Blogger: Rachel Kent
Last week, Wendy’s client Kathryn Springer received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly for her new book The Hearts We Mend. A review like this in a significant magazine can really help a book to sell, so this is a big deal. Congratulations, Kathryn! Publisher’s Weekly is a great publication for a review like this because it is read by many bookstore buyers–including the significant box stores like Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Costco. Seeing that star on a review might be all they need to order a book for the store or to put in an order for extra copies.
Reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Christianbook.com are great, but they are more likely to reach individual readers who might buy one copy of your book instead of bookstore buyers or librarians who might buy multiple copies or even case quantities.
I also learned recently that if you have all 5-star reviews on Amazon, that Amazon actually views this less positively than if you have many 5-star reviews, but some 3- and 4-stars as well. They are more likely to promote your book if they view your reviews as “real”–from readers rather than friends. This is a good thing to keep in mind when we post reviews. It’s better to be honest in our ratings than to try to be nice just because we know the author personally. We can still be nice while being honest though! I have had a few writers cry at writer’s conferences after my in-person critique and it’s heartbreaking! I don’t want writers crying while reading reviews that we post online either.
Do you review books after you read them?
Have you noticed reviews making a difference for your books?
I rarely write reviews, but I do verbal reviews–every time I suggest that someone read (or not read) a specific book. When I do, I am thinking of the reader, not the author.
*Reviews primarily benefit the reader. Sure, writers want to collect more stars, not less. But not every book is for everybody. I read the low-star ratings, sometimes they are the biggest motivator to buy. What I want is exactly what someone else doesn’t.
I feel the same about low ratings, Shirlee…sometimes they highlight exactly what I’ll like.
Interesting about Amazon…I wonder what is the total number of reviews they have to have before they put the ‘too many 5 stars’ policy into effect?
* I don’t keep track of my books’ sales or reviews. It seems somehow not the done thing, a bit ungentlemanly, since it is not my supporting income. But to write this response, I did check BPH, and it has four 5-stars and one three-star (which was long, and more positive than neutral). What this means, I don’t know, but I’m glad people seemed to like the book.
* I’d do more reviews if I didn’t have a nagging discomfort about putting up an opinion with being an industry professional, and I know that my tastes in both style and substance seem to be quite different from the norm.
* For what it’s worth, the only reason I would write a negative review would be on moral grounds, if a book pushed an agenda that I felt was damaging. I would not hesitate to give Capote’s “In Cold Blood” a scathing evaluation, because the memory of vileness has stayed with me lo these forty years since I have read it; it made my life and outlook worse.
Errata, second star…should be “…without being an industry professional…”
* Which only shows to go why I should not write reviews!
Thanks for the insight, Rachel.
I always wondered about Kirkus – are they as legit? Someone once said that you pay to have Kirkus review your book, so that seems like a confict of interest.
Kirkus has been bugging me lately, offering $75 off an ‘indie review’. Think I’ll pass.
Sheila, I did a bit of digging…and Kirkus does seem legit.
* They have an ‘Indie Programme’ in which, for a fee (4425 standard, $575 ‘express’) they will review a self-pubbed author’s book according to their standard protocol.
* The author can then either agree to have the review published, which puts ‘ownership’ into the author’s hands, thus, I think, preserving Kirkus’ objectivity, and removing the conflict-of-interest issue.
* While the company has gone through several changes of ownership, it seems that the accusations of it being a ‘vanity review’ are unfair; they still do their standard reviews for established publishers, and I can understand the need for a fee for SP’d authors. They’d be flooded otherwise, and it’s simply a way to ensure that only the serious are applying. And starred reviews seem to be as hard to get as ever.
* Caveat emptor still applies, but if I had the spare cash, it’s something I would seriously consider, so I retract my “I’ll pass” comment.
I don’t know much about them, but I do know that they aren’t as valued for some reason.
I’m a librarian, and I do read the reviews in Kirkus when I’m deciding which books to add to our collection. They are not the only reviews I read, but I do skim them every month.
First, congratulations to Kathryn!
Rachel, thanks for explaining how this works. Sometimes I write reviews, but only if I can say something nice. If I hate the book, I won’t say anything because it could just be me. And then sometimes I just don’t have time to write a review.
I like how Goodreads can have you suggest a friend read a book without you having to write a review.
I don’t write reviews, but I probably ought to. I don’t usually read them, so it hasn’t been something I considered important to do.
Rachel,
Years ago I made a point to write a few sentences of review on every book that I read or every book that I hear on audio,. I have written over 550 reviews on Amazon and I have 5,000 friends on Goodreads (the maximum which I learned after I hit it). Writing these few sentences takes little time and is a way I support other writers for books that I read. Like other aspects of the writing life it is a discipline but a simple practice that I highly recommend.
Terry
Terry, you are a saint. And now we all want to send you our books. But, actually, this is a brilliant idea. Thank you for provoking us to good works.
Thank you, Terry! And all those authors thank you, too, I’m sure! 🙂
Terry, I compliment you on your support of the writing community in general and Christian writers in particular. There are a lot of people pushing their products and I might be unconvinced; if I see you promoting it, I’m much more likely to jump aboard.
I always try to write a short review and rate any books I read. I know it means a lot to the authors. And most of the books I’ve read have been so good … I think I’d explode if I didn’t get a chance to tell the author how much I loved it.
Wonderful!
You’re correct, Rachel. Librarians rely heavily on review journals such as Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal when making purchasing decisions. I just happen to be reviewing Kathryn’s book for our library system and can’t wait to add a notation about the Publisher’s Weekly starred review to my review. 🙂
Thanks for the confirmation, Judy! And great news about Kathryn! Woohoo.
I sometimes give four star Amazon reviews, but I won’t review any books on Amazon or elsewhere in public that I think deserve fewer stars than that. I try to follow the Golden Rule and wouldn’t want others to do bad reviews of my books.