UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

I'm trying to decide if Netgalley is worth the money for an indie author trying to promote a book. It seems to be more and more widely used by readers. Anyone had any experience of this from the author's point of view?

Great question. I was wondering the same thing.

I haven't got a clue what the answer is, but if we sit here quietly someone more knowledgeable will wander by soon. Mind if I share this park bench with you while we are waiting?

I'm seriously flattered you think there's even the possibility I look like that!(either of them ...)

On the internet, you can look exactly how you want.

Heck - my hair has grown back! I'm doing that man-spreading thing though. Is that what it looks like to the outside world? On behalf of all men everywhere, may I apologise?

Thank you, Will! It can be difficult on trains.

You've made me wonder if that was why women decided to wear crinolines and bustles - it allowed some personal space.

I'll bring a canvas beach chair and sit next to you, if I may, and let's hope we can capture the attention of some passing bod stuffed full of info.

I use it as a reviewer and have been offered books from there. As an author I don't know how you go about getting a book on there. It's the big publishers who use it as far as I can see.

Thanks, Kath, that's a little piece of the jigsaw and slowly, slowly we may get there.

Found this:

https://netgalley.uservoice.com/knowl...

They are offering a range of options from $399 to $599 for authors to market their books. That seems quite expensive to me. From what I've seen on google, authors sometimes join together as co-ops to buy a netgalley deal between them.

But it does seem to be mostly the big publishers.

What you get for that is the offer to loads of NetGalley reviewers of a chance to read your book pre-pub. There's no guarantee that anyone will even take up the offer. I think you're better with a book group on FB or a discussion group like this, to offer pre-publication copies there. The object seems to be to get lots of reviews as soon as the book's published.

The downside for little people like most of us, is that the people who read your book free on NG are not going to buy it and that's lost sales. Mind you, they may be people who'd never have seen it otherwise and the ripple of interest from reviews could tip things in your favour. Awful big gamble at that price, though.

That's what I thought - it looked like a not-worth-the-hassle price. I'm just in the process of feeling staggered at one particular author who has dozens of reviews straight off for a below-average book (not that the below-average bit matters that much, but how do they get all those reviews?! I never thought I would find myself suffering from review envy!

They swap them for free copies. Dangerous - the reviewers might all come back with 2 and 3* reviews.

There are dark and nefarious ways to get reviews. I've just had an email from a company offering to sell me reviews. Their going rates are a bit eye-watering:

"Option #1 ~ Book Blast, Reviews, & Social Posts:
After sending your book (e-book format) to our bloggers, they read and write a review on it. It takes from one week to a month to receive responses. Minimum reviews are 100 words each and are based on the readers' honest opinions.
Reviews are posted on Amazon and the bloggers' social pages.
Cost:
2 Verified reviews - $19
4 Verified reviews - $29
6 Verified reviews - $49
8 Verified reviews - $69
10 Verified reviews - $89
12 Verified reviews - $109
25 Verified reviews - $199"

They do say that these will be honest reviews, but I'm not too sure about the ethics of buying verified reviews like this.

But the one that tickles me is the Smashwords top ten highest rated books. What are you thinking? To Kill a Mockingbird? Harry Potter? Fifty shades? Some esoteric noble prize winning arty book?

Nope. This lot:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/cate...

The top ten book has 99 reviews scoring a perfect 5.0. Not a single review below 5.0 to spoil the score. And the second best rated book has 98 reviews, also with a perfect score.

Now, I don't know what is going on here. Those reviews could be genuine. But it looks extremely fishy to me to score a perfect 5.0 over 99 reviews. And it might just be my imagination, but those reviews (and reviewers) seem remarkably similar.

The bottom line - yes, it's great to get actual real genuine proper reviews. Reviews written by real people, with the odd 4, 3 or 2 thrown in there, because not everyone will like every book.

But I wouldn't worry too much about review envy. Not everyone is playing by the same rules.

That was my impression. It's a fascinating game to watch, though!

Well. Smash words just dropped in my estimations.

I've turned down offers for 'honest' but paid reviews and I don't regret it. There are good people here on GR or KUF or similar who support indie authors by giving a good review whenever they can and we indies owe them a lot. It keeps at least some of the indies untainted by what others call 'cheating'.

It's all so dispiriting though to see that the big publishers are up to their eyeballs in passing quite a lot of bucks to 'honest' reviewers.

I quite agree, and I'm deeply grateful to the people who have taken the time to post reviews for my books. I think paying for reviews is a bit of a risk anyway. The author that has made me raise these questions seems, however, to be an indie, and I don't think we're entirely free of taint in this as a community, sadly - though in the case of this writer perhaps they simply have a large number of kind friends!

I took a look at a traditionally published writer's reviews. I'd just finished and enjoyed the book, a four star sort of book.

However, I came across three 5 star reviews which were identical and posted under the same name. I hopped over to the US site and found those same 5 star reviews posted under a different name. Because this writer had many reviews, I suppose it was hoped it would not be noticed.

A good writer, and I doubt it was the writer who did this. This sort of thing tarnishes the writing profession/hobby!

Is Netgalley worth it? I don't know, but I wouldn't use it.

The same name one can happen as a computer glitch - I had that happen with a review someone posted on Smashwords which was I assume accidentally duplicated. I asked Smashwords to take off the duplicate, though. The fact that your example was under different names in the States does look a little fishier!

As to NetGalley, I've gone and posted a couple of giveaways for reviews on LibraryThing instead. It doesn't cost me anything but my time, and the result last time was a great 9% success rate!

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Well. Smash words just dropped in my estimations."

Ah, I'd been wondering how many Smashwords readers it took to write a review (285 downloads so far and not a squeak). I hadn't twigged they're politely waiting to be offered a brown envelope.

Well, it's good they're polite! I hasten to add that for the few I have I have not paid (or perhaps not enough!).

Lexie wrote: "The same name one can happen as a computer glitch - I had that happen with a review someone posted on Smashwords which was I assume accidentally duplicated. I asked Smashwords to take off the dupli..."

These repeated reviews all had different dates a month or so apart, Lexie. More fishy than computer glitch, I would have thought though I suppose there could be some other explanation.

It rather tarnishes the writer's name and I really do doubt the writer would feel the need to do this. Publisher? Agent? Mother?!

Richard wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "Well. Smash words just dropped in my estimations."

Ah, I'd been wondering how many Smashwords readers it took to write a review (285 downloads so far and not a squeak). I..."

Perhaps we need to turn the tables and respect authors with a limited number of reviews.

Good or bad, a review is a review, I can understand if someone feels the need to amend it after further consideration, but I disagree with multiple reviews of the same nature by the same person. You could really slam an auto you don't like that way!

Anna wrote: "Perhaps we need to turn the tables and respect authors with a limited number of reviews. "

I tend to think that the 1 or 2 star reviews are far more informative than the 4 or 5 star ones.

At the very least you can get a strong impression about the personality of the person writing the review :-)

I tend not to pay a lot of heed to reviewers who haven't mastered capitals.

Richard wrote: "I tend not to pay a lot of heed to reviewers who haven't mastered capitals."

Amazon ought to offer a green wax crayon option for some reviewers

Jim wrote: "Richard wrote: "I tend not to pay a lot of heed to reviewers who haven't mastered capitals."

Amazon ought to offer a green wax crayon option for some reviewers"

Oh, definitely! As long as I can use it sometimes, too.

I notice that some have only mastered capitals. They are shouty bumpkins and one is allowed to ignore them.

Unless they are saying nice things about the book. In which case we become instantly much more capital tolerant ;-)

I suppose that even shouty bumpkins need love too.

Jim wrote: "Richard wrote: "I tend not to pay a lot of heed to reviewers who haven't mastered capitals."

Amazon ought to offer a green wax crayon option for some reviewers"

It certainly would not be beyond their technical wizardry to provide a green crayon font as standard. I sometimes feel their heart just isn't in it.

Jim wrote: "At the very least you can get a strong impression about the personality of the person writing the review :-)"

There is that, but also a glance at the low reviews can be useful if they complain about grammar, formatting, the short length of the book and so on.

Then you know the book is something to be wary of, no matter how many high reviews it got.

Of course yo ignore the low reviews that complain that the book cover didn't match their cardigan, or it made their cat sneeze or the hero was called Norman or something of that kind.

Generally, though, low reviews are more interesting to read, sometimes better than the book.

@ David - lol and oh so true.

David wrote: "Jim wrote: "At the very least you can get a strong impression about the personality of the person writing the review :-)"

There is that, but also a glance at the low reviews can be useful if they ..."

Definitely!

I look at the spread of reviews across the ratings and then take a quick look at the negatives to see what they are complaining about. I've got a one star review somewhere that says simply "didn't order this book." How the hell does a book get on your kindle if you don't order it? Didn't lose a lot of sleep over that one.

I would say that people reviewing books are wonderful, even if they didn't like it, because every time I get a nice one it gives me an enormous lift. Knowing that someone enjoyed what you wrote is what I do it for. I'd be happier if I got paid millions for it, but apparently that's not going to happen. C'est la guerre.

Reviewers keep on reviewing. We love you all. Honestly.

Darren - that's a brilliant sentiment. If we had a like button, consider it pressed!

I have a two star review which says "highly recommended" and "awesome". I have no idea how that happened - maybe her mouse slipped? But I love it to bits. It's genuine and human and messily organic.

The readers are the most important part of this business and we should never forget it.

Darren I love your sentiment too.
One of the best reviews I have is three stars. Another was a complete nutter who gave me one star for adding a book to the trilogy. They seemed to think paying for one out of three books was a bit steep and paying for two was me trying to rip them off.
Richard, how did you sell all those books on Smashwords. I've sold about forty in 7 years!

Cheers all

MTM

Darren wrote: "I look at the spread of reviews across the ratings and then take a quick look at the negatives to see what they are complaining about. I've got a one star review somewhere that says simply "didn't ..."

Publish something new and I'll read and review it.

Hold up your end of the deal, buddyboy.

M.T. wrote: "Richard, how did you sell all those books on Smashwords. I've sold about forty in 7 years!"

No secret recipe, I'm afraid - freebies.