there. I'm not pro or against the Oxford comma, but I know some reviewers who are. I'm not pro or against using hyphens for things, but I know some reviewers are.
Mostly, what I care about in this arena, is your book legible and more polished than my third-grade daughter's book reports? If so, you're doing well. If not, you're going to have some problems from a reviewer like me.
For me, there are a few grammatical issues I am prone to downgrade for primarily improper ellipses use, using the correct spelling for a word that should not be in the sentence, page numbers that are random in the manuscript and don't line up with the mobi copy, and line spacing between paragraphs and sentences. I'm not going to go into all of my pet peeves, but let's talk about one of them.
Improper ellipses use, for example, drive me mad. I'm going to link here to Grammarly, which is a software that is used to help check grammar issues, but they have a blog about the ellipses that is very good. In case you do not want to read that, or you just want my opinion here it is. An ellipsis should be no more than 3 periods in length. If used, it should be done so rarely. Improper ellipses use can take a decent manuscript and fill it with dots, to which now I'm frustrated because your book looks like Moris code. I'm not a fan of reading dots.
How do you fix these problems if you cannot afford an editor? Get beta readers who can nitpick everything. You want people to help you find plot holes, structure issues, character arc reviews and also the grammar and spelling. If you need software help, get something like Grammarly or another software that nitpicks your book.
When the beta reading is done and changes have been implemented, the work is n, t done. No my friend, you have more work to do. Run everything through the software and with your own eyes read it line by line, to review your own book. Don't read your book, review your book. What I mean by that is, it is very easy to get swept up in your own story and skim over problems. At the time of doing an edit like I am suggesting, you do not need to be distracted by the story, you need to be looking for problems.
Another tip, find a program that will painfully read your words out for you as only a disembodied electronic voice can. If you are publishing with Amazon, Amazon's text reader is brutal, so on your mobi copy, I'd recommend putting that on .7 speed and slowly going through your manuscript. If you have a sentence such as "Her hair was as read as the apples on the tree." and you miss it because you see "red" not "read" than someone will find it. If you accidentally put numbers in a word by mistake, and you do not see it because your eyes skimmed over it, it will get found. These things do not help your book review.
2. When you are sure your book looks as perfect as it can be, look for some reviewers. There are several ways to do this:
- One, you can hit up Twitter and search for book bloggers and book reviewers.
- Two, you can go to a service like NetGalley and ask them to find you, reviewers.
When you find your reviewers independently, here are a few tips:
- Start with something simple, make a list of who you would consider reviewing for you that you know if you have independently going to reach out to them. Take some time to read their reviews. Keep some things in mind as you read their reviews:
- Do you like how they review books?
- Do they usually review your style or genre of book?
- If it's a how-to or cookbook, do they actually test the recipes out or try the advice before doing a review? If so, have you double checked your work to ensure your recipes or advice is sound?
- Do you not like their style of review? Why or why not?
- Once you have read their reviews, figure out what you want to do. If you didn't enjoy how they review, I'd recommend not asking them for one. If you do like their style, now you can research how to contact them.
- Check their blog out, find out any FAQ information they may have. Do they charge for reviews? Do they not charge? Find out what their turn around time is. Not everyone is like I am, they don't go through a stack of books in a week, and some have waiting lists that are very long, while others do not.
- Next, when and if they agree to it, talk with them and set expectations.
1. When is the book going to be released?
2. Is the copy that you are sending the very final copy and completed, or do you plan on making further changes? If it is the latter, you need to talk to them about when you will get them a final copy. Find out if they prefer mobi, PDF or physical copies. For me, I like mobi copies, because I can fire up my Kindle and get to work. But there are some who like other reviewing materials, and they may have different preferences.
3. Do you expect them to purchase the book or not in order to read it? If so, is it on Kindle Unlimited? If not, tell them that. There may be a cost to review here, and they may need time to gather up funds, or budget to purchase your book. Also, don't feel bad if this is the situation. If you really do need someone to pay to read your book, there isn't anything wrong with that. Just be upfront about it. I pay for just as many books as I do not pay for, and review all of them. If anything, it's why I got the Kindle Unlimited subscription so that I can read and help the author generate an income of some sort. I know it's expensive to send free books, and I think most reviewers know that as well. Even movie reviewers pay for movies to review, not every film can hand out free press tickets.
4. Do you expect an honest review, meaning no holds barred, all things are on the table, or do you expect a review that is favorable only? If it is the latter, you should also discuss how much you're planning to pay that person for the favorable or puff piece review. I do not do them. I know I could make a heck of a lot of money if I did, but I really am not comfortable with it.
5. Most important, do not forget that you asked the reviewer for a review. Don't lose their contact information in your email or their Twitter DM in your pile. This is especially critical if there are deliverables you are going to be giving later, or if the time to set up the review is in well in advance. Make sure you establish how you will communicate with each other. Are they like me? Do they prefer Twitter? In that case, make sure you keep their DM handy for things and make a Twitter List for them to be included in. Whatever you do, do not ignore them.
6. Last but not least, be at peace with whatever they said in the review. Let me give an example, I am an ISTJ communicator on Meyers Brigs. I'm often called "The Snow Queen" by my closest friends and family because I am someone who boils things down to the base levels and only talks about those things. When I do a review, it is very logical and has bits of my personality in it. My nature is logic based so it may not mesh with yours, and I know for a fact that not everyone reviews like I do. I can name about five other Twitter-based Reviewers who do very different reviews than I do.
A book review at the end of the day is one person's opinion. If you want puff-piece reviews, do not go somewhere like Netgalley for honest reviews if you are unsure about the reviews you will get. Most likely it will be uncomfortable for you, and I for one do not want to make anyone uncomfortable.
Yet, even without reviews you personally went to get, others will read your book and review it. You may have ten reviews, and nine will be 4 or 5 stars, but there will always be that one reviewer that is 3 stars or 2 stars because, in their opinion, that's what it was. It's just an opinion. Not everyone is going to write pages of critique like I usually do. Some just leave one or two sentences, or maybe one word.
Whatever the issue, DO NOT email/DM Tweet to that reviewer and tell them how they are wrong. That never is going to end well. I highly recommend watching "Terrible Writing Advice: Taking Criticism - Terrible Writing Advice" which is a sarcastic take on receiving criticism. It might make you feel better than actually opening that DM up.
Lastly, I want to briefly mention book covers. I cannot stress enough how vital book covers are. While we all say "It's not about the outside it's about the inside" we all also should be aware how untrue that is. Attraction is important, be it for dating or book reading. You should test your book cover first to see what is more appealing before you send it out. A book cover can be the reason for fewer sales than reviews. If it's too busy, it can be intimidating. I won't go into all the ins and outs of book covers here because I'm not an artist nor a PR person, but I can assure you they are essential.
So, let's say you did all of what I recommended above. Are you ready for your reviews? If you do edit your book and know that it's prepared, and send it out to be reviewed, you can rest assured it will be judged more on the content, than the appearance.
Obviously, there is no 100% guarantee on that fact, as there is always someone who has a sticking point about something. That said, for most of us who review, the critiques will be less about how it looks, and more about how it reads.
Thank you for reading this everyone. I hope it helps you all out. Thank you for sticking with this massive post and I hope you have a happy and wonderful winter.
- Mrs Y.
