Trolling for Reviews, an FYI

[Patricia D]

I am trying to develop marketing skills and a sense of what works. Reviews seem important, so...

A couple weeks ago, I gave away 5 audiobooks on Goodreads and 5 on a facebook page. Both the discussion group on Goodreads and the Facebook page are labelled as places to get free books in exchange for reviews. The results to date are that 4 of 5 Goodread recipients posted reviews or at least a rating, while 1 of 5 the Facebook recipients did.

This may change over time but my takeaway is to focus on Goodreads.

Has anyone else fooled around with this?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Thanks for the report. I need to get more reviews, myself, and this is good to know.

 

[Quillwitch]

I am trying to develop marketing skills and a sense of what works. Reviews seem important, so...

A couple weeks ago, I gave away 5 audiobooks on Goodreads and 5 on a facebook page. Both the discussion group on Goodreads and the Facebook page are labelled as places to get free books in exchange for reviews. The results to date are that 4 of 5 Goodread recipients posted reviews or at least a rating, while 1 of 5 the Facebook recipients did.

This may change over time but my takeaway is to focus on Goodreads.

Has anyone else fooled around with this?

Were they good reviews? Did they at all?

 

[Patricia D]

Were they good reviews? Did they at all?

One person wasn't enthusiastic, but the reviews were honest, which is what I asked for.

 

[Howard]

I've had more than fair success on Amazon Kindle as far as reviews go, but I grant I lucked out there. You could try putting your ebook up there, for free if you like, and see if you get any takers, but it is a deep pool into which you would be wading.

For reference, the way I got my reviews was very random: My book had been out for well over a year and garnered some pleasant and supportive reviews, but then it fizzled out. One Christmas, someone bought it and *hated* the thing with the fury of a thousand suns, and left me a scalding review as a result. Because, up until then, all my reviews had been 5 stars, amazon declared it to be in contention and slammed it on the front page of the kindle shop for two days. 6 weeks and 2000 purchases later, I had a good stack of reviews.
Now, I am not suggesting the you could repeat this with a few gentle prods from people you know who will doubtless have Amazon accounts but...<cough>

 

[Patricia D]

I've had more than fair success on Amazon Kindle as far as reviews go, but I grant I lucked out there. You could try putting your ebook up there, for free if you like, and see if you get any takers, but it is a deep pool into which you would be wading.

For reference, the way I got my reviews was very random: My book had been out for well over a year and garnered some pleasant and supportive reviews, but then it fizzled out. One Christmas, someone bought it and *hated* the thing with the fury of a thousand suns, and left me a scalding review as a result. Because, up until then, all my reviews had been 5 stars, amazon declared it to be in contention and slammed it on the front page of the kindle shop for two days. 6 weeks and 2000 purchases later, I had a good stack of reviews.
Now, I am not suggesting the you could repeat this with a few gentle prods from people you know who will doubtless have Amazon accounts but...<cough>

this is interesting. Did Amazon declare the review or the book t be in contention? I'm so ignorant, I didn't even know there was a front page for kindle.

 

[Howard]

this is interesting. Did Amazon declare the review or the book t be in contention? I'm so ignorant, I didn't even know there was a front page for kindle.

They declared the book to be in contention, as it had such differing reviews. They stamped it on the front page with a big "YOU DECIDE" label, and asked people to review it. In my case, good reviews won out

 

[Robinne Weiss]

So...this opens up a whole new avenue for shady marketing tactics, doesn't it?

 

[Howard]

So...this opens up a whole new avenue for shady marketing tactics, doesn't it?

I'd call it...creative self promotion...
Of course, I cannot say for certain what exactly triggers this response form Amazon. Is it automated? Does one of their infinite monkeys have to notice it and set it off? Who can guess the ways of the great God Beast?

 

[James Marinero]

I am trying to develop marketing skills and a sense of what works. Reviews seem important, so...

A couple weeks ago, I gave away 5 audiobooks on Goodreads and 5 on a facebook page. Both the discussion group on Goodreads and the Facebook page are labelled as places to get free books in exchange for reviews. The results to date are that 4 of 5 Goodread recipients posted reviews or at least a rating, while 1 of 5 the Facebook recipients did.

This may change over time but my takeaway is to focus on Goodreads.

Have you got any tips on recording audiobooks?

Any chance you could point us to the location on Goodreads where the free book for reviews exchange is posted?

I have run Goodreads giveaways for paperbacks and have garnered a few reviews. It's not cheap mailing copies, but it's been worthwhile to get some quotable quotes. I currently have one running here: Book giveaway for Cause of All Causes by James Marinero May 30-Aug 20, 2017