Reviews!
Just how important are reviews and why?
As any writer knows how has released a book, reviews are the gasoline that gets sales going. Without reviews people are less interested in the read. As reviews start to come in you can be made or broken. That is to say positive reviews will peak peoples interest and negative reviews will push people away. It is a double edged sword in the beginning. On the one hand you have to push and push to get those reviews coming in and on the other you pray that when they start coming in they do not blow you out of the water. Even with the risk of negative reviews they are necessary to the success of the book.
What can you do to acquire reviews?
Sale sale sale! That is the most obvious and easy answer. The more you sale the higher your odds of getting a review will become. You can impact your sales by developing a website, setting up a page on Facebook, and sighing up for an account on Twitter and the like. Sites like Reddit and other posting sites will link you up with other writers as well as readers. Seek out any outlet where you can advertise your book. That is one of the cheapest and easiest things you can do to raise sales and promote review acquisition.
Support Groups and forums
Also, sites like Twitter have support communities with people who know your struggle so they will be more willing to read and review your book because they have the same need. You can improve your odds of having people read and review in this type of method by doing your part to support others. If the community sees you reading and reviewing other authors they will start to look your way.
Ads
Ad programs on sites like Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter are really cheap. They are worth the extra exposure that you get to potential customers. This is another way to raise sales as well as awareness. Even if someone doesn’t click to buy they may read the summary and suggest it to another person who then buys the book.
Negative reviews
So when those negative reviews come in what do we do? Well, first, I would listen to what is being said. If there are a substantial amount more positive reviews then disregard the negatives. It is impossible to please everyone all of the time. If, however, there are substantially more negative reviews than positive, listen and release a revision with the feedback taken into consideration. That is really all you can do in a reactive way. I guess there are two alternatives, do nothing and let the book sit as is or pull it down and move on to the next project.
