Reviews: How to get your readers to actually leave them?

[Susan Boulton]

My first book had quite a lot of amazon reviews, but very few in genre mags, ezines and blogs. The second was the opposite. It depends to whom and where you send your book for review. You need to make a list of magazines, ezines and bloggers that do reviews and send off copies, or your publisher does...

 

[ratsy]

My experience on organic reviews is 1 for every 100-150 ebook sales (for amazon). Whether they are not being read, or they are just not reviewing, that's the reality. I try to leave a rating or mini review for each book I read. I sometimes forget, and go back over my recently read thread and go back to amazon and review. I rarely ask people I know to leave a review because that comes with an expectation of leaving an amazing review.

Though I expect everyone here to buy and leave 5* for my debut novel coming out in two months.....

So, reviews will come if you get volume of the book out there, which comes down to marketing and dollars spent typically.

 

[Parson]

My experience on organic reviews is 1 for every 100-150 ebook sales (for amazon). Whether they are not being read, or they are just not reviewing, that's the reality. I try to leave a rating or mini review for each book I read. I sometimes forget, and go back over my recently read thread and go back to amazon and review. I rarely ask people I know to leave a review because that comes with an expectation of leaving an amazing review.

Though I expect everyone here to buy and leave 5* for my debut novel coming out in two months.....

So, reviews will come if you get volume of the book out there, which comes down to marketing and dollars spent typically.

????!!!! I never ever would have thought that the rate would be that low. By guess I would have thought maybe 1 or 2 or at most 10 readers per review. I always leave ratings, but generally only leave reviews if there's something I think needs to be noted, or if I want to promote the book.

 

[Chanel]

Goodreads hasn't yet been mentioned - and on there reviews, and just ratings without a review, are supposed to feed into the algorithm that is used to recommend books to readers. Try joining Goodreads, have an author page, do what you do here - join some groups and join in like a human being, not a rabid promoter . After a bit, you could try a giveaway, or offer free copies for review. Its all a slow build.

I have an author page on there as well. I use them to find books for myself.

 

[ratsy]

????!!!! I never ever would have thought that the rate would be that low. By guess I would have thought maybe 1 or 2 or at most 10 readers per review. I always leave ratings, but generally only leave reviews if there's something I think needs to be noted, or if I want to promote the book.

That may be right, but the reviews I see and hear about are for sales, not readers. Actually if I calculate my pages read in there, the percentage gets worse

 

[LeonDaydreamer]

Been kind of struggling with that myself lately (though I'm writing an adventure game : ) ). In the gaming community, there are lots of press websites and blogs one could reach out to. There must be some literary equivalents, no?

But overall, I'm getting from this thread that if you have some people who follow your work, even if it's only a few, perhaps you could ask them ahead of time to take a look at your new story and consider writing a review (because it could really help you).

 

[tinkerdan]

I think reviews are a myth; or maybe my novels are. Either way I have two books and four reviews (all for book one). There is one minor comment on Goodreads with a repeat of one of the reviews from SmashWords. One review on Amazon and three on SmashWords. On Smash words I've given away and sold almost 1750 e-books. So that's about 0.1714%

My e-book has also at least once been pirated, so there is that. (Perhaps a better recommendation than a review.)

 

[ralphkern]

I worked out the review rate for one of my books - 0.004%

I’ve discounted community reviews - as welcome as they are, they’re not an organic sign.

Generally reviews have reduced - people are asked to review everything now and get review fatigue. ‘Back in the day’ the rate was much higher.

And Leon, that’s a startand practice, called sending out ARCs (advance review copies). I’m a bit two minded about this, some buddies send out literally thousands with the hope of getting a handful back. (But when they move tens of thousands of books a day anyway, it’s a drop on the ocean)

 

[ratsy]

This just goes to show how important getting reviews are. There is also something to be said for getting someone to buy your book. Then they actually need to read it among the 100s of ebooks on their device, and then once they finally do that, review it on one of the platforms. Its an uphill battle for sure.

 

[Parson]

I worked out the review rate for one of my books - 0.004%

Holy Smokes! The only good thing about review rate like that is that you have to sell at least 25,000 books! ---- But that can't be ordinary. How then would some books have 7-10 thousand reviews. --- Granted the only books I've seen with those numbers are books that were runaway best sellers just as ebooks started becoming pervasive. But even if it were 10% which would be a huge increase over your figures, it would still take 100,000,000 copies to get 10,000 reviews.

EDIT: I've been thinking about this and I was thinking "ratings" not "reviews" in the above comment. Offhand I think the most "reviews" I've seen has been a couple hundred.

 

[ralphkern]

There is the consideration that the book Im talking about has only been released on the 31st Oct - so there may be some more legacy reviews to come in. But it does make it easier to give a snapshot. Additionally, It's part two of a series which probably has an effect. (I'll revise the figures at end of month).

There are very succesful authors out there with ARC lists in the thousands which they're happy to send out to as they get more benefit from the social proof of a prospective reader seeing many reviews. Particularly for authors who are very engaged with their audiences, that can get a much higher return rate. (It converts fans into super-fans - who buy and review everything).

Also, one has to remember the sheer volume of books the top sellers are moving - We're not talking dozens, or even hundreds per day. Thousands is where they're at across their primary books and backlist.

It very much was easier a few years ago. On my first release, the review rate was more like the 10% you give as an example. Also, there were less savoury practices which have since beeen weeded (buying reviews etc). On that note, I see some of mine dissapear on occasion, I'm guessing because the reviewer has inadvertantly fallen foul of some watchdog algorithm - whether on my books or others and they're stripped away. Personally, I'm hapy with that as it keeps the integrity of the system intact.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

Begging sometimes works

 

[Boneman]

When I was doing a writing course, one of the guest authors told us that she would go to any writers group large or small anywhere in the UK, and give a talk. At the end she asked that if anyone could give a review it would be very much appreciated. Must have cost her a fortune, but she did shift over half a million of her first book... she's a crime/psychological thriller writer, but it's all the same, innit? She was published by a pretty good publisher, which obviously helped.

 

[crystal haven]

I have been very grateful for the reviews of The Beguiler, but would love to see a few more. I find the promotional side of writing very difficult to do, which I'm sure doesn't help.

 

[Overread]

I have been very grateful for the reviews of The Beguiler, but would love to see a few more. I find the promotional side of writing very difficult to do, which I'm sure doesn't help.

I think most writers would seriously benefit from investment in a marketing and business style course or three. Because marketing your book is almost more important than what goes into the book itself. You can write the greatest story ever but if you can't market it won't get anywhere. Meanwhile you'll see utter drivel make it to the number 1 slot through good marketing.

 

[Parson]

I think most writers would seriously benefit from investment in a marketing and business style course or three. Because marketing your book is almost more important than what goes into the book itself. You can write the greatest story ever but if you can't market it won't get anywhere. Meanwhile you'll see utter drivel make it to the number 1 slot through good marketing.

Sigh!

 

[Montero]

Well, as a reader I tend to pick up books from online recommendations and random encounters at the library. Marketing doesn't directly affect that.
I also note how long it can take me to find an author. I didn't notice Lois McMaster Bujold until she published A Civil Campaign and I was given a copy......

 

[Overread]

Montero - and yet a local signing or reading at your library or online presence on a forum or key publishing site (amazon/good reads/blogs) could well expose you to a new book and author. That's the key of marketing; understanding your market and how to appeal and advertise to them.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Marketing doesn't have to be something to fear. But it does take time and effort and a consistent application of graft. Too many people think it's about a couple of hours a week, not that it is something that needs to be kept up and slogged over. Sure, if you can do things you like doing, that sweetens the pill. But it's still mostly graft

 

[Danny McG]

It's only in the last two years or so that I've started taking a cursory look at reviews for books.

I tend to look at blurb and (if available) a synopsis, to see if it looks like a story would interest me or not.

Not too concerned about some other readers opinions, they can read and interpret the story from it their way, I'll read it mine.

Surprisingly I do this if I go out for a meal as well! I look at what's available and then, based on my knowledge of my own tastes and preferences, I make my choice.

If it proves a bit unsatisfactory then I can choose to finish it or just leave it.

I don't, beforehand, ask people I don't know what they think of that particular meal and would they give me feedback.