#10: Mastering Book Reviews: Essential Strategies for Authors to Boost Success

In this episode, learn about the six types of book reviews that can significantly impact your book's success. Discover why these reviews matter, how to obtain them, and strategies to effectively use them in your marketing efforts. Host Allison Lane debunks common myths, shares actionable tips, and explains how to request and gather reviews that truly matter. Whether you're pre-launch or post-launch, this guide will help fuel your book's success through strategic review acquisition. Happy reviewing and best of luck with your book!

Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction: The Importance of Book Reviews

01:16 Understanding the Six Types of Book Reviews

01:40 The Role of Book Reviews in Your Book's Success

02:09 Type 1: Inclusion in a Book List

02:36 Type 2: Reader Reviews

03:52 Type 3: Literary Reviews

05:19 Type 4: Social Post Reviews

06:10 Type 5: Marketing Reviews

07:45 Type 6: Award Reviews

08:37 Strategies to Obtain Valuable Reviews

13:13 Conclusion: The Power of Strategic Reviews

📚 Resources Mentioned: 

• Ultimate Book Launch Plan: https://www.lanelit.com/launch

Transcript:

Obtaining book reviews that truly matter is not luck. It is not a happy coincidence. It's a strategic approach by understanding the different types of book reviews and implementing strategies to gather them.

Are you an author looking to get book reviews that actually make a difference in the success of your book? In this episode, you will learn the six types of book reviews, why they matter, and how to obtain the ones that can truly help your book succeed.

The biggest mistake I see people make when looking to obtain reviews is that they believe a review requires someone to read the entire book and to write a thorough assessment of the book's contents.

That's not a review. That's a book report.

Those have a role and we'll get to those, but that's just one type of review.

There are six types of book reviews. And you'll need to know how to obtain the ones that truly matter and then what to do with them. Whether you're in pre launch phase of your book or you just got your book deal, the sooner you start thinking about this, the better.

These strategies will help you gather reviews that will fuel your book's success. Let's dive in.

Before we hop into strategies, let's understand why book reviews are crucial. book reviews act as social proof and they help potential readers make informed decisions.

They provide valuable insights about the book's content and quality and impact. In today's digital age, reviews play a significant role in boosting the visibility and increasing book sales.

1. The first type of book review is inclusion in a book list. When someone includes your book in their to be read list on a platform like Goodreads. The fact that someone wants to read your book and is putting it on a digital platform that's public implies a positive review. Being on a book list is an important milestone.
2. The second type of book review. is a reader review, which is usually posted on retailer sites. Books a Million could be one. Barnes and Noble is another. These reviews can include star reviews, subject lines, comments, video, photos of them and your book, or your book about town. I like to do little videos, whatever they're influential in helping potential readers make purchasing decisions. And when someone posts that, I love it. They're happy with your book. It doesn't matter if it's a long review or short sometime or conversational or just bulleted thoughts. What's important is that it gets out there.
3. The third type of review is a literary review. Literary reviews are comprehensive analyses written by people who have read your entire book. These reviews tend to appear on literary websites or in literary magazines, or sometimes in mainstream media, while their reach might be limited in terms of readership, they hold substantial influence among industry professionals, like librarians who recommend books all the time, booksellers who recommend books all the time, and award programs. Literary reviews can be in the form of an essay, a personal essay of here's what I felt when I wrote this review. I wrote a review for Kathy Biehl's book, called Eat, Drink, and Be Wary, which I had flashbacks to making, Pull apart bread with my OMA and I ended up realizing that I was writing such a long review on Amazon that I was like, wait, I'm gonna get this published and Zibby magazine published the essay to my delight and a portion of it then I put in the Amazon review. So that's what I mean is a literary review can end up being editorial for the writer to pitch to media and it can be highly influential.
4. The fourth type of review is a review in a social post. Social post reviews are when someone shares a compliment about your book or about the fact that you have written this book in their social media profile. The reviews express love and respect for your work. Creating a sense of literary. Love and belonging. However, the reach of these reviews is only within the persons I own social circle, social media circle. Encourage people to tag you in their posts that can help you collect. And celebrate these reviews. Just make sure to capture them. Put them in your Google doc or your express Excel spreadsheet. Because someone worked really hard to provide that review for you
5. The fifth type of review is a marketing review. These are also known as blurbs. Marketing reviews are editorial endorsements or testimonials from notable individuals.
   
   This is important. It's a notable individual to your audience. A blurb from your writing coach that no one else has heard of or that your reader probably wouldn't have heard of is not going to help your audience make a decision to buy your book. It's going to feel really good to you, but that's not what I'm talking about. Those are good for literary reviews. You've got to think who does my audience look to for recommendations? Who do they trust? And when I say who, that could be an association, a media outlet, a journal, and it could be just readers in general, appear under retailer sites under the heading editorial reviews.
   
   They carry significant weight and they're very influential among potential readers. When you're asking for a marketing review, it's crucial to provide reviewers with content and key points they can focus on to ensure that they're giving a valuable endorsement. We've all seen blurbs and reviews that just say loved this book and that doesn't help anyone It doesn't help the reader make a decision because we don't know why That person loved your book So you want to give them things that you might want to call out things that you know are relevant About your book and that your audience will care about
6. The sixth type of review is an award review These reviews are provided by award programs and publishers. These reviews are influential and highly engaging. They come from trusted sources in the literary world. You don't have control over winning an award, but a review like this holds immense value in terms of credibility and exposure for your book. Okay.

Here's the key.

All of the positive reviews out there, you need to collect them and keep track of them because you can use all of them in your marketing.

Yes, you can cut and paste from Amazon and you don't have to use someone's name, but if they're put it on Amazon, then yes, you can use it. You don't have to ask their permission. It's already public.

Here are strategies to obtain valuable reviews.

1. Number one, pre launch review requests. Even before your book is released, reach out to people, who support you and your book's content.

If you're writing about, being a parent of a child recently diagnosed with leukemia or any kind of childhood cancer, that the people, who care about that are also cancer parents. They're interested in the content of your book. Of course, they're supporting you. But at this point, once your book gets into the world, your book is a team effort. The people who are going to leave reviews, aside from, a couple of your most devoted friends, Most of your peers won't be leaving reviews for you.

It's only the people who connect with the message and the content of your book, because they feel like they're part of a movement. What you want to do is provide them with a link to your book's description. And it could be a Google Doc. Highlight the specific elements you want them to emphasize in their review.

Remember, they already believe in your voice and their message, so make it easy for them to provide the review that's valuable for the potential reader who's looking for the solutions or the perspective you provide. It's unlikely that all these people are going to read your entire book because they already believe in your effort.

They're not ready to devote nine hours to read your entire book. They're endorsing you and they might read two chapters. They might read the book description, but they know you well enough that they know you're an advocate for the message you provide.

2. The second way to obtain a valuable review is reader review requests. Your book is launched, encourage readers to leave reviews on retailer sites. Request a five star review and provide them with the content they can focus on in their commentary. You can literally say, I would love it if you leave a five star review and share it so that people know that they can fill in the blank, get this result or this understanding from the book.

Most people aren't writers and They're not trying to avoid leaving you a review. Most people aren't comfortable even writing the review. Not because they don't love your book or your message, it's because it's hard to write a review. So give them some tools so that they know what you're looking for.

You can even give an example. Sam Bennett, who wrote the 15 minute method, the surprisingly simple art of getting it done. She does something really interesting. She tells people, give a five star review and put three words in the subject line. That's all the review really needs.

This book was valuable to me because I am surprised that I love this book more than I thought because it did this for me, or I have a better understanding of this because I read this book. People like fill in the blanks.

That's why Mad Libs are so popular.

3. The Third way to obtain reviews that matter is to make it easy. When you're requesting reviews, don't make the mistake of giving a lengthy timeline.

Three to four months means that people are not going to act on it right then, and that they will forget. You've got to create some urgency Most people tend to act on the day of the request or on the last day. Three weeks is usually sufficient to give reviewers enough time without making the review request seem unimportant or easily forgotten, and it's not a same day turnaround, which is just rude.

4. The fourth way to obtain a valuable review is to be clear and specific. This is the key. when you're reaching out to reviewers, clearly state what you're asking for and why their review is important. Provide them with the necessary tools, such as maybe your book description, but deconstruct it into bullet points so that they can pull out the elements that are important to describing your book and they can craft a review that aligns with your book's intended service and value.

Remember it's your responsibility to make it easy for reviewers to give you the review that will help potential readers find it and say, Oh, that's for me too. Obtaining book reviews. that truly matter is not luck. It is not a happy coincidence. It's a strategic approach by understanding the different types of book reviews and implementing strategies to gather them.

You can collect reviews that will fuel your book's success and will fuel your marketing efforts for Years as an author, you are your book's best marketer. Don't hesitate to ask for the specific reviews you need and provide the necessary tools to make the review process effortless for reviewers.

 The last tip I'll give you is if you want good reviews. Leave good reviews. Be a good literary citizen. when someone asks for reviews, you need to answer that call. You give what you get. It's just book karma.

Show up for other people, not just people you know, but people you don't. if you like a book, leave a positive review. It matters. And then you'll see, too, what it feels like when you have to write a couple sentences about a book that you read or an author you love but you don't know.

Happy reviewing and best of luck in your book's success.