By Jodie Cain Smith
I know, I know, in a perfect world we the writers would
write, and they, the consumers, would consume without any effort from the
writers to bridge the two worlds. But this world is far from perfect. Upon the
launch of my novel, The Woods at Barlow
Bend, I discovered the most evil of marketing tools, the Amazon Customer
Review. Yes, whether five stars or one star, the customer review is evil.
It has been known to inspire evil acts. Type “sock puppet
reviews” into a Google search bar and read what unethical lengths authors have
gone to for an Amazon page filled with customer reviews. Desperate authors,
under the cover of Internet anonymity, have created faux personas in order to
get the review ball rolling. Despicable.
It has been known to cause obsessive behavior, forcing one
new author to check her Amazon book page daily with fingers crossed. “Oh
please, oh please! One more review!” No, she is not looking for her next
illegal fix, just one more Amazon Customer Review. “Come on, man, I just need
one more!” Sad.
So, why am I acknowledging this evil as necessary? What
should we, as authors, do? Why would I encourage all of you to go to Amazon and
begin typing immediately after reading this post?
The Amazon Customer Review is necessary because unless you
are of J.K. Rowling author status, your book’s life depends on Amazon, and
Amazon factors customer reviews into the algorithm they use to decide whether
or not they care about your book more than the 3,000 (Forbes, 2013) others published
that day. Yep, your book’s page will be highlighted by Amazon if filled with
customer reviews or sent to the dark corners of the Kindle virtual warehouse if
not.
So, how do we increase the number of reviews we receive
without getting that dirty, begging-ain’t-pretty feeling? First, you realize
that you want your book read and that royalties are awesome. Next, you buck up
and beg in a classy way. Every copy of my book that I sell directly, I place a
small card in the book encouraging the reader to review the book on Amazon. If
someone comments on any of my social media platforms that he or she enjoyed the
book, I thank them for their kind words and ask if they would post a short
review on Amazon. I publish customer reviews from Amazon to my Facebook and
Twitter accounts. I am currently reading Theo Rogers How to Get Good Reviews on Amazon in order to learn how to approach
the Top Amazon Reviews. Yes, they are real, and they are powerful.
The most gratifying measure I take in order to boost the number
of reviews on my Amazon page is reviewing other authors’ works. My goal for
this year is to review two books per month on Amazon. This will increase the
amount of time I spend reading in the evening rather than crushing candy on my
Ipad and forces me to read critically, which will make me a better writer. Finally, it will increase my tribe; my circle
of authors who actively support each other, good writing, and the dream of
becoming a slightly bigger fish is this gigantic ocean of books.
Jodie, thanks for writing this. I ask readers and buyers to comment on amazon, but they send personal emails instead. A note in every book is a good idea. There are some admirable amazon reviewers. Just click on the reviewer's name and you'll see all the reviews that person has posted. I follow "Samantha" of Ontario's reviews.
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