Monday, January 11, 2016

Ten Ways to Use Reviews to Advantage

Reviews are a great help to an author. Yes, bad ones really smart, but if they're constructive, they can still lead us in the right direction.

And, the good ones, well, those not only make us feel good, encourage us to keep writing when the going gets tough, but are also great fodder for promotions.

Some ways to use a good review, or even part of a not-so-good review:

1. Pluck a short phrase from a review and place it on Twitter, along with your book link, and a copy of the book cover. Add a few hashtags where they may apply, such as #amwriting, or #mystery, or #thriller, #review, etc.

2. Place the review link on your Timeline at Facebook. If you're lucky, at least a few of your followers will see it. Facebook has become stingy about sharing links, but even if one or two people notice, the ball can still get rolling.

3. Share the review on any groups you belong to at Facebook. Again, if you're lucky, some of the others who are also posting promotions at the groups will notice yours.

4. Try not to be too pushy, but casually mention your new review with the link at one or two of your Yahoo groups, if you belong to any.

5. Post the review at Goodreads. I confess to not paying attention to Goodreads as much as I should. I really need to follow this advice.

6. Place the link and a teaser from the review on your website.

7. Make a Review Board on Pinterest and add our review links there, or use a different board for each of your books, and put the review link on the appropriate board. If you want, you could do both.

8. Include part of the review in a blog.

9. Remember, if you're doing a special promotion, many promotional sites require at least 4 stars or more. That's your goal.

10. Post a review of a book you liked. Maybe, later that author will reciprocate after reading one of your books. Since Amazon is a little strict about buddy authors doing reviews, I don't mention I'm an author in my review profile, and my reviews have so far not been taken down.

Can you think of any other ways to use reviews to advantage?

Find all of Morgan's books at
http://www.amazon.com/author/morganmandel

Excerpts are at:
http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/morgan.mandel

Twitter: @MorganMandel

3 comments:

authorlindathorne said...

I enjoyed your post. I need reminders of what all I can do sometimes to keep going and you gave me some good ideas. If I didn't have the day job, I'd get a lot more done. I feel like you about Goodreads. I've hear the opportunities there are supposedly endless, but it's time consuming too.

Lorelei Bell said...

All great ideas, Morgan!

Jean Henry Mead said...

Good advice, Morgan. Thanks for sharing.