When You Self-Publish a Book Should You Review Other Books?
Self-publishing a book anywhere, either with CreateSpace or Lulu or even with Author Solutions, means that you will have to get readers to read and review your book. Reviewing books is an important part of your marketing plan. If you have a book, you want people to read your books, but they are less likely to buy a book without some reviews posted on Amazon or other websites that your potential readers follow.
There is another part to book reviews and getting them and also building on them. You can choose to help other self-published authors by reviewing their books. (As a side note: I do get a lot of reviews for books, and I do buy them more often than not) It really helps, but it is a part of marketing your book that you might not like to think about because it is not as easy as it looks.
I find that when I review a book it helps me shortly after. There is more to marketing your book than you might think. The next question is, will book reviews help you?
I have a book that I self-published and I am working on a blogging book with my co-bloggers here on Living a Life of Writing, but I also know that people need to see more from me than simply me telling you how great a book is. They need to see me as a person who reads books for pleasure.
I review books because it means that I am supporting other authors. This is not a part of my marketing plan, but rather something I have always done. This can also be a good marketing plan for writers in general as it shows that you can write a review of a book, and if you post a link to the review on Twitter, people will notice.
As an example, I was asked to review a book Dark Children of Noar, and it is well written and I can say that it is a good read, but a bit short (it’s 198 pages) it is also a good start to a series. Plichta-Jendzio knows her writing, and her characters, and this makes it an easy read. It also gives the reader a good foundation to this (hopefully) series. I found myself drawn to the characters and the place, and it is written in a believable way.
Say you went on Amazon.com, came upon her book and read my review. Does it make you want to read her book? Would you see what else I’ve written? If that is the case, you can, and more people are now exposed to my reviews and my blog. You can add your website or blog to your profile. You can add lists of books you like, and if someone likes your reviews, they can like it more.
By reviewing other books, and reviewing them with care, you have more potential to get more readers to read your book. This being said, using this marketing plan can backfire if you were to write within the review that you are the author of another book, as this shows that you are not laying it all out, but rather promoting yourself. When you self-publish a book, you should have already begun the process of reviewing books, and you should care about what you read and review.
Reviewing other books is a great way to build yourself up as a writer, and it also helps you learn how to market yourself as a book reviewer, and that helps your next book over time.
