Getting Reviews and Generating Buzz
and other news from Duskbound Books
Getting Reviews and Generating Buzz
by Kaytalin Platt
Getting Reviews
Aside from convincing people to take a chance on our books, the second Bane of the Indie Author Experience is convincing readers to leave a review. There are countless memes and jokes about it. There are also a plethora of myths surrounding reviews—like the magic 50 number for reviews on Amazon, and that if you reach it Amazon will start pushing your book out to more people.
In reality, the 50 reviews just adds a touch of legitimacy to your book. More people are likely to take a chance on an unknown book if it has 50+ reviews versus seven.
But getting to that magic 50 threshold is a slog, especially without utilizing services like NetGalley or Book Sirens or having a large and dedicated street team. In fact, I would say, without those things, getting to 50 reviews is next to impossible.
How would I know? I utilized those services for OF SILVER AND SIN, and still only have 35 reviews on Amazon, 100+ on Goodreads—oh, if only those reviews cross-posted to Amazon!
Where I went wrong in utilizing those services has nothing to do with the services themselves, and all to do with my budget and the liberalness with which I approved reviewers.
For NetGalley, I used a coop program through Victory Editing services, where I paid $50 for listing OF SILVER AND SIN on NetGalley for one month. For BookSirens, where you pay $2 per reader, I limited my budget to 40 readers, or $80. NetGalley’s one month placement was perfect. I had over 100 requests for the book and nearly as many downloads. For BookSirens, I maxed out my readers and spent my budget.
The problem I didn’t foresee when budget planning—but in hindsight should have recognized—was that, while many might download, not everyone would follow through on reviews. For NetGalley, I took chances on readers who had poor track records on leaving reviews, but seemed to have newer accounts. I thought I would give a chance to new reviewers who might often get their requests rejected because of their review ratio. It paid off about as well as you might suspect. This, coupled with the book not being everyone’s cup of tea, or an innumerable amount of reasons for someone to have to put it aside, meant a lower turnout on reviews than I anticipated. But, for NetGalley, I still have reviews trickling in months later from people who were approved and downloaded, but hadn’t had time to get to the book yet.
Along with NetGalley and BookSirens, I created an influencer signup sheet, where I invited Booktokers and Bookstagrammers to apply for PR packages. Within these packages, they received a signed copy of the book, four trading-card style character cards, four vellum-printed scene overlay illustrations, and a fancy bookmark. I made ten PR packages and shipped them to various influences. This was the most bang for my marketing budget, to be honest. All but one of the influencers gleefully shared the PR package with their following.
All in all, I had a pretty small marketing budget, but managed to garner enough buzz that I had a pretty decent launch for OF SILVER AND SIN.
My take away is, for future larger releases, I’m going to expand my marketing budget by doing more PR boxes, increasing my BookSirens reader goal, and maintaining the one month on NetGalley—there isn’t much of a reason to expand beyond the month.
Reviews are one of the most important marketing tools an author has. Nothing convinces a reader more to buy something than someone else loving it. Word of mouth or reviews are often the deciding factor for a buyer. Not only that, reviews are great tools to use in marketing graphics.
If you are an author struggling to get reviews for your book, I recommend considering listing your book on places like NetGalley or BookSirens for whatever your budget allows—even if your book has been out for a while.
Tips:
Novels work best. Collections of stories—especially non-genre specific—may not get as many interested readers.
Be selective with your reader approval. Don’t mass approve. Check the profiles and make sure they read books within your genre. Choose readers with high-review ratios as well as high-review scoring average (4 stars+). If you choose a reader with a lower scoring average, you are likely to receive a low starred review.
Be strict when building a street team or creating your influencer list for PR packages. But, remember smaller accounts can be some of your most passionate supporters. Some of the people who are still singing OF SILVER AND SIN’s praises months after its release are smaller creators.
Generating Buzz
When our book nears being ready to hit publish, we are often excited to get it out into the world as soon as we can, but I caution you to build in a few months of marketing within your publishing schedule.
You should be marketing your book in some facet throughout the writing journey—talking about it with your social media followers, sharing snippets, discussing you writing journey. But, you should really dive into marketing when your cover is finished, and you have some imagery and themes to work with when designing your marketing graphics.
But, to build buzz, you’ll need to partner with others, and that’s where a street team comes in. I suggest creating a separate email list, Discord server, or Facebook Group for communicating with your street team, where you can share your graphics, book mockups, review copies, and more.
Tips for building a Street Team:
Give your team a name! It can be easy like, Kaytalin Platt’s Street Team, or a play on your books/world—like if you have a group in your book with a cool name, you can do a play off of it: The Gold Clerics or Kaytalin’s Shades.
Layout your Street Team expectations, such as what you’re offering the members—ARCs, swag, fun book-themed activities like helping to name characters, etc—and what you hope to get in return—sharing your social posts, making posts of their own using the materials you provide, generally helping you hype your book.
Create a signup form on your website, allowing readers to apply. Make sure you list what you’re looking for in a Street Team member: they’ve read your books, are fans of your work, their social media handles, etc.
Vet them. Once they’ve submitted the form, see if they are a good fit for your team. If they have zero social presence, it might not be. The point of having the team is to get help generating buzz around your book, and if that person has no ability or desire to do that, then they’re only joining for the free stuff.
Encourage participation by offering incentives like swag, signed copies, special editions, character art posters, the chance to win a gift card or new e-reader, just to name a few.
FALLEN Arrives Next Week!
The newest book in Aly Welch’s Masquerade Series arrives this May 28.
Pop star Tiffany Sharp has it all—fame, fortune, a passionate fan base—until a vicious tabloid rumor regarding her link to the otherworldly Lafayette Corporation threatens to end her career. Caught in a web of lies, Tiffany no longer knows who to trust as she seeks her true identity.
Friends have their own problems. A new menace lurks in the Hollywood Hills while other threats across the country grow in strength and numbers. Worlds collide as the mystery surrounding Tiffany Sharp unfolds.
Kaytalin Platt, author of the Equitas Series and OF SILVER AND SIN, won the chance to have a short story turned into an audiobook! The Twelfth Daughter of Erstwhile Garden is being produced by Megan Carver, and will release in June, along with an ebook and 50-page special edition hardback featuring illustrations and customized edging.
The Twelfth Daughter of Erstwhile Garden tells the story of Esme Fischer, who is tricked into marrying the God of Eternal Rest by his betrothed—her twin sister. Now, bound to the Infernal, Esme struggles for purpose in the dark and compassion from the husband who doesn't want her. But as she finds her footing in the life meant for her sister, a terrible fate befalls the realm she was born to govern.