by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about who has the power in publishing. Most people agree that publisher’s hold the lion’s share. After all, they write the contracts, they are responsible for editing and art, distribution, marketing (although authors have to do a lot themselves these days). All (cough) the author does is write (cough, cough) the book.
But this post isn’t about that.
No, this post is about the unseen, or at least not often talked about in articles screaming about Amazon, Hatchette, and others — readers.
Yes, I said readers.
After all, readers, consumers, drive the train in the book marketplace, just like they do in any marketplace. Have a fantastic product, but no one will buy it? You watch; it will disappear from the shelves.
Have a fantastic book, but no one buys it? Booksellers will ship it back, the books get pulped, and maybe the author’s contract for the next book gets canceled. In the meantime, the existing book doesn’t go to another print run and gets harder to find outside of used bookstores and maybe digitally (hard to return or pulp an ebook).
Now ask anyone and she’ll tell you the guaranteed way to sell books. No, not ads in the New York Times, or on Facebook; not tweets or posts on Google+. At least not from authors.
No, the key to selling books is what it’s always been – word of mouth.
In the past, this might be a little challenging. You might wander into a bookstore and strike up a conversation with another shopper or an employee, finding a gem that way. Maybe you could talk to the six people in your book club, or write a letter to dear Aunt Mabel, gushing about the book you just read.
But this is 2014. Now we have the Internet. And what is the Internet? It’s a big, virtual street corner where you can scream your love of a book to the masses.
Tell your 268 Facebook friends. Tweet to your 1,094 Twitter followers. Pin the book cover on Pinterest. Tell those 348 people who’ve circled you on Google+.
Or (drum roll) write a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
Say what you want about Amazon; they are a force in book selling. Goodreads has I don’t remember how many subscribers – all of them readers. They are all looking for a good book.
And you can point them to one.
I know, I know – book reviews have gotten a bad rep lately. Lots of shenanigans with authors (especially indie authors) buying reviews. Smear campaigns against authors with unpopular opinions, where folks leave 1-star reviews out of spit without having read the book.
It doesn’t matter.
I read a story of a woman who sent seventy free books to readers in exchange for a review. She got something like seven (or at least less than ten). Another writer friend of mine recently said she knew over 100 copies of her book had been sold, but less than a dozen reviews had been posted.
Why? Are people afraid? Do you think maybe you can’t write well enough to write a review, or that people won’t care what you think?
Stop worrying.
People love opinions. And you’ve got one. And you’re qualified to have an opinion because you’re a reader. You’re the one we’re scribbling our dear little hearts away for! You loved that book and want more? Tell the world. Go to Amazon or Goodreads. Click the star rating. Write a review.
Still insecure? Here’s a template:
I really enjoyed this book. The world was well-written and the characters had me hooked for the journey. I would definitely buy another book from this author.
Yes, that’s it. Wait, you didn’t enjoy the book? Well, here you go:
I was looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat. The characters weren’t sympathetic and I got lost in the flowery language sometimes. The plot was okay, but I could see where it was going by the middle. All in all, an okay read, but it didn’t blow me away.
As you can see, neither of these are literary gems. They are one opinion of a book. But a valuable opinion – yours. Some writers say they write and don’t care if no one reads their stuff. I call shenanigans on that. Almost everybody wants someone to read them. You can be that someone. Better yet, you can lead another someone. I won’t do the math (after all, I’m a writer, not a mathematician), but if you tell two people, who tell two people, who tell two people – well, you can see the multiplying effect, right?
Now, a note about star ratings. The esteemed Porter Anderson has written about this and how the system is kind of flawed and abused. But we’re stuck with it. The problem isn’t stars. It’s that everybody thinks anything less than a perfect five is bad. But that’s not the case. As a writer, I’m happy with a three-star review. A four will send me over the moon. Five? Well, I’m very flattered, but five basically says, “There is nothing in the world better and this is perfection.” All fine and good – until something better comes along. And it will. So where do you go from five stars? Exactly. Use your stars well.
Another note: You’re going to read a book you don’t like. You’re saying, “But I don’t want to leave one or two stars, that’d be mean.” Well, I’ll be honest. A low review smarts a little. But I’ve got an editor friend who changed my approach on that. A low rating still means the writer evoked some kind of emotion and that’s good. Plus a few lower ratings give credence to the higher ones (meaning, no, I didn’t pay all my reviewers to flood my book with fake, glowing reviews nor are these written by my family). Be honest – but don’t make it personal. Make it about the book not the author. The author, after all, is a person. No point in being mean.
So there you have it. Use your voice, stand on your virtual street corner and proclaim your love (or lack thereof) of a book to the world. Help make sure that book stays around for other readers and the author gets the opportunity to write more books for you to love. It really does help, trust me.
Power to the people!
Image courtesy of Roey Aham, used under Creative Commons license.