First Sunday Q&A: What Draws a Reader to Actually Buy/Read My Book?
Q: I’m a new author (thrilled about that!) with a nicely produced book (yay!). I depended on my publisher (a small press) to do most of the publicity, though, which turned out to be a bad move on my part. So much NOT done! Looking back, I can see how sales would’ve been better if I’d gotten more involved, especially with reviews. I got a handful of good blurbs but no trade reviews, not much online either. From your recent book launch, what have you learned about getting enough reviews to make readers click through to buy your book?
A: First, congrats! Being published is a huge victory for authors. And yes, there’s often a gap between what we hope for with our publishing experience and what actually happens. Blame it on publishers’ limited budgets and time to promote us, when other authors are on their list too. I did learn quite a bit about this with my recent launch, so I’ll share what I know and where you might research to find out more.
I was lucky to have a good friend (a New York Times bestselling author) reach out early in my pre-publication months and offer to help me with my book promotion. We both know—she especially, from her experience—that no matter how great the publisher, most authors these days must take charge of their book promotion. She taught me three steps, often overlooked, that make the biggest difference in your ability to reach readers. They are quite simple, and I’ll be talking about the first one today: getting enough and a certain kind of reviews.
Because I found out about this and acted fast, my novel became an Amazon bestseller in three categories in August, and the audiobook is still on two of those lists now in December. I’m beyond grateful to have learned about these steps and I’m hard at work now, putting them in place for my next book.
So today, we’ll talk about the first step: getting a certain kind of review, making sure there are enough solid reviews posted before your book launches, and continuing that effort after it is out in the world.
We’ll also explore why buyers today rely so heavily on reviews. And what kind you, as the author, can reach for and what kind your publisher has to handle.
Reviews are just one of the three steps she taught me; the other two are based on first having enough reviews that teach you how readers describe your book.
Why is this essential? Because you, the author, have a certain way to talk about your book. It may not be how readers talk about it, and readers are the ones buying your book. Bridging that gap is vital.
Once you have a solid number of reviews, you can take the second step: locate the keywords that are most communicative to the readers you want to attract. Then the third step, insert these keywords into all your online book descriptions and promotion.
Why didn’t I know about this? I have solid publishing experience, 14 books in 3 genres. Because I left reviews up to my publisher—who often didn’t do much, like the questioner above experienced—and I wasn’t educated about why reviews mattered or how to use them to make a difference in book sales.
Learning about this important step was one of my biggest ah-ha’s when doing my book launch prep.
This week, I’d like to escort you through what I learned about the first step: how to get the right reviews and establish the foundation for steps two and three.
I’d love to hear both your questions about this and your experiences, so please share in the comments section below.
Book reviews in publishing today
So why didn’t I connect the dots between my own reliance on reviews and how potential readers would find my books? Not until my NYT bestseller friend mentioned the usefulness of reviews did I begin to research this for myself.
Book reviews range wide in the publishing industry. The basic groups are:
trade reviews (Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Foreword/Clarion, Independent Book Review, American Book Review, Library Journal, and others)
media reviews (New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, “Best of” lists and others)
celebrity book clubs (Oprah’s, Reese’s, #ReadwithJenna, Belletrist, Shondaland, and others)
reader review sites (Goodreads, Amazon, BookBub, LibraryThing, Book Riot, Reedsy, Net Galley, and others)
social media groups reviews (Facebook groups, Bookstagrammers, BookTok reviews)
A vast territory. I’m sure I’m missing some here, so feel free to leave a comment about other review sites/reviewers you know, have experience with, use as a reader or are interested in as an author.
Authors rely on publishers/publicists to handle some of these reviews (media and celebrity reviews are hard to get as an author). Trade reviews used to also be publisher-only territory, but they’ve opened up to authors now, paid and not. Online reviews are totally author dependent but how do you get your readers to post reviews on Amazon, one of the key review sites? Not always as easy as it seems.
Why reviews made such a big difference in my book’s outreach
When friends and family, who are good readers, tell me about a book they love, I'm much more inclined to get a copy.
When I search online for a new author, I usually read the reviews on the bookseller’s site (Amazon or bookshop.org). I sometimes check out Goodreads or BookBub to find out if a book would be a good fit for me.
Reviews are how I (and maybe you too?) select a lot of things in everyday life, from movies to watch, restaurants to try, places to visit, cars to buy, towns to live in, repair places to use. Each time certain friends get together, we come armed with tablets to note recommendations on everything—which is essentially the review machine in action.
Whether that’s smart or not, honest reviews give information on how to make a better decision. Often, those decisions work out well, too.
Translate that to book buyers/readers. Reviews do help book sales, and word-of-mouth continues to be a big player in why someone picks up a new book. But more than this, reviews add two vital elements to your book promotion.
First, they let you know your reader. Better than any other vehicle I’ve found, a posted review of a book lets me see exactly where that reader finds their literary joy.
Second, reviews are the best source of keywords. Authors use keywords to refine a book’s online description so those readers, the ones you want to find your book and want to read it, will.
How did I not know this? All these books I’ve published but never knew about the gold mine that is book reviews.
Why authors miss out on the gold mine of reviews
I ran a test this past year. Knowing I was going to be releasing a new novel and also because I was interested in how authors use reviews to find new readers, I followed five authors for six months on Instagram.
Two were well-loved by me, their books already lining my shelves. Three were new. A fascinating mix. Some bold personalities, quite out there in their posts (usually selfie videos with agony and elation dramatized). Some quieter, easier to hear. I learned a lot about life behind their writing, what generates a creative life. Mostly, I studied how they talked about their books.
Over the course of these months, I found they fell into two camps. One relied on their personality to attract people who wanted to be fans. The other kept the conversation mostly about the books, using reviews and comments from readers.
Guess whose books I ended up buying?
The personality-driven posts didn’t actually attract me. They certainly would for some readers, but I was after a book to love, not a person to fan-follow.
When the author shared tidbits about the characters, how a character touched a certain reader, I got interested (review). When they shared thank you’s to bloggers and media sites without any sense of what the blogger liked, I didn’t. Majority of the posts were about lifestyle, successes, fame, and again, some followers love this—not me. They didn’t use words that resonated with me when they mentioned their books, just talked solely about the person behind it.
I know, know. We authors are being trained now to reveal the person behind the book. But what are you up for, as a writer, really? Long term? Do you want readers or do you want fans?
This kind of talk sounds disloyal, unsupportive of the literary community. I questioned whether it was wrong to be socially uninterested in an author’s life, to follow them as a kind of study of how authors do social media (I still regard myself as somewhat awkward and newbie in this arena), but not support their literary lives. But it’s the truth. I buy books carefully. Usually through recommendations (reviews) by a friend whose taste I trust, as mentioned earlier. I request a book from the library to test my interest, buy if I love, return if not.
Honest reviews are everything in my decision to click and buy. If the review triggers resonance with my life and interests, I’m in.
I follow an author to study and learn. I buy their book because of the way the author talks about the story, the way someone I respect reviews it, they way either uses words—keywords—that touch me as a reader.
After I completed this little test, after I learned about reviews, I did another exercise.
I filled in this sentence: “My favorite books are about ___________.”
You can try it now. What did you come up with? Was it harder or easier than you expected?
One more example of this: Last Friday, my newsletter shared a little story about Thanksgiving dinner. An older relative found my book and loved it, and his enthusiasm for the story was better than any of the delicious food on our huge Thanksgiving table. I asked him why he liked the book, and he gave me a review. “My favorite books,” he said, “are page-turners. A lot happens, and it keeps my interest.”
Important keywords: I knew them from other reviews, pre-publication, and I’d luckily inserted them into my online descriptions, my book blurb, my general promotion.
We’re all flooded with input. On Substack alone, there are so many great writers to read. I subscribe to about 10, and some weeks they go into my “to be read when I have time” folder. These are writers I already love, I gain much life insight from, I’m always inspired by. Still, when they are competing for my inner ability to take in new ideas, they may not find entrance when they arrive in my inbox or on my app. I can only take in so much. I am careful about what takes up my attention, because attention, I know well, is love. I have to restore my reservoirs of this special energy and not everything I read will do that.
Same with anything that comes my ways—news, reels, films, even friends. What will they give, what will they take?
If I sense a book is going to fill my reservoirs more than it will demand from me, it feels more attractive. How do I know that, with an unknown author? From reviews. A friend who reads and loves it, tells me why. A review I read or hear of the person’s book lights me up in some way. I think, I could use that.
To wrap up this Sunday read, I want to first recap the purpose of reviews, as we’ve discussed. I can condense it into eight reasons:
To get an accurate sense of why readers like your book and collect accurate keywords from this.
To use any keywords that repeat, for marketing.
To boost your book’s presence on review sites so browsers will take the leap to buy.
To qualify as a featured author on BookBub.
To have quotes to use on your book’s back cover and your website and author profile pages on social media sites.
To have quotes to share on social media posts.
To bolster your bio if you’re pitching to podcasts or other interviews.
To just help you feel great about what you’ve created!
For those of you ready to use this information—you have a book coming out, or you’re curious about how to get reviews—here’s the timeline I used. It worked extremely well for me; it may worked differently for you.
Timeline to get the reviews you need
Way before your book is even accepted for publication, even before you get signed with an agent, it’s extremely useful to get reviews. These are often called blurbs, if they come from other authors. Blurbing is a whole topic in itself, which I’ll also be covering in another post. Tackle this in two stages: one would be your beta readers, those peers who can give you feedback. Take note of what words they use as they describe your book. Two would be published authors you ask to read and write a pre-publication blurb for you, with the idea that these blurbs help you sell your manuscript. They definitely attract attention. I took about two years to do this.
Six months before your publication date, you submit for the all-important trade reviews. Spend the bucks. Yes, you or your publisher can submit your book for free to the larger trade reviewers, but you’re not guaranteed a review. To me, it’s worth paying for at least one solid trade review. My preferred are Kirkus or Booklist. I got great reviews from both and used them extensively in my promotion, on my Amazon and other bookseller pages, on Goodreads, and to pitch podcasts. Most trade reviewers required submission six months in advance, so plan for this. If you submit early, as soon as ARCs (advance reader copies) are available, you can use the reviews on your book itself.
A few months before publication, begin working with Goodreads and BookBub. These reader-review sites hold a lot of weight for book browsers as well as Amazon (Goodreads is owned by Amazon). No self-promotion is allowed, so you need to get readers to honestly read, review, and post. Set up an account and link it to your book on the bookseller sites. I like to set up pre-orders so this can happen—although the book isn’t available yet, it does appear on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever else it’s sold. So you can set up a book page in Goodreads and BookBub to prepare for reviews.
Make a list of friends who might enjoy your book. Send them an ARC (pdf) and ask them to read it. Talk each person through the steps of posting a review on both these sites—send the link to your book page. You’re after honest reviews, of course, nothing done as a favor, since you really want to learn from what readers say. All this can be done before your book comes out as long as it’s available for pre-orders and up on booksellers’ sites. Goodreads’ website says, “Please note that we only accept honest reviews that are created of the readers’ own free will. Paid reviews are not accepted and will be removed.” Not only that, they can take down your page. So do this honestly and carefully.
The week of your launch, ask those same friends to post their review on Amazon. (Amazon used to prefer reviews by verified purchasers, so I originally asked my friends to pre-order a copy. After my book was published, I noticed that Amazon posted reviews from non-verified purchasers just as quickly. A nice change.)
As the reviews come in, consider sharing them on your social media feeds. Acknowledge and thank the reader who posted it. Let others know about the substance of your book by sharing these reviews. Comments, when I’ve done this, have been “Now I have to read it!” or “This told me a lot more about the book.” Because it’s not you, the author, talking up the book, it comes across differently.
Use the reviews in your keyword work (stay tuned to a future First Sunday newsletter about this!).
And bask in the glow. Good reviews are so encouraging. Makes it all worthwhile to know that readers love your story, doesn’t it!