One of the hardest things for an author to get are book reviews. That may seem odd given that people in general have all sorts of views on nearly everything. But try and get them to publish their views on a book, a story or an article is like pulling teeth.
For authors, one of the
best selling features of any published work, are the reviews they receive. Not just good or bad, but the numbers are important. When you look to buy a book on line, for example, one of the first things you do is look for the reviews and opinions of other readers just like you look for product reviews when making any on-line purchase. Unfortunately, those who know suggest that only 2-5% of product buyers (and readers) leave a review. Imagine that! Yet we as consumers rely on them a great deal.
Also, research suggests that while women read more, men write more of the reviews. Why? Unknown. So, if your target audience is women, one can expect a lower percentage of reviews compared to purchases. Finally, when a book or a product reaches 10 reviews, the tendency to write more reviews drops. The thinking is that with that many reviews, why write more?
So why am I telling you this? As an author, one of the biggest boosts to the development of readership is from reviews. For most of us that means customer/reader reviews. For those more seasoned authors, the bigger prize is in the form of industry reviews. The most obvious place for reader reviews is on the sites that sell books, especially Amazon. For those who read a lot, Goodreads is a prime source for learning about and evaluating new and even not so new books.
So, how about helping authors like me develop the readership that keeps us going, that motivates us to continue to write. Write two reviews for every book you read. One on Amazon and one on Goodreads.
What do you think?
