RETHINKING REVIEWING AS AN AUTHOR

I just finished a big campaign for my Interstellar Rescue SFR series with a promo group called Itsy Bitsy Book Bits. The company’s founder, Colleen Noyes, and her team provide a full range of promotional services for authors, including organizing social media blitzes on Twitter and in Facebook reader groups, and recruiting reviewers. They can help launch a new book, or as in my case, generate new interest in books that have been out for a while.

I had used IBBB when I first launched one or two of my titles, so I called on Colleen again as I was starting over as a self-published author. And the results were great! Colleen has a sizable stable of volunteer reviewers to draw from, and I gained 20-25 or so new reviews for each of my books, posted not only on Amazon and Goodreads, but on BookBub, too.

I didn’t really write this post as an ad for IBBB, though I highly recommend the company if you need promo help. All this has been a long lead-in to a mea culpa and a vow to do better myself when it comes to reviews.

Everybunny should write reviews, including me.

Yes, I know, I have urged folks for years to PLEASE REVIEW the books you read. Authors thrive on reviews like flowers thrive on sunshine. In fact, we can’t survive without them. But the sad truth is, although I read dozens of books every year, I write very few reviews. (The exceptions are for friends' book launches, or by special request, or for a great book that seems to have attracted little notice.) Time is a factor, of course. But, as many other authors will tell you, Amazon actively discourages writers from reviewing other writers, at times even removing reviews and sending nasty emails if you dare to post a review. There are ways around the Evil ’Zon Gnomes, but I won’t say what those are.

So I often duck my duty. Then my reviewers started posting on BookBub. And I got this message: To grow your following and get more exposure, post recommendations 1-4 times per month. Huh. You mean, you want me to recommend books by other authors? Well, yes, that makes sense, but usually no one outside the writing community recognizes that cross-promotion is a good thing. Competition has always been the key to success according to the Powers That Be. Thus the NY Times Best Sellers List, the fight to get to the Big Five publishers and Amazon in all its crazy glory.

Then there is Goodreads. A lovely idea, really, which has had its own problems from time to time. I won’t go into those drawbacks here, except to say I haven’t experienced any of them, perhaps because I’ve stayed under the radar. But, since I read a lot, I get messages from the GR folks, too. “Now that you’ve finished Title X, what did you think of it?” “Update your progress!” “What will you read next?” And so on. Helpful, but a little creepy.

Still, since everyone knows what books I’m reading (or have read) thanks to the kind GR folks, it stands to reason I should say something about those books. And, who knows, those readers who follow me may then want to read those books, too. If nothing else, they will learn something about me, which helps shape my “brand,” whatever that may be. (The problem is my reading tastes are very eclectic—from historical nonfiction to romantic suspense, Regency romance to Stephen King. What readers are supposed to deduce from that I don’t know.)

They’ll probably notice I’m pretty positive in my reviews, once I get down to writing them. It's rare when I pick up a dud, but it happens. Still, I’m a Southern girl; my mama always said, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. So when it comes to a Did Not Finish, all you’ll hear from me (publicly) is the sound of crickets chirping.

Cheers, Donna