After the way-too-many all-nighters you pulled to ensure that the publishing process and the launch of your new book runs smoothly, you finally take a breath of fresh air, make a steamy mug of hot chocolate, and settle into your cozy blue armchair with the intent of reading all the wonderful five-star reviews.
My blood, sweat and tears will finally be worth it, you think to yourself but… what’s this? There are no reviews? You refresh the page once, and then twice, but na-da. Is this normal?
A short answer: yes. Unfortunately. The thing is, you need sales to get reviews, but there have to be some positive reviews in order for you to make sales. It’s a chicken-and-eggs situation, and a tough nut to crack, but we have some tips for you to gain validation ASAP.
Booktubers and Book Bloggers, where y’all at?
First and foremost: book bloggers are your BFFs here. The process is kind of tricky, though, because you need to do research about who your audience is. If your book’s genre is science fiction and you send it to a person who primarily reads young-adult, that is money gone to waste. You are risking getting a bad review even in the best case scenario where the blogger who doesn’t read in your genre agrees to review your book.
It is just not productive. Instead, thinking about the five W’s of storytelling, you should ask yourself: who will be reading your book? Who is best suited to promote it? Construct a questionnaire that helps you develop a proto-persona — the “ideal” reader of your book. For example, if your book has dragons and quests and quests for dragons, your proto-persona might be 12 year olds who read Percy Jackson.
It is also great to get comparative titles for your book, which are essentially books that are similar to yours and have a similar readership. That way the bloggers you target will immediately get an idea about what your book is. For example, my book is The Fault in our Star meets Carry On.
Those followers on SNS are handy after all
Another great way to get your book “out there” is to tell your social media followers about it. Everyone needs something to talk about, why not give them that something? Moreover, just go big: ask (very politely) the top-ranked reviewers on Amazon to review your book. This is a high risk, high reward path, but if you manage to score, well, then you are guaranteed to enjoy that hot chocolate to the fullest.
Well then, what are you waiting for? Go grab those stars!
