I write to update everyone about my various experiences in trying to get reviews for my books.
My first book has now 40 reviews on Amazon (many more on Goodreads) and at this point I have tried:
--NetGalley --Indie Group Reviews (the link has since died and they closed shop) --Book Tours --Contacting Amazon reviewers directly
Here is what worked and did not work for me. I hope you can use this info :)
--Net Galley:
NetGalley is a legit site where you pay to get your book reviewed. The reviewers are not paid (so it's allowed by Amazon). It's expensive, but you can go in with an author coop and pay as less as $25/month per book.
My opinion: not worth it.
The nitty-gritty: There is lots of competition and any book gets very few reviews unless you are a big name author. The reviews I received (except for a couple of librarians) were low quality (good or bad but not logical and often riddled with typos). Reviewers have a strange sense of entitlement on this site. I don't mind the occasional one-star review (all my books have an average above 4 stars) as long as it's well justified. I put my brand new release on Net Galley, and the first two reviews I landed were one-stars. I thought I had written an awful book until I read them. "Very well written, loved the characters, etc...I just wished the end was different." O_o Unprofessional reviews like that make my blood boil. (The book has now 25 ratings with an average of 4.36. 11 reviews on Amazon, all 5 stars.)
--Indie Group Reviews: this worked for me and I liked their method (leave an honest review/get an honest review, non-reciprocal) but the site has closed since. I know they were struggling to get authors.
--Book tours: this worked very well for me. It's expensive, depending on what services you want to get, but the reviews are honest and thoughtful, from real bookworms. I value this type of service. I used two different site (which I will not advertise here, but they tend to be genre-specific) and was very satisfied with both. Some reviewers liked the books better than others, but all reviews were honest and well articulated.
My opinion: worth it.
--Contacting Amazon reviewers directly. Yep, you read it right. Some reviewers make their e-mail available and you can contact them to see if they are interested. This takes a ton of work, of course, and you need to be sensible and not spam people. There are programs (for a price) that will extract bunches of emails for you.
My opinion: worth it, if you have the time to write sensible emails to a lot of people asking for reviews. I got a few that way (not a ton) and made a couple of friendships.
Long story short: the best reviews are still the ones I receive organically from people who stumble on my books.
I will write a new post if I get any new updates :)
I write to update everyone about my various experiences in trying to get reviews for my books.
My first book has now 40 reviews on Amazon (many more on Goodreads) and at this point I have tried:
--NetGalley
--Indie Group Reviews (the link has since died and they closed shop)
--Book Tours
--Contacting Amazon reviewers directly
Here is what worked and did not work for me. I hope you can use this info :)
--Net Galley:
NetGalley is a legit site where you pay to get your book reviewed. The reviewers are not paid (so it's allowed by Amazon). It's expensive, but you can go in with an author coop and pay as less as $25/month per book.
My opinion: not worth it.
The nitty-gritty:
There is lots of competition and any book gets very few reviews unless you are a big name author. The reviews I received (except for a couple of librarians) were low quality (good or bad but not logical and often riddled with typos). Reviewers have a strange sense of entitlement on this site. I don't mind the occasional one-star review (all my books have an average above 4 stars) as long as it's well justified. I put my brand new release on Net Galley, and the first two reviews I landed were one-stars. I thought I had written an awful book until I read them. "Very well written, loved the characters, etc...I just wished the end was different." O_o
Unprofessional reviews like that make my blood boil. (The book has now 25 ratings with an average of 4.36. 11 reviews on Amazon, all 5 stars.)
--Indie Group Reviews: this worked for me and I liked their method (leave an honest review/get an honest review, non-reciprocal) but the site has closed since. I know they were struggling to get authors.
--Book tours: this worked very well for me. It's expensive, depending on what services you want to get, but the reviews are honest and thoughtful, from real bookworms. I value this type of service. I used two different site (which I will not advertise here, but they tend to be genre-specific) and was very satisfied with both. Some reviewers liked the books better than others, but all reviews were honest and well articulated.
My opinion: worth it.
--Contacting Amazon reviewers directly.
Yep, you read it right. Some reviewers make their e-mail available and you can contact them to see if they are interested. This takes a ton of work, of course, and you need to be sensible and not spam people. There are programs (for a price) that will extract bunches of emails for you.
My opinion: worth it, if you have the time to write sensible emails to a lot of people asking for reviews. I got a few that way (not a ton) and made a couple of friendships.
Long story short: the best reviews are still the ones I receive organically from people who stumble on my books.
I will write a new post if I get any new updates :)