Why Book Reviews Are Important to An Author

Transcript of this Episode

Welcome to Jeny’s Tattletales…. episode…

We recorded several today!

Yes. Um, and today I think we’re going to talk about reviews. Yes, because that came up a lot in our conversations this past week, or month, or ever.

Always, always, but, you know, authors write books, because they love to write, but also because they want people to read their books.

And the only way they will know what they read this thing is whenever they leave reviews, right? Yeah.

And if you’re… I mean, I don’t know about big publishing companies, what services they offer to the authors, I’m assuming they do marketing for them as well. But if you’re an indie author, or an author that was published by a small press company, or self-published or whatever, you pretty much need to do your own marketing. You do

Yeah, you don’t have big street teams to do reviews for you.

Which if people don’t know what’s threatening, with the will explain to them?

Well, street teams are people that come on, if they have a favorite author, they have somebody that they want to promote. This is a way that you can get involved with your favorite author. But with authors, a street team is somebody who is a group of people that help promote your book, they take what you’ve done, and they might be part of your art team where they get an advanced reader copy.

And they, you know, they read your book, and then they give you reviews beforehand so that you can start off your promotion when you launch the book with already having some reviews. So people kind of get an idea of what a book is about. So So yeah, and we do have, I do have an arc team. So it’s called Arcadia. And if you want to join it, go to my website, www.jenyheckman.com.

And you can join my arc team there, you get the advanced reader copies, you get some new information about things that are coming up, and, and all of that, and then street teams.

So it’s kind of they’re similar. They might be doing slightly different things. But both are really, really important. And reviews are really important. I did not understand how important reviews were. When I first started all of this, I do know that when you first are looking at a book, I’m a big reader. But when I’m looking at a book, what is the very first thing that you do? Most people tend to look at the blurb. And they read the blurb and they decide whether they

Well, I guess they look at the cover first and then decide whether or not they like it. Then they look at the blurb and they read it. It’s interesting, I don’t know. So now what do you do you look up at the top to see how many, how many stars? Who what, what are the stars about. And if you’re like me, and I see something that’s like four out of five, I’m always reading.

Well, why didn’t somebody like it, which is always a subjective thing too?

By the way, you never know what to read between the lines you do, because not everybody will like everything you’ve seen times or other people that need malicious, bad reviews because for whatever reason, there were reasons so many sometimes eyes blue, rather than green or something. I mean, there are lots of different reasons but for review, it’s essential for writers, and it’s very hard to get reviews.

You know, if you’ve been around for a long time, and you have a big following, then maybe it’s not so much. But when you’re starting out, and you’ve got these books coming out, it’s awfully hard to get them Amazon makes it hard to or they had originally made it hard to leave reviews. And so if you were somebody that had bought a book, and you wanted to leave a review, it was a little bit more difficult when they started making the real changes about who could leave reviews and that kind of thing. I noticed that because I wasn’t leaving.

I mean I was leaving reviews here and there but not really for books more for like products. And usually, if I didn’t like something but now I started you know leaving reviews for pretty much anything I buy because one if I really really enjoyed it, why not share it with people? If I hated it, why not share it with people but also why I hated it and you know, it might not work or they might not be the reason why. I’m not telling people not to buy but that’s what did not work for me. Yes When it’s about a product but when it comes to a book,

I mean the book has to be really really bad. badly written lots of grammar mistakes, everything horrible in it to, for me to give a bad review for work because I understand. I don’t like all the genres.

I read different things. But I have things that I really really like And I would never leave a book review a bad book review for somebody because I didn’t like something about a physical appearance or over character. Yes, we all picture characters. You know, we have an image in our mind as we read the books, but I would never pick up, you know, leave a bad review for one of those reasons. I mean, it has to be really bad but badly written. No action. No, I don’t want Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, even with romance, you need to have an optimistic ending, typically with romance, that you don’t get that or whatever, and people

… Transcript Continued…

Anyway, it happened to me also that I did not know what the book was about. I thought it was certain kind of book, and turned out to be something else that I did not really when I read. I did not leave a bad review, because I probably should have read more about the book. I don’t read the blurbs. I read the first sentence. Yeah, I don’t do much reading. Yeah.

Because that, you know, I want to discover the book at the same time. I’m sure we’re gonna pay more attention to the cover, because the cover hinted to the things and

Oh, really? So the book that you were talking about? Yeah.

And I think it was an offer that I’ve read other things from her that I really liked. And she’s writing those kinds of things, but I never gave her a better view.

Because, okay, so yeah, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but not because she she wrote a bad book. It’s just not. The topic wasn’t something I was interested in. And I don’t think people shouldn’t be impervious for that. I mean, yes. You start reading a book and you realize, maybe it’s not for you. But to me, it has to be really real badly written for me to, you know, leave a bathroom before that. Now, I started for sure, leaving reviews for anything I read. And think I’m a good writer, because it kind of keeps me up to date. I do. I do. And I also like that it syncs with Amazon. Kindle.

Yeah. So every time I open a book, it puts it into reading or read. Yeah, when I’m done. And then this way, it’s easy for me to leave a review, right? In Kindle.

Yeah. on Goodreads as well as Amazon. Yeah.

Yeah, my Kindle is kind of killing tubers.

But they are important. And they’re, they’re important to writers. They’re important to everybody. I mean, for really, when you think about it, if you’re purchasing anything, like I said, What are you looking at, when you’re trying to make your decision about whether or not you’re going to purchase this thing?

And, and, you know, and for writers, it is kind of the bread and butter. So, you know, that’s how they that’s how they sell their books is whether or not people like them or, or give them just to give their opinion on them.

You know, if you are a writer starting out, you It’s, it’s, it’s challenging.

I, you know, I
like honest reviews. So like, for instance, what you were just saying about somebody who has said that this book is about this, and it winds up being something that’s not bright. And I thought about what they
did, I did not really so I wasn’t paying attention to cover. And I did not read reviews, because I’ve read other books by this author, and I just assumed, you know, and that’s another thing, I came to realize that authors write all kind of genres. And sometimes they don’t go together. They go in different directions. You know, you just have to
really, it’s a different thing, isn’t it?

Yes, readers typically. But at the same time, I liked it. Because I mean, yes, you know, I learned to love them an author’s maybe for one of the genres they, they write, and maybe I don’t read everything, but at the same time, if I want to read something different, it’s not as boring just the same.

Well, it used to be once upon a time that when somebody wrote a genre, that they pretty much stuck to their genre, and it it is different now.

Because I love and sometimes I mean, I read an entire series in one genre, if I really like the way you know, somebody writing, I like, the characters, especially when they’re seniors, let’s say, you know, it’s a family and then each character or each family member has its own book. It’s one of the books in the series or like in your case, you know, you have the Greek gods and you have the pairings and then each bearing it’s a different book. Yeah. I love that because I want to I want to you know, I want to see where it goes where it continues who want to read that book.

Yeah, you know, with with that book. Right, though? All the different descriptors.

Yeah, yeah,
it is a it is a challenging thing when you’re putting all all of that together. But yeah, reviews are very important and If it’s if it’s if you’re looking at something and you want to support your, your authors,
or any offer, yeah.
Yeah, I’m sure they’ll love you.

Yeah. And it’s actually, you know, it is it is a great way to help them out. And, you know, also, if you if it’s something that isn’t your cup of tea, you know, it’s, there’s nothing wrong with with as long as you’re being constructive in the way that you’re saying it if you’re just saying, Oh, I hated it, and you didn’t really kind of explain why. Because, you know, when people are looking at those things, and and you let’s say you don’t like something because of the color of your eyes or something like that you’ve read something differently, then you can then you are actually explaining the reason why and maybe that might not be as important to somebody else. It’s just
like, you’re looking around to rent an apartment. You’re not gonna you’re reading all kinds of views.

Are you gonna pay attention to reviews the same? They didn’t like it? Because the walls were orange? Yeah. Yeah. Or are you gonna pay attention to the reviews that say they like the apartment? Because it’s an area where there’s high crime? Yeah, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. So pretty much the same with the books. Exactly. Yeah.

Site reviews, we’re gonna talk about something else too, because it just reviews
just talk about something else. But yes, leave reviews. It doesn’t have to be elaborate a whole novella, any spoilers.

I just remembered, we were talking about where to leave reviews. So you know, there’s a for those of you that have not found Bookbub, or Goodreads, there are sites where you can go on, it’s kind of like a online library almost. And you get to go on there. And you can, there’s different lists, like if you go in there, and you say, Greek mythology fiction, you can look up, you know, all the people that have put the books that they like on that list, and you’re able to go in that with just any genre, any topic anything.

And you can mark it as being read or want to read or currently read or whatever
niggly reviews, you’re gonna leave. They’re also places where you can connect with a lot of the authors and alone to offer those posts, updates, like Goodreads is a platform where authors can actually create their own blogs and post updates, maybe have, you know, future books or whatever else they have going on. other platforms do not allow that maybe they just allow you to post a review. But still, you can still connect with the authors, you can message the authors follow them. If you follow an author and you really, really like an author and these platforms, most likely they’ll notify you every time a new release is 70.

So that’s pretty cool. In case you read, if you like to read, you’re gonna read a lot gonna read a lot of different authors. Maybe you forgot an author that you really liked, but she has tampered anything new in six months. Yep. So to you know, to bring her or him into your focus in, you know, these places will notify you don’t gonna send them an email to complete an email if you follow them. Because I think when you sign up, you also sign up to their newsletter. I think that’s one of the things you have to do.

But I know I love that even Amazon notifies you now, I don’t think they used to do that. But they notify you if one of the authors has a new release has for the book themselves has a featured book or any deals going on with their books. So if you’re looking for deals, yeah, the books.

Yeah. So besides Amazon, or besides Goodreads, and Bookbub. Amazon is a big one, Amazon has put a few more parameters around it. I think they end up verified sales and those kinds of things. I’m not, I’m not entirely
with Amazon, I’ve noticed the very first ones, because I think they want to know who you are. And they want to make sure that you know, it’s legitimate. For you it took a little bit for them to hurry, I think, like a day or two, but now, not instantly. But within like a half an hour or an hour they approve all my reviews. Oh, that’s lovely.

Yeah. So that’s it. That’s another place. Basically, anywhere where you bought the book is another good place to do it going on to an author’s website, or their social media, all of those things can be very helpful. So yeah, reviews are kind of a good,
it’s important for any business, and especially for authors because a lot of times that’s the only way they know, their audience and know their audience like their book.
Yeah. The whole reason for making this particular post is just because it is one of those things that are really, really overlooked. I mean, you know, like I said, How often do you look to see how the book was reviewed? But then again, how often do you actually leave a review for a book? How often have you done it?

So when you know, because we really, really good author, but maybe they’re in the beginning of their, you know, authoring writers journey and maybe they don’t know how to promote themselves, maybe they don’t have a big Following Yeah, and if people know that you’ve discovered a cool author, like things that are new and interesting, and nobody else came across.
Yep, that’s true.

There’s no reason why. I mean, there are lots of reasons. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so go out there and leave your reviews not just for books, but but for everything because it really does help out the people that you are purchasing from. And yeah, so that’s our, that’s our little spiel on reviews.

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