Getting Reviews

mrsmig

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Any place where potential readers/buyers would see them.

And I'm really hoping you didn't start this thread to snag potential clients...
 
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Old Hack

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Me too, mrsmig.
 

perpetualpublicity

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Reviews

I don't provide review services, just curious as to what everyone thinks are the best places to receive reviews.

I used a paid service that exposed me to lots of reviewers but I would not recommend them.

I believe Amazon reviews are best because they are most likely to result in a sale since they're being read by someone who is already considering buying your book.

Apart from Amazon I believe the most valuable places are those that reach your targeted potential readers.
 

Helix

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When I buy books, I give a lot of weight to reviews in newspapers/magazines, esp. those by respected reviewers, and also to catalogues put out by my favourite independent bookshops. I also pay a lot of attention to radio interviews with authors. (Not that you asked about that.)

I've only bought one book based on a Goodreads review and never from an Amazon review.
 

perpetualpublicity

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When I buy books, I give a lot of weight to reviews in newspapers/magazines, esp. those by respected reviewers, and also to catalogues put out by my favourite independent bookshops. I also pay a lot of attention to radio interviews with authors. (Not that you asked about that.)

I've only bought one book based on a Goodreads review and never from an Amazon review.
Good insight Helix! I've done hundreds of radio interviews and they always result in sales even if the radio show has a small audience.
 

veinglory

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I only want real reviews, and I want them in places that influence my readership. For me that would be places like dearauthor, mrs giggles, amazon, speak its name etc
 

WriterBN

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Amazon and Goodreads for me. Newspapers would be fantastic, of course, but: a) I'm realistic; and b) I doubt it would result in a huge sales increase.
 

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Where would you like to get reviews? Amazon? Goodreads? Blogs? Newspapers? Or _______
Indirectly related, I can tell you where I find reviews that have led me to buy a lot of books over the years: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publisher's Weekly. But I've also bought countless books via cross-references, recommendations, and reader reviews on Amazon. (Sometimes there, negative reviews clue me in to why a particular book is right for me. Depends on why folks hate the book. Sometimes positive reviews clue me in to why the book is NOT for me.)

--Ken
 

Algernon

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It is a vicious circle; reviews. In order to get reviews one must find those willing to read one's books and review it. But in order to do this, one must find willing readers that would be interested in investing their time to read a book; which would only be those that find one's book that has already received a healthy number of respected views. It all comes back to investing heavily, financially, in marketing.
 

benluby

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I am currently doing a giveaway on Amazon for my book for three days to see if I can't generate some reviews. In less than four hours I've had 45 downloads, so hopefully it will generate some reviews of the book itself.
Those that bought the paperback copies from me are reading it and stated they will post their reviews after they are done with the book.
 

Old Hack

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It is a vicious circle; reviews. In order to get reviews one must find those willing to read one's books and review it. But in order to do this, one must find willing readers that would be interested in investing their time to read a book; which would only be those that find one's book that has already received a healthy number of respected views. It all comes back to investing heavily, financially, in marketing.

My bold.

In my experience, publishing a good book as well as you can will get you the reviews you need.

Paying for an expensive marketing campaign does not guarantee any sales or any reviews.

This thread might be of interest:

How to promote your book like an intelligent human being and not an SEO Dweeb
 

gingerwoman

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It all comes back to investing heavily, financially, in marketing.

Algernon, I clicked through to your profile, and you did link to your website in it, which is good, but when I clicked through to Amazon I found your books were available on in paperback and not kindle!

Are you not aware that self publishers are mostly successful in ebook? Even people like me with popular digital first publishers tend to sell 100 ebooks for every print book sold.

Also virtually every successful author I have ever talked to or read a blog about has this to say about being successful "the best marketing you could ever do for your book is put out your next book."

It looks like you had kindle option at one stage, but took it down though?

I don't think any amount of investing heavily in advertising by an individual is going to get large numbers of people to buy an unknown writer's general fiction titles in print on demand print only, it just doesn't work like that. The first thing you need to do is put your kindle book back up, and start promoting that using free social media. At least that's my opinion.
 
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Polenth

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I'd say Amazon and Goodreads are the big ones. Blogs are trickier to say, as it depends. A blog with a large following might be great. A blog with a small following might not do much. But I've found a lot of blog reviewers also post their reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and a bunch of similar sites. So by submitting review copies to blogs, you can end up with the reviews everywhere.

I personally don't read reviews in places like Publishers Weekly, newspapers, etc. But other people do, so if you can get in them, go for it. (For self-published people, Publishers Weekly lets you send them a review copy now, which I've done... no harm in trying for it.)
 

Old Hack

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Publishers Weekly is mostly read by people who work in the book trade. A review there is going to mostly help people get their books into bookshops; it won't encourage general readers to buy your books.

If your book isn't available through a distributor, then a PW review probably won't help at all.
 

ResearchGuy

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Publishers Weekly is mostly read by people who work in the book trade. A review there is going to mostly help people get their books into bookshops; it won't encourage general readers to buy your books.

. . . .
Sure as heck has often encouraged THIS general reader to buy books. (But then, I subscribed out of interest in the publishing business, even long before I had even my tiny, tiny part in it.)

--Ken
 

dantefrizzoli

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i know there are different magazines and newspapers as well as websites that will review books