Book Reviews - Part 1

Hello,

This blog is my Christmas gift 2019 for indie authors.

Hi, I am Gisela Hausmann, a self-publishing veteran who published her first book in 1988, former Amazon top-reviewer, and author of multi-award winning books about how to self-publish books and market them.

From 2015-2018, I published four 4 editions of my "Naked Truths About Getting Book Reviews."

While the sweeping changes Amazon made to its marketing platform for indie authors forced me to step away from monitoring Amazon's platform nonstop and writing books about the topic my love for it never went away.

Hence it is with great happiness that I am offering my book as a free blog. Though the chapter about requesting reviews from Amazon top reviewers has become obsolete you'll find a lot of helpful information in this book.

If you like what you read I recommend checking out out some of my other books about book marketing. There will be 11 blogs presenting the entire 2017 edition. I recommend subscribing to this blog and following me on Twitter so you won't miss any of the releases.

And now without further ado:

NAKED REVIEW

HOW TO GET BOOK REVIEWS

What to do now that Amazon

closed all loopholes

Copyright © 2017 by Gisela Hausmann

Published  by  Educ-Easy  Books  via  CreateSpace

978-0-9968972-8-0

Part 1

How we got where we are

In the world of self-publishing no single topic is being discussed more passionately than the question of questions: “How to get book reviews.” Some authors would rather make no money than not receive reviews, which is why quite many authors list their books for free on Amazon.

Reviews validate what authors do and at the same time, they are also the most powerful sales support tool available on this planet.

Don’t believe that?

Most reputable book promotion services won’t even advertise your book on Twitter if its average rating is less than 3.5-stars or if it has fewer than five reviews on Amazon’s U.S. store page.

The reason for this measure is simple: Study over study proves that 8 out of 10 people consult online reviews when making the decision to buy. Since book promotion services are only successful if they help their clients in selling books, they won’t accept books with too few reviews. At the same time, many book promotion services accept books that feature devastating, critical reviews from experts, as long as they are buried among dozens of other reviews.

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When I published my first print books between 1988 and 1998, before ebooks and Print-on-Demand technology were invented, independent authors had to court newspaper and magazine editors in the hope of receiving editorial reviews.

All of that changed when Amazon pioneered the customer review. From then on, real reader reviews could substitute for editorial reviews.

During Amazon’s early days, getting book reviews was almost too easy.

Even authors’ close relatives and friends could review their books. Though it is a sad truth that not everybody wants to read and review their relative’s/best friend’s book, it was not a problem.

Some bloggers used to openly suggest that authors should write their own book reviews and then ask their relatives and friends to copy and paste these reviews on Amazon’s website – so family and friends “would not have to work too hard.” 

Indie authors also traded reviews. The concept was, “I buy, read, and review your book and in return you buy, read, and review mine.”

Tips like these were traded in author support groups and blogs. As a result, pretty much everybody knew “how to cheat.”

Additionally, quite many Fiverr contractors advertised, “Will write and post reviews...  from multiple accounts...” And, some (or even many) authors purchased reviews.

Abuse was rampant. Some slick review services produced hundreds of reviews for books or items they didn’t read, consume, or use.

It was the Wild West days of online reviews.

Of course, these activities did not go unnoticed; many reputable newspapers devoted long articles to the topic of fake reviews.

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Meanwhile, behind the scenes, a team of Cornell researchers developed an algorithm to detect fake reviews.

In the United States, posting a fake review (positive or negative) breaks the Federal Trade Commission’s truth-in-advertising laws, hence the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) informed ecommerce sites that they had to clean up their websites.

Naturally, the problem was not limited to Amazon; CitySearch, Google Maps, Google Local, Tripadvisor, Yelp,  and other reputable ecommerce sites suffered from the same problem.

Still, even after Amazon adapted Cornell University’s original algorithm for their ecommerce platform, Amazon did not go full throttle right away. They needed to collect and “churn” millions of data bits of information first. As a start, Amazon modified their Community Guidelines and made it very clear what kind of reviews were banned. Then, they waited and let their computer centers collect data. Please see some of Amazon’s computer centers at http://tinyurl.com/rw3gwrn  

Most surprisingly, at first, authors ignored Amazon’s announcements. Only, when word got around that so-and-so’s mom could not post a review and somebody else’s daughter-in-law’s review got rejected, authors began to take Amazon’s efforts seriously. Still, quite many authors may have thought that Amazon’s algorithm could only indentify reviews posted by their relatives who had the same last name or used the same credit card. So, they engaged in more review buying.

However, at that stage, pursuing fake, purchased reviews was a useless effort that led straight into disaster territory. Amazon was already following the persons who allegedly offered fake reviews. Eventually, they collected and churned enough data that they could delete many tens of thousands of purchased reviews, in waves. They also sued 1,114 contractors who allegedly wrote fake reviews for as little as $5. The cheating authors lost the reviews and  the moneys they paid and could not even complain.  

Amazon has been deleting reviews and stripping reviewers of their review privileges ever since. They also kept working on their algorithms which, “infused with A.I.” (artificial intelligence), get more and more sophisticated every year. 

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I had a completely different point of view about this topic from the beginning.

In 2012, I published my fourth book and first ebook NAKED DETERMINATION: 41 Stories About Overcoming Fear. Having gone through the complicated process of soliciting reviews from the editors of print publications in the past, I was exuberant about the possibility of receiving real readers’ reviews.

Because I had been seeking book reviews from professional newspaper and magazine editors in the past, I knew that they could not write reviews that stated for instance, “OMG! I sooo love this book. The amazing fantasy world that author xyz creates is just beyond belief. I drooled over ...”

Though no professional reviewer would use this kind of wording, it is exactly the kind of review that sells thousands of books, maybe even more books than the New York Times Book Review. Only real readers will write such emotionally charged reviews, which are the ultimate reward for any writer.

So, instead of trying to find loopholes, I set out to explore how indie authors could get the best reviews that would help them sell the most books. Since learning hands-on – actually doing the task –  is the best way to learn any skill, I began to review books.

THAT’S ME

Hello, I am Gisela Hausmann. I have written and self-published nineteen books since 1988. Indeed, I am a 29-year industry veteran. In November 2012 I began reviewing at Amazon. In 2014, I reached Amazon Top Reviewer ranking, consistently being ranked in Amazon’s Top-10,000 Reviewer Rankings. These days I even have five followers.

Becoming an Amazon Top Reviewer is not easy. Amazon counts more than 50+ million reviewers. Reviewers are ranked not only by the number of reviews they write but also by the numbers of “likes” their reviews garner. Potential buyers are picky. Just retelling the book’s content does not really score well. Potential buyers want to read reviewers’ opinions and perhaps comparisons to other books. Therefore, reviewers have to put effort into writing their reviews. Personally, I have worked on reviews anywhere from half an hour to two hours on top of the time it takes to read the book. It is the same for all other reviewers.   

Having graduated with a master’s degree in Film and Mass Media from the University of Vienna, I find this new way of information exchange, which can be combined with effective marketing, fascinating. To acquire the information listed in this book, I have reviewed hundreds of books, studied thousands of reviews and checked their effects by looking at thousands of book sales ranks.    

My work as an Amazon ecommerce review expert has been featured on Bloomberg (podcast) and on NBC News (blog);  my work as an email evangelist was featured in the SUCCESS magazine and in Entrepreneur. I am also a frequent guest, speaking about communications topics, on WYFF-4, my local NBC TV-station.

WHY AMAZON KEEPS CHANGING THEIR COMMUNITY GUIDELINES FOR THE POSTING  OF CUSTOMER REVIEWS

You may be reading this book because you are interested in learning the best strategies; however, even more important is the fact that everything you’ll find in this book is naked (no-fluff) information.  

I purposely decided to write naked books about topics I am an expert in, because the Internet is full of fluffy, incorrect information delivered via blogs.

For instance, I see many author blogs titled “Here is how I seek book reviews.” It is the kind of blog you should disregard. Firstly, that headline does not provide proof that the author was successful. Secondly, though this particular author-blogger may have been successful with his/her method, it does not mean that you, who writes a different genre, will be successful with the same method. Lastly, actual reviewers may consider the described method an absolute no-no, which the author-blogger could not possibly know because he/she is not a reviewer; hence, he/she is not an expert.

Following fluffy blogs cost indie authors as a group dearly. In fact, many of these fluffy blogs are the very reason why Amazon changes its community guidelines, again and again.

• If you are a new author, you don’t remember the days when bloggers recommended that authors write their own reviews and have family and friends copy and paste them on Amazon’s book pages.

• Not surprisingly, Amazon disallowed doing that. In fact, Amazon went further and now disallows even your cousin who really read and loved your book to review it.

• There were also blogs that recommended buying reviews, and it is true that some authors launched their careers on the back of purchased reviews.

• Other blogs recommended that authors trade reviews and Amazon disallowed doing that.

• And, the same goes for the advice to build street teams who “like” reviews and similar actions.

If you are looking for a common denominator of all these actions look for the phrase organized effort.

In its community guidelines, Amazon explicitly forbids making “calls to action” and “posting from multiple accounts or coordinating with others.”

Algorithms can track organized and automatic actions, which means, after churning enough data they can track the people who make any kind of organized effort to get or give book reviews.

If your best friend from high school who moved to the other end of the country reviews your book, Amazon will never know that this was your best friend at whose house you slept over dozens of times. In contrast, after churning data for a few months, Amazon’s algorithm will be able to identify a street team or a review club because the group does the same action over and again.  

To make matters worse, fluffy blogs from non-experts caused additional problems with other parties.  

There are still hundreds, if not thousands, of blogs which  recommend that authors tailor a template of a review request when contacting top reviewers or book bloggers. It is one of the most misguided actions an author can take. As a result of receiving hundreds of almost identical emails, many top reviewers removed

their email addresses from their Amazon reviewer pages.

Equally, top reviewers got annoyed with authors sending them unsolicited ebooks just because some blogger wrote “Here is what I do... To my email I attach a .mobi file of my book...” 

Reviewers’ Inboxes are not parking garages for ebooks. Of course, the bloggers who blogged about their own faux-pax actions meant well, but that does not change anything from the fact that they are no reviewers, hence they are no experts in knowing what reviewers really want.

To make a long story short, if today you notice that Amazon’s guidelines forbid certain procedures, it’s because bloggers spread gimmick procedures trying to make it look as if there is an easy way to get reviews.

Unless you are a celebrity author or an author with huge following, there is not an easy way. There are, however, better and worse strategies.

So, let’s explore the better strategies.

PREREQUISITE

Here is a link to Amazon’s community guidelines for posting reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-guidelines

It is immensely important that you study these review guidelines and re-read them every month! Nobody knows when Amazon decides to make changes. During the last thirteen months, Amazon changed its community guidelines three times without warning.

Ignorantia legis neminem excusat (Latin for “ignorance of law excuses no one”).

Obviously, Amazon’s guidelines aren’t laws; however, they are binding guidelines. Though Amazon hasn’t sued any authors, reviews acquired in violation of the guidelines were and will get deleted. Hence, always check if Amazon made any changes before you set out to seek a large number of reviews.

To fully utilize the measures introduced in this book, you need to have a solid presence on Twitter, Linkedin, and Goodreads.

Promoting mostly on Facebook is a bit more complicated.  Because Facebook is the most popular social media platform, a) you are competing with everybody else and b) you are relying on the social media network that controls which postings it shows to others more than any other social media network.

You should also join a few real (not virtual) author-reader groups.

Twitter will do wonders for you because there your hashtags will be seen by more people who don’t know you than on any other social media network. 

Linkedin is the network where you can connect to professional contacts best.

Goodreads will serve as your data library of potential readers’ preferences and habits.

Therefore, evaluate your presence and the number of contacts you have on all these platforms before you begin seeking more reviews.

[end of part 1 ]

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Gisela Hausmann dares to write what others' won't say or don't know. Her work has been featured in regional, national, and international publications including Success magazine and Entrepreneur, and on Bloomberg's podcast "Decrypted."

Gisela tweets @Naked_Determina.
Her books are available at Amazon and other fine book stores.

• NAKED WORDS 2.0: The Effective 157-Word Email
• 73 Ways to Turn a Me-Mail Into an E-mail

• Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$

• BOOK MARKETING: The Funnel Factor: Including 100 Media Pitches (paperback only)

• The Little Blue Book for Authors: 53 Dos & Don’ts Nobody Is Telling You
• The Little Blue Book for Authors: 101 Clues to Get More Out of Facebook
• The Little Blue Book for Authors: Essential Manners for the Modern Author

• NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018
• BAT SHIT CRAZY Review Requests: Email Humor (paperback only)

© 2017 by Gisela Hausmann

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