A short and sweet visit today to celebrate Labor Day. I thought this was the perfect time to send a reminder to everyone already enjoying Signs of Portents or those that have finished to leave a book review on your favorite site.
A book review gives you a voice.
Consumers have more power in the retailer market than ever before. Is this a good thing? Most of the time. I know some people that tend to skew negative because they can. Others tend to go the other way and stay positive as often as possible. I tend to fall in the latter category. The old adage – “If you have nothing good to say about someone, keep your trap shut.” (That was it, wasn’t it?)
It was a lesson I learned trolling on eBay for comic books. A retailer sent me the wrong book by mistake and failed to rectify the situation or even answer my e-mails to work out some compromise. I left a negative review. Suddenly my inbox was flush with panicked protests over my review, a full refund and an apology. This poor retailer feared the reprisal associated with a negative review. I have never posted a negative review since.
Does this mean you should lie?
No. Never. Honest reviews are appreciated and can add to a reader’s search for their next favorite book. What I mention above is that instead of posting a negative review and hurting a person’s potential livelihood, maybe focus on something you actually enjoyed reading and leave a review for that instead. If the book, or the film, or anything else, is of subpar quality the lack of reviews will confirm this for potential buyers.
I would never say give a product five stars or walk away. I would say to weigh leaving a negative review heavily before posting. Not everyone is Amazon. Or Google. Or Microsoft. A negative review for them is a drop in the bucket. For the independents in the world, there is considerable pressure to be great. And we should be great, or as close to greatness as possible.
Again, the lack of reviews will reflect this as well. Without skewing negative.
Turning the tide.
I received an e-mail from Steve Windsor last year. Someone left a negative review on one of his books in the Nine Day Novel series – an interesting approach to writing a book when you have nothing else on your plate and impractical goals, such as myself. The negative reviewer felt the same and rather than dismiss the theory and walk away they left a blistering book review attacking Steve, even though he has proven it to work (at least with his own writing).
Steve sent out a plea to his subscribers for reviews to counteract the negative addition to his page on Amazon. When an author is J.K. Rowling with thousands upon thousands of reviews the negative never slow down the positive. They never gain a foothold. With a small press like Steve? He needed help.
He got it. In spades. That’s the power of a great e-mail list and something I hope to improve upon in the coming year. Until then, however, I want to reach out and ask each and every one of you that has enjoyed Signs of Portents to utilize your power of words and leave a book review.
A big thank you to everyone whose been able to leave a review so far. Keep them coming and I’ll keep writing.
Thanks.
P.S. I am looking into creating some Advance Reader Copies of my next book to front load some reviews on Amazon prior to book launch in February. If anyone is interested in doing this please contact me here.
