I just finished finalizing a new book release. It took me
six months to ensure that it was quality work. I know that it is review time. Currently,
I am looking for reviewers. Don’t get me wrong. I know plenty of reviewers that
can read my work and give reviews. However, I am that rare form of author that
is brave enough to ask different people for reviews. Therefore, I search for
new reviewers with each book release. This past week I stumbled across three
review groups on Facebook. They were hilarious to say the least. In the
description it stated that no one should ask to trade reviews or pay for
positive reviews. Additionally, there was more comedy as the description stated
that this was a place where ‘honest reviews’ take place (Insert laughter here).
Since everyone seems to have opinions on how authors get
reviews…I think I will take a stab at it as well…
I don’t believe for one minute that most authors get ‘honest
reviews” and this is why…
First, the only people that should be reviewing people’s
books in my opinion are readers. This means people that actually purchase your
work. If you are sending free .pdf files of your work to random people, how can
you look someone in the face and state that you want honest reviews? You are
gifting your work to someone and then begging for a review. There is nothing honest
about this practice since in fact you are paying them with a free book.
Second, there are thousands of authors on amazon.com that
make their work free for thirty days in order to garner reviews and even get
best-seller status. Not only is this indeed unethical. It is once again a scam
to garner reviews from people that did not pay for your work by ‘gifting’ them
a free book. Further, this practice makes it look as if an author has a higher
ranking on amazon.com than they actually do. Sorry authors but the scam is up.
Third, never tell someone not to pay to get a book review.
That is ridiculous. There are many large review companies under the publishing
industry umbrella that in fact do get paid to produce high quality and
reputable reviews. What about book critics? What about literary columnists?
There are also independent reviewers and those that run literary blog tours
that in fact get paid to review authors work.
Finally, most authors send their work to the same review
houses over and over again to ensure they are getting reviewed. Positive
reviews are often based on the relationship between the author and the review
house. I have seen it time and time again in this industry. Do you really think
that publishing companies don’t have relationships with review companies? No
one can really believe that this true.
Please stop with the ‘honest review’ nonsense. Focus on
getting a more thorough review of your work that includes a review of the
syntax, storyline, story elements, content, and overall writing style. This is
more telling to the reader in terms of the type of experience they will have
when they engage with your work. Steer clear of the ‘honest review’ mantra
since this clearly hinges on something personal rather than professional.
Reviews are hard enough to come by and since most readers report that this does
not influence their decision to purchase there is no need to convolute this
practice with foolishness.
As always happy reading!
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