A tsunami of books
One book every five minutes. That’s the estimated rate of books published by the click of a button on Amazon every day since the self-publishing boom. That’s a tsunami of books! How can an author ever expect readers will find their book? This is why reader reviews are so important. Amazon’s algorithms. Authors don’t ask readers to post reviews to feed their ego – they need them to sell books.
An author speaks out
The following is an excerpt from The Ugly Truth of Publishing & How BEST to Support Writers on Author Kristin Lamb’s blog that explains why mainstream authors need their readers to write reviews on Amazon.
Reviews are more important now than ever before…. The reason is that with the change in the publishing paradigm, the slush pile (unfortunately) has been dumped into the reader’s lap. There are a lot of bad books out there. But even then, that really isn’t all that big of a problem.
Want to know the bigger problem?
There are a lot of good books out there.
How is having a lot of good books being published a problem? The total number of books on Amazon is in the millions. Readers are overwhelmed with choices. If someone browsing online sees a book with only five reviews versus a similar title with thirty reviews, which do you think they’re most likely to buy? They will naturally gravitate toward the book with more reviews. Studies show both good and bad reviews count — it’s all in the numbers.
Reader Reviews = Visibility
More importantly, reader reviews affect a book’s visibility. Lamb writes:
Beloved reader — When you review us, Amazon favors our books in the algorithms, meaning more people SEE our book. More people SEE it, odds are I will sell more copies. In the on-line world, you have the power to get authors that awesome front-of-the-store book placement. The more reviews the better the algorithm. Better algorithm, more views. More views, more sales, more sales—> we might make a best-seller LIST!
Authors love it when you tell them you enjoyed the book, but, if you really want to help them (and in turn, help other readers discover their books), please write about it on Amazon.
The biggest factor that helps online book sales is word of mouth: reader reviews.
You can read Lamb’s post about The Ugly Truth of Publishing in its entirety here. Lamb is the author of the #1 best-selling books We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer.
Thank you for visiting.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist:
Multi-finalist award winning novel In the Context of Love
Picture book Gordy and the Ghost Crab
Latest poetry chapbook: Sleepwalker
Buy Signed Books: In the Context of Love | Gordy and the Ghost Crab | Sleepwalker
Connect with Linda on social media: LinkTree
As an avid reader, I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of books being published. I do look at reviews. Not Amazon reviews, though. I like book bloggers I find on Twitter and Word Press and I also read the old print book reviews like NYT and WSJ. But Amazon is too overwhelming. I’m an author too. The most reviews one of my books got was 50+ and the way I got all those reviews was not by asking friends to review for me but by buying a Book Bub ad and giving the book away for free. Not sure that strategy still works, just as I am not sure KL’s strategy of asking friends to review your book works, either. I’ve heard we should do it, but I just can’t bring myself to ask a friend to review my books.
It IS overwhelming. Period. Good work on Book Bub! My iReads Book Tour generated a lot of reviews. I don’t find it difficult to ask people to consider writing a reader review if they liked the book. When I explain why reviews matter, many readers are happy to help. The vast majority don’t bother, though. It’s disappointing, but it is what it is.
Love your article, Linda. I just shared it with my Facebook friends, most of whom are either fellow authors or readers of my books. I do find it difficult to ask (aka beg) for reviews. If I’m lucky, my friends reading your article will get the idea themselves, and I won’t have to ask!