Now that you have finished the publication of your book, it is now in the stores and ready for purchases, and you have already held your book launch party. You would think to yourself that it is now time to take a break and wait for the revenue to start flowing in. well, I hate to spoil you, but that is not how it goes. First of all, it is not as easy as we want it to be. Second, marketing your book is the most crucial task you need to handle if you want to make a good book. So, what would you do to ensure that people hear about your new book?
There are many possible ways of answering the above question, but one thing that would determine the success of your business is the reviews it gets. Your relatives can easily buy your book, but will other people consider it? Reviews make the reader trustworthy. If you are selling your book online, getting good reviews is very necessary. Not only does it assure the buyer that they are buying a quality product, but they can also tell that a book they want to buy fits their purpose of purchase.
There are many review types in the publishing industry, and you should try and be aware of how each of them works. We will be looking at the four most popular review types: trade, endorsements, reader, and editorial. It is crucial to note that any one of these reviews can come in handy when you want your book to be successful but having a combination of all of them gives you the best shot at winning.
Endorsements reviews
Selecting reviews that seem relevant before you finally publish the book
Endorsements, when used appropriately, can be the most powerful tools to use before you release your book to the market. To get an endorsement, you can share your manuscript, whether complete or not, with a well-known individual in the same field as you discuss in your book. This copy is known as ARC, ‘advanced reader copy. Then, if the receiver is willing, they can send you a short review of your book.
This primarily works for non-fiction books and business books. It happens to be a form of authority to your book from the moment. You could use quotes from these reviews and add them to your cover design to represent the quality of your book. It is not a must for you to personally know your endorser. If you reach them by writing a proper email requesting to be endorsed, you could get lucky. Be sure that the person you want to support you is well known and respected and is somewhat related to your kind of content. Endorsements give you a chance to control the people who will review your book initially, and a good endorsement can be good for marketing.
Trade reviews
Trade reviews are the kind of reviews that are mainly appealing to librarians and booksellers. However, these are reviews that professionals in the publishing industry give. Trade reviews have grown to be an industry within the publishing industry because several companies are good at doing it. The most prominent players in this section are Kirkus reviews, publishers weekly, and blue ink reviews. Although blue ink review has specialized in independent publishes.
The trade reviews have two substantial downsides: they have charges for book reviews, and they do not guarantee you are getting a positive review. However, they are the most trusted speakers in the publishing industry. If you want to promote your book to retailers such as noble and Barnes, or if you want your book to be featured in the library, the best place to start with is the trade reviews.
Another shot at marketing is that these companies list the books they have reviewed on their website. Many readers follow such reviews so that you can count on them.
Reader reviews
When you hear about ‘book reviews,’ this is the first thing that comes into your mind. Such reviews are provided by people who bought your published book and wrote a review about it online. The reviews can either be negative or positive and could be from anyone. Such reviews are so common on amazon or good reads.
The reader reviews are always tricky more than they appear. Amazon, for instance, has put extreme guidelines concerning the thoughts it can accept. Such measures are put in place only to get honest reviews on the site. Amazon has software that can know who your relatives are on Facebook, and they will remove reviews from these people. They also have algorithms that can weed out paid reviews. Goodreads does not have some stringent measures on reviews, and this would be something good. Goodreads allows friends to follow their mate’s book reviews and reading progress. It mostly appears to hold more fictional books, but you will find a few selections of non-fiction books.
Editorial reviews
An editorial review is a third-party review, most likely a professional entity reviewing your book. This could be an article or blog. The word editorial review can also refer to a trade review, but in this context, it is used to refer to an organization that does not publish books. It could be a review from a freelancing blogger, news reporter, or magazine. The New York Times is the best example of this type. Most authors consider it a jackpot being on New York Times bestseller.
Many bloggers would be so glad to write a review about your book on their platform. Similar to trade reviews, editorial reviews could be paid or be done for free. Before you ask for an editorial review, be sure to go through the respective reviewer’s platform and see how big their audience is. You need to ensure that their following is in line with your kind of books. If their reader’s audience is made up of your target audience, you are most likely to get book sales from the review.
Conclusion
Every publisher usually anticipates selling as many copies as possible of their best work. This is why they will do anything necessary to get people talking about what they bring to the market. The promotion of your book will go a long way to boost your sales and profits. You can use many avenues to advertise your book, from posting up on magazine pages, getting featured on talk shows, booking spaces on your build board. But one thing that will intrigue your customers to buy the book is the kind of reviews they will be reading. Ensure that you get the best reviews that will have a good market for you.
