BookBub Shares Ideas On How To Get More Book Reviews From Readers

Having more consumer reviews for your book helps you sell more of that book.

This is true on the surface, but also in ways that can be surprising: I recently learned that if you don't have at least 20 consumer reviews of your book on Amazon, you won't be considered for a BookBub deal. (Even though BookBub is not owned by Amazon.) Suffice to say, the social vetting of consumer book reviews is really important.

So how do you get more book reviews from readers who liked your book in the first place?

A Guide To Getting More Book Reviews From Readers by AJ Yee presents seven tactical approaches, with examples:

1) Ask your mailing list to review books they’ve read
2) Ask readers for a review in a book’s back matter
3) Ask your fans on social media
4) Run a free deal or make a first-in-series book permafree (the idea is that more readers will lead to more reviews)
5) Thank your fans for reviews (love the example of featuring a different 5-star review and thanking that reviewer every newsletter!)
6) Post a call for reviews from your street team
7) Find new readers and pro reviewers through a paid review service
Bonus) Keep up-to-date with retailer sites’ rules for reviews

How many of these are you doing? Any them spark ideas for new ways to encourage reviews for your book(s)?

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Coping with Critical Reviews - Advice from NetGalley Insights

This post from NetGalley Insights, Coping with Critical Reviews, contains some excellent advice:

"When you put your book out into the world you are hoping to find its biggest champions and most devoted fans. But, of course, no one book will appeal to everyone."

Points they suggest we all keep in mind include:

Remember that star ratings are relative

and

Resist the urge to respond

and even

Glean valuable data in critical reviews

"Sometimes critical reviews can help you better target the right kinds of readers, or tweak your marketing copy. For example, if you have been promoting your book as YA, but critical reviews are saying that it’s too young for a teen audience, consider positioning it as a Middle Grade book instead. Or, if reviewers are expressing surprise at the content, consider revising the way you are describing your book. You want to entice readers, but you also want to find the readers who are most likely to enjoy your book as it is."

It's an article well-worth reading. That is, if you read your reviews. (And I've heard from many authors who don't.)

 How do you deal with critical reviews?

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Got a recent review?

Was it good? Less than good?

Find out more about Thornton Wilder here

Either way, take these words of Thornton Wilder as good advice:

 "The important thing is that you make sure that neither the favorable nor the unfavorable critics move into your head and take part in the composition of your next work."

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Let's Give Groucho Marx The Last Word Of The Year...

“From the moment I picked up your book until I put it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.”
                                                                     -Groucho Marx

It was 1929 when this quip appeared on the book jacket of “Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge” by S. J. Perelman. Find out more about the quote at Quote Investigator.

Thanks, Groucho!

Groucho Marx, photo source here

And here's to a New Year where our stories get read... and still enjoyed!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Diversity in Reviewing YA - Malinda Lo Tackles How Diversity Is Treated (And Mis-Treated)

In this four-part essay, YA Author Malinda Lo explores some of the biases about diversity that she's seen in YA book reviews.

In Part One: That Diversity is "Scarcely Plausible,"

Malinda unpacks (and critiques) reviews like the Kirkus  review of Shannon Hale's Dangerous that called it "...a tale seemingly tailor-made to forestall complaints about lovelorn teen heroines and all-white casts of characters."

Malinda writes,

"It reveals a believe that simmers beneath all those critiques of diversity as implausible: the belief that nonwhite, LGBT, and disabled characters are simply unnecessary; that adding in these perspectives derails a story; that "reality" is white and homogenous."

"It should be blindingly clear that I disagree with this belief. It's frustrating to see it crop up again and again, coded beneath reviews that criticize diversity as "scarcely plausible" in one phrase while describing it as "praiseworthy" in the next. Diversity is not "praiseworthy": it is reality. Reviews that deny this fact of life are well behind the times, and they do a massive disservice to the majority of children in the United States who are not white."

In Part Two, Malinda addresses "So Many (Too Many?) Issues," making visible the "...invisible ceiling on the number and type of issues deemed suitable for inclusion in a realistic YA novel..."

"This demand for simplified narratives with threads that can be "smoothly" tied up in a "genuine and heartfelt" manner is an insult both to people who have instersectional minority identities, and to young adult fiction as a genre. In the real world, identities and lives are complicated."

In Part Three, "A Lot To Decode," Malinda explores reviews that "... suggest that novels about non-white/non-Western cultures should be tasked with informing white readers about those cultures." She also explores the politicizing nature of glossaries (which was fascinating):

"Including a glossary situates white/Western culture as dominant. It immediately renders the culture depicted in the book as unintelligible and foreign. Simultaneously it tells a white/Western reader that this foreign/unintelligible culture can be easily understood through a few definitions found at the back of the book. Including a glossary creates a reading experience that codifies white/Western culture as central and simplifies non-Western cultures."

In Part Four, "Readers May Be Surprised," Malinda calls out reviewer assumptions about race and homophobia that are revealed in reviews, and concludes with the point that

"The book review landscape is littered with these microaggressions. All of these microaggressions add up to support an environment in which particular beliefs are held as given: that readers are predominantly white; that books should explain their diverse content to those white readers; that too much diversity is unbelievable. These beliefs act to limit representations of diversity. They create a palpable feeling among writers - especially minority writers - that writing diversity is risky for their careers. They reinforce an industry that also, unfortunately, generally shares these beliefs."

By exposing how YA reviews may be holding diversity back, Malinda clearly hopes YA reviewers will take to heart the impact of how they address diversity in their future reviews of books that include People of Color, LGBTQ and Disabled characters and themes.

It's an important series to read and consider.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Consumer Book Reviews and a Question of Ethics

It was reported recently in the New York Times (and "THE WEEK" Sept 7, 2012 edition) that

At least one third of "consumer" reviews of books and other products found on the internet are fake.  The fake reviews are written by marketers, retailers, authors, friends of the sellers, and even third-party companies paid to churn out positive reviews.

Some choice quotes:

"Twenty percent of Amazon’s top-selling e-books are self-published. They do not get to the top without adulation, lots and lots of it."

Todd Jason Rutherford, who ran a business that sold positive reviews of books - for the rates of $99 for one online review,  $499 for 20 and $999 for fifty - said,

“These were marketing reviews, not editorial reviews.” 

"One of Mr. Rutherford’s clients, who confidently commissioned hundreds of reviews and didn’t even require them to be favorable, subsequently became a best seller. This is proof, Mr. Rutherford said, that his notion was correct. Attention, despite being contrived, draws more attention."

"Amazon and other e-commerce sites have policies against paying for reviews. But Mr. Rutherford did not spend much time worrying about that. “I was just a pure capitalist,” he said. Amazon declined to comment."

John Locke, who has sold more than a million ebooks through Amazon had purchased over 300 reviews through Mr. Rutherford.  Locke said,

“Reviews are the smallest piece of being successful,” he said. “But it’s a lot easier to buy them than cultivating an audience.”

While Rutherford's initial venture into selling reviews has folded (in part because "Google suspended his advertising account, saying it did not approve of ads for favorable reviews. At about the same time, Amazon took down some, though not all, of his reviews.")  Now he's launching a service where 

"for $99, he blogs and tweets about a book — he has 33,000 Twitter followers"

You can read the full article by David Streitfeld, "The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy" here.

This brings up a really important issue about where the ethical line is and should be drawn.

Should "consumer" reviews on sites like Amazon and Goodreads be from people the author and illustrator don't know?  

Should all reviews have disclaimers on the connection of the reviewer to the author/illustrator?  

How can the system be more honest?

If paying for favorable reviews is going too far, what about asking a friend to write a review of your book?  

Recently, a publicist at a publishing house contacted a blogger who had reviewed a book they'd put out... requesting that blogger re-post their review as a consumer review on Amazon.  Is that too far?

Where do you draw the line?  Tell us in comments!

We each need to consider the answer for ourselves... and our industry.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

How Reviews Work... The landscape is changing

Hay House's New Blogger Review Program, BookNook

While not specifically a development in children's publishing, there are fascinating changes afoot in how some publishers are looking at blogs and how reviews work.  As reported in Publisher's Lunch last week and in this press release, Hay House, a self-help/motivational publisher, has

... started a blogger review program, BookNook, that is similar to Thomas Nelson's Book Sneeze initiative. They aim to create "one central place for bloggers to share their thoughts and experiences about Hay House products," providing free review copies in exchange for "an honest review." 

They're hoping to enroll 6,000 bloggers by the end of 2012.

There's a lot that's interesting about this.

1.  That a "free copy" is given to a blogger "in exchange for an honest review on their blog and a consumer site."  That's very different than how reviews have worked in the past, where reviewers (for newspapers or even blogs) were identified, sent a ton of books, and then they chose the ones they would actually review.)  The idea that this is set up as trade of items of value - we'll give you a book but you have to review it on your site and ours - is significant.

2.  There's a shift that's occurring:  reviewers used to work for newspapers or magazines, and they were paid for their reviews.  Today many bloggers who are reviewing books do it because it's their passion (very few bloggers are paid by others to blog and review books.)  Some bloggers have advertising or affiliate relationships as ways of monetizing their blogs, but they are still in many ways blogging for themselves.  Signing up for this program would seem to make a blogger in some ways be blogging for Hay House. 

3.  And since this relationship is so close, and reviews are being done for a "free" supply of product, does that call into question whether or not a negative review might cost a blogger their relationship with the publisher?  I suppose this "don't bite the hand that feeds you" concern applies in any relationship where you're getting product in exchange for reviews.

4.  The scale of this new venture is remarkable.  6,000 bloggers in seven months?  Will they all be vetted? And how? 

As the way readers get their information and book reviews changes, and blogs have more impact, it's important to keep an eye on the changing landscape.  For writers and illustrators who blog about and review others' books, the changing relationships with publishers (and the distinction between reviewing books versus recommending books on your blog) need to be considered so your blogging is synergistic with and helpful to your writing/illustrating career.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee