Category: elizabeth speaks

When I’m looking for a new book on Amazon, I often wish I had the psychic ability to look at a novel and know right away whether I’d enjoy it. But sadly, I don’t have psychic powers. But I do have Amazon’s Customer Review section. And this is why I’m here to teach you the importance of securing Amazon reviews.

Why in the world do you need Amazon customer reviews? Wouldn’t your book be able to sell itself from the title, the cover design, the blurb, the store category and keywords, and the preview of the first few pages? All of those are important, but they’re not enough.

Amazon itself encourages shoppers to leave customer reviews. The power of reviews pans out in practice, as successful self-publishing authors observe that sales increase with positive reviews.

Generally, readers are reluctant to buy the book of an unknown author. It’s understandable, as a reader spends both money and time when buying and reading a book. But conversely, readers love to buy books from their favorite authors—so what can you do when you’re starting out?

That’s where customer reviews can bridge the gap. If they see that the book has stellar reviews, customers are much more likely to take a chance on buying it.

Now, reviews are a pain point for many self-publishing authors. Reviews are key for attracting sales, yet they’re one of the factors authors have the least control over. You can write a great story and craft a solid product description, but you can’t write reviews of your own book.

(Seriously, don’t pretend to be a reader and review your own book. Amazon will catch you and kick you off their storefront.)

Don’t know where to begin with reviews? You have several methods for soliciting reviews, and you should employ multiple approaches simultaneously.

• Ask your friends and family not only to read the book (which they should!) but also to post a review on Amazon. Yes, friends and family are allowed to leave reviews.
• Run an office contest for your coworkers. The first colleague to leave a great review gets lunch on you.
• Post on social media channels, especially Facebook and Twitter, asking your followers to leave a review. Emphasize to your readers that reviewing is a great way to support their favorite authors and that you appreciate each review. You could even read positive reviews and share them on your feed, engaging your most supportive fans in a fun way!
• Research book reviewers and review blogs in your book’s genre and category, then send complimentary copies. Recurring and professional reviewers have an audience who read their writing, making them a great publicity asset. Just be careful to contact reviewers and bloggers who read the type of book you’re publishing. For example, if you send your steamy romance novel to a Christian memoir reviewer, she will not be happy!
• Keep publishing more titles. With more books, you’ll get more opportunities to obtain reviews from regular readers. There are few other people you want on your team than a power customer who recommends all your books!

Don’t be stingy in giving away free copies to potential reviewers. If a reviewer is willing to buy your book, awesome! If they’re not, it doesn’t hurt to be generous to reel in a reader who would’ve otherwise passed up your book.

Remember that under Amazon guidelines, you can’t force a reader to leave a review in exchange for a free copy, so don’t take it personally if some prospective reviewers don’t follow through.

This is an excellent point to emphasize one perk of digital publishing. When you have eBooks, you don’t have to spend money to produce galleys or advance reviewer copies. Instead, you can send a reviewer an eBook with a single email. In addition, Amazon provides options for you to gift a reader an eBook to make it easier on both ends.

Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to have physical copies on hand to give away, as Amazon lists the reviews from all a book’s formats under one section. Believe it or not, there are still readers out there who want a physical copy. I certainly wouldn’t turn a print book down!

It can be frightening to ask readers to review your book on Amazon. The ask can be intimidating by itself, and the prospect of a negative review can be outright terrifying. But even with those risks, an author is her best publicist and a self-publishing author more so.

With practice, you will get better at asking for reviews. As your titles grow, so do your audience and the reviews. Over time, more readers will review your books without you asking, and even the dreaded one-star reviews will soon be buried underneath an avalanche of five-star praise.

If you’re in self-publishing for a long and exciting career, you need to secure Amazon reviews right now. Fortunately, you can start today.

Maybe someday, I’ll find your book, be impressed enough by its reviews to click that buy button, and leave a review of my own. I look forward to the opportunity to do so.

Now, I’ll turn it over to you. As a reader, what leads you to review a book? As a writer, what tips and tricks do you have to secure Amazon reviews?

Recent events have reminded me of an adage: don’t put all your eggs in ONE basket.

This warning primarily applies to the social media and other online platforms we use in self-publishing. Here’s the thing: some websites decline in popularity, and some even disappear altogether.

MySpace used to be considered a worthy competitor to Facebook. These days, MySpace is lucky to be mentioned as Facebook forges deeper into the “metaverse.”

Old services such as Google+ and Vine used to bustle with many users. Sadly for their users and creators, these sites no longer exist.

Even the longest-running social media services may not endure as recommendable options. Who knows what direction Elon Musk may go with Twitter!

My point is: if you market your books only on one website, figuratively putting your eggs into the basket of that one platform, you risk your career dropping with the platform.

I know I harp all the time about how you must put yourself out there online if you want to advance your publishing career, so it’s doubly important that you don’t invest your efforts in only one platform.

Here are some considerations as you future-proof your marketing and publicity:

Diversify your platform

When businesspeople talk about “egg baskets,” it’s usually to exalt diversification. In most cases, it’s in the context of financial investment, but you can also invest in multiple platforms.

Return to your marketing plan—or if you don’t have one, write up several ideas for one. Consider the websites you use the most in promoting your book and the platforms where you want to expand. Write a few reasons you have questions you want to answer during your research and experience.

Then, aim to promote on at least two to three platforms during any particular week. I recommend focusing mainly on one (more on that below), but keep your accounts open on a couple of other platforms just in case your leading player becomes unviable.

Funnel readers toward platforms that you own

Here’s a scary thought: you don’t own your social media account. Sure, you have the password to your account, and you run your profile. But if the platform goes away, you’ll be left with nothing.

Having your account suspended or even banned is a common risk! It could be a mistake, but you could find yourself disconnected from most of your readers at a moment’s notice.

To mitigate this, build up platforms you have more “ownership” over. For instance, I recommend websites. First, buy a web hosting plan—and importantly, buy your own URL. Then once you build your website, back it up frequently to multiple locations.

While it requires money, paid hosting and domain services give you more ownership than most social media platforms, where you could be considered a virtual renter.

You’re much less likely to be kicked off their servers when paying for hosting. But if it happens, then you have a backup plan. You can switch hosts, move your domain, reupload your website, and be back in business, all at the same address.

In a similar vein, look into running a mailing list. Email has endured over the decades. You can also be equally flexible with mailing list providers, with the option of exporting your list of emails to another service when necessary.

In any case, use your social media platforms to “funnel” your readers toward these self-owned platforms. Not only will your readers stay more in the loop about your publishing, but they’ll also be further invested in your career.

Whenever we see news of another platform declining or dying, it’s tempting to join up with all its competitors. With the announcement of Elon Musk buying Twitter, many users tweeted to their followers that they were moving to Discord, Tumblr, their new mailing list, TikTok . . .

But the ephemerality of platforms doesn’t preclude the dangers of burning yourself out.

If you find your favorite service a sinking ship, don’t decide your next destination out of panic. Instead, do the research, pick one or two other alternatives, and maintain your self-owned platforms like your website and mailing list. And keep in mind you can prioritize your accounts differently yet adjust your usage based on how each platform rises and falls.

In the end, it comes down less to the state of any particular basket (or platform) but rather the skills you build and transfer throughout your publishing career that will serve you the best.

Maybe we can create another expression: don’t put your eggs in TOO many baskets.

I’ll let you workshop that one . . .

Over To You: How do you diversify your internet presence? What precautions have you taken just in case one of your main platforms collapses?

No matter what path you take to publishing your book, you’ll need to learn how to sell books on social media.

If you go the self-publishing route, social media will be one of your most accessible platforms for selling and connecting. And even if you go the traditional route and submit your book to a publishing company, publishers are looking for authors who are comfortable enough to run their online presence. Unfortunately, Luddites don’t get signed in publishing.

It’s hard figuring out how to build your social media platform to the point that you can sell copies. A social media account isn’t something you can set up once and leave alone; instead, you must work to build an organic following and earn the algorithm’s favor.

As overwhelming as social media can feel, one upside is that there are numerous ways to approach social media marketing. It’ll depend on your brand and your plan to present the best parts of yourself professionally.

I’ll go over the considerations to keep in mind as you build your social media platform; then I’ll cover what you need to get started putting your book out there and getting it to readers.

Building a platform brick-by-brick

Here’s something to keep in mind: not all followers are equal. However, there are services available where you can “buy” followers, and you can get caught up in following everyone under the sun who’s willing to follow you back.

Don’t inflate your following count! At best, you’ll waste time and money on thousands of fake followers who will never buy your book. At worst, you’ll get banned for buying or even soliciting counterfeit followers.

So, as you’re building up your accounts, don’t get distracted by metrics for metrics’ sake. Instead, focus on organic growth. Follow accounts that you’re genuinely interested in engaging, whether reading their posts or keeping a conversation going.

At first, you’ll likely find that most of your followers are fellow authors and maybe other publishing professionals such as agents and editors. This is okay. Networking is gold, and social media is an excellent way to find agents soliciting books like yours or meeting writers you might collaborate with on publicity campaigns.

Just remember to also reach beyond the publishing bubble and seek out readers.

Ideas for selling your book

The most obvious tactic is the cold sell: find the account of a potential reader and pitch them your book.

The cold sell can be effective in cases where your book is the exact title the prospective buyer is looking for, especially if the prospective has asked for recommendations. Just be reasonable with cold selling. If you self-promote your book to everyone you encounter, your account may be shut down for spamming.

So, how else are you supposed to sell your book? Here’s a list of other techniques that may appeal to prospective readers more.

1. Write about your book. Either make a post (on sites like Facebook) or a thread (on Twitter) explaining to readers what your book is and why they should read it. This is an excellent opportunity to repurpose your blurb material from your book’s description copy.
2. Post excerpts. Isolate the juiciest quotes and passages from your manuscript, and either post them as text or screenshots; make sure that your screenshots have alt-text for accessibility.
3. Provide relevant visuals. Curate a collection of photos of your book, along with visuals that fit the book’s mood. Instagram is home to “Bookstagram,” which is a great place for these kinds of pictures. You can also create boards on Pinterest, whether your book’s plot or characters inspire it.
4. Shoot some videos. Unless you sink money into this, your production value will be low, so you may be better off leaning into vlogging, or video blogging. Almost every major platform has video, but videos have especially been catching fire on TikTok, home of “BookTok,” where snappy pitches of books do well in reaching new readers.
5. Hold giveaways! Free stuff can rope in new readers and endear you to your first fans. Of course, physical copies entice the most avid readers, but eBooks are also a great option on a budget. You can even order “swag” that’s themed for your book.
6. Share other people’s content. This will garner attention from the people that you’re sharing. If a reader posts praise, make their day by thanking them and giving their praise a boost. Keep your brand in mind when resharing content unrelated to your book; posting about your book’s genre or subject matter makes for good material.
7. Buy social media ads. If you go this route, do the research, as advertising is a high-risk/high-reward endeavor. Ads work great once you know a platform enough to recognize what ads perform best on it and whether it’s worth buying impressions.
8. Mix and match all the above! Variety will add spice to your book promotion and create multiple entry points for getting the sell.

Now, this is only the beginning of online bookselling. As you work on your author career, you’ll find what works best for you.

In that light, my parting advice is to go out there and put your plan in action. I look forward to seeing your book the next time I peruse my timeline.

Over To You: How do you use social media to sell books? What success stories do you have, and what questions do you still have?

While researching how to publish your book, you might’ve stumbled upon a relatively new term: hybrid publishing.

In summary, hybrid publishing is when an author pays a publishing service to edit, produce, and distribute a book. A company dedicated to hybrid publishing is often called a hybrid press.

But how does hybrid publishing differ from other models? Any confusion is understandable. After all similar terms are used for similar services.

I’ll run through the similarities and differences between each one, so you’re better equipped to understand which pathway is right for you.

So how does hybrid publishing differ from traditional publishing?

In traditional publishing, a publisher acquires a small number of books, pays an advance to the author, and handles the editing, production, and selling of the book in collaboration with the author while still retaining control of the publication process.

Hybrid presses are similar in that they vet projects to ensure they can work in good faith with the author; yet, it’s much easier to get published with a hybrid press than in traditional publishing.

In this respect, hybrid publishing is good for authors who have looked into traditional publishing and either haven’t had luck or are uninterested.

And yes, an author does have to pay a hybrid press for its service, and hybrid presses do not pay out advances. But at the same time, an author retains book rights and can pick and choose individual services.

On top of that, authors receive royalties right away, while traditionally published authors must earn the full amount of their advance before receiving royalties. That makes an advance a double-edged sword—especially since traditional publishers often drop authors who don’t make back their advance.

In short, an author with a hybrid press assumes a share of a book’s financial risk (via paying upfront fees) in exchange for more freedom and flexibility over publication.

How hybrid publishing differs from self-publishing

With these differences in mind, you may wonder why one would pay a hybrid press when self-publishing is free.

Technically, a writer can self-publish a book for zero money. However, in practice, self-publishers must invest their own money into their books if they are going to make a profit.

Bestselling books require a range of services that practically most authors can’t manage by themselves: editing, proofreading, book design, page layout, production, distribution, marketing, publicity, sales . . .

An author can’t do it all, which is why traditionally, they work with a publisher. Successful self-publishers instead hire out these services, such as getting a freelance editor or working with specialty companies.

But what if you don’t want to coordinate these services yourself? That’s where hybrid publishing comes in. With a hybrid publisher, you can work with a single point-of-contact who collaborates with you to decide on which services you want to pay to delegate and compile it into a single publishing package.

Isn’t a hybrid press just a vanity press?

Many horror stories are floating out there about vanity presses. The term vanity press describes companies that lure in writers with big promises, charge exorbitant upfront fees for basic services, and seize unreasonable control over authors’ book rights.

But don’t be confused: hybrid presses are not vanity presses. Several factors distinguish the hybrid model from vanity publishing.

First, most hybrid presses are more selective, as many will turn down prospective authors that wouldn’t work for their model. Meanwhile, vanity presses will accept almost everyone. Yet, vanities do not assume their share of the risk that other publishers typically assume.

Vanity presses also attempt to profit off authors by gradually ramping up add-ons for services, charging severely more than the industry standard and for less quality.

However, hybrid presses are flexible and reasonable with their service prices and are happy to negotiate with writers to agree-upon packages that fit within the writer’s budget and needs.

The largest red flag for vanity presses is that they seize control of an author’s rights and will refuse to release them even if the author finds the press’s work unsatisfactory—at least not without a severe kill fee. Even traditional publishers are more willing to revert rights to the author if they agree they can’t work things out with an author.

A great advantage of hybrid publishers is that authors retain full rights over their work. An author can choose to walk away at any time and publish a book through another route.

How hybrid publishing is like indie publishing

Because hybrid publishing is such a new concept, some sources consider the hybrid approach to be synonymous with indie publishing. Some hybrid presses do consider themselves indie or independent.

Yet, not all indie presses are hybrid. Instead, many indie presses operate identically to traditional publishers. The main difference is that indies are either self-owned—not belonging to a conglomerate—or are much smaller than the Big Five publishers.

In other cases, an indie press may be the self-fashioned company of a single self-publisher or a small group of authors, perhaps the owners having incorporated.

Finally, not all hybrid publishing is independent. Some teams provide hybrid publishing as a service while being a subsidiary or department of a larger organization.

With this in mind, some hybrid presses consider themselves indie publishing to the extent they embody the independent spirit of creating and releasing books outside the domain of the largest corporations.

Is hybrid publishing right for you?

Now that you know what hybrid publishing is, you may be wondering if you’ll want to put out your next book using one.

I’ll explain more about the prospective benefits of hybrid publishing in the next post in this series. For now, do take the time to consider your options, as the book industry is always bustling with new ways to publish.

Over to you: What’s your experience with hybrid publishing? What other questions do you have about releasing books through a hybrid publisher?