Replay Podcast Interview: Sandra Beckwith 01/25/2023 - How to Generate More Book Reviews

Sandra Beckwith – How to Get More Visibility on Amazon and Maximize Your Book Sales There

Nonfiction Authors Association Podcast | January 25, 2023

“In marketing terms, reader reviews provide air quotes around this term social proof. And social proof is exactly that. It is evidence to other book lovers that somebody has paid for, probably, read, and enjoyed your book. It is evidence. It’s evidence that you aren’t the first one to read that book. It’s like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for books. It is something that says, This has been tested. It’s a safe use of your money.’”
-Sandra Beckwith

About Sandra Beckwith

Sandra Beckwith is an author and national award-winning former publicist who now teaches authors how to save thousands of dollars by doing their own publicity, promotion, and marketing. You might have seen her on “The Montel Williams Show” or “CBS This Morning,” or read about her in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or USA Today. Her website, BuildBookBuzz.com, has been named a top website for authors and writers three times, so you know her advice today has been author-tested. Subscribe to her free weekly book marketing newsletter and receive a free gift at https://buildbookbuzz.com/gift.

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Show Notes

Links

In this episode…

Identifying the different types of book reviews.
Why reviews are so important for authors.
How negative reviews can work in your favor.
A look at Amazon’s review policies and how they are changing.
How to share your book link with readers so that it will generate honest reviews.
How to begin researching reviewers.
Why giving away free copies of your book is essential to generating book reviews.
How to ask for reviews from readers.
How to set up an easy process for readers to leave reviews.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the interview series for the Nonfiction Authors Association. Today’s session is with Sandra Beckwith and we will be talking about how to generate more book reviews. I’m Carla King, your host, and I’m happy to have you with us today. This interview will last only 30 minutes and you can find the replay on our Nonfiction Authors Association website and social media platforms including YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

This week enjoy a Top Replay from the archives.

Sandra Beckwith is an author and national award-winning former publicist who now teaches authors how to save thousands of dollars by doing their own publicity, promotion, and marketing. You might have seen her on “The Montel Williams Show” or “CBS This Morning,” or read about her in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or USA Today. Her website, BuildBookBuzz.com, has been named a top website for authors and writers three times, so you know her advice today has been author-tested. Subscribe to her free weekly book marketing newsletter and receive a free gift at https://buildbookbuzz.com/gift.

Stephanie Chandler
Sandy, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s always fun to chat with you.

Sandra Beckwith 1:33
Thank you, Stephanie. I’m always honored to be included. And we have got such an important topic to cover today. I’m especially excited to be participating today.

Stephanie Chandler 2:10
When I wanted to cover book reviews, you immediately popped to mind, because one of the things I love about you is that–integrity matters to you as it does to me, and in everything we do. And in book reviews, integrity is very important. And there’s this concept of paid book reviews. And we had a discussion about it and wanted to be really clear that–there are editorial type reviews, and then there’s other types of reviews. And we don’t want to be encouraging anyone to ever pay for a review. Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit?

Sandra Beckwith 2:52
There is. And that brings up this topic of–there are two different types of reviews really, for books. There are the reader reviews, which are actually more like comments about books, for the most part, rather than true reviews. And they show up primarily on Amazon, and Goodreads, and then there are some other sites where you can find them. But the two big players are Amazon and Goodreads. And then there are literary reviews, which are also known as editorial reviews, or trade reviews, or media reviews. And what these are–for example, let’s say the New York Times Book Review book section reviewed your book. Imagine everybody’s big dream–getting a New York Times review, or even a trade journal. It could be a trade journal in the industry that your book is about–that publication might review your book and publish the review. So that’s an editorial, or a trade, or media, or a literary review.

In both cases, you don’t pay for the reviews–with exceptions. For self published authors, Kirkus Reviews, for example, has an option where you can buy a review, or pay for a review. But the key point here is–that even if you pay for it, it is still an objective review. You get no bias because you’ve paid for it. It is still objective. And because it’s objective, it could be a negative review. But, because you’ve paid for it with Kirkus, if you don’t like it, it can disappear magically–just like that–into the Ethernet somewhere. It never sees the light of day if you don’t like it, but you don’t get your money back. So with that kind of a program, that integrity is built into it, but you’re protected. Because you don’t have to use a negative, or bad, or less than flattering review if you don’t want to. So again, there’s reader reviews and there’s literary reviews. And Stephanie, I think today we’ll focus on reader reviews for the most part, right?

Stephanie Chandler 5:08
Exactly. And we just wanted to make this really clear that–if you’re going to pay for a review, it should be from a reputable source. Because we’ve also seen, in the past, other authors using things like Fiverr to purchase reviews. And we are wholeheartedly against any kind of practice like that, right, Sandy?

Sandra Beckwith 5:31

Yes, as a matter of fact, Amazon prohibits purchased reviews. So if you do any of these, they really have to be from an editorial source, like the Kirkus indie program, or it can’t show up on Amazon.

Stephanie Chandler 5:49
Yep. Good. I’m so glad we’re clear about that. So thank you–we’ve gotten that out of the way. Can you start by explaining why reviews–particularly on Amazon–are just so important for authors?

Sandra Beckwith 6:04
That’s such a great question, Stephanie. And it frustrates me, in some respects, because they are so important. But they are. And in marketing terms, reader reviews provide air quotes around this term social proof. And social proof is exactly that. It is evidence to other book lovers that somebody has paid for, probably, read, and enjoyed your book. It is evidence. It’s evidence that you aren’t the first one to read that book. It’s like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for books. It is something that says, This has been tested. It’s a safe use of your money.’

So say, for example, Amazon–these reader reviews. First of all, somebody who’s new to your book–they see that, let’s say, you’ve got 15 reviews. So first off up, at the top, on your book listing on Amazon, there’s an average–a reader review average, and stars that are colored in, and it will say, ’15 reviews.’ So right off, you see that–as soon as you get to that book listing, and as a reader, you think, ‘Oh 15 people–at least 15 people–have read it, obviously. And these 15 had a strong enough opinion to leave a review. That tells me that I’m not the first one. That this is not an undiscovered, and it’s probably worth my time.’ And then, of course, is your average review–shown on the screen, above the 15 reviews. If it’s four and a half stars out of five, that tells that same person that those 15 people really liked that book. So it’s evidence that it’s a safe investment.

That’s really what it comes down to. It really talks people into buying your book, because we’re all busy. You know, Stephanie, we’re all busy. It is so hard to find the time to read–for most of us. So when we do, we don’t want to waste that time. It’s also about money. We don’t want to waste our money on books that aren’t good. But I think for many of us, our time is just as valuable as our money when it comes to books. And we just want to make sure that we’re putting our time into something that’s worthwhile. Now on Amazon, the other reason that these reader reviews are so important, is that–the more reviews you get on Amazon, the more subtle marketing support Amazon provides to you. And Stephanie, those of us who don’t work for Amazon don’t really know what the magic number is. It used to be 35. The folklore was that it was 35. Lately, I’ve heard that now it’s up to 50. Hard for us to really know. But the goal is–you want as many reviews as possible, and you want them to be good reviews. And Stephanie, you know as well as anybody–the best way to get a good review is to write a great book.

Stephanie Chandler 9:28
Yeah, and I know–as a shopper myself–I’m a huge online shopper, and reviews have a tremendous impact on my buying decisions.

Sandra Beckwith 9:39
Whether it’s books or mattresses, right? And they give us, also, cues to whether this book is a good fit for us. So even if you’ve got say a two star review–Stephanie, you and I might have different tastes. And you might say, ‘I gave it two stars, because it had too much sex, drugs and rock and roll.’ And I might read your review, and I might say, ‘Whoa, I love too much sex, drugs and rock and roll.’ You know? So, of course, this sums both of us up in a nutshell. But those reviews can also give readers cues to whether the content is a good fit for them, as well.

Stephanie Chandler 10:27
Absolutely. And that’s what we do, right? We look to the most negative review, and we look to the most positive review, and sometimes negative reviews work in your favor. In fact, I got a negative review on my book marketing book last month. And it was three stars. And she said, ‘Oh, this was so overwhelming. Now I realize I have so much to do.’ And I thought, ‘You know what, that’s a compliment. I’ll take that negative review.’

Sandra Beckwith 11:01
What that says to somebody else is, ‘Wow, this book is packed with information. I have to buy it.’

Stephanie Chandler 11:11
Absolutely. And forget the fact that that review was written by a fellow author. And why she would post that, I can’t even wrap my head around it. But yes. So it’s going to tell other readers that there’s a lot of information there. So reviews are so important. But we’ve also been hearing a lot about Amazon cracking down on reviews, and a lot of people complaining reviews are disappearing. Can you talk to us a little bit about Amazon’s review policies and what’s going on over there?

Sandra Beckwith 11:40
Yeah, this is really important. And I honestly believe that the majority of authors don’t know Amazon’s policies on reviews. First of all, you don’t have to buy the book on Amazon to review it. And that’s a big misconception out there. People think if you didn’t buy it on Amazon, you can’t review it. Not true. You can get it as a gift, you can borrow it from a friend, you can borrow it from the library, you can steal it from your neighbor, you can get it from a little free library next to a sidewalk in a park. You don’t have to buy it to review it. So that’s important to know.

On the other hand, you have to have a valid Amazon account to leave a review–for any product, in fact. And you have to have spent at least $50 over the lifetime of that account. So Amazon has been up and running for a long time, and most Amazon users have hit that $50 with close to their first order. So that usually isn’t a roadblock for people. So that’s the basics.

And then beyond that, people you are related to–in particular, people who share a household with you–cannot review your books. That is strictly prohibited by Amazon. So if you’re married, your spouse can’t review your book. Your kid can’t review your book. That sort of thing. And Amazon has all of this figured out. They will look for a common last name, and if it’s the same last name as yours, it’s a good chance they’re going to remove that review. And the reason Amazon does that is because it places value on honest reviews. And that phrase is so key–honest reviews. These reviews–whether it’s, really, books or another product–they exist to help the buyer make an informed purchasing decision. And if those reviews aren’t honest, then the buyer can’t make an informed purchase. Because if the reviews skew one way in the wrong direction, and that’s not giving the buyers the honest, authentic, and valid input they need to make a purchase decision.

So Amazon is all about honest reviews. And they think if there’s a possibility that the reviewer knows the author, that the review can’t possibly be honest. That’s not necessarily true. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t, but Amazon doesn’t care if it isn’t necessarily true. All Amazon wants to have up there is objective reviews–completely unbiased reviews. So it’s really important to know that that’s sometimes why these reviews disappear–is that Amazon, through its magic that we’ll call algorithms, and all kinds of other magical techniques–is able to determine when there are connections between people. And when it identifies connections, chances are-possibly, not always. Just possibly–it will remove the review.

Now one thing you can do to make sure that that doesn’t happen to you is–a lot of times when people want somebody to buy their books, they go into Amazon, and they search for their title. And the book shows up, they click on it. And then they select the URL at the top of the screen, which is a really, really long string of characters that includes the search terms. When that author shares that long URL with many, many, many people, Amazon picks up on that. Amazon says, ‘Oh, this one particular search yielded all these purchases, and all these reviews. Because they came from one particular search, they must all be connected. I think perhaps they aren’t valid. They might know the author.’

So the way to do that is–you delete all of the characters. I don’t even want to say what it is. Let me say this– to get the clean link for your book to share with people, whether it’s reviews or anything else, go to my blog–it’s buildbookbuzz.com. That’s the URL you want to use. Buildbookbuzz.com/blog takes you right to the blog. On the right side, you can scroll down to the search bar. And I am going to type in ‘Amazon link, and you’ll get a blog post. You’ll get search results, and the top one is the easiest way to get your books. Oh no, that’s the wrong one. Sorry. That’s not going to help you. That’s your Amazon Associates link, which you also want. Okay, here it is. It’s the second article–’The right way to save your book’s Amazon sales page link.‘ And I have written instructions and a short video that shows you how to do it. And if you follow those instructions, it will help eliminate some of the problems for you.

Stephanie Chandler 17:23
Excellent, that’s just great, great advice. So soliciting Amazon reviews–you’re allowed to ask people to review your book, right? So can you explain how to begin researching reviewers? So for example, one of my favorite strategies has long been to look at people who’ve reviewed similar titles to mine, and reach out to them. How would you go about finding those types of reviewers on Amazon?

Sandra Beckwith 18:01
Stephanie, it used to be a lot easier. There used to be software that would do that for you. And that software doesn’t work anymore, because Amazon has shut it down. Amazon no longer makes that reviewer information available. So now you have to hunt for it. And while I still like that method, and while I still like that, through Google searches, you perhaps can get to the website of somebody who has reviewed a similar book–sometimes that just yields nothing. And it’s time consuming, and it can yield nothing. Which was why that software was so amazing.

So let me give you some suggestions about other ways to find appropriate reviewers. One is–I hope everybody has an email list. That’s my starting point for reader reviews. If you’ve got an email list, it has people who have opted-in–they have declared themselves interested in the content that you write and provide. So they are an excellent starting point. You send out an email and say, ‘Who wants a free copy to review?’ And by the way, there’s the F word and that’s very, very important. ‘Free.’ To get reader reviews, like it or not, you need to give away review copies at no charge. You need to identify the right people to review your book, and then you need to give them free copies of your book. It will not cannibalize your sales–don’t worry about that. Because in exchange for giving away these free copies, you will get reviews, and you will get good word of mouth. You will get social media shares that will be helpful to you–for reaching a wider audience, all of those good things. So I like using your email list.

Social media can help you, whether you’re on Twitter or LinkedIn. And of course, the network that you use has to be one that your target reader uses. So for example–if your audience is under 30 in age, you should be using Instagram. And there, you can post something that says, ‘Hey, first 15 people who respond with a DM–a direct message–I’ll give you a free ebook to review my new book, xyz. But please remember, this book is in exchange for an honest review.’ And then you get in touch. And there are parameters that are linked to this. But you need to give away books. And so you can find those people through your email list, through social media. Facebook groups can be really helpful for this. certain types of books exist to connect authors with readers who will review the book.

Then there are also paid services, like NetGalley, and BookFunnel, and several more that are just like them. It’s a subscription service for you. It’s free for the readers, but they feed a digital copy of your book to readers who have signed up to read and review those books. So you’ve got a number of options, but the common denominator in all of them, Stephanie, is you’ve got to give books away to get reviews. It’s really that simple. And I know that that sort of goes against instincts for many people. But it’s just an absolute necessity. And you tell them, ‘I need you to leave an honest review.’ Sometimes people say, ‘If you like it, please leave a review.’ It’s up to you to decide if you want to add that qualifier. And Stephanie, when your latest book came out last fall, did you use that language, ‘If you like it’? Or did you just say, ‘Just please leave a review’?

Stephanie Chandler 22:04
You know, I may have done both. I honestly don’t remember. But I’m always really careful about that. Because this is another issue where you can violate Amazon’s terms, right? By requiring that people only post a five star review, or giving them any outside incentive other than the free product, right?

Sandra Beckwith 22:26
Yeah, exactly. You can’t give them some kind of a bonus in exchange for their review, by any means. And that makes me think of another thing. I know, Stephanie, that you put together a street team. And street teams are built–they exist to generate reviews. And with a street team, you recruit them in advance, you give them a digital copy of the book well in advance so they’ve got time to read it. And then you give them specific instructions for what you expect them to do in exchange for that free book.

And those instructions should include things like–’On launch day, or soon after launch day, please go to my Amazon sales page. Here’s the URL. And leave an honest review.’ Because that’s why a street team exists. It’s to help you get the word out on the street about your new book. And one of the ways they are obligated to do that is to read and leave an honest review. And you also generally ask them to share news of the book on social media. Share their reviews, even, on social media. Share the book cover around, things like that. And a great way to put together your street team is starting with that email list again.

Stephanie Chandler 23:50
Absolutely. And also know that your street team–100% of them are not going to actually post reviews. It’s such a numbers game with reviews. I had over 300 people on my team, and it generated about 35 reviews. So just over 10% of them actually took time to post a review. It was a little disappointing.

Sandra Beckwith 24:15
Well, it is disappointing, and it’s a reality check. And Stephanie, let’s just be frank here. If there’s one word that’s associated with being an author, it’s often ‘disappointing.’ And you know, people are constantly disappointed–you know, their friends and family didn’t buy the book. Not only did they not buy it–since they didn’t buy it, they didn’t leave a review. Which is fine, because that’s against Amazon’s terms anyway. But authors are always so disappointed in who does not support them. And that’s something you just gotta let go of, because people are always going to disappoint you. And you might not write what they read. You might not be writing the kinds of books they want to read. And you have to understand and accept that.

Stephanie Chandler 25:08
Absolutely, and not take it personally. Reviews are just tough. And in the short amount of time we have left, Sandy, any other tips you want to give on reviews? Or how do you feel about Goodreads, that kind of thing?

Sandra Beckwith 25:25
Goodreads, I believe, is much better for fiction than for nonfiction. It’s good for nonfiction, and you should have an author account there. And you should link your blog to it. But the majority of Goodreads users are talking about fiction, not nonfiction. But I think you still need a presence there, because it gives you legitimacy as an author. I just don’t think it should be a big part of your review strategy. It should be a part of it, but not a big part.

And the key to using Goodreads is to always use it as a reader, not as an author. Goodreads users don’t like authors who are promotional in any way, shape, or form. And it can get really ugly there–just really ugly. So always use Goodreads as a reader, not as an author in promo mode. Do not ever respond to reviews of your book there. The reviewers on Goodreads, in particular, get creeped out when authors comment on their reviews. It’s like you’re peeking in their windows, and they don’t like it. It’s a whole different dynamic than you might find somewhere else. So have your author account, have a presence there, but don’t obsess about it.

Stephanie Chandler 26:53
Oh, such good advice, Sandy. I guess I want to bring this home with–any last thoughts about just getting in the habit of asking? And I’m guilty of this myself. In fact, I had reached out to an author to invite her to be a guest on this teleseminar series. And I said, ‘I read your book last year, I really loved it.’ And she wrote back and she said, ‘Hey, would you mind posting a review on Amazon?’ And I smacked myself upside the head–I should have done that anyway. And kudos to her–her automatic response was, ‘Ask for the review.’ Don’t you think that’s a great habit we should all be getting into?

Sandra Beckwith 27:47
Absolutely. Especially when somebody sends you an email that says, ‘Oh my gosh, I love your book. It changed my life.’ You know what you do? First of all, you thank them. You respond in other ways that might be appropriate. And then you say, ‘Would you mind taking just a few extra minutes, and copying and pasting those remarks into Amazon as a reader review? Here is the link to the review section on my sales page. Just click on it, copy and paste this information that you just shared with me, and hit submit. I would be so grateful, because reviews from people like you help others decide if this book will help them or not.’

But you know, Stephanie, you also reminded me of one other thing I wanted to share. You really want to make it as easy as possible for people to review your book. And whether you are giving them a free copy, or they bought a copy, you can make it easier for them by walking them through the review process. And I actually have created a template for that. It’s called the Reader Book Review Form. And I’ve got one for fiction and one for nonfiction. But it is a two page fill in the blanks PDF that asks readers questions about the book. And for nonfiction, the questions, obviously, are geared to nonfiction books. It asks them the key questions that other readers want to know about the book. They move through the form, they answer the handful of questions, and in the end, they can do a quick copy and paste of their answers into a review block in the form. And then when they’ve got it all pulled together that way, they can then copy and paste that onto Amazon or Goodreads in the review section.

So I’ve sort of demystified it. And the reason I thought of this–when you talked about writing a review yourself, I’m just like you and that’s why I developed this form. I sort of sat back one moment and thought, ‘Why am I so reluctant to write reviews? Why am I procrastinating?’ It’s because I never knew where to start. Even though I’m a writer, I never quite knew where to start. And I thought, ‘I’ve got to figure out a process for this.’ And then once I figured it out, and used it for myself, and saw how it cut this down to literally just minutes, I thought, ‘Well, now I’ve got to make it available to other authors.’ And with the form, I give you a social media image you can share, and instructions on how to use it. And I even give you talking points for our guest blog posts, so that you can blog about the importance of reader reviews and how they help other readers. And information on that is at readerbookreviewform.com.

Stephanie Chandler 30:57
Love that. That sounds like a fantastic tool. Make it as easy as possible. We all need to get in the habit. I personally have a policy–I will never ever, ever, ever write a negative review about another author’s book. Ever, ever, ever.

Sandra Beckwith 31:12
Me too. And you know what, though, Stephanie, that can be hard. It can be hard. I just read a Mary Higgins Clark book that was so bad. It read like it was written by an intern. It was awful. And I was so disappointed. And of course, she’s not writing her own books. Now. She’s 89. And I don’t know who’s doing it for her. And it was so awful that I was tempted to write a review, but then I thought, ‘Nope. Bad karma. Keep it to yourself. Except for Stephanie and her whole audience.’

Stephanie Chandler 31:51
Yeah, let’s support each other with reviews. I think that’s the best way to go. Sandy, you’re amazing. Remind everyone where your blog is located. It’s loaded, by the way. Sandy’s got one of my absolute favorite publishing blogs. Tell us where to find that.

Sandra Beckwith 32:06

Thank you, Stephanie. It’s buildbookbuzz.com/blog. And if you would like to subscribe to my free newsletter, you get book marketing tips in your inbox every week. That is buildbookbuzz.com/gift.

Stephanie Chandler 32:26

Wonderful, thank you so much for your time today, and always been so generous with the helpful information. We really appreciate you.

And thank you to our listeners for joining us today and every week. For a list of guests and topics just check our schedule on the site, use your favorite search engine, or better yet, sign up for our mailing list at NonfictionAuthorsAssociation.com.

Quotes from our guest

“That phrase is so key–honest reviews. These reviews–whether it’s, really, books or another product–they exist to help the buyer make an informed purchasing decision.”

“You really want to make it as easy as possible for people to review your book. And whether you are giving them a free copy, or they bought a copy, you can make it easier for them by walking them through the review process.”