Why Reviews Matter — Season 2 Episode 2

In this episode of The Djuna Shellam Podcast, the topic of the week is Why Reviews Matter.

In today’s tech age, readers are surprisingly powerful and can help in determining a book’s success (or failure, sad to say). At one time, purchasing a book (and to a lesser degree, borrowing a book from the library) was all that was needed to increase a book’s popularity. Word of mouth played into the process, but ultimately, sales drove sales.

Today, pesky little tech creatures known as algorithms and reader participation are what drive sales and ultimate success.

Obscurity in the Marketplace

Amazon, the largest book retailer, online or otherwise, offers millions of books for sale, particularly fiction books. To get noticed there by the general public, particularly as an independent publisher, is akin to pointing out a specific, yet obscure star in the galaxy with the naked eye.

Here’s a compelling reason why reviews matter: On Amazon, the driving force (along with sales) behind escaping obscurity is the customer review. The modern-day word of mouth. How’s that, you ask? Once a book reaches 50 reviews, Amazon will list the book in its newsletter and promote it in other ways. You’d be hard-pressed to put a price on that massive exposure. Amazon has a reach like no other. As an independent author at Amazon’s mercy, this fact is difficult for me to admit, but it’s also true. Reviews ultimately drive sales, sales drive sales, and all of that increases exposure which… increases sales and even more exposure.

Just A Word or Two…

Now, I know some readers do not consider themselves wordsmiths and are intimidated by the review concept. “I’m a reader, not a writer!” There’s good news for those readers, though. “I liked it,” “good book,” “recommend,” etc. to the algorithm is as good as a 300-word review. The longer, more in-depth, or thought-provoking reviews are really more for the author and readers mulling whether they should buy the book.

I know I’ve addressed this issue on various occasions, but that’s because it’s important to me. I write books because I love doing it, and with the hope of increasing my income. It’s tough when you feel confident you’ve written something good, and the only way to get noticed on a small budget is for readers to take an extra step to review the book they’ve read. It’s not the reader’s fault, it’s the system.

The System

The system as it stands is a double-edged sword. The independents have the opportunity to self-publish and not rely on some person to decide if their book is worthy of publishing—or not. And we have this massive market “available” to us. But, Amazon’s structure requires reader participation in order to break out of obscurity. See what I mean? Reviews matter.

From time to time I like to explain the process to readers who may not understand why I may seem a little pushy about reviews. Think of it… someone reads my book(s) and loves it/them and tells me, but… for whatever reason, they don’t write a review. Knowing what I know about the process and how their quick review could help my books reach that 50 review mark which opens up the Amazon universe to me… so, yeah, it can be a little frustrating. When I see in my reports that someone has purchased a book or several and then never receive feedback from the purchaser, that’s also hard. If they hated my book(s), maybe I don’t want to know (I actually do), but if they loved them… it would be awesome if they’d PLEASE tell others in a review!

Reviews

You can find previous reader reviews of my books HERE. I thank those readers from the bottom of my heart.

On an entirely different note, this week I was a guest on L’erin Gaines’ Reading Between the Wines Podcast. It was fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Here are a few links where you can listen if you’d like. He invited me back on after I publish A Woman Like Eve, and I accepted the invite.

Also, you’ve likely noticed my wonderful announcer for Season 2 of The Djuna Shellam Podcast. That is the delicious voice of my dear friend, Charles Schnell, who was kind enough to lend me his vocal cords. Thank you, Charlie!

Podcast

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