Episode 12
In this episode I talk about book reviews – why they are important, how you can get them and why not to be too bothered when you don’t get good reviews.
I mention Jim Kukral’s Author Marketing Club and the fact the premium service has a tool for finding reviewers (“Reviewer Grabber Tool”). I also mention Story Cartel, a service for giving away your book for free in exchange for honest reviews.
I then mention the fact that as a Dr Who fan I have been amazed at the variance in terms of popular Dr Who characters (I mean really do people actually like Christopher Eccleston?) and the fact that there is no real consensus as to a “good” Dr Who character or episode – and so it is with books. Barring problems with execution (e.g spelling and grammar errors, print and design issues), most bad reviews are caused by people who would never like your book reading it. So finding and focussing on people who will like your book is very important for getting those good reviews.
I then mention Mo Farah, the best British distance athlete ever. He almost gave up after the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he did not even qualify for the final. Does anyone now mention Mo Farah as the “athlete who failed to reach the final in 2008”? No. Having a failure in terms of reviews in a book won’t brand you for life – people remember other people by their successes, not their failures. As long as you keep going until success, once you have that success no one will ever remember the failures. So don’t let bad reviews get you down. Just keep going.