Reviews can help sell more copies of your books, including Kindle ebooks. However, many authors are unsure about how to send review copies of Kindle ebooks to potential reviewers. It turns out that Amazon provides a simple way to send copies of your ebook to anyone. The above video explains it in more detail.

To send a review copy, get the email address of the reviewer’s Amazon account. Go to your book’s page on Amazon and click on the “Give as a Gift” button near the buy button. Enter the email address of the person to whom you want to send the book. They will receive an email that the ebook has been gifted to them. When they accept it, the ebook will be delivered to their Kindle device or app. One caution: they can decline the ebook and elect to receive a gift certificate instead. Make sure you only gift books to people who have expressed a willingness to receive, read and review your book.

You will pay full price for the book, but you will receive a royalty. That means that your net cost is the sale price less your royalty. If your ebook sells for $2.99 with a 70% royalty, your cost will be just over $.90 (Amazon’s 30% plus a small download charge, usually a few cents). That is a small price to pay, especially when you compare it to the cost of printing and mailing a paper book.

There is another reason to choose this method instead of simply sending a file to the reviewer. When their review is posted to Amazon it will include the notation, “Amazon Verfied Purchase.” There are authors who post fraudulent or paid-for reviews on Amazon, so showing that the reviewer actually received the book from Amazon gives more credibility to their review.

(Note: Paying for reviews is against Amazon’s terms of service. However, providing a free copy to a reviewer is specifically allowed.)

Good authors deserve legitimate book reviews.

Authors need book reviews to sell their books, and of course they want great reviews. Authors who learn their craft, do their research, and produce quality, well-written books deserve good reviews, and by putting in the proper time and effort, such authors usually receive glowing praise from reviewers. But even good books can receive bad reviews—and I don’t mean reviews that say negative things about the book. I’m talking about book reviews written by people not qualified, no matter how highly esteemed, to write book reviews. Why are they not qualified? Because they do not read the books.

Let’s face it. Books are a business. Authors need book reviews, and reviewers know authors need them. Free book reviews are becoming harder and harder to find. Reviewers are now being paid for their services, and reviews are not cheap—nor should they be; a reviewer’s time is valuable, and reading a book and writing a decent review can take many hours. Authors who want reviews need to be prepared to pay for the service and to realize it’s a business investment, just like advertising and marketing, where money is invested in hopes it will result in book sales.

But unscrupulous people—I hesitate even to call them book reviewers, so let’s call them illegitimate book reviewers—are willing to prey upon authors’ needs. They realize they can make money off a book review without providing a legitimate service. Let’s say you’re a book reviewer and you make $100 for every book you review, and it takes you eight hours to read a book. That’s $100 a day. But wouldn’t it be nice to make $200 or $400 or $1,200 a day? What if, instead of reading the books, you just skimmed them, or you just regurgitated what the back cover said? Think how many book reviews you could pump out, and how much money you could make, while giving authors what they want. So what if the review is only four sentences? As long as you give it five stars at Amazon, the author will be happy, right? Cha-ching!

Sadly, yes, in many cases, authors have been happy. But mostly they are first-time or self-published authors new to the business who got lucky getting an accurate review. I’ve known many such authors rave about how they got reviewed by one of these “esteemed” or “top” reviewers, often a reviewer ranked close to the top of Amazon’s thousands of reviewers.

Early on when I started offering book reviews, I realized it was unlikely I would ever be ranked in the Top 10 Amazon reviewers, not because my reviews lacked quality, and not because I didn’t review a lot of books, but simply because I was not a robot, and I actually read the books I reviewed. If you look at the list of top Amazon reviewers, many of them have reviewed over 5,000 books. If you are a book review service with several reviewers on staff, such a number of reviews is understandable, but most of the top reviewers are individuals. How can this be? Even if book reviewing was your full time job and you could read a book a day, or even two books a day, that’s only ten a week or about five hundred a year. You’d have to have been reviewing at Amazon for ten years to break 5,000. Okay, I guess that’s possible, but take a look at some of these reviewers: http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers-classic. Some of them have reviewed up to fifteen books a day. Yes, some of them are legitimate and write quality reviews and I don’t mean to disparage those individuals.

Granted, a few of these people might be speed readers, but the jury is still out on the legitimacy of speed reading. I had a friend who claimed to be a speed reader. I gave her three mystery novels to read that she returned to me the next day. When I asked her whether she had figured out who the murderer was in one book, she couldn’t remember “whodunit.” If you’re reading so fast you can’t retain the basic plot, you’re not really reading the book.

Worse, some of these reviews have nothing to say that an author can even use. I’ve seen some reviews that are only three or four sentences of plot summary without anything that states the book is “good, excellent, engaging, or not to be missed.” An author can’t get a blurb for a back cover if a review only summarizes but does not rate the book’s quality.

Still worse, many of these reviews, because the books weren’t read and the reviewer must have been hurriedly rewording copy from the back cover, end up with characters’ names misspelled, factual errors about the plot, and sometimes even mistakes about the theme, content, and whole point of the book—all dead giveaways a book was never read. Sometimes these reviews are simply confusing, and if a reader is confused, he’s not going to buy a book or waste his time reading it.
Some authors might not care about such details. If the review is good, it’s good enough to sell books, right? But if the review is misleading, readers are not going to be happy when the books they buy do not reflect what the reviews said about them. Hopefully, when readers have those experiences, they’ll know better than to trust those reviewers again.

Sadly, as long as money is involved, illegitimate reviewers won’t be going away any time soon. But as an author who is paying for a review, you deserve to have your book read. Most authors, myself included, want legitimate feedback on what readers think about our books. We write our books as much to entertain, inform, educate, or invoke an emotional response from our readers as we do to sell a few books. As authors, we deserve better.
So what can an author do about illegitimate reviewers? I don’t see any point in getting angry over the situation since I don’t think it will change anything. You can write to these illegitimate reviewers and complain, but it’s unlikely to do any good. A few things you can do are:

1. Do Your Research. Look at a reviewer’s history and past reviews. How well-written are the reviews and are they more than just a plot summary? Ask yourself whether it’s worth your time and money to pay for such a review, or even just pay the postage and give away a review copy to such a reviewer.
2. Request Corrections. If you get reviewed, and the review has errors such as misspelled character names or the book is incorrectly listed as a sequel to your last book, contact the reviewer and request that corrections be made. I have known several authors who have successfully had the reviewer correct their review—especially in situations where they paid for the review.
3. Vote on Reviews. Every review posted to Amazon has below it the question, “Was this review helpful to you?” and the opportunity to vote “Yes” or “No.” If you look at the top reviewers list, many reviewers farther down the list have written more reviews than those higher up the list. Reviewer rankings are not based solely on how many products are reviewed. While figuring out how Amazon determines these rankings remains largely a mystery, votes on the reviews do impact the reviewer’s ranking. Voting may do little to help a good reviewer or hurt a bad reviewer on Amazon, but if reviewers can review books, there’s no reason why readers can’t review reviews.
4. Learn from the Experience. You’ve learned your lesson, and it might not even have been a difficult one, but you now know in the future to stay away from these reviewers. If you’re traditionally published, your publisher might use such a reviewer anyway but you can request otherwise. Nevertheless, remember that publishing is a business and that makes it a dollars game; sadly, accurate representation of your book may not be as important to your publisher as making a buck.
5. Share Your Knowledge. Share with your fellow authors your experiences in being reviewed. That doesn’t mean you’re gossiping about reviewers. You are assisting other authors in making legitimate business decisions about how to spend their money in acquiring book reviews. Legitimate business decisions should not end with illegitimate results.

Many good book reviewers are out there. Find them and build lasting relationships with them; then you won’t need to depend on illegitimate book reviewers to find readers and sell your books.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Book reviews are essential recommendations to get readers to buy your books. But not all reviewers do a professional job when reviewing; some don’t even read the books they supposedly review. Here are some guidelines to help authors determine which reviewers are legitimate and a good choice for reviewing their books.

Back in the twentieth century, book reviews were in print publications and books were generally reviewed for free (while advertisers paid for the reviews). Today, the majority of book reviewers are online and many authors find they need to pay at least a small fee to get their books reviewed. Because the Internet makes it possible for anyone to set up a website or blog and offer book reviews, authors should be a bit wary about whom they submit their books to for review, whether or not they are paying for a review. Below are a few guidelines for determining whether a reviewer is really qualified to review your book. Remember that these are only guidelines and while one reviewer may be a good fit for one book, the reviewer or review service may not work so well for another.

1. Find out who are the review service’s individual reviewers. In some cases, the reviewer may just be one person. In other cases, you might be contracting with a review service that has a team of reviewers. Check the reviewer’s “About Us” web page to see whether there actually is a team that reviews the books and whether the names are disclosed. If names are not disclosed, be leery. You’re better off having John Smith from Book Review Service review your book than just Book Review Service, and chances are that if names are not revealed, no one is actually reading the books.

2. Check to see where the reviews are posted. Look on the reviewer’s own website to see whether the reviews are posted there. Also check other websites where the reviewer says the reviews will be posted. If the reviewer doesn’t disclose the sites, chances are the reviews are not being posted. If the reviewer promises to send the review to 100 sites, ask for a list of the sites so you can double check that some old reviews are posted on those sites. Sending the reviews to another site and actually having them posted are two different things. In addition, the reviewer’s own website should include links to examples of reviews it has posted to other sites.

3. Check the reviewer’s past reviews. Be sure to look at multiple reviews, and preferably ones for books you may have read, to determine whether it looks like the book has been read or whether the review is merely a regurgitation of the back cover’s text—you can look at the book’s back cover yourself at online book stores to compare the back covers against the reviews. Even if there is an additional line saying how wonderful the book is, that doesn’t mean the book was read. Details about character plots or other items not obvious from the book cover are needed to verify the book was actually read. Also check to see whether there is an actual name of the reviewer on the review; if there isn’t, it’s probably a regurgitation.

4. Check whether the reviews all have 5-star ratings or whether they actually give other ratings. All 5-star ratings are a good sign the books are not read, or the reviewers are simply being paid to please the authors. If some reviews do have lower ratings, read the reviews to determine the reasons why—do they mention the books have grammatical or typographical errors, or plot issues? Or are they nitpicking and unfairly slamming the books? You want to make sure your book is read and also judged fairly by the reviewer. To find out if a review is legitimate, compare the review by this reviewer against reviews for the same book by other reviewers. A 5-star review on one site might mean the book was not read if another reviewer gives 2-stars due to editing issues, but a 5-star review by one reviewer who really liked the book compared to a 2-star by a reviewer who simply did not care for the book’s topic may reflect just a difference in readers’ opinions, making most reviews legitimate.

5. Double-check additional services reviewers offer to determine their legitimacy or value. Many review sites will offer additional services, such as written, radio, and TV interviews. If these services are offered and you are interested, ask for links to the interviews. Listen to the interviews and decide whether the interviewer sounds knowledgeable or interested in the books and authors to determine whether an interview is worth the price of the service for you.

6. Get references. Ask reviewers for references from other authors whose books they have reviewed. If they do not provide references, you may want to think twice about having the reviewer review your book. You may also decide to contact other authors on your own to see whether they have been happy with the review service and feel the contract was fulfilled. If the author is unhappy, discern the real reasons—is it because they didn’t get 5-star reviews for their books, and if so, why didn’t they? Or is it because the reviews were not posted on certain sites as promised or were there other failures to fulfill the contract?

7. Decide whether or not you want to pay for the service. Many review services charge to cover their overhead, while several others offer free reviews but recoup their expenses by selling the books. There is no getting away from expenses incurred by the reviewers, and just like you, they want to be paid for their time and work. Only you can determine whether the work they do for you, in reviewing your book or other services, is worth the price. Don’t forget to factor in both how many hours it will take the reviewer to read the book, write the review, and post it to various sites, as well as how likely you feel the review will be to increase the number of copies you sell and how many you will have to sell to recoup the cost of the review service.

8. Find out who is the book reviewer’s audience. Who reads the book reviews put out by this reviewer? Knowing the audience is vital for determining whether your review will be of value to you in selling your book. If you’re sending your book about physics to a mommy blogger, a review is probably not going to get you many sales, but if you submit it to a review agency that specializes in science-based books, with an audience of scientists and science enthusiasts, you may sell numerous copies. However, even if the reviewer’s audience may not be a good fit for your book, if the reviewer posts the review on multiple sites, and especially at online bookstores, it is likely that numerous readers beyond the reviewer’s primary audience will read the review and be persuaded to buy the book.

9. Ask about the reviewer’s correction policy. Ask the reviewer what happens if the review is negative and you would prefer not to have it posted. Is a refund offered? (In my opinion it shouldn’t be since the work is already done). What about if the review has a character’s name or even the author’s name spelled wrong or there are other errors in describing the plot? Will mistakes be corrected? Will you be allowed to approve the review before it is posted online to make sure it doesn’t contain typos or misinformation such as referring to your book as the second rather than fourth in your fantasy series?

10. Get permission to use the review to market your book. Reviews are the property of the reviewer, but the point of a review is to help readers determine whether or not to read a book, so find out upfront whether you are allowed to reproduce the review on your website or print it and mail it with your marketing materials. If you are only allowed to quote a portion of the review, how much can you use? Does the reviewer mind if you quote from the review on your website or on the back of future editions of your book? A review is not of much value if you can’t use it to help you sell your book.

A lot of book reviewers are out there. By following these guidelines, authors should be able to narrow down their list of reviewers to those who are legitimate and will help them get their book out to the reading public in a positive and effective manner.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Self-published author Amanda Hocking was very recently in the news for transforming her substantial initial success into a multi-million dollar contract with a traditional publisher. Guess what? She credited some of her success to relationships with book bloggers:

I had no idea such people existed,” Hocking wrote on her own website. “They just read books and write about them. And I don’t mean ‘just.’ They take time out of their busy lives to talk about books and have contests and connect with followers and writers and other readers. These guys are honestly my heroes.” – from http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2011/02/19/book-bloggers-can-help-sell-your-book-tips-for-authors/

Hearing something like this can cause an author to make a beeline for book blogs. Stop. Think. There is a simple tip that can save both the author and the blogger tons of time. And it’s this: When visiting a blog that you are considering contacting to request a book review, read their Review Policy. It’s quite simple – 90% of the time, it’s actually listed as “Review Policy” on the blog and when it’s not, it’s often found in the “About Me” section. The blogger will clearly state what genres he or she enjoys – or even if he or she reviews self-published books at all. If your genre is not listed, don’t query the blogger. Pitching book bloggers is not about browbeating, it’s not about twisting arms, and it’s not about arguing.

As a book blog tour coordinator, I recently surveyed 30 book bloggers to ask them what constituted a good – and bad – pitch. An example straight from a blogger of a pitch gone wrong was: “I know you say you don’t review self-published books, non-fiction, or Christian books, but I have a great Christian self-help book that I’ve published myself!” You see what I mean?

There are plenty of blogs out there, and I mean plenty. Pitch to the ones that enjoy your genre and that’s half the battle. Happy pitching!

Diane Saarinen can be found at the Saima Agency (http://saimaagency.com) which specializes in author services such as book blog tours, virtual assistance, copywriting and book trailers. Their ebook, BEST PRACTICES: PITCHING BOOK BLOGGERS is available at http://www.bookblogtourguide.com/?page_id=89.

No one understands the need and desire to promote your book like another author. Rather than see other authors as competition, authors can leverage each other by cross-promoting each other’s books. Doing so creates a win-win situation for both authors as well as for readers who will discover even more books they would like to read.

The ways authors can help each other to promote their books is countless, but here are a few ideas for starters.

Book Reviews. Trade books with fellow authors and then write book reviews for each other. Post the reviews on your blog, Amazon, and anywhere else you can.

Link Websites. Provide a link on your website to other great authors, especially ones writing in your genre. Ask them to link back to you. Create cross traffic for each other.

Host Authors as Guests. Do you have a blog, an Internet radio show, or even a newspaper column? Feature other authors as guests. Help them build buzz about their books and ask them to reciprocate. No only will you get promoted to a new audience, but your own audience will think you’re a nice guy to be promoting other people’s books rather than your own (which in turn only helps to promote your own books.)

Share Book Signing Space. Book signings can be dull events if no one shows up, and nothing is worse than sitting in a bookstore by yourself waiting for someone to buy your book. The more authors at a book signing, the more people likely to attend. Ask the bookstore if you can sign with another author, especially if he or she has a new book out. Then if nothing else, you can visit with each other and share writing and marketing ideas while you wait for book buyers to come.

Split Show Costs. If you’re going to do book signings together, why not do book fairs and art and craft shows together? Split the cost of your booth, and then you’ll have someone to help set up and tear down and watch the booth when you need a break.

Cross Sell Each Other’s Books. Are there two book fairs on opposite sides of the state on the same day? You can’t go to both, or can you? You can go west and your author friend can go east;  you can bring her books with you and she can take yours east so you sell each other’s books.

Talk Each Other Up. Once you get your foot in the door at a few bookstores, tell them about your friend’s books and how great they are. Bookstores will appreciate your opinion in helping them to find other good books to stock.

Provide References for Each Other. Are you asked to give a talk at the library, but you have a conflicting engagement? Give your fellow author’s name as an alternative. Ask him to return the favor later.

Pass Out Each Other’s Promotional Materials. Get yourself a bumper sticker with your website on it. Then give one to your author friends and put their bumper stickers on your car. When you sell one of your books, stick one of their bookmarkers in it to promote their books and have them do the same for you.

Share Knowledge and Build Friendships. The best part of allying yourself with other authors is the knowledge you will share and the friendships you will build. Two heads are better than one, and selling books is not easy. You can learn from each other’s mistakes and successes, have fun, and build buzz for your books at the same time.

Share Agents, Publishers, and PR. If you build a strong alliance with another author and he gets his book picked up by a major publisher or he finds a good literary agent, it can mean a foot in the door for you as well. Success is often connected to whom you know, and no alliance is a waste of time. Networking is really just about making friends. Help your friends and they’ll help you. And always be happy for them when they succeed.

I’m sure you can think of many more ways to help your fellow authors and to get them to help you. Have regular brainstorming sessions with your author friends. Start out by writing book reviews for each other to see who follows through—those authors who do are the ones with whom you want to build strong relationships. There are lots of authors out there willing to help each other promote their books, and you can never have too many friends in the publishing world.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

In a perfect world, writers could look at their work and put on the additional hats of editor, critic, and audience-member.  Wouldn’t we have some magnificent texts then?  Sadly, most writers are unable to view their work through anything other than rose-colored glasses, and objectivity is about as attainable as the goose that laid the golden egg.  For this reason, editors and critics are necessary.  As a writer, it is all too easy to become married to your work and end up with several hundred pages of overwrought drivel that is all but unreadable (don’t shake your head – we’ve all been guilty of this one).  You need a guiding hand to help you see the forest for the trees and pare down your work to get to the essential core of what you’re trying to convey (with just a bit of enhancement here and there).  You want your writing to be the Renaissance (beautiful and enlightening) not the Rococo period (WAY too much embellishment).

And while criticism often comes after the fact (when your work is nearing its polished completion) the more you seek out, the better your writing will become.  By fostering an open-minded attitude when it comes to the banter of critics, you may start to see patterns in your writing that you can correct as you go along, rather than waiting for the inevitable slam-fest from your editor.  Now, this doesn’t mean you have to take abuse with a smile.  If you consider the matter and find the criticism to be flagrantly unfair, totally off-base, or simply a matter of bias, then you are more than welcome to disregard it.  However, you’ll be best served to take each piece of advice at face value and then decide if it actually applies to your work or if it is simply one person’s opinion.  By taking constructive criticism to heart, you will ultimately improve the quality of your writing, and in turn, your chances of reaching your audience, reeling them in, and building up a fan-base for future endeavors.

Sarah Danielson writes for www.tshirtprinting.net where you can design your own custom clothing at affordable prices.

So you’ve written a book. You’ve published it (whether traditionally, publish on demand, joint venture, or self published). You finally have this thing that you’ve been working so long and so hard on in print. If you didn’t before, you’ve probably realized by now that the true work begins after your work comes out in print. You’ve probably also figured out or have been told that one of the most important ways to establish your credibility as well as the credibility of your book is to get it reviewed. This includes reviews in publications (both on and offline, local and beyond) as well as on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Reviews? Oh no! You mean that I have to put my work out there for people to actually rate? The short answer is: yes. Despite having gone through all of the trouble to get a book completed and published, I have spoken to many authors, especially new ones, that are afraid of a bad review. Every time they send a query to a reviewer or send a copy after being answered, there is a certain level of fear that seems to be building about what that reader is going to think or write about this project that comprised blood, sweat, and tears.

I have noticed many articles and blogs on handling a bad review, but I think the biggest problem is the emotional worrying. Authors are asking themselves the wrong question. It’s time to change that line of thinking. If you want to inspire confidence from others for you and your work, you need to have the confidence first. So ask yourself, “What if I get a great review?”

Okay, stop laughing, I’m serious. Before you put that book in the mail to send to a reviewer, ask yourself that question instead of its opposite. Think about how you’ll feel when that person puts in writing how great your book is and how much they love it. Imagine them reading it, being called down for dinner by their spouse, but they are simply unable to put the book down as it has totally drawn them in. Picture them showing your book to friends or other reviewers that they know and telling them that you are an up and coming bestseller.

Why do this? Simply put, there’s nothing you can do once you’ve sent the book to a reviewer. Worrying about what they are going to write is just going to cause you stress and drop your own self-confidence. By changing the direction of your thinking, you have a much greater ability to “mail and forget”. If you are allowing yourself to believe that you have a great product, you will naturally radiate that confidence in person as well as in your inquiries. If someone’s first impression of you is a good one, they’re far more likely to give your work a chance than if they see doubt in you.

Above all else, keep in mind this saying:

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby

Mike Saxton
Author
http://www.7scorpions.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Saxton

1. Remember that it’s not a personal affront. The reviewer just didn’t like your book. Do you like everything you read?
2. Take a deep breath. Cool off. Put the review away in a dark place for a few days. Taking time to let the fresh emotions wear off will help you think more rationally and calmly when you look at it again.
3. Look at who the reviewer is. Are they known for giving glowing reviews, or is negativity their forte? It may have nothing to do with you.
4. Look at the review objectively. Are there constructive comments you can use to improve your next project? It could be a learning opportunity.
5. DO NOT under any circumstances send a rebuttal. Just let it go. You may think you are defending yourself, but it only makes you look bad, not the reviewer.
6. DO NOT slander or in any way bad-mouth the reviewer on your social media accounts or through other outlets. Not only does this make you look unprofessional, but you can also set yourself up for legal claims.
7. DO be gracious and poised. Acting professional, taking bad reviews with a grain of salt, and maintaining a positive working relationship with book reviewers will only help you in the long run.

Remember, as an author you have put yourself out there for public scrutiny. Bad reviews show that people are reading your book and that you have drummed up enough interest to warrant a review. Also, they provide balance. An article from iMedia Connection (link), shows that too many good reviews can become fluff, and a bit unbelievable. Bad reviews from valid third parties let the reader know that reviews of your book are authentic. Also, the majority of the time, the number of bad reviews are small compared to good reviews. Plus, all reviews, good and bad, help by prequalifying book buyers and weeding out those who may not be a good fit for your topic.

All in all, take bad reviews with a grain of salt. They don’t spell doom, and sometimes can even help. By taking the high road and maintaining your composure in the face of bad reviews, you’ll come out on top in the end.

Shennandoah Diaz is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant specializing in strategic communications and publishing. She currently serves as the Business Development Assistant for Greenleaf Book Group, a publisher and distributor supporting independent authors and small presses, and as the Nonfiction Editor for Reflection’s Edge Magazine.

So what do I mean by ‘traditional’ book reviews? The printed review; in newspapers or magazines, is not nearly what it once was. The newspaper industry continues to be hurt by reduced circulation and ever-increasing challenges from online media. Additionally, with thousands of new books coming out every month, the competition for print space is limited, and the ‘big houses’ dominate in terms of book reviews. Many print outlets simply await catalogue mailings from major publishers, choose books they deem worthy of review, and most self-published authors are left out in the cold. It’s really that simple.

But, all hope is not lost. Aside from very targeted mailings – what we call ‘high priority’ outlets with high probability of interest in a specific book – online reviewers are flourishing. Don’t discount the value of online reviewers. Every time your book is mentioned on the Internet, it is picked up by search engine spiders, and the more and more your book appears online, the more word spreads about the book.

Online reviews aren’t as limited by space or type of publishing. Many welcome self-published books; some only review self-published books.

Here’s something that might surprise you: I don’t think ‘traditional’ book reviews sell books. I’d much rather see our clients get a feature story, print interview, author profile, etc. These kind of placements can move books much more than a traditional review. Plus, a feature story, for example, is seldom negative, whereas a book review can certainly be.

Years ago we would routinely send hundreds of galleys out at the start of a campaign. We don’t do this anymore. Our advance review copy lists usually number around 20 to 50, and, we’re really pitching for stories over reviews, although we of course do secure some reviews.

The Internet is fast becoming the best friend of authors. Traditional publicity, the old-school type of pitching for interviews, stories, etc., is still crucial to a campaign, but more and more the viral nature of the Internet should not be ignored. From online reviews to blogs to online book listings and podcast interviews, the Internet has changed the face of book promotion.

My suggestion: Do not rely upon the Internet only for your campaign; I still believe a comprehensive campaign attacking newspapers, magazines, radio and TV is crucial. But, get on the Internet, as many places as you can. Get your name and book on as many sites as possible.

Is the book review dead? Nope. It simply has changed with the times.

Dan Smith is the Founder and CEO of Smith Publicity Inc. Beginning in 1997, Smith Publicity is one of the world’s leading promotional firms, specializing in book publicity. Fueled by a passion for making good things happen for clients, the company has worked with over 900 individuals and companies–from authors and entrepreneurs to publicly-held companies and businesses representing a wide range of industries. The Smith Publicity reach is international with offices in New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and London. For more information about Smith Publicity, Inc., please visit www.smithpublicity.com.

The first thing to keep in mind that while many reviewers will give their honest opinion, some aim to dish out a terrible review for the sake of entertainment purposes to build up their own notoriety (enter the old phrase “sticks and stones…” here). For the bad reviews that may hold some merit, instead of envisioning running them over with your car, you, as an author, need to take it as constructive criticism.

If the editing job of the book is under attack, take a look at your book and see if you perhaps missed some grammatical or punctuation errors. Having these bloopers pointed out in a public forum is a tough pill to swallow, but unless you want to continue to make the same mistakes, you need to take a lesson from it and move on. Is the editing of your book stellar but the format or design of the book under fire? Is the reviewer critiquing your character development? As hard as it may be, take these observations and lay them against your book – it’ll hurt, but it’s important to know what areas you need to strengthen before moving on to the next project.

Bottom line: if your dream is not only to be a published author, but the best writer you can be, you need to take the good reviews with the bad, and use it all to your advantage.

Melissa Sileo is the Director of Publicity Services at Smith Publicity, Inc. Beginning in 1997, Smith Publicity is one of the world’s leading promotional firms, specializing in book publicity. Fueled by a passion for making good things happen for clients, the company has worked with over 900 individuals and companies–from authors and entrepreneurs to publicly-held companies and businesses representing a wide range of industries. The Smith Publicity reach is international with offices in New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and London. For more information about Smith Publicity, Inc., please visit www.smithpublicity.com.