I go with US and UK links for my Amazon editions. For wide books, I use one EPUB file for all of them so I just link to my site instead and use a generic request to review where they purchased it... and my reviews are notably lower without that clickable link. You could go the extra mile and make custom editions for each retailer, but then your admin is just rising exponentially with each new book.
You can do them for other stores though! At least, I've done them previously for UK and AU, and I don't see any reason why you couldn't do it for others - but haven't actually tested that.
@@DavidGaughran I included a link to UK and US in my book, and then saw that someone from CA left a review. Not sure if he did that using my link and then changing the store himself or not, but I guess adding them all in there would just increase the likelihood, so may as well.
I wonder if David has created such a distinctive appearance (with the big beard and different covered mustache), so that he can enhance his brand among readers.
Eighteen minutes on the subject of how to get reviews on Amazon produced only one fully discussed idea - leaving a link in your eBook to the Amazon review page. What a waste of time.
Hey, David! You say in the video that you'll provide a link we can use as an example to take readers directly to the review box on our book's page. I don't see it below. Am I just blind?
Sorry if I was unclear - it's a link to a blog post by Dave Chesson explaining how to construct these links. And it's up there in the description, if you click the READ MORE thingy. Or just go here! kindlepreneur.com/how-to-get-book-reviews-with-no-blog-no-list-and-no-begging/
More amazing bearded wisdom - thank you. I am quite sure rapid release could undermine an author's mental health faster than a meteorite! I'm aiming for every 3 - 4 months, and that is rapid for me. I want to enjoy the journey. Dig the black pudding T-shirt BTW, I grew up on that stuff.
Gah! That was supposed to be a reply to the youtube on rapid release! But the UA-cam rapidly released and I ended up commenting on the boring green T-shirt by mistake! (no need to reply, happy Xmas)
I agree Kirkus and the like are not worth the money for the average indie author, but I do have it on good authority from friends who work in public library systems in the US that if your book doesn't have a review at one of those trad-pub review services they likely won't even look at it -- so it can be worth it if you're doing a hard push to get your books into libraries. (Which isn't for everyone.) Different up here in Canada with our library systems; they're much more amenable to having indie author books in their system, especially if you're Canadian (we try hard to promote our own country's arts). And likely there are also library systems in the US where that isn't the case, but the ones I'm talking about in particular are massive behemoths, not smaller community ones.
I'm not so sure about that - in either direction. I've had friends who got starred reviews from Kirkus (including one who got some type of genre prize) who didn't get any action from libraries, and I've managed to get into lots without any review from Kirkus or any similar place. That's my print editions - I've made a few audio/digital sales also. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if a glowing review increases your chances marginally, but it doesn't seem to drive libraries to stock your book on its own, nor does the lack of a Kirkus review seem to act as a block either. Libraries are one of the few places that do actually subscribe to Kirkus, but it's also worth noting that I think Kirkus still does the same thing as Publishers Weekly and ghettoizes all the indies in their own "special" section along with all the vanity press victims - which isn't a good look. And the partnerships it has with vanity presses are so awful - I really couldn't go into detail here but feel free to check the BEWARES section on my website - that any money we can divert away from the grasping hands of Kirkus is worth the effort.
@@DavidGaughran I can state with certainty that you very likely can get into your local library, as libraries tend to favor local authors. All I had to do was contact the acquisitions person directly.
I'll get into Booksprout and ARCs in more detail in a future video, and I should stress that my experience might have been atypical as I've heard good things... but that's not really how it played out for me. I got the more expensive package ($20 a month, I think, but they have free options), and did a couple of non-fiction books, and a couple of historical novels. The latter were "new" - well, republished under a new name. That part didn't seem to make a difference to uptake. In fact, uptake was pretty low overall. I didn't see much evidence of their supposed "freeloader algorithm" weeding out people who just take the book and don't review - I think only a third or a quarter of recipients reviewed. I also didn't see much evidence that paying for the Pro package actually pushed your ARC to their audience. I seemed to drive most of the takeup personally (and I don't need a service to reach my own audience!). Also some customer service wobbles, I have to say. Wasn't a huge fan of the experience, but maybe it's just much better for romance - I can't say.
@@DavidGaughran For what it's worth, while I'd heard good things about Book Sprout and overall it wasn't necessarily a bad experience for me, I had a couple of reviews from their reviewers that began with some version of "I really hate fantasy and wouldn't normally read it, but since the book was free, I gave it a go... and it was fantasy, so I'm giving it a low star rating because that's not for me." That said, there were more reviewers from people who normally read fantasy and had insightful things to say than there were people reading genres they hated because they were getting a free review copy through BookSprout. And I'm not really sure someone giving a review that says they hate fantasy is going to deter a fantasy reader from picking up a book. It might have the opposite effect, even.
@@DavidGaughran Thanks, David! I tried a free ARC test with them last year for the first book in an older nonfiction fitness memoir series (yeah, niche of a niche). I offered 10 copies, had 6 downloads, and I got 5 pretty solid reviews. It was a small sample and wasn't sure if it would be worth upgrading to the paid levels for my sci-fi books. I'll be on the lookout for the upcoming video.
Informative video, thank you. It got me wondering, though.........if John Smith leaves a review for Mary Kirkpatrick after purchasing her book on an active account he has spent hundreds of dollars in over the past 4 years, and Amazon denies or pulls it down, what exactly is it that causes Amazon's "bot" to believe John and Mary are "close friends"? Santa Claus certainly knows when I'm naughty or nice, but I'm not certain even he knows who all my "close friends" are.
Amazon doesn't disclose how it determines such relationships but, for starters, it does seem to flag anything with a shared IP address - understandably. However, it goes far beyond that and reports of false positives abound. I certainly lose genuine reviews all the time.
Ehi David, thanks for this video...Yeah, I watched it some days ago. But I'm looking for some answers about the platforms I told you about in the other question... Thank you
Let me see... views might differ on this but I think this isn't the best way to go about it. The only reason I might use a service like that is to pay to access THEIR audience. I don't see the value if I have to drive the traffic there, and I certainly wouldn't pay to do that. If I'm going to spend on Facebook Ads, I'll do it to increase sales, which will have the happy side-effect of increasing my review count, and my mailing list, as well as generating sales and visibility to offset the cost of the ads. I prefer to use my list to manage and distribute ARCs, and I would only pay for a service like that if I didn't have a list or a readership which I could tap for ARCs (or if I didn't have an audience large enough where ARCs no longer become necessary). I have tried a few of these services when launching a new pen name, but I wasn't blown away by any of them - specifically because they didn't generate a lot of reviews for me unless I pushed traffic there. And if I'm doing that, why am I paying for their service? If I own the traffic, I can generate reviews without them.
@@DavidGaughran yes! Totally agree... thanks David to clarify my mind clouds... I was screwing as a dummy when the answer was there in front of my eyes... Thanks for all you do! I’m proud to promote you into my list of friends and publishers, and this is why!
I've heard romance authors raving about HiddenGems but haven't tested it personally. When I went to test it a few years ago, the owner warned that take-up would be poor for my genre because their list in that niche was still quite small - so they definitely get points for that. But can't give you a personal take.
I used them under my pen name for my illustrated children's book and I got almost 2 dozen reviews as a result. To me, it was money well spent. The review appear to be honest and by real people (not overly flowery or anything).
Hello David. Thank you very much One of my book has been selected to Monthy Deals and I have no Idea if I can do anything to get some extra money/visibility or just wait and see? Thank you
Good luck with the promotion! It's really hard to know in advance how many sales a promotion like this will deliver. A lot of it depends on how many other books are in the promotion, and what kind of positioning you get. As far as I can tell, except for a smattering of handpicked titles, the order seems to be based on your book's ranking the Popularity list, so increasing sales during the time of your Monthly Deal should improve your placement. And indeed, "warming up" the book with some promo *beforehand* could be something interesting to try. It should improve the placement you are in when the Monthly Deal commences. Some tips here on putting together a promo: davidgaughran.com/2019/04/01/%ef%bb%bfsell-books-marketing-amazon-bookbub-facebook-book-advertising/
@@DavidGaughran thank you for your response. I think it is not possible since they send me an email with the following text: "If you accept to participate, we will require you to keep your titles' regular prices unchanged during the 14 days prior to the promotion and the 7 days after (this is to improve the customer experience of the discounts). We will apply the discount price to your book during each promotion (you will not need to modify the price yourself)."
You have some options, if not a complete free hand here, because of those pricing restrictions. First, you can run whatever ads you like once the price change automatically kicks in, stressing that price offer in your ads. Second, you can actually run ads just before your Monthly Deal starts, it just won't be a discounted book you are offering in the ad, so you'll have to frame it in a different way. Amazon Ads and Facebook Ads are options for full-price books, in my experience, but skip BookBub Ads until your price has actually dropped as that's a price sensitive audience.
Great tip, thanks! Do you put these custom review links in for each of the Amazon stores? Or just for US/UK?
I go with US and UK links for my Amazon editions. For wide books, I use one EPUB file for all of them so I just link to my site instead and use a generic request to review where they purchased it... and my reviews are notably lower without that clickable link. You could go the extra mile and make custom editions for each retailer, but then your admin is just rising exponentially with each new book.
You can do them for other stores though! At least, I've done them previously for UK and AU, and I don't see any reason why you couldn't do it for others - but haven't actually tested that.
@@DavidGaughran I included a link to UK and US in my book, and then saw that someone from CA left a review. Not sure if he did that using my link and then changing the store himself or not, but I guess adding them all in there would just increase the likelihood, so may as well.
I wonder if David has created such a distinctive appearance (with the big beard and different covered mustache), so that he can enhance his brand among readers.
Wasn't planned but I might be stuck with it now!
Eighteen minutes on the subject of how to get reviews on Amazon produced only one fully discussed idea - leaving a link in your eBook to the Amazon review page. What a waste of time.
Great video AGAIN, thanks! How does Amazon determine if someone is your friend?
Another great video. Thank you once again, David!
Really helpful advice, thank you!
Hey, David! You say in the video that you'll provide a link we can use as an example to take readers directly to the review box on our book's page. I don't see it below. Am I just blind?
Sorry if I was unclear - it's a link to a blog post by Dave Chesson explaining how to construct these links. And it's up there in the description, if you click the READ MORE thingy. Or just go here! kindlepreneur.com/how-to-get-book-reviews-with-no-blog-no-list-and-no-begging/
@@DavidGaughran Thanks, David! Sorry! I may have been listening too fast--or too slowly--or something. :( Link clicked!
More amazing bearded wisdom - thank you. I am quite sure rapid release could undermine an author's mental health faster than a meteorite! I'm aiming for every 3 - 4 months, and that is rapid for me. I want to enjoy the journey. Dig the black pudding T-shirt BTW, I grew up on that stuff.
I'm far from the source now myself and no black pudding to be had here. Ah sure it would bring a tear to a glass eye.
Gah! That was supposed to be a reply to the youtube on rapid release! But the UA-cam rapidly released and I ended up commenting on the boring green T-shirt by mistake! (no need to reply, happy Xmas)
Thanks! Enjoying your course.
I agree Kirkus and the like are not worth the money for the average indie author, but I do have it on good authority from friends who work in public library systems in the US that if your book doesn't have a review at one of those trad-pub review services they likely won't even look at it -- so it can be worth it if you're doing a hard push to get your books into libraries. (Which isn't for everyone.)
Different up here in Canada with our library systems; they're much more amenable to having indie author books in their system, especially if you're Canadian (we try hard to promote our own country's arts). And likely there are also library systems in the US where that isn't the case, but the ones I'm talking about in particular are massive behemoths, not smaller community ones.
I'm not so sure about that - in either direction. I've had friends who got starred reviews from Kirkus (including one who got some type of genre prize) who didn't get any action from libraries, and I've managed to get into lots without any review from Kirkus or any similar place. That's my print editions - I've made a few audio/digital sales also. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if a glowing review increases your chances marginally, but it doesn't seem to drive libraries to stock your book on its own, nor does the lack of a Kirkus review seem to act as a block either. Libraries are one of the few places that do actually subscribe to Kirkus, but it's also worth noting that I think Kirkus still does the same thing as Publishers Weekly and ghettoizes all the indies in their own "special" section along with all the vanity press victims - which isn't a good look. And the partnerships it has with vanity presses are so awful - I really couldn't go into detail here but feel free to check the BEWARES section on my website - that any money we can divert away from the grasping hands of Kirkus is worth the effort.
@@DavidGaughran I can state with certainty that you very likely can get into your local library, as libraries tend to favor local authors. All I had to do was contact the acquisitions person directly.
@@ellisknox9129 Sure. I just mean a Kirkus review is not going to be some trigger for widescale library orders or anything.
My novels had no professional reviews and libraries carry them.
I found your name swirling around on FB. I hope to learn a lot from you.
Saving all these . Like pearls of wisdom.
Good info, sir!
What if a friend purchased your book?
You mentioned Booksprout at the tail end. Any thoughts on using them to get more reviews for books that have been out a while versus during a launch?
I'll get into Booksprout and ARCs in more detail in a future video, and I should stress that my experience might have been atypical as I've heard good things... but that's not really how it played out for me. I got the more expensive package ($20 a month, I think, but they have free options), and did a couple of non-fiction books, and a couple of historical novels. The latter were "new" - well, republished under a new name. That part didn't seem to make a difference to uptake. In fact, uptake was pretty low overall. I didn't see much evidence of their supposed "freeloader algorithm" weeding out people who just take the book and don't review - I think only a third or a quarter of recipients reviewed. I also didn't see much evidence that paying for the Pro package actually pushed your ARC to their audience. I seemed to drive most of the takeup personally (and I don't need a service to reach my own audience!). Also some customer service wobbles, I have to say. Wasn't a huge fan of the experience, but maybe it's just much better for romance - I can't say.
@@DavidGaughran For what it's worth, while I'd heard good things about Book Sprout and overall it wasn't necessarily a bad experience for me, I had a couple of reviews from their reviewers that began with some version of "I really hate fantasy and wouldn't normally read it, but since the book was free, I gave it a go... and it was fantasy, so I'm giving it a low star rating because that's not for me."
That said, there were more reviewers from people who normally read fantasy and had insightful things to say than there were people reading genres they hated because they were getting a free review copy through BookSprout. And I'm not really sure someone giving a review that says they hate fantasy is going to deter a fantasy reader from picking up a book. It might have the opposite effect, even.
@@DavidGaughran Thanks, David! I tried a free ARC test with them last year for the first book in an older nonfiction fitness memoir series (yeah, niche of a niche). I offered 10 copies, had 6 downloads, and I got 5 pretty solid reviews. It was a small sample and wasn't sure if it would be worth upgrading to the paid levels for my sci-fi books. I'll be on the lookout for the upcoming video.
more brilliant advice from DG
Informative video, thank you. It got me wondering, though.........if John Smith leaves a review for Mary Kirkpatrick after purchasing her book on an active account he has spent hundreds of dollars in over the past 4 years, and Amazon denies or pulls it down, what exactly is it that causes Amazon's "bot" to believe John and Mary are "close friends"? Santa Claus certainly knows when I'm naughty or nice, but I'm not certain even he knows who all my "close friends" are.
Amazon doesn't disclose how it determines such relationships but, for starters, it does seem to flag anything with a shared IP address - understandably. However, it goes far beyond that and reports of false positives abound. I certainly lose genuine reviews all the time.
Excellent video as usual!
Ehi David, thanks for this video...Yeah, I watched it some days ago. But I'm looking for some answers about the platforms I told you about in the other question... Thank you
Let me see... views might differ on this but I think this isn't the best way to go about it. The only reason I might use a service like that is to pay to access THEIR audience. I don't see the value if I have to drive the traffic there, and I certainly wouldn't pay to do that. If I'm going to spend on Facebook Ads, I'll do it to increase sales, which will have the happy side-effect of increasing my review count, and my mailing list, as well as generating sales and visibility to offset the cost of the ads. I prefer to use my list to manage and distribute ARCs, and I would only pay for a service like that if I didn't have a list or a readership which I could tap for ARCs (or if I didn't have an audience large enough where ARCs no longer become necessary). I have tried a few of these services when launching a new pen name, but I wasn't blown away by any of them - specifically because they didn't generate a lot of reviews for me unless I pushed traffic there. And if I'm doing that, why am I paying for their service? If I own the traffic, I can generate reviews without them.
@@DavidGaughran yes! Totally agree... thanks David to clarify my mind clouds... I was screwing as a dummy when the answer was there in front of my eyes...
Thanks for all you do! I’m proud to promote you into my list of friends and publishers, and this is why!
Thank you!
Thank you
Thanks for the video. Do you have a view on HiddenGems? I have a slot booked with them - but not till January as that was all that was available!
I've heard romance authors raving about HiddenGems but haven't tested it personally. When I went to test it a few years ago, the owner warned that take-up would be poor for my genre because their list in that niche was still quite small - so they definitely get points for that. But can't give you a personal take.
I used them under my pen name for my illustrated children's book and I got almost 2 dozen reviews as a result. To me, it was money well spent. The review appear to be honest and by real people (not overly flowery or anything).
Hello David.
Thank you very much
One of my book has been selected to Monthy Deals and I have no Idea if I can do anything to get some extra money/visibility or just wait and see?
Thank you
Good luck with the promotion! It's really hard to know in advance how many sales a promotion like this will deliver. A lot of it depends on how many other books are in the promotion, and what kind of positioning you get. As far as I can tell, except for a smattering of handpicked titles, the order seems to be based on your book's ranking the Popularity list, so increasing sales during the time of your Monthly Deal should improve your placement. And indeed, "warming up" the book with some promo *beforehand* could be something interesting to try. It should improve the placement you are in when the Monthly Deal commences. Some tips here on putting together a promo: davidgaughran.com/2019/04/01/%ef%bb%bfsell-books-marketing-amazon-bookbub-facebook-book-advertising/
@@DavidGaughran thank you for your response.
I think it is not possible since they send me an email with the following text:
"If you accept to participate, we will require you to keep your titles' regular prices unchanged during the 14 days prior to the promotion and the 7 days after (this is to improve the customer experience of the discounts). We will apply the discount price to your book during each promotion (you will not need to modify the price yourself)."
You have some options, if not a complete free hand here, because of those pricing restrictions. First, you can run whatever ads you like once the price change automatically kicks in, stressing that price offer in your ads. Second, you can actually run ads just before your Monthly Deal starts, it just won't be a discounted book you are offering in the ad, so you'll have to frame it in a different way. Amazon Ads and Facebook Ads are options for full-price books, in my experience, but skip BookBub Ads until your price has actually dropped as that's a price sensitive audience.
@@DavidGaughran Thank you, I will study the options. You are great David, keep teaching us that way. Cheers from Spain
De nada!
Great information. Thank you.