Category: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Self-Publishing Weekly Book Review: Tales of Little Bear and Little Buffalo

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if they don’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review by Midwest Book Review:

Tales of Little Bear and Little Buffalo

Roy Naquin

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781432766276

Genre: Children’s Book/ Native American

“Tales of Little Bear and Little Buffalo” is a collection of authentic family stories about two Choctaw-Chitimacha Indian boys who lived on Isle de Jean Charles near Houma, Louisiana, during the early 1900’s, when traditional life was changing rapidly. Little Bear and Little Buffalo are descended from a chief of the Choctaw-Chitimacha Indian tribe who chose to settle on the Isle de Jean Charles, close neighbors of the Cajun French speaking community. Little Bear and Little Buffalo face many challenges and adventures in their daily lives. Just walking to school is a great danger as certain hungry swamp predators are hunting early in the morning when the boys need to be going to school.

Little Bear and Little Buffalo manage to accomplish a deed of great value to the tribe in trapping, roping and catching a huge alligator who had been eating calves and livestock. Even though he tries to keep his deed secret, Little Bear is awarded with his own dugout by his father as a sign of respect and acknowledgement that he had done something for the good of the tribe. Other tales of Little Bear and Little Buffalo are filled with many more examples of adventures, near misses, escapes, and also values and lessons learned. Loyalty, friendship, and courtesy and respect for elders, and responsibility for the good of the family and the tribe are recurring themes.

 “Tales of Little Bear and Little Buffalo” originated as family stories and verbal histories, and their sharing and retelling enriches a wide audience. Young readers age 8 and up will enjoy these exciting tales of a different time, an exotic place and a life that was very close to nature.

 

 

Book Reviews

Getting book reviews for a self-published book

If your self-published book is available for sale at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble (BN.com), and other sites, you want to be sure your online listings have book reviews. You can always be sure your book has at least 1 review by asking someone you know to review for your book. Who knows? They may even do it!

Once you have one review, your job is to solicit others. Obviously, if you’ve given some of your books away to friends or families, you should ask them to write a review in exchange for the book. As you continue to give them away, suggest to your customers that it would be helpful to you if they took the time to write an honest online review. People like to help people, but usually only do so if you ask.

BONUS: Once you have reviews, you can use them in quotes for further promotion. For example:

“Best Book Ever!” — Amazon.com review.

Your book detail page on Amazon and Barnes & Noble have links for writing reviews of your book. If you haven’t done that yet, do it right away.

Remember, in order to write a review for a book on Amazon, each reviewer must have an Amazon account with which they have purchased something. This is how Amazon verifies the identity of the reviewer. They don’t need to buy your book, per se, they just need to buy something, anything, from Amazon. But it is nice if they DO buy your book, so suggest that to your friends first.

Contacting Amazon reviewers is also a great place to start, and here’s where you can find them: http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers

 

Book Reviews, Kelly Speaks

Why are book reviews important for self-publishing authors?

Customers searching online for books will often glance at book reviews when deciding whether or not to purchase a book.  They may compare the review information for one book with a similar book to decide between the two which they want to purchase.  Doing a quick search on Amazon for “book marketing,” for example, brings up 201,642 results.  A customer has to narrow it down somehow, so they may glance through some of the books and look at things like the cover, publish date and reviews among other things.  Comparing the two following books from this category, which would you be more likely to purchase?

#1 – A total of 3 reviews (in 5 years) with an average rating of about 3.5 stars.

#2 – A total of 187 reviews with an average rating of about 5 stars.

There may be other factors involved for a customer comparing these two.  For instance, #1 is priced much lower.  Sure, pricing is important, and the lower the better to encourage sales, but is a lower price more important than really great feedback from other readers?  Customers probably won’t think so.

I wrote a few weeks ago about paying for book reviews.  If it isn’t in your marketing budget to pay for reviews or you simply want to pursue free review services, here are a few places to start:

http://www.bookpleasures.com
http://www.bookreviewsrus.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/
http://readersfavorite.com/
http://readerviews.com

* To read my review of Plug Your Book! by Steve Weber, visit: http://goo.gl/EkTYv 

DISCUSSION: Do you know of other great FREE book review services our readers should know about?  Post them in the comments below.

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT:
Kelly Schuknecht works as the Director of Author Support for Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Book Reviews, Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week: Addiction by H. E. Logue, M.D.

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if they don’t know about it? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us let the community know about a great book. So, without further adieu, here’s this week’s book review:

Addiction book cover

Addiction

H. E. Logue, M.D.

Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.

ISBN 9781432764807

Reviewed by: William Phenn for Reader Views

“Dr. Logue writes a very compelling book about the effects of various addictions on addicts and their families. He mentions the fact that the inspiration for the book was from actual events but, of course, the book is pure fiction. Sam Robbins is one such fictitious character. He has a wife and son and has just finished a bout with lung cancer. He is trying to quit his addiction, smoking; which brought him to this point.

The book suggests many good points on quitting and coping with the withdrawals and cravings of the addiction. There are even some very scary statistics that the doctor refers to. A few of them, such as “One out of four is a current smoker, one out of four is an ex-smoker and two out of four is or has been a smoker.” These facts and more were staggering to me as I read the stats that Dr. Logue wrote.

In the midst of Sam Robbins’ problem with his addicted nephew, the drama continues with stories of a “binge drinking alcoholic” that gets killed because of being in the wrong place and acting like a fool. Sam meets another friend and former co-worker and helps him with his drinking problem by attending AA meetings with him. All through the book, Sam partners with his psychiatrist and in the end, he gives back some of the help that he has had. His doctor sets up an addiction seminar and invites Sam and his wife to speak to the attendees.

Dr. Logue did a very good job of presenting addiction in its natural setting, portraying a typical family setting. He carried it through to show how it affects the rest of the family members and others that come in contact with the addict. I enjoyed Addiction: Yours, Mine and Ours and picked up a lot of good information, things I didn’t know about addiction and its effects. I gave it a solid A because it was similar to real life, well written and informative.”

DISCUSSION: Are you trying to obtain book reviews as part of your overall book promotion strategy?

Book Reviews, Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week: Russia’s Prestige by Kashif Parvaiz

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if they don’t know about it? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us let the community know about a great book. So, without further ado, here’s this week’s book review:

Russia's Prestige book cover

Russia’s Prestige: Historical Architecture

Kashif Parvaiz

Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.

ISBN 9781432766115

Reviewed by: William Phenn for Reader Views

“This is a very complete and concise volume of Russian architecture by a very talented writer. Mr. Parvaiz does more than just describe the beautiful architecture that is portrayed in the book. He goes the extra mile by giving the reader an insight into the history of the building. Beginning with Cathedral of the Dormition, to the Qolsharif Mosque, the chapters are descriptive and detailed. There is even a glossary at the end of every chapter that enlightens the reader to the terms used in that chapter.

Such amazing structures as the Catherine Palace in the Tsarskoe selo (the Tsar’s private city) are described with such detail that shows the author did his homework. He goes beyond the usual descriptions of the brick and mortar to include the reasons for its existence. It is this type of research that the author has done that makes this book stand out from the crowd of the usual architectural books.

The pictures are black and white, as would be expected in a book of architectural structures that date back as far as these do but that does not hinder the quality. The writing is top-notch and keeps the readers interest with the in-depth background and history.

The way the information is presented, with an in-depth history of the structures, makes it very interesting reading for everyone. He brought out some historical events that I had never seen or heard of in other books. It is general audience reading and full of wonderful pictures of all the old Churches and Cathedrals that are described and discussed. The cover graphics are appealing and the editing is a welcome change from most I have read recently. I enjoyed Russia’s Prestige: Historical Architecture and gave it my highest mark of an A+.”

DISCUSSION: Are you trying to obtain book reviews as part of your overall book promotion strategy?