Thanks for these great tips Karen. I'm about to launch a book on publishing, so it was great to hear so many ways to get reviews. I had Booksprout, but added BookSiren to my list. Could I ask: how do you share a book with your entire email list? How do you know they won't post it anywhere?
There are a couple of ways to do it. For a launch, I'd ask my mailing list who wants to be on my book launch team and make a much smaller sub-list/community who I send out the book to. I then work with closely with them to get reviews (not just on Amazon but also on their own blogs/socials/etc).
But I've also put my book on a free promo on Kindle and let my entire mailing list know about it. That leads to a high number of downloads that boosts the book in the rankings and leads to even more. Then I'm able to follow up with my list and encourage them to review it if they've read it. The risk of people stealing/plagiarising/re-posting your work when you do it that way is no greater than it would be anyway. And let's face it, there's always a slight risk of that with eBooks.
I certainly need to do some of these strategies to get more eyes on my books. I suck at marketing though.
I come from a background in corporate marketing and it's still my least favorite part of the publishing process. You don't suck, marketing does!
Thanks that makes me feel a little better.
Thanks for these great tips Karen. I'm about to launch a book on publishing, so it was great to hear so many ways to get reviews. I had Booksprout, but added BookSiren to my list. Could I ask: how do you share a book with your entire email list? How do you know they won't post it anywhere?
There are a couple of ways to do it. For a launch, I'd ask my mailing list who wants to be on my book launch team and make a much smaller sub-list/community who I send out the book to. I then work with closely with them to get reviews (not just on Amazon but also on their own blogs/socials/etc).
But I've also put my book on a free promo on Kindle and let my entire mailing list know about it. That leads to a high number of downloads that boosts the book in the rankings and leads to even more. Then I'm able to follow up with my list and encourage them to review it if they've read it. The risk of people stealing/plagiarising/re-posting your work when you do it that way is no greater than it would be anyway. And let's face it, there's always a slight risk of that with eBooks.
Thanks for the explanation. I didn't get any takers so far, but will try the free way via kindle.
Thanks for the shout out!
You're very welcome Mary. :)