Do Five-Star Amazon Reviews Matter for First-Time Authors?
Full Disclosure: I’m an Amazon author via the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) print-on-demand platform. My author clients (five this year) are also Amazon/KDP authors. The bar is so high on publishers these days (20,000 copies in Year One, was the sales number mentioned to me by an Acquistions Editor of a trade publisher), that self-publishing is about the only way these days to get your story out.
Besides, the publisher will probably put you in the release queue as a fall 2022 title, and put no money behind the launch and book tour.
It’s a DIY world any way you look at it.
I advise my first-time, self-published author clients that marketing and sales is 50% of the book process, and it runs in parallel with editorial production efforts (ideating, writing, editing, proofing, formatting, cover design). Starting Day One. A-B-C: Always Be Closing.
I’ve recently noticed an interest and intensity around authors seeking five-star reviews post-publication, as a way to boost sales.
I’m not convinced.
While the companies selling “review assistance” services (like Pubby) will tell you that customers pay attention to reviews, I’m not convinced that customers actually purchase a book based on a review. People who notice my book are not necessarily buying it. That’s just human behavior.
Reviews do not convert to sales is my contention. I’ve seen no proof at all for this.
We do know, however, that negative reviews will dissuade potential readers. (even when a 1-star review is sitting in the middle of a large wave of 5-star reviews, it is a downer). Tom Jacobs in Pacific Standard in 2015 observes, “Customers take five star-reviews with a grain of salt, but one-star reviews get their attention.”
I think the obscure self-published authors are applying the blockbuster movie review template. We tend to go to movies with high ratings, recommendations from critics (Pauline Kael, Siskel & Ebert, Rotten Tomatoes) but there is also a high buzz factor. And unlike a $20 book, movie for two is easily a $100 proposition (babysitter, paid parking, movie tickets, popcorn, bar service), plus the meal before or after.
As it relates to movies, I think this review-my-book mania might make sense for mass-market blockbuster books, but not for first-time, breakthrough books and “long tail” authors no one’s ever heard of.
Here’s what I do know.
There is no viral.
Grinding works.
Granular works. Gaining one reader at a time works.
Last year, I gave a poetry reading in the cooking classroom behind a barbecue supply store, in a small community 2,800 miles from my home. 15 people showed up on a Sunday afternoon, in early December. I sold every copy of the books I shipped in for this reading. I gained 10 new readers (fans) that weekend. I felt so accepted, I now live in that town.
If you want a big bump for your book, don’t focus on five-star reviews. Talk to potential bulk buyers.
Siren Call SF is a coffee table book of poetry and a collaborator’s photography, that has sold 365 copies of the 400 we ordered from a speciality printer. Half those copies came from a single buyer, who bought copies for a fundraising event, because our theme aligned with theirs. The other half we sold on the day of our launch, at a bookstore in the Haight-Ashbury that agreed to accomodate us. Unfortunately, they would not stock our book. That’s just how indie bookstores are with indie authors.
A hit book has nothing to do with five-star reviews. A hit comes from 490 other factors, all of which come to play simultaneously. If I knew what they all were and how they worked together, I don’t think I’d be writing this blog.
