How valuable is a review from SPR, or Self-publishing Review? Has anyone had experience with them?

So...you're saying that the quality of the book is irrelevant? How...

Oh, never mind.

Returning: Apparently I can't let "never mind" sit there. You realize that the above is exactly why I would assume that your service is worthless?

 

If so, it worked!

 

There are venues for free reviews for Indies... one that I am investigating now is the Historical Novel Society, which I just joined, which offers free reviews for trad and indie publishers. I have seen the Kirkus ads, and received a few e-mails from them, but the $575 prices sets my spider sense tingling.

Better avenues to spend money... advertising. For about $150 bucks, I boosted my facebook page, which has reached 18,000 people, apparently worldwide, as I picked up sales from Australia (2). And it reached an old friend in Thailand, who turned around and shared it with his friends. I got 300 likes and multiple shares, though the percentage return on sales in vanishingly small... two that I know of. But give it time, some may remember it. Get listed by your state writer's association. I got an interview with a writer's blog by way of my daughter, who is reviewing my book and will post it on her blog when finished. And local book signings. Look for venues that will attract your friends, plus people you don't know. My first was in a bar/restaurant in Lexington Park, a watering hole for my NAVAIR buddies. My second tomorrow will be in my La Plata watering hole, friends and also some who don't know me. Interviews with local newspapers.

 

Oh, yes, and don't forget FREE advertising on this site!

 

I think the FREE opportunities are what self-publishers should really be focusing on. I mean, I appreciate your positive attitude toward the Facebook advertising, and hopefully it WILL pay off eventually, but... for now, you make, what, a couple dollars per book sold? So right now each book sold COST you $73 dollars. That's not the direction we want to be moving in!

And as a book buyer, I've gotten pretty immune to most forms of direct advertising. Most of the books I read I either find for myself through browsing, or I buy because of a review from a trusted source or a recommendation from a trusted friend/acquaintance. My impression is that I'm pretty standard in this regard.

So... absolutely, try to get some readers, and try to get them talking about the book. Contact bloggers and review sites and see if they will review (for free, or at most for a free copy). The price is right, AND I'm pretty sure the results are more effective.

 

Understood. My main strategy is to break out of the circle of my friends, who are just glad the book is published, and I will stop talking about it, to reach those who don't know me and have never heard of the book. And I invested a certain amount of money to do this, some direct, as above, some indirect like memberships in MWA, HSA, HNS, attending writers conferences, etc. Which actually is the bulk of my "advertising" expenses right now, but they are fun!

 

@BayView

I trusted my ex-wife on the whole 50shades thing, and then about 3-4 months later
I found out she was banging some ugly 50ish canook. So it turns out that not even
trusted sources or recommendations are to be trusted.

I take the time to decide what is worth reading based on my own opinion. That way I
have no one else to blame but myself if the book turns out to be crap.

Or in short: Just because everybody else gave it a good rev, does not make it a good
read (or even worth the money spent to read it).

 

But what do you base it on? You just download/buy a book and hope it's good? Maybe just based on the cover and blurb? I wasted an awful lot of time doing that when I first got a Kindle, and learned my lesson!

 

@Tenderiser I like the "look inside" feature, and it helps a lot.

 

@Tenderiser I like the "look inside" feature, and it helps a lot.

 

@Homer Potvin that is 3 more than I have.
I get lucky sometimes on authors I have never heard of.
It is a lot like buying an album of a band you have never
heard of in a genre you like, and it turns out they are
pretty good.

Sometimes the gamble is worth it, and you find something
good in a place you would have never looked before.

 

I find new fiction authors at the library or used bookstore, so that a mistake costs me little or nothing. Only then do I consider paying full price.

For nonfiction I have bought a fair number of Kindle books based on "look inside", but essentially never self-published nonfiction.

 

It's not money I was talking about, but time. I don't get much time for reading (or rather, I don't prioritise reading enough) and every minute browsing is a minute less reading time.

I mean I'm not saying reviews are the be all and end all, but it's a hell of a lot more reliable than any other method I've found, besides recommendations.

Edit: At least, it's reliable once you learn to spot paid/family and friend reviews. But that's not really a problem now I don't buy self-published books.

 

Ah, I see.

If you like books in genres that tend to have series (like murder mysteries) one way to minimize the browsing/reading proportion is to focus, when browsing, on authors with the longest series. That assumes, of course, that there isn't some confounding factor that means that you don't like long-series authors. That's another reason why used bookstores and libraries are handy--it's easier to gauge, at a glance, who the long-series authors are. (At least if the store or library has a section devoted to the preferred genre, which, for murder mysteries, it usually does.)

Not that I'm arguing against reviews. I've just found that for me, reviews of fiction do little more than reassure me that the book isn't horrible. I tend to have priorities that aren't the same as the reviewer's.

 

Ah see I'm peculiar in that I've written to Amazon to ask if we can have a series filter, because I really don't like them.

I'm trying to write a series though, since I know everybody else in the world loves them.

 

I think it can depend on how you read the reviews. Like, if you just look at the ratings, I agree, it's hard to find someone whose taste/priorities match yours. But if you read the analysis section, I think you can generally get at least a reasonable idea of what you're in for (again, once you've found reviewers who write good reviews).

 

I probably should have said "prolific author" rather than "series". But, really, most, though not all, of the prolific authors that I've read have written series.

 

That may be the issue. I usually have no use for movie reviews, but I still look for a Roger Ebert review for any past movie that I'm considering. So maybe I just need to find the right reviewer.

 

Oh come on, @tenderizer, you'll love mine! Try "The Eagle and the Dragon," at least enough to look inside.

 

It's listed here, under the new Member Publications, so you don't even have to go far!

 

Here's a cogent treatment of the subject of paid reviews, by Jane Friedman:
https://janefriedman.com/paid-book-reviews/

The crucial question she asks is, are you going for validation or do you want to sell books?

@Lew, I took a look at your novel, but couldn't find it available as an ebook except through Kindle Unlimited. Is there any way to buy it for Kindle without joining that plan?

 

@Catrin Lewis

I see the points in the article. And it doesn't make
a lot of sense to spend a large sum on a review that
may not be all that good on a given book. So I think
it is more about validation and looking prominent,
than being beneficial and a wise investment.

 

I see it available below the Kindle unlimited button, a tiny tag that says $4.99 to buy. Also on the right is buy now with One Click. That is my regular Kindle price, let me know if there is a problem buying it that way.