Review: A Mixture of Good and Less Good Advice
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2014
Despite the title, How to Get a Truckload of Reviews on Amazon.com is about getting reviews from a range of sources, including traditional media, book bloggers, blog tours, and Amazon reviewers.Some of the advice seems a little over-the-top for the average self-published author, such as compiling review packets to submit to newspapers and magazines in the hope of gaining a review. Sending unsolicited books in the hope of getting a review will rapidly get expensive (especially as I suspect the books will typically end up in the circular filing cabinet rather than being read and reviewed).Some of the advice was excellent. As a book blogger, I absolutely agree on the importance of thanking bloggers who have participated in your blog tour. It’s a simple matter to send a quick email, tweet, or even comment on the blog post, but so few authors do it. I believe it improves your chances of being featured on the blog with your subsequent release. I also agree that it’s dodgy (she says unethical) to offer ‘incentives’ for positive reviews, and that offering to ‘edit’ a review (or write one) for a reviewer is less than honest.However, I absolutely disagree with the recommendation to thank Amazon reviewers by commenting on the review, even if Amazon do suggest it. Thanking every reviewer looks needy if you have a small number of reviews, and stalkerish if you have a lot. It looks self-serving if you only thank the positive reviewers, yet condescending if you thank the critical reviewers. This isn’t just my opinion: it’s one shared by a lot of the Amazon Top Reviewers (although, as stated above, thanking reviewers on blogs is appreciated, especially when the author has personally requested the review).I also believe her advice to gift ebooks to reviewers via Amazon is outdated. A number of reviewers have recently had their reviews deleted, and many of these were reviews where the book had been gifted via Amazon. It’s a lot safer to either email the mobi file directly to the reviewer, or gift via Smashwords. Scuttlebutt is that Amazon sees gifted Kindle books as compensation, as the gift can be declined and the value credited to any other purchase on the site.While the good advice more than outweighs the bad, it’s likely the authors who are interested in buying a book like this aren’t themselves experienced reviewers, or experienced at dealing with reviewers. They don’t know all the ins and outs of Amazon, and are at risk of unknowingly following bad advice—which is why I can’t recommend this book, despite all the good advice.