Tag: book reviews

What Reviewers Want (Part 3)

What do you people want?

[This is a golden oldie—it ran on Indies Unlimited back on October 13, 2011.]

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed what reviewers do and do not want to see from books they review. In Part 2, we covered the etiquette of the relationship between an author and a reviewer before and after a review. In this segment, we find out how reviewers feel indie authors stack up against the traditionally published authors, and where there may be room for growth and improvement.

Reviewers are certainly as diverse a group as authors. Each has his or her own style, preferences, and ethos. Add to this the fact that while these reviewers may have read some of the same titles and same authors, the overlap in the titles they read is likely small, potentially leaving each with an entirely different impression of the quality of indie writing. One could reasonably expect to see some variance of opinion on the quality of indie authors. Continue reading “What Reviewers Want (Part 3)”

Book Marketing Tips for Authors

K. S. Brooks
What’s it gonna take to get you to buy this book?

There has been a lot of complaining recently about authors who “overmarket” their books like used car salesmen yelling full blast in our faces. This, of course, raises the question: what exactly IS acceptable? Technically, only you can answer that – if you care not to alienate or oversell, the key to making that determination is really “treat others as you would like to be treated yourself.”

That said, I do have some tips for newbies and all authors which will make your efforts more tolerable for those receiving them, and more rewarding for you in return.

#1 – Post book excerpts. Choose a day each week as your book excerpt day. This works great for Twitter and even better if you have Twitter set up to post automatically to your Facebook and other profiles. One Tweet, many social platforms. Not sure exactly what type of excerpt to use? I like to mix it up. Some weeks I’ll just tweet all prepositions or adverbs. Sure, anyone can tweet a sentence. What’s the point in doing that? Continue reading “Book Marketing Tips for Authors”

What Reviewers Want (Part 2)

Artist's conception of a book reviewer

[This is a golden oldie—it ran on Indies Unlimited back on October 10, 2011.]

In part 1 of this series, we discussed what reviewers want to see (and do not want to see) from authors as regards actual writing. All that stuff is what constitutes the middle of the relationship between an author and a reviewer. There is something more to the relationship on either end.

The relationship begins with the submission of your magnum opus to the reviewer. Next you wait. You keep waiting. You check their website and still don’t see anything. Over an hour has passed, and you are starting to get nervous. My advice (and it really is mine alone—all the reviewers I interviewed were too polite to bring this up), is to keep waiting. Do not call. Do not e-mail. Do not fax. Do not “check in” to see how they like it so far.  Find something else to occupy your mind and your time, because it may take a while. Continue reading “What Reviewers Want (Part 2)”

Please, sir…can I have a review? by: M.M. Brownlow

Author MM Brownlow

You’re trolling for something to read. You wander the aisles of your favourite bookstore or click your way through your favourite online shopping spot, checking out the covers. Once you find something that looks interesting, you flip over to the blurb and then you check…the reviews. If you’re anything like me, you have the cover and you have the blurb, but the reviews can remain elusive.

I hate begging. I have no problem giving away my works for free if it’s going to get me something in return (like a review), but finding people to actually read my books can be difficult. Then along comes Bloggerdise. (www.bloggerdise.com) Bloggerdise is a site where authors can create book banners to pair up with bloggers who want something to write about. It’s easy to use, the bloggers usually review ebooks, and the site itself is free! If you’re like me – and I’m hoping you are ‘cause otherwise I sound really pathetic – your marketing budget is as close to zero as you can get away with, so a free way to get reviews is perfect. Continue reading “Please, sir…can I have a review? by: M.M. Brownlow”