Q&A: Am I wasting my time mailing review copies of my self-published novel?

QUESTION: I'm considering mailing review copies of my self-published novel to a mailing list of reviewers. Since this will cost quite a bit of money, I'm concerned whether I'm likely to actually get any reviews, or whether this might backfire.

ANSWER: It depends on what kind of reviews you're trying to get. For self-published books, the best types of reviews to aim for are the amateur customer reviews on Amazon. Here's one way to get reviews on Amazon.

Trade review publications such as Publishers Weekly and Kirkus simply won't review self-published books.

There are some fee-based book review services, but book buyers don't generally read them, so they're ineffective. For example, I was scanning some of the reviews in today's edition of Kirkus Reviews -- where self-publishing authors pay hundreds of dollars to have their books reviewed -- and I noticed this review.

I noticed the price is pretty high for a novel, $24, so I looked it up on Amazon. Believe it or not, "used" copies are selling on Amazon Marketplace for 90 cents!

Does this make any sense? The book was published three weeks ago, and already Amazon is flooded with used copies priced at 90 cents?

Unfortunately, this isn't unusual. And here's the shame about it: Those aren't really "used" copies, they're review copies that have ended up in the hands of used bookshops, and they're all desperately trying to unload them on Amazon. There's enough copies available that price-cutting has ensued, and the price has gone all the way under a dollar.

What's the proof these are review copies, and not really "used" copies? Look at the listing descriptions provided by the sellers. Most of them indicate "staple holes" in the front cover, a sure sign of a review copy.

Amazon's policies prohibit the selling of review copies on Marketplace, but it happens every day.

So here's a case where a big mailing of review copies to an inappropriate list has come back to haunt a self-publisher, a BookSurge customer in this case. You'd think if anyone could get relief from this, it would be BookSurge users, since Amazon owns the company.

If any copies of the book sell on Amazon, it's likely to be the 90-cent review copies, and the author won't receive a dime.

Don't go overboard publicizing your book online

While it’s perfectly fine to promote your book energetically, don’t lose sight of the way your promotion might appear to others. Like many other things, online book promotion often work best in moderation.

In some cases, the boundaries are clear. For example, the CAN-SPAM Act outlawed unsolicited commercial e-mail, so you can’t promote your book by sending e-mails to strangers. In other cases, you’ll need to use your judgment. For example, it's fine to ask people to review your book on Amazon. But don’t ask people who haven’t read your book. And don’t review your book yourself.

There’s no laws against these things and for many of it, there’s no practical means of policing it. But that doesn’t make it right, and erasing something you’ve done on the Internet is hard to do. Don’t do something in the heat of the moment if you have any doubts about the propriety.

Shill reviews

For example, for years it was rumored that several authors had posted anonymous flattering reviews of their own books on Amazon. Then in 2004, a computer glitch revealed it was true –- the real names of the authors were displayed, earning them a lifetime of embarrassment. One was John Rechy, author of the bestselling novel City of Night. The ironic thing was that Rechy was a successful writer whose honors included a PEN-USA West lifetime achievement award. He wasn’t absolutely famous, but he didn’t need shill book reviews either. But that computer glitch made him much better known, though probably not in the way he’d hoped.

Dishonest tactics of writing shill reviews, sometimes called “astro-turfing,” depends on contrived reviews to simulate a grass-roots movement for a book on Amazon.
One medical doctor who has a book for sale on Amazon has submitted hundreds of reviews of other books, which serve primarily to point attention to his own book. Apparently the good doctor is not concerned that his reputation as an author has been tarnished, as he’s continued the activity.

In response to years of controversy about abuse of its review system, last month Amazon began requiring that reviewers have an account with a registered credit card before reviews can be submitted. The safeguard prevent individuals from using multiple accounts to submit phony reviews. However, customers aren’t required to purchase a copy of a book from Amazon before reviewing it.

Spam

Oon the Internet, remember that tactics that may seem perfectly fine to some people will appear over the line to others. For example, in 2005 author sent a series of e-mails announcing his book to a list of e-mail addresses harvested from Amazon’s Web site. Several recipients were angry enough to post reviews of the book, mentioning “This author is a spammer.” Even the headline of the book’s Spotlight Review accuses the author of spamming.

Plug your book relentlessly. But don’t do something in the heat of the moment that could damage your credibility. Authors and publishers who lose trust with readers are undermined forever.

Free exposure for your book on Amazon

Amazon helps create demand for niche books -- books that have a widely dispersed audience that can’t be targeted effectively through traditional advertising. These are the books readers can’t find in their local bookstore, or even the library—but they’re right there on Amazon.

Twenty-five percent of Amazon’s sales come from obscure titles that aren’t even carried in a Barnes & Noble superstore stocking 100,000 titles. And the percentage of these “long tail” sales grows every year.

You might assume that Amazon’s appeal for book buyers is its discount pricing or the free shipping deals. But the real value for book buyers is being able to find exactly what they want.

For 50 years, publishers have been chasing blockbusters, the best-seller hits. They had to, because with limited shelf space, retailers had to focus on merchandise that moved the fastest. Today, chasing blockbusters is obsolete. Authors and publishers have a wide-open field of opportunity in serving niches.

These are the books people really care about, the ones they haven’t been able to discover yet. Amazon's Web site is designed to help customers find books they didn’t know existed. No matter how obscure your book, readers today can find it using Amazon’s search and recommendations.

Bookstore sales slip while Amazon sales rise

Book sales at brick-and-mortar stores appear weak this fall, while Amazon's sales increased at a healthy clip.

Bookstore sales tanked 7.7 percent in August to $2 billion, estimates the U.S. Census Bureau. The decline comes on the heels of a 9.3 percent drop in bookstore sales in July.

But Amazon's media sales for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 climbed 15 percent, to $785 million. During the same period in 2005, growth was 21 percent. Amazon doesn't break out book sales from its media unit.

BookSense provides opening to independent bookstores

BookSense.com gives independent bookstores a way to have an Internet shopping site without making big technology investments. It’s the e-commerce arm of the American Booksellers Association’s s Book-Sense program.

BookSense uses the wholesaler Ingram Book’s iPage database to provide book listings for its 475 participating stores. Fulfillment is handled by the store or Ingram.

If your book is available through Ingram, it should be available on participating BookSense store sites, said Mark Nichols, BookSense director of marketing.

For books not available through Ingram, publishers can add a title to BookSense’s database as long as it has a valid ISBN. Send your title, ISBN, author, publisher, bibliographic data, and cover art to AddaBook@Booksense.com.

Paid placement is also available through BookSense, which operates a coop reimbursement program to help its members defray the costs of Web sites. BookSense handles the paperwork of aggregating offers from publishers who want to have their titles featured on BookSense sites for at least one month. Stores who accept the coop offer must order at least five copies of the promoted title, unless the publisher specifies a higher minimum.

The coop program provides for face-out display of physical copies of the book in the store, and display on the store’s Web site, and sales reporting.

A different BookSense program enables publishers to get reading copies of their books into the hands of local independent booksellers through its “Advanced Access Program.” Several times a month, Book-Sense e-mails over 1,000 booksellers, listing advance readers or finished books offered for review by publishers.

Booksellers who see your review copy have the option of carrying your title and nominating it for the BookSense “Picks” list of recom-mended books.

Advanced Access participants can expect to receive e-mails from 25 to 50 booksellers who want to review your book. No specific results are guaranteed from the program, but it is a tool for publicizing your title to people who can provide word-of-mouth advertising in their communi-ties. To enroll, send an e-mail to Peter Reynolds, pe-ter@booksense.com. Indicate the title, author, publisher, ISBN, subject category, publication date, the number of free copies you have to offer. Include a two-sentence description of the book and an e-mail address where booksellers can request their review copy.

Include all your enrollment information in one paragraph that can be easily inserted in a larger message to bookstores. Here’s an example:

***************************
TITLE ABC by John Doe, (Publisher XXX, ISBN: 0-000-00000-0, $19.95, hardcover, September 2007, Mystery/Thriller). A two-sentence description goes here, maximum 50 words. XX number of Advance Reading Copies available.
mailto:yournamehere@emailaddress.com
***************************

Don’t include Web site information, press releases, or cover art. It can take two to three weeks from the time you send your message until it’s seen by booksellers.
BookSense charges $100 per title, with discounts available for members of the Publishers Marketing Association. You can send a check payable to American Booksellers Association to ABA, 200 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, NY 10591 ATTN: Sadie Evans. For information on how to pay with a credit card, send an e-mail to sadie@bookweb.org.

When you send review copies to BookSense members, enclose a thank you note and a reminder to “e-mail or write Dan Cullen (Dan@Booksense.com) if you like it.”
More information about BookSense is available by sending e-mail to Staff@Booksense.com.

Online word of mouth and how Amazon recommendations sell books

In 1988 a first-time author, British mountaineer Joe Simpson, wrote of his disastrous climbing accident in the Peruvian Andes. His book, Touching the Void, got good reviews, but wasn’t too popular outside England. It sold modestly and then, like most books, began fading into obscurity.

A decade later, another climbing book was penned by Jon Krakauer, an American journalist who scaled Everest but barely lived to tell the tale. Into Thin Air, with a boost from its conglomerate publisher, was an instant No. 1 bestseller and worldwide blockbuster.

And then something really interesting happened. Bookstores started getting requests for the earlier book, Touching the Void. Weeks before, stores couldn’t give it away, and now the book was sold out. Library copies went missing. The original hardback, if you could find one, was going for $375. Harper Paperbacks rushed a new printing onto shelves, and Touching the Void started outselling the new “blockbuster” by two to one.

What happened? Was it a stroke of brilliance by some publishing mogul? No, it was Joe Six-Pack, reacting to book recommendations from Amazon.com. The online store began suggesting the older book to millions of people who Amazon knew liked mountaineering books, based on their previous purchases. If you’ve shopped on Amazon, you’ve seen these recommendations yourself: “People who bought this book also bought … that book.”

Many of the new readers liked Touching the Void so much, they wrote rave reviews on Amazon’s site. These “amateur” book reviews, written by real climbers and armchair explorers, resonated deeply with the next wave of shopper. More sales, more good reviews.

Word of mouth, amplified by Internet power, lifted Touching the Void onto the bestseller charts, where it spent 14 weeks on the New York Times list. The story was adapted for an acclaimed docudrama. Simpson, his writing career turbocharged, followed up with four successful true-adventure books, a novel, and lecture tours—so far.

Does all this make sense? Yes, and it’s just the beginning. Readers are finally able to find the books they want, even in the smallest niches. Readers are finding their books at Amazon and other online retailers, not at regular bookstores, where you might get a scolding if you try using the computer.

All this is a godsend for authors, who finally have a way to effec-tively, inexpensively build their audience. Never has it been so practical, so straightforward, for writers to earn a living at their craft, and build a loyal audience.

Today book readers are helping decide which books sink or swim. As an author, you can hope to be swept along with the tide. Or you can take advantage of this new environment.

Using a Web site for book marketing and author publicity

This year, 150,000 authors will finish their masterpiece, but most of them will be horribly disappointed with their sales -- only about one-third of new titles sell more than 100 copies. Most books fail in the marketplace simply because they never had a chance -- nobody ever heard about them.

Bottom line: word of mouth is the only thing that can make a book really successful. And that has always been the Catch 22: how can a new writer without a track record not only get into print, but get people excited about the book?

At last, there's something authors can do: use online communities, social networking, and blogs to ignite word of mouth, Internet-powered. Today the last barrier to writing success is gone: Anyone with the skills to write a good book can to publicize it worldwide -- easily, economically, and effectively.

Internet publicity isn't the only way to promote your book, but it's a great way to start -- it can open doors you never dreamed of. The real value of online publicity is that it endures, and leads to more publicity, the kind that canÂ’t be bought. More than ever, journalists and producers of radio and TV programs use the Internet to find expert commentators and new story ideas.

But Internet book publicity won't help a poor book. Your book needs to be strong, because your competitors are online too.

Online word of mouth depends on an educated consumer. You're asking the reader to help promote your book, and this requires a very good book, according to your target audience. Thanks to online communities, it gets easier all the time to sell good products, but it's getting harder to sell mediocre ones. Word gets around.

Bad word of mouth will hurt your sales. Great marketing only helps a bad book fail faster.

Announcing change of blog name to 'Plug Your Book'

Greetings everybody.

I've decided to change my focus on this blog, from strictly self-publishing to a broader look at Internet book publicity. I'll be writing about how authors help readers discover their books by using blogs, Web sites, and other online promotional tactics.

I'll begin posting actively again next week. I wanted to put out this announcement especially for those who receive e-mail updates of this blog, so that you'll recognize the title 'Plug Your Book' in the future and not mistake it for spam.

Best,
Steve Weber