Support for Indie Authors discussion

I began to get concerned when my newest book on Amazon sold pretty well, but only a small trickle of reviews came in. Then I heard from two separate readers that Amazon 'blocked them from doing reviews.' I hadn't heard of such a thing. I don't know these folks personally, they responded after I inquired about reviews on social media. I know one of them got my book from the library. Not sure about the other person. Anyone else had experience with this?

James, I have reviewed several books on Amazon. Each time I reviewed a book when I would go to review another my account was blocked. I contacted Amazon each time and they would apologize a re-enstate my review capabilities. This happened about 4 times and I got quite upset and had to contact the review department directly. After complaining enough and demonstrating that I was not breaking their rules they fixed my account and have not flagged it again. They are having an influx of reviews that are against their rules, so I think they are punishing everyone for the offenses of some.

James wrote: "I began to get concerned when my newest book on Amazon sold pretty well, but only a small trickle of reviews came in. Then I heard from two separate readers that Amazon 'blocked them from doing rev..."

Hi James, I have experienced the same thing. Some of my readers have had their reviews blocked and, when they queried this, Amazon claimed that the reviewers knew me personally. In actual fact, I had met these people when selling books at a fair. It seems that if reviewers write anything that might suggest they know the author, Amazon will block the review. And yet, I have read reviews for self-published books that have clearly come from the author's family and friends. It's very frustrating.

James, I've had the same situation. Either the reviews are flagged because they're fans that follow my fan page, library book reviews, or copies I have signed at an event and haven't been bought through Amazon directly.

It's weird because they have my mom's review listed on one of mine, but three of the fans I met at a book signing weren't able to get their review loaded and it was listed as "blocked".

I'm beginning to think their algorithm is broken.

Dwayne, I can’t agree with you more. Reviews are a great bonus. They give you an idea of what people think about your story and work. But somewhat like you, I write because I want my story to reach people and cause an effect. I want my story to stay with the reader. If the reviews I get are mostly from friends and those who are gentle in their opinion, the reviews don’t feel as honest. They are nice, of course, and may hold some sincerity, but they aren’t the same as reviews from outside sources. I didn’t feel accomplished until I started getting good, and even negative, reviews from readers who downloaded my book out of interest. Even if they didn’t like it, I appreciated that they read my story and told me what they thought. We have to have a thick skin as writers. That’s for sure.

I had an uncomfortable situation the other day that I think you'll appreciate, Leah. I was chatting on Facebook with a long time friend. Next to my wife, she's probably the best friend I've ever had. Anyway, she told me she had read my most recent novel and finished reading it on my birthday. I had no idea she had had any interest in it. She apologized for not having said anything sooner (my birthday is in September). As she went on she said some nice things, then she admitted she thought the book was pretty vulgar. She said if it had been written by anyone else, she would have given up on it. I actually feel pretty terrible that she put herself through that just for me.

Dwayne,

That's always awkward! I completely understand. One of my adult friends (I write for young adults) said my book felt too "young" for her, but she finished it for me so she could support me as an author.

I gifted some ebooks to some of my email subscribers. One of them contacted me and said Amazon wouldn't let her post a review. Turns out she lives in Canada and that's why she couldn't post on the US site. Also, if you gift a book to someone who hasn't purchased $50 in the last year on Amazon, they can't post reviews.

Dwayne and Kaylee, I feel the same way when I learn someone I know forces themself to finish my book out of courtesy. When you read the review, it’s like they’re grasping for straws when it comes to nice things to say lol.

D, my editor, who lives in Canada, tried to review my book and said the same thing. He had to review it from his Canada Amazon account instead, but it won’t show up on the US account.

Dwayne, I had the same experience with my book as you did. In my book the worst word was “f*cking pathetic” and a friend of mine said the language was harsh :) So, people are different, don’t feel bad about it. I don’t know how this reviewing works exactly since almost all of the bloggers out there are asking politely for money to do it. In my opinion, if you have money, you can start a giveaway, not pay people who you don’t know to review your book. Also, it’s strange that the price is different if you live in a country out of the USA. It’s an ebook and the price should be the same.
When I have some reviews I can share some information, if I have any :)

almost all of the bloggers out there are asking politely for money to do it."

I did just join a site to review some books. If I become an official reviewer, they will pay me. But, I'm talking small dollars, cents even. And that is to reimburse me for buying the book. That's not what I care about. Most of my reviews are over goodreads.

I have run into some bloggers that post an ad for needing books to review. I've reached out to them and they've told me they charge money PER SUBSCRIBER that they have in order to review a book. One of them was charging $200 because they have 2,000 subscribers to her channel. I was like "uhm. I don't have that budget." Besides, don't most booktubers get a portion of sales off of people that buy through the link?

Stellaria wrote: "Dwayne, I had the same experience with my book as you did. In my book the worst word was “f*cking pathetic” and a friend of mine said the language was harsh :) So, people are different, don’t feel bad about it."

Oh, I don't feel bad about what I wrote. And, trust me, we're talking about far, far worse than one f-bomb. The novel probably would challenge most people's sensibilities. I meant it to be that way. I just felt bad for my friend for continuing to slog through all of that for my sake, when if I had the slightest inkling she was going to read it, I would have warned her how nasty it is.

To give an idea: The book is about teenagers in the '80s who are working a summer job. Political correctness was not really a thing back then and these kids are largely unsupervised. So, yeah...

Kaylee wrote: "almost all of the bloggers out there are asking politely for money to do it."

I did just join a site to review some books. If I become an official reviewer, they will pay me. But, I'm talking smal..."

I understand that official reviewer (I didn't know that was a thing; I'm from Bulgaria) should receive money for their work because it's like a job and they spend a lot of time. Goodreads is a great choice for reviews. But what can you do if nobody is willing to review your book for free and you don't have the money to pay the official reviewers?

P.S. 200$ is a very big sum...

Dwayne wrote: "Stellaria wrote: "Dwayne, I had the same experience with my book as you did. In my book the worst word was “f*cking pathetic” and a friend of mine said the language was harsh :) So, people are diff..."

Political correctness is a thing in your country :) It's interesting though. You swear a lot in your books (the USA) but you're politically correct. We don't swear in our books and we are most definitely not politically correct :) (I hope I said that correctly. It's just an observation.)

Stellaria,

I didn't know it was a thing either! I submitted my application and I'm working on my first review. The first review will let them know if they will accept/reject my application and make me an official reviewer. I figured I could do part of it during my day job while it's slow in the office. But, I am talking about three to five pages of a review, half of which will be submitted to Amazon. The full review is sent to the publisher directly.

Yes, $200 is a lot. I could understanding sending a free signed copy to the reviewer. That way they have something, but I can't justify too much more than that. Youtube works with Amazon and will pay them a portion of sales from my book for driving business there. Even the publishers (mine does, not sure about all) will pay for sales to their site from a book blogger. So, for me it's hard to justify paying such a large sum when they'll already be getting paid part of my royalties for driving people there to begin with.

Stellaria wrote: "But what can you do if nobody is willing to review your book for free and you don't have the money to pay the official reviewers? "

Be patient. Readers will review your book in time.

Dwayne wrote: Be patient. Readers will review your book in t..."

I am, it's fine :) PM me the name of your book that you've mentioned. I got curious exactly how harsh is the language.

D. wrote: "I gifted some ebooks to some of my email subscribers. One of them contacted me and said Amazon wouldn't let her post a review. Turns out she lives in Canada and that's why she couldn't post on the ..."

Didn't it used to be that a person just had to have make a purchase on Amazon? Now it's $50.00? What the hell...?

Stellaria wrote: "Kaylee wrote: "almost all of the bloggers out there are asking politely for money to do it."

I did just join a site to review some books. If I become an official reviewer, they will pay me. But, I..."

I thought that people couldn't ask for or receive money for reviewing books. This is totally confusing to me.

Dwayne, speaking of awkward or critical opinions of our books; I’m not sure if I told you my favorite. A reviewer referred to my non-graphic sex scene as unnecessary soft porn, and then went on to explain how the male reproductive system works using equally non-graphic sexual terms to make his point that vampires can’t have sex successfully. To this day, I get a kick out of it and don’t mind at all that he didn’t give over 2 stars.

I thought that people couldn't ask for or receive money for reviewing books.."

I didn't think they could either! But there are some bloggers that do it. And there are some sites that host reviewers or beta readers or feedback to publishers and get paid.

Leah wrote: "Dwayne, I can’t agree with you more. Reviews are a great bonus. They give you an idea of what people think about your story and work. But somewhat like you, I write because I want my story to reach..."
Well put, Leah. The only real reviews are the genuine ones. I had both good and bad for my first book but they were a thrill to get, even if the bad ones did pierce my very soul (hard work resisting the temptation to reply). Now I'm in the strange position of having just one review up for my second book, even though it's selling, and it was so good it looks totally fake. You can't win.

Anne, so true. Hopefully your second book reviews will roll in soon too!

I'm going to pursue this further with Amazon and also with some folks I know who have not yet attempted to post a review. No, they are not family or 'friends' but people who gave me their email after they bought the book at a book fair. I'll report back.

G.A. wrote: "
James wrote: "I began to get concerned when my newest book on Amazon sold pretty well, but only a small trickle of reviews came in. Then I heard from two separate readers that Amazon 'blocked th..."

E... wrote: "It is essentially a recipricol review swap. I'm sure some have a problem with this approach, but I don't see why."

I have a lot of problems with it.

1. It's against Amazon's terms and conditions.
2. It's against Goodread's terms and conditions.
3. It will only garner inorganic, often dishonest reviews.
4. Reviews are really meant to be from readers for other readers, not authors doing favors for other authors.
5. It's disrespectful to your potential readers to pad your reviews with phony ones. (Especially since I read over your "rules" and you don't allow any rating below three stars? DISHONEST!)
6. It's against our code of conduct to even discuss review swapping. (Funny how you have a huge list of rules you expect others to follow, but can't follow ours).

Do yourself a huge favor and focus on your writing and leave the reviews for the readers. Your comment is being deleted.

Team wrote: "Hi Everyone,"

Comment deleted.

I published my debut novel last October and have sold about 200 books so far, (Paperback and eBook), 100 of which I gave away through Goodreads. I have 11 reviews at Amazon, four of which are from unknown readers who discovered my book via a couple of postings I did on Facebook. The best thing I did was send out ARC's to a launch group, of 20 persons, all of who said they would post reviews, however only six did which I now understand is fairly typical. Recently another promo post I did on Facebook resulted in about fifteen Amazon sales and a couple at B&N, with one person leaving a review. Someone I've never met, messaged me saying they loved my book and would be writing a review however nothing has yet appeared.

With my Goodreads giveaway I had about 400 persons entering and listing my book on their BTR list. 100 downloads by winners resulted in one two word five star review at Goodreads and no reviews to Amazon. Recently a two star rating with no review showed up from one of the winners. Initially I was excited about giving my book away with the expectation it would be read by winners. Currently two persons have it on their CR list. When I looked at those individuals, I learned one is my sister and the other is currently reading 90,000 books! Not sure I would do the GR giveaway again - Ha!

I don't want to sound like I am complaining as I see some of my efforts have been worthwhile. In any case I hope some of this is helpful to others. Thanks

Mark wrote: "I published my debut novel last October and have sold about 200 books so far, (Paperback and eBook), 100 of which I gave away through Goodreads. I have 11 reviews at Amazon, four of which are from ..."

Hi Mark,

I had to laugh when I read your piece. Not at you I hasten to add, but at the situation we indies find ourselves in. It is just one long up hill flog - know anything about Sisyphus?

The dreadful thing about Goodreads giveaways is that they aren't cheap and offer no guarantee of results. I am amazed that anyone bothers with them!

Far simpler and considerably less expensive is to put one's book on a freebie on Amazon for a couple of days, publicise as well as one can and then cross fingers. My last effort resulted in just over 1,000 downloads. So far I have one four star review, two five star ones and one one star (you can't please all the people all the time - but why is it that some just like to spoil and claim that the five star ratings and reviews have been 'bought'?)

As a reslt of this amazon giveaway I sold 20 ebooks and had a considerable number of pages read on kdp. My TBR experience was similar to yours though smaller in number, with several having several thousand books on their lists, which makes one wonder if they actually do want to read one's book, or just took it because it was free!

Anyway, the plus of this method is it is way less expensive than Goodreads. The Amazon bit costs nothing, a lot of the publicity can be free (by contacting groups on FB and using Twitter) though I did suppliment this with some paid for advertising in the region of $30.

We keep bashing away!

All the best.

Ann wrote: "a link"

Stop it.

Leslie wrote: "Mark wrote: "I published my debut novel last October and have sold about 200 books so far, (Paperback and eBook), 100 of which I gave away through Goodreads. I have 11 reviews at Amazon, four of wh..."

Mark wrote: "I published my debut novel last October and have sold about 200 books so far, (Paperback and eBook), 100 of which I gave away through Goodreads. I have 11 reviews at Amazon, four of which are from ..."

Hi Leslie! Thanks for your feedback it is very helpful and appreciated. Live and learn as you go in the life of an Indi Author, (hey sounds like a book title!). I have a couple questions based on your response as follows:

Amazon Freebee:
I did not go exclusive with Kindle (via Kindle Select) and therefore I am not eligible to run a giveaway promotion for my eBook. Is this your understanding also and do you have any feedback in terms of whether or not it is worth it? I have considered making the change in order to try it out and your response again is encouraging so thanks.

Advertising:
You mentioned spending about $30 for advertising your promo and I am wondering if you can please share what you tried?

Thanks again, Mark

It seems really hard to get organic, unpaid reviews. Everyone wants you to pay for them! 😔

LaLa wrote: "It seems really hard to get organic, unpaid reviews. Everyone wants you to pay for them! 😔"

Because reading and reviewing the book costs the most valuable resource you'll never have enough in your life: time.

Mark wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Mark wrote: "I published my debut novel last October and have sold about 200 books so far, (Paperback and eBook), 100 of which I gave away through Goodreads. I have 11 reviews at Ama..."

My work is exclusive to Amazon though I have wondered if I might do better if this were not so. However, the KDP sales - payments for pages read is a worth while extra to sales. I would not be surprised if Amazon has have some exclusivity clause. As to which route is the most profitable, I have no idea.

Advertising; there is an awful lot of rubbish out there - lots of people wanting to take your money and then not delivering. I am a fan of Fussy Librarian (tell Jeffrey if you make contact and maybe I'll get a bit of discount!). They run various promotional programs. I see prices have gone up since I last made contact over 6 months ago (the recuring promos are the best value).

Hope the foregoing is of help.

Leslie, you are in Kindle Select and yes, you have to be exclusive to Amazon to stay there. Because I don't trust any one store, I did go wide. Yes, advertising isn't an exact science. A lot of it is trial and error to find the best copy, best picture for click throughs. Then there is your cover and the book itself.

So that you know, even those authors who a traditionally published must advertise their books, have an email list and a social media following. That is part of what may get you a contract or prevent you from getting one.

Marketing is one of the major parts of self publishing. It is a necessary part of getting seen and selling. Take the time to learn how to market and best practices.

Leslie wrote: "My work is exclusive to Amazon though I have wondered if I might do better if this were not so."

There's no universal answer to that.
It depends on genre, or even sub-genre. You can have a look at the top 100-200 books in your subgenre. If the majority of self-published books are Amazon-exclusive, then it's likely most readers in the genre are on Kindle - which would mean staying exclusive is a safer bet.

Tomas wrote: "LaLa wrote: "It seems really hard to get organic, unpaid reviews. Everyone wants you to pay for them! 😔"

Because reading and reviewing the book costs the most valuable resource you'll never have e..."

The question then is, if you are an author, how many books do you read and review in a year? If you check my Goodreads posts, I do over 50. What about you? If you don't do any, quit moaning.

Ian wrote: "The question then is, if you are an author, how many books do you read and review in a year? If you check my Goodreads posts, I do over 50. What about you? If you don't do any, quit moaning."

I'm nowhere near moaning, I'm just trying to provide a different perspective. I'm a slower reader (my last year was 30 books) but I do my best to review all of the fiction books (I find it hard to review non-fiction).

I've checked several books from my shelves, and looked at the # of ratings and reviews. Usually, less than 10% of people who rated a book leave a review. And not everyone even rates (which takes just one click) so the # of people who dedicate their time to write a review will be in single-digit percentage at best. We can do our best to encourage people to leave a review, we can try to explain why it helps in a myriad of ways, but not everyone wants to hear it and not everyone wants to dedicate more of their time to do something extra.

Tomas, 30 is good. I just feel irritated at so many who want to take but never give.

Ian wrote: "Tomas, 30 is good. I just feel irritated at so many who want to take but never give."

It is irritating, and I understand that, but I also understand that readers aren't obligated to do anything. We can ask them as best as we can* but it's their decision whether they'll do something extra apart from reading the book. And we can only accept the result, good or bad.
This is the same, no matter if it's a review for a book, a vacuum cleaner, or a hotel.

* on this matter, maybe I've mentioned it somewhere, I wonder if moving from the often-used 'reviews help authors being discovered' to 'reviews help readers discover books they might like' would help.
There are ~8 million books on Amazon. Readers don't have issues discovering new books - or new authors. Thus, the visibility struggle may not seem real if they never saw the other side of the fence.
I believe many people just can't grasp the real situation. I've shared my first (maybe second) draft with a fellow gamer, back when my writing was at F- level, and she was like 'you'll be the next JK Rowling'. I rolled my eyes (which she couldn't see over the in-game chat, but w/ever). I tried to explain the reality to her, and she accepted some parts, though she still remains overly optimistic about my 'talent'. I haven't even told most of my family that I'm writing (despite working on it for 5 years already) because I still don't know how to make sure they won't have any unrealistic expectations - and I know it'll be a tough uphill battle.

Tomas, I agree nobody is obliged to do anything in this area. Worse, while my point was that if you want reviews you should give them, in truth I don't think that helps all that much either. I do about 50 a year, but get very few for my own books.

As for riches, when the Kindle came out, the number of books on it in a given genre totalled about four pages, from memory. Anyone who could get on with a half-decent book made huge sales. This personally annoyed me because I had books I could convert, but you needed a US bank account, and being in NZ I couldn't get one. By the time Amazon let NZ citizens in, the glory days were well past. Now with 8 million books, discovery is impossible through browsing, and if you don't have a horde of friends who will buy them, preferably all at the same time, you never get the sales rate to get anywhere near a page that browsers might find. So forget about talent - that does not get you discovered. If it has to be through word of mouth, you need a lot of mouths. To do that, it helps to live in a high population zone where you can find a reasonable number of people with simiolar interests.

I hear you both. I am perfectly willing to do reviews of books I like. But I read a whole lot of mediocre books ( in my opinion) and I hesitate to trash a fellow author. So if I only review books I like, then I can't crank out reviews en masse.

Anne wrote: "I hear you both. I am perfectly willing to do reviews of books I like. But I read a whole lot of mediocre books ( in my opinion) and I hesitate to trash a fellow author. So if I only review books I..."

Which begs a very cheeky question Anne, what books do you like?

Answer that question, Anne, and you will get a lot of people offering theirs, for a review :-)

Ian wrote: "Answer that question, Anne, and you will get a lot of people offering theirs, for a review :-)"

Spoil sport, Ian!

When I'm reading a book, unless I"m beta reading, I am a reader, not an author. My review is from a reader perspective, not that of an author. The goal isn't to "trash" the author but to let them know that first drafts aren't good books, and yes, I've read a lot of published first drafts.

As a reader, I'm not your editor. I shouldn't be expected to let you know about your errors. Those should be corrected prior to publishing. If the characters are one dimensional and the dialogue is stilted, I'm going to say that. As a reader, I will tell you what I liked or didn't like.

You need to separate being an author and being a reader...when you are reviewing a book, do it from the reader point of view. That isn't trashing the author, it is being a reader who didn't like the book because of ______.

Remember, a review counts. I'll take 3 star reviews anyday as long as they give me why it's a 3 star for you. With that said, leave those mediocre reviews or even the bad ones if needed. The author needs to learn what to do to improve and that needs to come from the readers.

Leslie, Yeah, I know :-)

Sorry, friends, I wasn't clear. I just meant Goodreads reviews in general, not reviews that people in this group would submit. I can't do those, alas, because there is already too much on my plate, what with writing and getting books out and doing marketing. Not to mention reading for research and a little every day to keep up with trends. And Ian, because you asked, I like historical novels and mysteries with a dash of romance. :-)

I understand completle, Anne, and as an aside, I did not ask - I was trying to warn you :-) But that seems an eminently sensible genre.