It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. And I’m co-hosting this month! The other awesome co-hosts are: J Lenni Dorner, Gwen Gardner, Louise – Fundy Blue, and Sandra Cox.
I’m going to skip the optional question this month and share some advice instead.
Reviews
Some people view this as some sort of cuss word. But all Indie authors know that reviews are a good thing – even if some refuse to write reviews themselves. But they should.
Leaving a review is a simple exercise where you write down the stuff you liked, disliked and loved about a book so other readers can enjoy it, too. Why do it? Because it is a form of word-of-mouth – which is the best kind of advertising. If you want to know more about leaving reviews, check out this post by JQ Rose.
Personally, I like to read a lot of books and share my reviews on Goodreads, BookBub, my blog, Kobo (if the book is available there) and on Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. If you want to learn more about Goodreads and BookBub, check out this post.
Apparently I’m the absolute queen of fae! So reviews are good for you even if you are not on the receiving end. (And sometimes these grateful authors will go and review something you wrote, too. It’s called karma.)
BookBub has an excellent article on how to get more reader reviews.
And Nick Stephenson has a whole YouTube video on how to easily build your launch team to get more book reviews.
What’s the fuss about reviews?
You can have the perfect story, the perfect cover, the perfect blurb, the perfect editing and still have minimum book sales. Why? A lack of reviews. People like to do what others are doing, and if it looks like no-one is interested in something (no reviews), they won’t be interested either.
It makes me think of the movie “The Croods”:
Luckily, authors can easily fix this. How? By having a group of superfans who want to read everything they write and then share their thoughts about it with others in the form of reviews.
I started a new list last year – the Mythmaker Clique – for this very reason. My superfans get my books for free and all I want is an honest review.
Yeah, you read right: they get books for free. Reviews sell books, so why not reward my loyal fans for their hard work? I don’t even ask for five star reviews – just honest ones on at least two platforms (e.g. Goodreads and Kobo, etc.).
Besides, having reviews from readers lets you know exactly what they are liking in your series and what isn’t working for them so you can fix stuff going forward.
An excellent book on the subject: “Writing Book Reviews As An Author: Inspiration To Make It Easier” by J Lenni Dorner. Check out my review here.
Services like BookSprout, Netgalley and StoryOrigin help with getting your ARCs into the hands of eager readers. Personally, I use StoryOrigin. Check out what I did for Magic at Midnight and for Once… Tales, Myths and Legends on that site.
What are your thoughts about reviews? Do you have a launch/street team? Do you write reviews? Any tips to share?
IWSG BOOK CLUB ON GOODREADS:
Our book club is changing things up!
We will have quarterly book selections now, giving us more time to read. We will also have one fiction book selection and one writing craft book selection. Members can read both or choose between them. Finally, we won’t be offering 5 optional discussion questions anymore. Instead, we will be utilizing the polls that our members enjoy, so there will be one poll question for the fiction book and one for the non-fiction book on Discussion Day.
Our December/January/February reads are…
Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor, a book written in second person. Since many readers haven’t read a book in second person, and many writers haven’t written in second person, we figured this is a great chance to explore something new.
Preparing to Write Settings that Feel Like Characters by J Lenni Dorner. This will be our writing craft book, with a focus on settings.
Discussion Day for both books will be February 24, 2021!
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You make a lot of sense Ronel – book reviews are really important, whether it’s a one liner on Goodreads and Amazon or a full blown essay on your own blog. I’m going to check out your Mythmaker Clique. Also, Happy New Year and thank you for hosting the Jan 6th IWSG.
Happy New Year!
Years ago, as a reader of so many books, I never thought about leaving a book review. It never crossed my mind. Now, as an author, reviews are so essential.
Good Post.
Thank you for co-hosting this month!
That’s smart to start your own fan club. I need to get back to leaving more reviews online.
Thanks for co-hosting today!
Thank you for co-hosting, and for all of the good information about reviews. I need to start doing them. Also, I’m excited about the new book club setup. I signed up last year and finished 0 of the books between my job and my projects. I am going to try again!
Hi and Happy New Year!
Book reviews are important, and I do as many as I can. Great idea.
All the best for 2021 and thank you for co-hosting.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G @ EverythingMustChange
Thanks for co-hosting. I don’t write long reviews but I do try to write three to four sentence reviews on Goodreads to help the author out.
Excellent post, Ronel! Reviews are an author’s best friend and worst enemy. Courting them takes as much time as writing the darn book. Numbers are everything in our industry – how many stars, how many reviews, how many views, how many like . . . etc. Getting early interest is key and I like your street team plan. Visibility can make all the difference. Thanks for co-hosting!
I totally agree that reader reviews are important for indy authors. I always leave them for indy writers, as long as I enjoyed the book enough to finish it – and I really, really wish more of my readers would leave me a review.
Happy New Year, Ronel!
I leave reviews for books I enjoy, though I’ve been guilty of skipping a review if the author already has hundreds for that book. Because I know how much blood, sweat, and tears go into writing and publishing a book, I don’t leave bad reviews.
A dilemma I’ve encountered is when another author asks for a review swap. The assumption seems to be that of course I’ll give a good review out of solidarity. But what if, in my view, the book’s not very good? My integrity matters, and I won’t recommend a book to my readers unless I sincerely think they’ll like it–so no more review swaps.
Thanks for co-hosting.
Excellent post, Ronel. Reviews are important, good or bad. It’s a tough business and reviews definitely help. Thank you for co-hosting. BTW, the look of your blog is lovely. Happy New Year.
Great points about reviews, Ronel. They are the word of mouth we all need.
I don’t write reviews on my blog or elsewhere of late, but I still read a lot of reviews even though I haven’t been reading many books. I enjoy a well written review that is informative about the book. What annoys me are reviews that interject personal political or world view opinions that have nothing to do with a book, but just something the reviewer wants to say.
But, yes, bring on good (or at least well-intended reviews. Sometimes I like reviews better than actually reading the book.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
I’m bad at promoting my work as well as others. I write reviews for my author friends when they request it. I do social media marketing for my clients so I’m all platform jumping out by the end of the day. Still, I’m trying to find a healthy balance.
When it’s a disturbing book I’m unsure about (uber graphic content) I love reading the reviews. It’s like being able to see around the sun without having to look directly at it. Happy IWSG day. Thank you for co-hosting!
Thanks for co-hosting! Reviews are definitely valuable. I keep thinking I should build up a reader group, but I’m so stinkin’ slow with my writing that I figured I would only disappoint them.
I write reviews on my Goodreads page. I like doing it for many reasons. It keeps track of the books I read and what I thought about them. It helps me process the books. It gives the author recognition and usually good press. I’ll follow you on Goodreads!
Such a great post! I’ve been starting to creat a list of reviewers/possible reviewers, so this really helps. I love that you’ve shared so many resources on this topic as well. I’ll have to check them all out! 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed the blog post on book reviews. Your post here is loaded with info for us. I just signed on to Story Origin, but I am struggling to discover the best way to use it. Glad you left a link to help me out. Thanks so much for co-hosting!!
I agree. Reviews are very important. And like you mentioned, they don’t have to be long, either. I used to offer reviews, but once I was published, I found it harder to leave reviews on some sights. Now, I’m available for review requests from publishers/publicists. Saying that, if I read a book on my own and not for work I try to always leave some sort of review. It’s a random act of kindness. 🙂
Yes, I am learning more and more of why book reviews are so important. I’ve been part of many launches, and diligently review on platforms requested. For popular readings, I don’t always leave a review, I must admit, but I do read others!
Good post. Reviews do matter, and I’m working on how to convince more of my readers to leave them!
Fascinating post. I always review books I read, but getting reviews for my own fiction is much harder. I need to cogitate on this.
I review nearly everything I read, and if I love it, I post it everywhere 🙂 Glad you do, too. It can be really hard to get any reviews at all when you’re not yet famous.
Great points. And I love the idea of superfans getting your books for free. Why shouldn’t fans who are already excited about your books get special access to those books? They’ve already demonstrated that they want to share their excitement and review. It’s a beautiful problem/solution loop and I like the entire idea of it. Now that I think of it, it’s a lot like the Patreon groups and rewards I’m already a part of, because I love the authors I support so much. So I’m probably biased, haha. Anyway, thank you for co-hosting this month! Happy IWSG day.
I always read reviews on things, so why don’t I write them? It’s such a great word of mouth recommendation. Thanks for the reminder!
Hi, Ronel! Thank you for co-hosting today and thank you for your post on reviews. I have a bunch to write for IWSG members because I’ve read some great books. Unfortunately I read faster than I write ~ LOL. If I don’t like a book, I don’t review it. I just don’t have the heart to say unkind things. Wishing you all the best in the new year!
I try to leave a review of every book I read. As a writer, I know how important reviews are. Thanks for co-hosting this month.
Your street team sounds like a great idea. There really is no better publicity than the type readers can offer. I’m still trying to be better about leaving reviews. I always overthink it – but leaving even just a couple of lines about what I liked seems a good way to go.
Hello queen of fae! 🙂 I don’t see anything bad or wrong about reviews. As an author, especially, I would like to learn about people’s opinions. While I don’t have much time to read books, since the last four years or so, I’ve made it a habit of writing and posting reviews for authors I know. Like you said, word of mouth is the best way to promote books and authors and reviews are the way to do this. Yet, when one-star ratings or reviews show up, it stings! Thank you for co-hosting this month and have a fabulous 2021 filled with positive reviews for your books. 🙂
Hi, and happy New Year!
What a terrific post. Reviews are both helpful and terrifying; something I keep in mind when writing one.
Thanks for co-hosting!
I was much better about reviews last year, but have failed to do them this year. I usually do a bit of a binge review by going though my posts and reposting the reviews to Goodreads and Amazon.
Thanks Ronel for your post. I now feel guilty for not writing more reviews on Goodreads. I always rate them with stars but rarely take the time to write a review. Something important to amend for this new year. Congratulations on your Mythmaker Reviewers. Great idea. Wishing you a creative and exciting 2021. Take care.
I leave reviews for every book I read that doesn’t make me throw it out in disgust (see question of the month!) I see it as my duty as an indie author who’s hoping that people will review my books. That’s on my blog, Goodreads and Amazon, and those get tweets and FB shares. If I’ve bought it somewhere else I’ll review it that place too.
Sometimes I don’t leave reviews for big sellers, because, why bother. But even they can do with constructive criticism sometimes 🙂
Thanks for co-hosting this month, Ronel. And happy new year!
Thanks for co-hosting. I’m tardy because I was helping my mom move last week.
I write less reviews now that I’m published, and I’m gentler. Besides the ‘support other authors’ factor, once you’ve been on the receiving end, it changes you as a reviewer.
I try not to read my reviews, because I’m too sensitive haha. But I love to review books, good and bad, so that hopefully I can help someone improve like I want to do. (I do read the reviews, and though I get defensive, I really do take to heart what they said.)
I’m really late in reading this month’s IWSG posts, but thank you for co-hosting! Also, I followed you on IG!
An excellent post, Ronel, and very timely for me! I’ve heard about BookSprout but I want to check out the other ARC resources you mentioned.
I’ve written over 400 reviews on Goodreads–so important for authors to review, too! And it helps my writing, I believe.