Enjoy this interview from the Writer’s Chat with Johnnie Alexander and Jean Wise all about how to get book reviews.
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In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- Do reviews impact Amazon’s algorithms?
- The #1 way I’ve been able to get book reviews
- Why following up with your reviewers is so important
- And more!
About Jean Wise
Jean Wise is a writer, speaker, retreat leader and spiritual director. She blogs twice a week at healthyspirituality.org
About Johnnie Alexander
Johnnie Alexander writes inspiring stories that linger in the heart. Where Treasure Hides, her debut novel, won the ACFW Genesis Contest (2011). Her latest novel is Where She Belongs (Misty Willow Series; Revell). She also has won Best Novel and Best Writer awards (Florida Christian Writers Conferences), and Bronze Medalist (My Book Therapy Frasier Contest). She volunteers as marketing director for the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of Rollins College (Orlando) with a Master of Liberal Studies degree, Johnnie treasures family memories, classic movies, road trips, and stacks of books. She lives in the Memphis area with a small herd of alpacas and Rugby, the princely papillon who trees raccoons.
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Can’t listen right now? Read the transcript below:
Welcome to Author Audience, where I’m on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It’s time to let your light shine. Today I’m rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me as I share an interview that I had on the Writer’s Chat. The Writer’s Chat is on blab, so we recorded it on Blab. It was held by Johnnie Alexander and Jean Wise. I just wanted to share this piece of the Writer’s Chat with you, it’s all about how to get book reviews, because several people found it helpful and I thought you might enjoy it as well. So, enjoy this episode and I’ll see you next time.
JEAN. Welcome to this week’s Writer’s Chat. My name is Jean Wise and I’m a non-fiction writer from North West Ohio. Each week there’s about two or three of us gathered together and we talk about different things, different writings. Today we are honored to have with us Shelley Hitz, the creator and owner of Author Audience Academy. I said it on Facebook this morning, and I’ve said it to my husband and friends over and over again, that membership was the best purchase I made in 2015. It was absolutely well worth my money and my time. The resources that she shares, the training, and her faith in God; it’s the best.
SHELLEY. I’m so glad to be here.
JOHNNIE. My name is Johnnie Alexander, I’m a fiction writer. I write both historical and temporary romances. I just had my first contemporary release in January, Where She Belongs, I also blog at MidwestAlmanac.com. Beanie is not here today, but she is the owner of Serious Writer Academy, and I help her with some of the fiction coaching and some of the things that go along with that.
JEAN. Our topic for the Writer’s Chat today is talking about book launches and some tips on that we can share with one another, and optimizing Amazon. Those two areas are really good areas of expertise for Shelley. Is there something about the number of reviews that you have in the very first couple of days that also helps your ranking?
SHELLEY. There seems to be an impact with the number of reviews and then the number of book sales. Again, I can’t confirm 100% that is a fact. Some people will say once you get over 100 reviews it seems to trigger something in Amazon’s system, or once you get over a certain number. I don’t think anyone can 100% can confirm or deny it, but the one thing I do know is the more reviews that you have, the more social proof that you have, the better your chance you’re going to have with someone who just clicks onto your page. If I just click onto a page and it has a really great cover and absolutely no reviews it’s just like, “what’s going on here? Something is wrong, why is there no reviews? Is this book just released?” I tend to not even promote my books until I have reviews because it just gives a bad impression. It’s almost like inviting someone over to your house before you put any furniture in, or anything on the walls. It’s just like, “um, OK. I don’t have anywhere for you to sit down.” It just looks like a ghost town.
JOHNNIE. I read once, and I don’t remember if it was a credible source or not, something about 25 hits something, but I’m not sure exactly what. I know in looking at my books it’s like I love the point where it goes from “customers that bought this book also looked at” to “customers that bought this book also bought”, and see those numbers grow.
JEAN. We had another question about getting people to review your books on Amazon.
SHELLEY. OK.
JOHNNIE. I can talk about that just a little bit. One thing to do is to be involved in writing related groups such as American Christian Fiction Writers. Lots of times just being part of those Facebook groups, and that kind of thing, you can ask people to review your book, and of course you want to send them copies. I was able to, my publisher sent out so many copies for that purpose, so I sent them the list and they sent the copies. I put those people together as a team as a Facebook Group. So, they’re my Misty Willow team. Then they each get a book and I can send them bookmarks and other things too, and ask them as they read the book to review it, or to at least tell other people. Some of these people don’t necessarily go on Amazon to put up book reviews, but they know other people. They’re more to just spread the word. You’ve got to be able to send out some copies, probably, and get people to do that; people that read that kind of story. Really, what I did was say more influence instead of review. Like, “if you like it, please write a review.”
JEAN. I think both of you, what am I thinking, I know Johnnie has, and maybe Shelley has something coming up on Good Reads.
JOHNNIE. Oh.
JEAN. Isn’t that a good site?
JOHNNIE. I did it the other way. It finished last night, actually. I gave away a copy of each of my novels. That’s a way to get it on people’s shelves, and then they can share it around. I had over a thousand people in each giveaway, so that was really nice. Another thing too, I’m still pretty much a newbie at this, and when my book came out in January it really boosted the book that had come out in August; that was interesting to see too. This book that came out in January is the first in a series, and it’s already listed on Good Reads, and there are already 30 people that have it on their “want to read” list. You see that momentum of the first book, and then the second book helps, and then already the third book that doesn’t even come out till next September, people already have it on their radar and on their “want to read” list. So, when it comes out, hopefully they’ll grab a copy.
SHELLEY. I think you’ve made a lot of really good points. I think when it comes to reviews it comes to creating and having relationships. When you have relationships with other readers, or other authors, and you’ve also been giving to them it’s like a two way relationship. If someone is always asking you for something, or always asking you for money, always asking you, asking you, asking you, and never really giving back, it almost starts feeling like, “ugh.” Like, “oh they’re asking me for something again!” If they are giving to you, and you’re getting value from them, it’s a two way, mutual, relationship. It just feels better. I think when it comes to reviews one of the things is forming relationship. One of the things I’m noticing inside Author Audience Academy is that my members are supporting each other. Someone will say, “I published a book, I’m looking for reviews.” They’ll get, “Oh I love that topic, I’d love to do that for you,” because there’s a relationship there. Having a community, authors are very supportive of each other, but they’re also very busy.
ALL Laughter
SHELLEY. The number one way I’ve personally gotten book reviews is forming my own book review team. I’ve seen Tyndall House and some of these other major publishing houses have their own book review teams. They’ll send out copies and they’ll blog about it. I was like, “if big publishers do this, why can’t I as a small and self publisher?” So, several years ago I started, and I was looking for tools and a system, and a way to do it kind of like they did it. Finally I was just like, “you know what, I’m just going to do it with what I have.” I just started a separate email list in my email provider for my book reviewers. In those relationships I was forming in the Facebook groups and the different places I was active, on social media and different places, I would tell people, “if you love this kind of book, and you’d be interested in reading my book for free, you can join my book reviewer team.” I did it in a way that wasn’t like spammy, you know what I mean? There’s a way to do it where it’s like, “read my book! Read my book!” And then there’s a way like, “I would love to be able to give you this, and you can be part of my book launch team, or my book reviewer team.” Anyway, I have hundreds of readers now on these lists. I can send out one email when I publish a book and I have, instantly, dozens of people who are like, “I’m interested.” They know me, they like me, they like my other books. My Christian Author one is probably more active than even my regular one for authors, but that has really been helpful for me.
I have also recently found a website, and I’m very, very hesitant on anything where you have to pay for reviews, because it’s against Amazon’s Terms of Service to pay for reviews. And yet, I’ve researched it and it looks, I know the people who own this site, it looks legit, and I’m trying it out right now, and I’m actually getting reviews. It’s ReadingDeals.com and you pay for access to their reviewers, you’re not paying for the reviews. I don’t remember the exact thing; I’m still in the process of analyzing it and testing it myself before I promote it. That’s a new site out there that you can look into and you can try.
One of the best ways is also to ask people when they email you, when they Tweet you, when they comment on your Facebook posts, “oh I loved your book, it was so good!” Or, “I couldn’t put it down Johnnie, it was such a great story!” You could private message some and say, “thank you so much for that feedback, it would mean the world to me if you could just copy and paste that onto Amazon, here’s the link.” The easier you make it for your reviewers the more likely you are to get reviews. So, you can actually create a link specifically to the review page, there’s a way to do that, but you can make it as easy as that. Where you’re actually giving them the link to where they can post the review. Even if you just follow up with people who’ve told you they’ve read your book and ask them to post a review, many times they’ll do it. Sometimes we just simply have to get out of our comfort zone. Because even for me, sometimes I’m like, “ugh, I don’t want to ask!”
JOHNNIE. I know, I don’t want to ask.
JEAN. I think you make an extremely valid point about asking, and like you said, without being obnoxious asking a second time. Because, people do get busy, the intention is to write that review and sometimes they forget. So sometimes a friendly, gentle reminder.
SHELLEY. That’s the key. So even if you solicit people, and you’re following up with them, follow up. Because, every time I’ll send out a follow up email, and if you have a deadline, so if you follow up with a deadline. If you have a specific promotion coming up, that’s a great time to get reviews, or if you have a book launch, that’s a great time, because you’ll have a deadline. What I’ll do is ask for reviews, and then I’ll follow up and say, “My book launch is going to be such and such date, it would mean a lot to me if you could publish your review by such and such. Is there any way that you can do that? If not I totally understand, I know you’re busy, but if you could do it by this date.” It’s magic.
You give someone a deadline, you give me a deadline. I have someone I’m willing to promote them as an affiliate, I like their product, I checked it out, they didn’t give me a deadline. I asked, “what date do you want?” They said, “any date works.” You know what, I haven’t replied to their email yet, because they didn’t say, “how about this date,” or “how about this?” It was just, “any date will work.” If you tell people, “whenever you can post a review,” that’s understanding and you want to be respectful of their time, but if you have a specific reason you can give them to post their review, it works. They’ll be, “oh, I’m so sorry! I totally forgot! I’ll get that up there for you!” Especially if it’s people who believe in your message, really like you, or really support you, they’re going to want to help you. There are just little tweaks that we can do, and we can make, to really increase the actual amount of people that post the review that said they would even review it.
JEAN. That sense of urgency always works. We just really enjoyed, and is glad that everybody is here, and again a special thanks for Shelley. Thanks for being here Shelley!
SHELLEY. Thanks for having me, I really appreciated it.
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