Tag: reviews

Keeping Your Reviews After Rights Revert to You

Business of Writing

Coastal scene with white sand and blue water under white puffy clouds.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve written on rights reversion a couple of times and each time I’ve received emails from traditionally published authors concerned about one aspect or another relating to the process.

The biggest concern appears to be keeping those hard-earned reviews after a rights reversion.

ISBNs do need to be changed in some circumstances, most notably when the content of the book is changed.  These changes are due to significant alteration of the book’s content, not fixing typos, etc.

But ISBNs do not need to be changed when changing a book’s cover, for example.  Or when changing publishers. With no change, those reviews are not in any danger.

This is fresh on my mind because I’ve just recently received the long-awaited ebook rights to the first Myrtle Clover book from Midnight Ink (as of July 1).

Here is US ISBN agency Bowker on changing ISBNs: Continue reading

A Tip for Building Your ARC Team

Promo Tips, Uncategorized

A man reading in an elaborate library.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I have been building my ARC team (Advance Reader/Review Copy  team) organically for years. Organically as in…I didn’t do the building myself.  If a reader reached out to me and asked to be on my list (a list that I never mentioned and never promoted), then I agreed to the add.

But recently, I’ve been more interested in increasing the number of ARC readers . I do like the early reviews and social media mentions and I think they help spike interest in a new release.

Since I’m a pretty late adopter, I decided to make it very simple on myself.  Instead of putting something on my website, I reached out to my most dedicated readers–my newsletter subscribers. When my last release came out and I sent an email to my subscribers to notify them,  I included a special section in my newsletter:

Would you like the opportunity to read new Myrtle Clover and Southern Quilting mysteries before they are published (and for free)?  I have a limited number of spaces on my ARC team (that’s an advance reader copy team). Applicants must be able to read ebooks (on Kindle, epub, or PDF since there won’t be any print galleys).  I would love honest reviews submitted to Amazon, Goodreads,  or other retailers/reading communities .  ARC members receive an early copy 1-2 weeks before the book is published. ARC team members are also eligible to get signed, printed copies of my books at a reduced rate (just the cost of printing and shipping) when purchased directly from me. If you’re interested, click this link to fill out a short form for consideration. Thanks!Continue reading

Making the Most of Book Reviews

Promo Tips

Woman covered in a blanket reading a book.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I read a lot about the importance of book reviews to a book’s success.  There are tons of articles out there about how to get more book reviews or how to find and contact book reviewers.

But sometimes I think writers don’t do enough with book reviews, when we have them.  We allow them to sit statically on our Amazon book page.

I’m guilty of this, myself.  But I’ve made more of an effort lately to highlight my reviews, recognizing the importance of social proof.

Amazon Product Page

As I mentioned above, this is usually the repository of many of our reviews… at least, our customer reviews.  Although the focus when I first got published was more on reviews in publications like Library Journal and Kirkus, the importance of customer reviews to potential readers has become increasingly important.

But that shouldn’t be the only place on the product page where our reviews are listed.  A strategy that works for series is to add up all the 5-star or 4 and 5 star reviews and mention them under the ‘editorial review’ section on the page (we access that through our author central account).   That way you end up with something like “readers love Winston Pepperjack!  500 5-star reviews.”

You can also create and format a list of your favorite reviews from other books in the series and list them on the editorial review page (Praise for the Winston Pepperjack series:  ___ ).

Back Matter

This is something that I’m trying soon.  I have all of my books listed in the back matter of each book (every book is linked to its own page on my website with ordering information for each retailer), but I don’t have any review snippets in the back matter at all.

If I include short reviews, I’m thinking it will help readers crossover from one series of mine to another.  I do have some readers who are very loyal to a particular series and reluctant to try another.  Reviews could help convince these readers to try something new.

Images

This is something new for me, although I’ve seen others do this really well.  Using a free design program like Canva or Visme, take part of a review and create an image with it.  This creates a little visual interest for your website.  I always feel like incorporating reviews on my site is a bit awkward, and the images help, I think.

I’m absolutely horrible at design, but even I was able to make a couple of serviceable images with the help of Canva.

Newsletters

We can also take the images we’ve created and include them in our newsletter with a link to the book in question.  That could be a good, again, for reader discovery.

Finding your best reviews

Some writers avoid their review sections at all costs.  But there are ways of finding your most flattering customer reviews without having to trudge through the one-star, discouraging stuff.  Just click on ‘5-star’ and Amazon will return the 5-star results.

Amazon reviews

What do you do with your book reviews?

Making the most of your reviews: Click To Tweet

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Responding to Reviews and Comments

Promo Tips, Uncategorized

Picture of a hand thumbing through a book with the post's title, "Responding to Reviews and Comments" superimposed on the image.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

One of the most awkward things about being a writer is handling reviews and reader comments.

The rule of thumb is to never reply or comment on reviews: good, bad, or indifferent. In many cases, this is my own personal policy (I list exceptions below). Reviews are for other potential readers, not usually intended for the author.  Responding to reviews is a special kind of author intrusion. And authors, especially responding to a poor review, can come across as argumentative.

But a recent post by Crystal Otto on the Women on Writing blog made me reconsider my policy, at least in terms of book bloggers.

In the post, she states: “Feedback is so important. The best way to say thank you to an author is to leave a review. As authors we can encourage this behavior by in-turn thanking the reviewer. I often receive a thank you or a ‘like’ on Amazon after reviewing a book or product. Do you make this a common practice in your writing life?” (Emphasis hers.)

She wrote a thoughtful post with many good points. I try to practice gratitude both professionally and personally, but her article was an excellent reminder. Continue reading

The Danger of Responding to Reviews

Business of Writing, Uncategorized

The Danger of Responding to Reviews

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Last week I read a Washington Post article about doctors who were angered by bad Yelp reviews from patients.  They fired back at these patients, revealing confidential information in the process. (“Doctors Fire Back at Bad Yelp Reviews–and Reveal Patients’ Information Online” by Charles Ornstein.)

The crux of this particular piece was that doctors who responded angrily to the patients were violating patient privacy.  But to me, it was just another reminder of the inherent danger of responding to reviews.  Any reviews.

It’s very difficult for me to imagine a time where an author comes out looking good after responding to reviews.Continue reading

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