Reviews—One Author’s Experience – By Tim Patrick, Guest Blogger

Tim Patrick

The indie world has changed since I self-published my first book, Tea Cups & Tiger Claws, five years ago. Specifically, the indie market is FLOODED with books by a million baby boomers who have finally written the great American novel they always dreamed about. The sad truth is most of these books aren’t very good. The even sadder truth is that because of this glut it’s hard for the good books to get noticed. And it’s hard to get reviews. Hard but not impossible. Here’s what I’ve learned:

1)      You must set yourself apart from the crowd.  This means a professional, captivating cover. Put away your camera and watercolors and turn it over to a professional. For my second book, Death of a Movie Star, I paid six different artists to design six different covers. This sounds expensive but it’s not if you use Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/ ). After they submit their work, you’ll be able to tell who has talent and that’s who you start working with. As a side note, I made the mistake of giving the artists too many specific instructions and because of that stifled the creative process. They are artists. Let them do their thing.

2)      Your story has to be good. Keep re-writing and submitting it to your peers until you have a story people will WANT to read.

3)      Get professional copy editing.

4)      Think about hiring a professional story editor.

5)      Now for the actual reviews. I have only two books to my name and am obviously not an expert but here’s how I look at it: LAYERS

a.       Start with “everyday-Joe” reviews. They are the foundation and very important. More powerful venues (bookbub) won’t look at your book if it doesn’t have the foundation. I recommend Book Review Targeter ( https://bookreviewtargeter.com ). Buy the app and watch all the training videos. Pay attention to the video that talks about “Yet Another Mail Merge” (YAMM). This Google Drive add-on will allow you to send 50 emails a day for free. You have to become a little email robot and these apps will help you do it.

6)      Write your pitch. Here’s what I used for Death of a Movie Star:

Hello. I saw your Amazon review for "The Goldfinch" and want to let you know about another book you might like. The title is Death of a Movie Star and it's a thriller with a splash of humor. Kirkus gave it an excellent review and called it "engaging, profound, and darkly humorous." But what really matters is the opinion of reviewers like you. That's why I'm hoping you might take a look at it.

The book is on sale at Amazon for $4.99 but I'd be happy to email you a free reviewers advance copy. Click on the link below for the book description. If you'd like to review it,  just let me know and I'll send you an eBook in your preferred format. And if you're unable to review it, I'd still be happy to send you a free eBook with my compliments. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tim Patrick 

a)       Also, If your cover is strong, you might include a thumbnail of it that has a link to take the recipient to your Amazon’s book page. Whatever you do, keep the pitch short and direct.

7)      You must keep your Amazon star average at four or above. If your book is good that’s the major part of the battle. But you must also pay attention to who you’re sending the emails to. Obviously, if your book is a lighthearted cozy titled The Pecan Praline Pugilist, the folks over at literary fiction might not like it very much. This narrowing of the field is done by combing the different book categories at Amazon. It will be explained better at Book Review Targeter.

8)      I try to send fifty emails a day, three or four days a week.

9)      After your foundation is underway you can look at the next layer: blogs & websites. Here’s the resource I used this time: http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers

a.       Find websites that like your genre and contact them. It’s time consuming but I tried to send out ten or twenty a day until I finished the list. For some reason I didn’t have as much success this time and can’t tell you why. I still recommend this step.

10)   The next layer is editorial reviews like Kirkus & Blue Ink. This step can be done at any time but I have found that the “everyday-joe” reviews actually point out ways that my book can be improved so I wait. Please note, however, there are some editorial reviews that have to be done at the beginning, before you publish. RT Book Reviews comes to mind but there are others. I blew it this time and wasn’t able to submit to RT because I had already published.

11)   As the reviews start coming in, be on the lookout for ones that carry special status such as VINE VOICE, Amazon Top 100 Reviewer, Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewer, etc. I use snippets of these reviews in the Amazon “editorial review” section, which is also where you will put editorial reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, etc.

12)   You are on a mission. If someone will do a review but wants a paperback and they live half way around the world, send it to them. Write a nice note to them on one of the pages, sign it, and send it.

That’s about all I know. I’m still a relative novice but am happy to share it with you. Here’s my Amazon page if you care to check out my books: http://www.amazon.com/author/timothypatrick