Authors & Reviewers discussion

I gave away 4,500 copies of The Dragon Ring back in February and only two people left reviews on Amazon. There are six books in the epic fantasy N. Arc of Empire Series. The posted reviews are great, but too few for me to get wider readership through marketing.
Please, if you read or do read the series books, leave a short review on Amazon. If you left comments here on Goodreads, please copy them on the Amazon book pages.
Thank you for your assistance, it's very important.

C., could you elaborate on "I gave away 4,500 copies of ..."?

Thx.

Martin wrote: "C., could you elaborate on "I gave away 4,500 copies of ..."?

Thx."In February, I made The Dragon Ring [http://www.amazon.com//dp/B00MRGW1TI ] free and paid for email promotions on several sites. As a result, 4,500 people downloaded the book for free. I did that to gain new readers and awareness for the series.
As of today, 8/2/2016, only two people posted reviews on Amazon. A few more have rated it on Goodreads, but no reviews on Amazon. I need at least fifty reviews on Amazon before they will promote the book and I can secure a better promotion with a larger emailer. When I get a free book, I review it for the author in return. While I know some people just load their Kindles never intending to read the books, I don't understand why someone getting a book for free can't leave a few sentences on Amazon about their reaction to the book to help others determine if they would like to read it. For self-published authors, those review are critical.

Let's see. You write the book. The Dragon Ring's readers mostly give it 5 stars. (4.7 average) so it's an really good book. (Congratulations!) The issue seems to be marketing.

Can I pester you some more? (Yeah, I'm finished writing, beta readers are enthusiastic and I'm now worrying about marketing, which I MUST GET RIGHT or we can buy each other a beer and complain about how unfair life is.)

Did your book end with a clickable link to your reader list? Did it ask your readers for ratings and reviews? What (if anything) do you wish you had done?

And again, congratulations and many thanks.

C. A little research re your 4.7 stars.

By way of comparison, Nick Stephenson's lead Blake novella rates 4.4 and Joanna Penn's lead Arkane novel rates 4.0 at Amazon. For those who aren't up to marketing, Stephenson and Penn are two of the leading authors of 'how-to-market-your-book' books. (450 reviews for Stephenson's first, over 500 for Penn's.)

Martin wrote: "C. A little research re your 4.7 stars.

By way of comparison, Nick Stephenson's lead Blake novella rates 4.4 and Joanna Penn's lead Arkane novel rates 4.0 at Amazon. For those who aren't up to mar..."I haven't researched what they did to get those reviews, but lots of people buy reviews. I'm not doing that. I don't exchange reviews. I did that once and the book I got to review was a disaster and I couldn't give it a good review. I think one can 'gift' books in exchange for reviews, but that free promotion should have gotten similar results. I know some people offer to email books in certain formats, but while I have gotten two books like that, I can't get them to go to the Kindle so I can read them.

I have had the same problem and have found that a lot of that problem has to do with amazon's new policy on reviews. I review everything I read (good, bad, or great) but I can't get people to review mine unless I send them PDF copies. Mine is free on KU and still can't get the reviews I need even from family and friends. I have reviewed books and the reviews have gotten removed because amazon will remove it, if the review seems like the reader knows the author. I think the whole thing is messed up but I just keep posting to my facebook how important reviews are. You would think if you give the reader a book for free they could at least pay you buy giving a review. Good luck and I hope you figure out a way to get your readers to review more.

Amber,

Does your book ask for a review? I've read marketers that swear by putting just this request at the end of the book.

Not only have I asked for reviews, at the end of the e-books there are a few sentences as to how to write a review. ex. Did you like the book? Were the characters well developed? Etc. The request even has the URL to the book on Amazon noting readers can post under 'Write a review' there.

Amber wrote: "I have had the same problem and have found that a lot of that problem has to do with amazon's new policy on reviews. I review everything I read (good, bad, or great) but I can't get people to revie..." I'm with you there, Amber. I review the books I read to aid the authors and potential readers unless the book is so bad I can't give it at least three stars. I'm stuck until I can get fifty reviews.

Hi C!

*waves happily*

In my personal experience, ~2% of readers will leave a review (excluding the dozen ARCs I've provided specifically for review purposes). I've never listed my book for free and have only done one 99cent promo for 4 days since publishing.

Hmm. I reckon with a free book...

1. 50% don't even read it, and
2. Those that do probably don't make it a "priority"...?

Just my 2 cents. I wish you the very best of luck, good sir!!

Hugs,
Ann

Annie wrote: "Hi C!

*waves happily*

In my personal experience, ~2% of readers will leave a review (excluding the dozen ARCs I've provided specifically for review purposes). I've never listed my book for free a..."Thanks for the response, Annie!
I'll never do a free book promotion again. People don't value what they get for free unless they are authors too. I did get decent sales and many sales of the entire series by doing 99 cents sales on book one of the series. In my experience, one does have to promote the book through email mailings to gain substantial new readers. The social media mechanism no longer gets results for me as so many authors have spammed FB and Twitter, no one reads the posts anymore.