Joanna Penn

Optimizing Your Book Review Process For The Best Reviews And Most Value

August 17, 2018 by Joanna Penn Leave a Comment

Getting book reviews can be challenging, especially if you're just starting out with no audience or email list. But there are ways you can make it easier.

In today's article, Craig Tuch from Hidden Gems review service gives us some tips.

When I started an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) review service back in late 2015, the main question authors had about reviews were whether they were worth chasing at all.

Turns out they are, and anyone still unconvinced need only read the latest research on the subject. So now the big question has turned to how to get them in the first place.

Most options fall into one of two categories – either setting up your own team of reviewers, sending out copies and tracking results on your own, or hiring a company like ours to do it all for you.

As there are already plenty of articles on both of these options, I think the focus for authors needs to shift towards how to optimize the whole experience, whichever way they go.

There are a number of factors to consider in order to get the most out of your reviews – both in terms of increasing your odds at getting positive ones and getting maximum value. A solidly written book is the first step, of course, but there are a number of other questions that don’t often get the attention they deserve.

Even though your book is free, how do you get readers interested enough to read it? (not as easy as it sounds)
Are they the right readers for your book in the first place? (it’s not just a question of genre)
Are you sacrificing too many sales for too few reviews?

The answers depend, in part, on how you’re distributing your book (on your own or through a service), but regardless they should all be considered before you send out a single copy for review.

So let’s make sure you get the most value out of all those free copies.

Getting Readers Interested in Reading Your Free Book

It may seem like a slam dunk that if you’re offering a free book, readers will line up to read it. While that may be true for authors using their already established list of fans as their source (not always a good idea – but more on that below), for everyone else it isn’t quite so easy.

Take if from someone that sends out the book details of multiple books a day to a list of about 10,000 volunteer reader/reviewers across all genres – if a book isn’t appealing, readers won’t sign up to read it – even though it’s free.

Fortunately, getting free readers interested is very similar to getting buyers interested – which means focusing on fundamentals like a solid cover and enticing blurb.

As much as we’re taught not to, readers really do judge books by their covers. I’ve seen it time and again – an otherwise solid book with a lackluster cover gets almost no interest from reviewers. You have to catch their eye first, before anything else, so make sure your cover fits your genre and doesn’t look like it was created using MS Paint (or even Amazon’s cover creator).

Once you catch their eye, the next thing they see is your blurb or sales description. Make sure it hooks readers in through taglines, cliffhangers or whatever else may entice them to want to read more.

An important thing to remember is that it doesn’t have to be the same blurb as you use to sell the book.

In fact, in a lot of cases, it shouldn’t be – a critical point that I’ll be diving into in the next section.

The point is, although most authors understand the importance of covers and blurbs when it comes to sales, they don’t always give them enough attention when preparing them for reviewers. Don’t leave them to last minute. There is a glut of free content out there, all of it competing for a limited number of eyeballs.

Put as much polish into selling your book to reviewers as you would to potential buyers.

Delivering Your Book to the “Right” Readers

You don’t just want reviews, you want positive ones, right? Of course, the best way to get those is to write an outstanding book that everyone loves and no one can say a bad word about. Books like….

Oh wait, those don’t exist.

Even the best and most universally well-regarded books in the world have their haters.

As of this writing, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina has 177 one-star reviews and an overall average of only 4.1. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird fares better with a 4.7 average but still has 211 single stars.

Even more modern day commercially successful books haven’t fared much better. Harry Potter may have made J.K. Rowling the first billionaire author, but the first book in the series has an average of 4.3 and over 1600 one star reviews.

The good news is, a few negative reviews can actually improve sales – but that doesn’t mean you should go out looking for them. Trust me, they’ll find you.

The best chance you have at positive reviews is to focus on delivering your free copies to the “right” readers.

But what do I mean by the “right” readers?

Ideally, you want readers that are already pre-dispositioned to enjoying the type of book that you write.

If your reviewer pool is made up of existing fans of your work, you’ve probably already got that covered and can skip ahead to the next section – but I urge you to read that section carefully, as it may give you some second thoughts about why that may not be the best strategy. For everyone else, let’s dig deeper.

Blindly sending books out to random readers can lead to very unpredictable results. After all, you wouldn’t want to send your latest SF Space Opera to someone that only enjoys erotic romance novels, right? Most likely they wouldn’t even read it, but if they did they’d likely hate it. Not because it’s a bad book in general, but it’s a bad book for them.

Still, sending your books to readers that regularly read your genre is only one factor to consider and is one that most services take care of for you. Where you can potentially improve things is by narrowing the field even further with a customized reviewer-focused blurb.

While some books can get away with using the same blurb for both buyers and reviewers, there are a few key exceptions and it’s vitally important to know if your book is one of those.

To understand why, you have to remember something else that is very often overlooked by authors. Buyers and reviewers might be made up of the same types of people, but as an audience for your book, their purpose is very different.

When selling your book, you want to cast as wide a net as possible in order to appeal to the biggest possible audience. A blurb with very broad appeal will attract the most buyers and earn you the most money.

For reviews, it’s the opposite.

You want to only attract readers that are most likely to enjoy your book, which means a blurb with a much narrower focus.

Sure, you want everyone to enjoy your book, but we’ve already established that isn’t going to happen. That’s why it’s best to weed out certain people from reading your review copy with a blurb that calls out anything controversial, any triggers, or areas where your book goes against conventional genre norms.

For example, if you’re writing a romance and you don’t have an HEA (Happily Ever After) ending, it’s best to mention that in the blurb. Many readers will be fine with that, but MOST romance novels do have an HEA which means it’s expected in books of the genre. By not calling it out, you run the risk of a reviewer being left unsatisfied and possibly leaving negative feedback.

Same with triggers – things like suicide, rape, domestic abuse, child abuse, etc. Of course, depending on your genre some of these may be expected and thus unnecessary to mention. If you’re writing a horror or a murder mystery, you wouldn’t need to warn readers about gruesome or graphic scenes, but put those same scenes into a YA book and you may end up shocking or upsetting your audience. Best to warn them ahead of time and avoid the potential negative reviews that may result.

Will this lead to less people signing up to read your book?

Probably – but that’s okay. Because the ones that do sign up will be the “right” readers. Ones most likely to enjoy your book.

That’s why being honest and transparent with reviewers is so important, and why your sales blurb doesn’t have to match your reviewer blurb. Not all books have issues like these, but if yours does you should definitely call them out.

Weighing the Hidden Costs of Free Copies

Many authors send free review copies to an existing mailing list which is most likely made up fans that bought previous books. While that may seem like a good source – especially given that you already know the readers are predisposed to enjoying your work – there is one big factor to consider.

That list is made of proven buyers of your writing. They signed up because they wanted to hear when you were going to next publish a book, so that they can buy that one, too.

Do you really want to flood that list with free copies and completely dilute your pool of proven buyers?

For those with a big enough list, and who only send free copies out to a small fraction of them, it may make more sense – but is still not the best strategy. Especially if you’re looking for more than a handful of reviews.

Even when given a free book by the author directly, most readers won’t leave a review. Authors I’ve heard from commonly report only getting reviews for about 20-30% of the copies they send out – and that’s at the high end. That means for 50 reviews you need to send out a few hundred copies… to readers that were likely going to buy it anyway!

All of a sudden those free copies are costing you a lot.

Best case scenario, sending 200 copies out at 99 cents earning Amazon’s 30% payout means a loss of $66. Not too bad, right? But what about the ranking boost that those 200 sales would have given you? 200 sales would have put you high up in the chart in almost any genre – leading to even more organic sales.

Free copies lead to no money and no ranking.

And that’s to say nothing of the time you have to spend managing the whole process. That’s time you could spend writing your next book instead.

That’s why many authors, even ones with their own big mailing lists, turn to an ARC service. Not only because it saves them time and allows them to continue selling books to their existing fanbase – but because of the potential revenue boost they can get by being exposed to new fans. A service that sends out your book to their own list means a new set of readers exposed to your work – readers that may in turn become fans and join your mailing list directly, maybe even buying your future books.

Still, like anything else there are good and bad review services so make sure to do your research first. Choosing the wrong one can cost you far more than the service itself. Things to watch for:

How many copies does the service send to get your reviews? Some send thousands and only get back a handful of reviews – flooding the potential market with free copies and giving little value in return
Do they make guarantees that they can’t possibly deliver on without doing something shady? Remember that Amazon has specific rules that reviews have to be voluntary, honest and uncompensated (beyond the free book). It’s impossible to guarantee a certain number of reviews or a certain star rating without breaking those rules
Are they following review rules in general? Some rules apply everywhere, like the FTC rule about how reviews based on free product should disclose that fact, while sites like Amazon have rules of their own and a history of cracking down on services or individuals that break them. You don’t want to be caught up in any of that, so understand the rules and ignore the rumors – and make sure the service you’re using is doing the same

Just remember that you’re either spending time or money on getting reviews – do you really have enough of either of those resources that you can afford to waste them?

Optimize your review experience and get as much value out of the whole experience as possible.

Do you make an effort to get reviews for your books? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Craig Tuch had been involved in the writing community for many years prior to starting Hidden Gems Books in 2015. Since then, the author services company has gone on to help over 2000 authors improve their books, reach more readers and sell more copies.

[Money photo courtesy Christian Dubovan and Unsplash]

4 Ways Travel Can Enrich Your Writing

August 15, 2018 by Joanna Penn 14 Comments

I'm a travel junkie and if you've read any of my thrillers, you'll know how much of my experience is woven into my books.

I also think traveling is one of the best ways to find stories out in the world, and meet people who might turn into characters.

You will experience sights, smells and tastes that you may never encounter at home. And traveling could change your life – as it has done for me.

In today's article, J. Thorn discusses how travel can enrich your writing.

How do you come up with ideas for novels? This is the most common question I’m asked by readers and inexperienced writers. My inspiration comes from two radically different sources: daily life and travel.

This conversation will focus on how changing your environment, even minimally, can manifest an unlimited reserve of creative energy.

1. Travel is unpredictable

Co-writing on the train to New Orleans

When Joanna, Lindsay, Zach and I arrived in Chicago in March of 2017, we had no idea how we were going to begin our collaborative story that would become American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice.

Joanna visited the International Museum of Surgical Science and found an incredible relic that became the object of desire for the characters in our story.

[Click here to listen to a podcast where J, Zach, Lindsay, and Joanna all share our experiences in New Orleans.]

Writing begins with observation. The world is full of fascinating people and places that can become inspiration for stories. When traveling, I often turn off the GPS and put my phone in my pocket. I resist the urge to Instagram my experience and simply let it unfold.

And yes, I do sometimes make a wrong turn, or I end up somewhere I hadn’t planned on going, and that is when inspiration can strike. Because you’ve put your brain on high mental alert in an unfamiliar surrounding without a guide, it is hypersensitive to perceived threats. This is the place where your powers of observation will discover creative gems.

2. Travel fosters empathy, a critical element of the craft

Seattle is a beautiful jewel of a city nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascades. However, it wasn’t until I was forced to walk through the city that I realized it was also a haven for many homeless and disenfranchised people, like many other American cities.

The plight of these people made me take notice, and the disproportionate gap in social class became part of the world-building of Molten Universe Media’s new dystopian trilogy, Stone the Crows.

As writers, we often become siloed in our own worlds, whether those worlds are real or virtual. But exploring and interacting with other people can deepen empathy. And the connection created between the protagonist and the reader is the most effective way to draw him or her into a story.

Instead of shuffling through the line at your fast-casual chain of choice, head for the quirky, independently owned establishment. Talk to the person cooking or serving your meal. Ask him about the neighborhood, how business is going. Then listen. Don’t machine-gun questions or start blabbering on about yourself. Just listen.

In doing so, you’ll empathize with the person behind the counter. You’ll see the city through his eyes, his experience, and that revelation will enrich your writing in ways you won’t even recognize until much later when the words hit the page.

As Shawn Coyne likes to say, “Specificity creates universality.” When you can bring empathetic specifics to Story, readers will find themselves in it.

3. Travel is fun and fosters reflection

The writers who joined us for “Authors on a Train” in New Orleans last year remarked about the opportunity to disconnect from daily life and focus on writing and collaboration. Although we cannot walk away from our daily responsibilities permanently or for long stretches, the occasional immersion experience is exhilarating and will often create new neural pathways which foster reflection.

Writers from the Authors On A Train retreat

It is in these reflective moments when new opportunities tend to appear. Traveling can be stressful, but it can also be incredibly fun with insights that could seed new ventures for months or years to come.

You don’t have to write anything down or keep a travel journal to be reflective, although many writers find this to be beneficial. Sometimes, I’ll grab my phone and use the built-in voice-recorder app (or a free one) to spend a few minutes talking about my day. I rarely go back and listen to those recordings, but the process of doing it helps me think about my experiences of the day and mentally prepares me for the next.

And reflection doesn’t always have to be about the “ah-ha” moments we all expect when traveling. Struggling to figure out how to open the doors of a subway car in Paris is one of my most memorable moments of a trip to France.

4. Travel creates authenticity in story

For our anthology, Dark Shadows: Vampires and Ghosts of New Orleans (An “Authors on a Train” Short Story Collection) Volume I, we could have Googled images of the train that runs from Chicago to New Orleans. We could have used Google Maps to tour the French Quarter.

Authors visit the museum of death, New Orleans, 2017

Authors in New Orleans, 2017. Daniel Martone, Lindsay Buroker, J. Thorn. Joanna Penn, Laura Martone, Zach Bohannon

However, riding the train and walking the streets of the Crescent City brought an authenticity to the short stories that we couldn’t otherwise achieve. The feel of the cobblestones under your feet, the smell of chicory coffee at Café du Monde, the patter of horse-drawn carriages near Jackson Square — all these experiences become infused in your psyche, and those highly specific details bring universality to Story.

These moments, which cannot be reproduced online, enhance and enrich your story, connecting with readers in powerful ways that they cannot even articulate. You can create a setting for your story without visiting the physical location, but doing so will add a layer of realism that is impossible to develop any other way.

The Takeaway

You don’t have to travel far or to an exotic location to find inspiration. Even a trip to the other side of town can infuse your writing with new and exciting energy.

Travel should be an important tool in the writer’s arsenal, and even bad experiences can yield tremendous story opportunities. The next time you walk to the corner store or drive to the office, take the road less traveled, and you’ll be surprised at what you find.

Has your writing been enriched or inspired by a travel experience? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

J. Thorn has published two million words including Risen Gods and American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice with J.F. Penn. He is an official member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and co-owner of Molten Universe Media.

Joanna and J. Thorn also co-wrote Co-Writing a Book: Collaboration and Co-creation for Writers.

Find J's services at www.TheAuthorCoPilot.com

Click here to learn more about Authors on a Train.

How To Self-Publish And Market A Children’s Book With Karen Inglis

August 13, 2018 by Joanna Penn 3 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:54 — 51.2MB)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Self-publishing books for children can be challenging because of higher printing costs and difficulties in marketing to your target market. In today's show, Karen Inglis explains how she sells thousands of copies of her books for children and tips for how you can do it too.

In the intro, I mention my own writing update with Valley of Dry Bones, as well as how Gutenberg update will impact your WordPress site [The Digital Reader], and The Story Studio podcast episode about creative burn-out, focusing on the wrong things and how to get your writing mojo back.

Plus, join me and Nick Stephenson for a free webinar on the Three-Step System to Automate Your Author Marketing and Find Your First 10,000 Readers. Thurs 16 August at 3pm US Eastern, 8pm UK, or register to get the replay. Click here to get your free place.

Today's show is sponsored by IngramSpark, who I use to print and distribute my print-on-demand books to 39,000 retailers including independent bookstores, schools and universities, libraries and more. It's your content – do more with it through IngramSpark.com.

Karen Inglis is the author of books for children including The Secret Lake and Eek the Runaway Alien as well as book apps. Her latest book is How to Self-Publish and Market a Children's Book.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Show Notes

The 3 key age groups for children’s books

Issues with getting picture books into readers’ hands

Getting known locally in your community so that parents ask for your book in bookshops

Thoughts on paper types and quality for picture books and when they matter most

Tips on finding and working with illustrators

Using AMS ads to get parent eyeballs on your books

On whether to do ebooks for children

Why Karen finds school visits so worth her while and how she makes money from them

You can find Karen Inglis at KarenInglisAuthor.com and on Twitter @kareninglis

Why Writing Can Be The Best Way To Deal With Adversity

August 10, 2018 by Joanna Penn 5 Comments

I've been writing journals since I was an angst-ridden 15-year-old, singing along to Madonna in my bedroom while raging at how hard life was.

Over the years, my journals became more than just teenage scribblings about boys and finding meaning.

They were my way to get through any difficult situation, including the devastating end to my first marriage, and a way to process my life when my health fell apart and I had to leave London in my 20s to go recover in the Australian outback.

I still journal – my thoughts, my goals, anything really. Writing continues to be my counsellor, as much as my passion and my business. So I'm thrilled to bring you this article today by Kristina Adams on how writing can help you too.

A few years ago, I was in a dark place. I was so anxious I could barely leave the house and so depressed some days I didn’t get out of bed until late afternoon.

Fast-forward to now and I’ve published three books while working full-time and living with fibromyalgia.

Overcoming my demons – and learning to deal with different ones – was difficult. But ultimately, it was writing and publishing my books that got me through it.

Distraction is a great painkiller

There are two types of pain in this world: the physical and the psychological. It can be easy to dismiss the connection between the two, but it’s more significant than we sometimes think.

For example, anxiety and stress can lead to joint pain in the same way that chronic pain can lead to depression. It’s therefore important to always be kind to yourself and remember that when one part of you is in pain, the other can follow.

This link between our mind and body doesn’t just cause pain, though. It can also relieve it.

A few years ago, Jason Buhle from Columbia University conducted a study in which heat was applied to patients’ arms while they completed a task.

Those who had a more complicated task barely even noticed the pain, with some not noticing it at all!

They conducted the same experiment using a placebo instead, and the complex task was proven to have a greater pain-killing effect than the placebo.

For me, writing is my biggest painkiller. Whether I’m curled up with my characters, pondering over a poem, or plotting a blog post, nothing relieves pain more than immersing myself in my writing.

Writing is therapy

Health issues of all kinds are incredibly isolating. Writing about your problems can help you to deal with how they make you feel, particularly when you struggle to articulate them verbally.

Some of Joanna Penn's journals

While you should most definitely talk to people, too, writing about what you’re going through can be a great place to start. It doesn’t even have to be a piece of creative writing – a diary entry or blog post can help, too.

Some of the best stories, artwork, and songs have come from great pain.

Of course, facing your demons hurts. But when you face them on paper, you do so in a safe environment.

Writing down how you feel also teaches you to express your emotions (which is always a useful skill when you’re a writer), and if you share your writing with others, it can even help those going through similar experiences to feel less alone.

That’s why, while sharing stories of my anxiety, depression, and fibromyalgia make me more uncomfortable than a too-tight pair of jeans, I still do it.

You never know who your words will help.

All writing is fantasy

Who doesn’t love escaping reality (especially right now)?

When you write something (unless it’s hard-core investigative journalism), you’re investing in a fantasy. That investment is powerful.

My characters have gotten me through everything from homesickness to so much pain that I want to cry, and I’m honestly not sure I would’ve managed without them.

When you’re going through a tough time, having somewhere to escape to makes a huge difference. It’s not always possible to physically escape, which is why crafting stories inside our minds can be so beneficial.

Writing and publishing give you back control

When the people you love are struggling, or the doctors have no idea what’s wrong with you, it makes you feel pretty helpless.

Writing gives you back control.

While you’ll never have full control over your real life, you’ll always have complete control over what happens to your characters.

Self-publishing gives you even more control because you get the final say over when, where, and how your book is published.

When your external world is crumbling or you’re worrying yourself silly about something you can’t change, finding a way to claw back control is empowering.

So long as you keep organised, there’s so much to learn and do that it’s impossible to feel useless.

A productive mind is a happier mind

Last summer, my mum was admitted to hospital. Nobody knew what was wrong with her. The only thing we did know was that she was in excruciating pain.

There was nothing I could do to help her. She was in the capable hands of the NHS, and family members that live much closer than I do. Not to mention driving to see/help her every day would’ve been too much for me, and everyone knew it.

I’d already set a publication date for Productivity for Writers when she was admitted. It wasn’t too late to change it, but I started to wonder…did I really need to?

Rather than sitting around moping and feeling useless, I finished Productivity for Writers and published it on the date I’d originally planned.

It sounds selfish to put yourself first when a loved one is suffering, but if there’s nothing you can do to help them, why punish yourself?

A loved one will support you in your decision to keep going and will encourage you to do so because you’re no good to them when you’re in pain, too.

Goals keep you focused

When you’re in pain, the last thing you want to do is sit down and work (and we both know that writing is WORK). But actually, as we saw in the study above, it’s one of the best things that you can do.

It goes beyond the power of distraction as a painkiller, though. Goals keep you focused. They stop you from getting bored or feeling helpless because there’s always something that you can do to work towards your end goal.

If your end goal feels overwhelming, you can break it down into small, specific chunks.

Go even further than breaking down your novel into each draft. Break it down into stages: your character descriptions (one point on your to-do list for each), structuring your plot, writing each chapter, etc.

The smaller the chunks, the better you’ll feel and the more opportunities there are to reward yourself.

And you must reward yourself every time you cross something off your to-do list! It reinforces that you’re doing the right thing and that you should keep going.

My personal favourite is an episode of How to Get Away with Murder or Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries…there’s some sort of pattern emerging there…

Your ‘why’ means everything

Setting yourself long-term goals – and pushing yourself to achieve them – gives your life purpose. It gives you your why. And that purpose will keep you going no matter what life throws at you.

But finding your why is tough.

It’s one of the hardest things to do in life.

So don’t worry if you don’t know what yours is yet.

Use it as a reason to explore.

Learn new skills; meet new people; do things that you’re passionate about.

The more curious and open your mind is, the sooner you’ll find your why and the more likely you’ll be to find your way out the next time a black hole threatens to drag you inside of it.

Has writing helped you with adversity and difficulty in your life? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Kristina Adams is the author of What Happens in New York, What Happens in London, and Productivity for Writers. She has a degree in Creative Writing and regularly writes about writing on her blog, The Writer’s Cookbook. When she isn’t writing, she’s reading, baking, or thinking about writing some more.

How Much Time Do You Spend Writing And How Much Time Marketing?

August 8, 2018 by Joanna Penn 7 Comments

Today I’m talking about a common question I get asked all the time: how much time do you spend writing and how much time on marketing?

You can watch the video below or here on YouTube, or read the transcript below.

In the video, I cover:

The (incorrect) assumption that the job of a writer is just writing, but it has always included marketing.
Marketing generally IS writing, whether you're blogging, prepping for a video or a podcast, or writing social media, writing text is the cornerstone of marketing.
The question implies that only the ‘writing' side is valid, whereas marketing can also achieve some of the goals of writing e.g. many people who have found my videos and audio podcast useful have not read my books, but I have still been useful on their author journey.
Organizing your time is about splitting it into creative blocks and marketing blocks, so you can effectively find time for both.

For more marketing tips, check out How to Market a Book, available in ebook, print, and audiobook formats.

Optimizing Your Book Review Process For The Best Reviews And Most Value

Getting Readers Interested in Reading Your Free Book

Delivering Your Book to the “Right” Readers