Chocolate and Amazon Reader Reviews

Amazon reader reviews are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you'll get when you bite into one of the tasty morsels in that box, but, hey, it's chocolate! How can you lose!

You'll never really lose with reader reviews either, but you may end up preferring some over others. Both readers and authors love the taste of the very best ones.  But what makes one reader review better than another?  

I'd like to answer that question in this post, but first I want to clear up one GIANT question about Amazon reader reviews that had me confused for a long time.  

WHO CAN WRITE AN AMAZON REVIEW?

My first confusion was about who could write Amazon reviews. I wondered if Amazon reviews could only be written by people who bought the book on Amazon. 

Makes sense, in a way. Amazon would want the business, for sure. 

But the truth is, Amazon benefits from reader reviews whether or not the reviewers have bought the books from them. Reader reviews are what other potential buyers use to decide on their Amazon purchases, which makes those reviews a boost to all Amazon sales. 

So the happy fact is, ANYONE can write a book review on Amazon, about ANY book Amazon SELLS, whether the person bought the book from Amazon or got it somewhere else! 

Now a word or two about the KIND of review that's helpful. It's not what you might think.   

ARE ONLY 5-STAR REVIEWS GOOD ONES?

Of course authors love the five-star rankings. They're wonderful. But if readers don't feel they can give a book five stars, that's okay. It's much more important that reviews be obviously HONEST than that they be totally COMPLIMENTARY. Honest reviews are more helpful to readers, get more attention on Amazon, and good authors will appreciate the honesty every bit as much as they do the 5-stars.

DO REVIEWS HAVE TO BE LONG?

Reader reviews do not have to be long. They do not need to include a synopsis of the story, or cover every aspect of the book. Long synopses can, in fact, be harmful. They might give away too much of the story, or emphasize something that will misrepresent the author's message. In this case, less is much better than more. 

And readers don't need a complete rundown of every element of the story either. They only need a taste to help them decide if they want a bigger bite. All a good review needs to do is make a recommendation of the book to other readers, either good or bad.  

WHAT MAKES A REVIEW A GOOD ONE?  

The most important element of a good review, as stated above, is honesty. The next most important ingredient is probably specificity. It is good if reviews give readers at least one reason WHY they might, or might not, like the book. 

General statements such as, "I love this book," or "I don't like it at all," make good introductory statements in reviews, but they don't really say anything useful to readers, and they won't have the impact that a clearly stated specific example of what the reviewer likes or doesn't like will have. The best reviews give readers a clear taste of what they'll be getting when they bite in. 

WHO BENEFITS FROM AMAZON REVIEWS?

EVERYONE benefits from short, honest, specific reader reviews on Amazon.  

Authors love them. I so appreciate the twelve reviews of Zinovy's Journey that readers have posted on Amazon! They are heart-warming and encouraging to me! They prove that the book is doing what it was created to do.  Thank you, so much, if you are one of those reader reviewers!  

And reviews also contribute to the success of the book. I've heard a rumor (unjustified so far by research, but interesting all the same) that when any book gets as many as 20 reviews on Amazon, it will become more accessible to buyers. Amazon considers the magic number of "20" a milestone, for some reason, and will bump the visibility of the book when the reviews reach that number.

Readers benefit as well, of course. "So many books, and so little time!" Readers like information that will help them wade through all the options to get to books they'll actually want to read. So if you're a reader, you have a chance to promote your favorite books, or save other readers from wasting their time on books they won't enjoy. 

And here's AN ADDED BONUS! When you write a reader review on Amazon, you get to see YOUR OWN WRITING IN PRINT, out there for ALL THE WORLD to read! Instant publication! Any author will tell you that's an exhilarating experience.  

If that idea scares you, you can give yourself a mysterious pen name and enjoy the thrill from the safety of your own favorite easy chair!

But be careful. Seeing your words in print is addictive. You might end up starting a reader's blog of your own, or even writing a new best seller yourself!

Now why don't you go looking for that box of chocolate you got for Christmas, and curl up in your reading chair with a good book.

I do so appreciate all the encouragement my readers have given me about Zinovy's Journey.  Thank you!  Readers are essential.  No book is worth anything if it's not being read, and the more readers the better! 

If you are a Zinovy reader who has not yet posted a review, would you consider doing so? I'd love for many more people to experience Zinovy's Journey, and I appreciate any help you can give me in spreading the word.  It would be great if I could reach that magic milestone number of 20 reviews this year. 

Here's a direct link to the Zinovy's Journey Amazon reader review page. It's easy to do. Simply click on the button that says, "Create Your Own Review" and follow the directions. Then sit back and admire your own delicious words in print!

A Bright, Shining Light from the Little Dark Study

As the New Year dawns, here's a thought to encourage all writers who belong to Jesus, those who toil away in the "little dark study" day after day and night after night.

The little dark study is often cold and lonely.  Sometimes we feel we're wasting our time there.  We'd rather be anywhere else.

But there's a calling into the darkness we can't ignore.  So we sit, hunched over, fingers curled above the keys, praying for words that will communicate the beauty of the One we serve.  Words that will fill hearts with His glory and the wonder of His great grace.

We are not alone.  We follow in the humble footsteps of other sinners who've gone before us. Sinners like this one:

Amazing Grace.

May God bless you during the New Year, and bless the world through your faithful response to His calling on your life.

Those Pesky, Unwanted Black Lines in Your Manuscript

Do you suffer from those pesky* black lines that appear in your manuscript for no apparent reason and will not delete under any circumstance?

I had this problem, literally for years, when I was working on Zinovy's Journey.  I was super frustrated, because I could not submit a manuscript to an editor in that condition.  

I finally asked a workshop presenter at a Mt. Hermon Writers' conference what to do about the problem.  She couldn't help me, but a couple of young techie guys sitting behind me heard my question and solved the problem in less than three minutes.

First, the problem:  

It happens with Word, when you use a repeated series of symbols without spaces between them in your text, as you might do when you're creating scene breaks.  Word "auto format," in its great wisdom, thinks you're trying to create a border, so it gives you part of one, across the page, at whimsically selected places throughout your text.

Here's the simple solution:

1)  Highlight the text on either side of the black line.  Word won't let you highlight the black line, itself, but if you select the text above and below it, continuously, the black line will be highlighted invisibly.

2) Go to "format" in the menu bar at the top of the document, then select "borders and shading," and click on "none." The black line will disappear as mysteriously as it has appeared.

3)  Ever after, if you want to use symbols for scene breaks, just put a space between each character and it won't happen again.

When you do get a manuscript in front of an editor, they will likely take out all your fancy-dancy scene breaks anyway, but in the meantime you can enjoy them all by yourself.

Hope this helps!  Happy un-formatting!

____________

* (Randy Ingermannson's favorite word)

The Mystery of Marketing

Since the debut of Zinovy's Journey in October, 2011 (Has the book really been out that long?) I notice that all my posts on this blog have veered over toward the marketing department, either directly or indirectly. 

The Authorial Process

When the authorial process begins, all the action takes place in the writing department.  But it very quickly (don't ever use either of those two adverbs, especially right next to each other) moves over into the editing department, and the two department heads (or the two-headed monster, whichever analogy seems appropriate to you) wrestle back and forth with each other until both are exhausted and left, sweating and panting, on the editorial floor.  

At this point the publishing department (in my case the self-publishing department) picks up the manuscript, wipes away the blood, sweat and tears, whips the product into a more-or-less presentable condition, and puts it on Amazon.com.   

From there, the product moves into the marketing department, and it stays there forever. 

Marketing--The Great Mystery

How does marketing work?  Is it magic? Miracle? Or just more blood, sweat and tears?  

I asked my friend and mentor, Jeff Gerke, for advice on this mystery.  He's young, bright, excited about writing, imaginative and experienced in all aspects of the writing process, so I figured if anyone could solve this mystery it would be him. 

Here is. . .

Jeff Gerke's Marketing Formula:

I'm a believer in what I call the 30-to-1 Marketing Plan.  You have to do 30 things to market your book before 1 of them works. 

The problem is that you don't know which one it was, and if you did it again, it wouldn't work again.  So you have to keep doing those and 30 [other] new things to get a new 1.  Do that enough times and your 1's will finally begin to add up. 

There really is a correlation between elbow grease and results, when it comes to marketing fiction.  My authors who do less to market their books tend to sell fewer copies than my authors who work longer and harder to promote their books.

So there it is.  Jeff would be the first to say that magic plays a part.  He is, after all, a fantasy writer.  And he believes in miracles as well.  But bottom line, like any other great achievement in life, it's the well-greased elbow that gets the job done.

I'm pushing up my sleeves as we speak.

P.S.  If you're a writer of faith-friendly books who is considering self-publishing, I highly recommend Jeff Gerke's services.  He is a well-respected fiction-writing jack-of-all-trades, with experience in all aspects of publishing. He was invaluable in my process, as a consultant, an editor, a typesetter, a cover designer and, through it all, an encourager. 

Five Ways To Discover the "Social" in Social Media

I'm lonesome.  This morning I woke up to thirty messages in my e-mail inbox and not one of them was from a real person.  At least not directly. 

It's my fault.  In some kind of a crazed feeding frenzy, I signed up for each of those messages at one time or another.  But instead of appeasing my appetite, they've just made me hungrier. Why? Maybe it's because they don't have what I'm really hungry for. 

I'm hungry for the social, but I'm only finding the media. 

I'm beginning to realize that social media only provides the kind of interaction I might find by myself at a bar in a strange town.  The bar is full of interesting people, for sure, but the noise level is so high, and the smell of stale alcohol so strong, that I can't really focus on any one person and get to know them in a meaningful way.

When I do start a conversation, I often discover the person at the other end of the interaction is only there to hook up with someone for the evening.  Their immediate, baser personal hungers are driving the relationship. 

Whoa.  Wait a minute.  I'm there for the same reason.  No wonder I'm not finding my hunger satisfied in this place.

So where do I go from here?  How do I extract myself from this stinky bar and find real relationships with real people?  

Here's a plan, a quick "to do" list.  I'm not promising anyone, including myself, that it's going to work any better than my New Year's resolutions do.  But at least it's a start.

I will:

1.  Unsubscribe from impersonal sites.  Leave only connections directly related to people I have met face-to-face or at least communicated personally with via some kind of electronic avenue.

2.  Communicate personally with those I leave on my subscription list.  Comment on their posts, or tweet to them, or e-mail, always with something significant and specific to say about their messages.

3.  Tweet meaningfully. I will send a personal tweet message to everyone who "follows" me on Twitter, asking them to explain why they followed and and give me some personal information. I've actually already begun doing this and it's revealing.  The responses I get are fascinating, and if I don't get a personal response, with a tidbit of personal information in it, I don't follow back.  

4.  Forget about Marketing.  Yes, I mean that.  I need to give up the idea of promoting my book on social media.  If people discover Zinovy's Journey through my social media connections, it will have to be a natural and unpremeditated occurrence.

5.  Pray that God will direct my steps.  I will trust the Holy Spirit to be my social secretary.  I will make sure my spirit is in tune with the Spirit of Jesus, and then I will interact, personally and honestly, only with connections I feel drawn to.

Already I'm struggling with this process.  I just went to my inbox and successfully unsubscribed from three connections, but then I got to my daily Twitter message, telling me who I might like to follow, and ended up signing on to yet another irresistible blog. 

Sigh.  Three steps forward and one backward.  But I did comment on that blog post, and it felt a lot more satisfying than simply signing up. And I'm not giving up on this idea. I'm going to plug away at the process, living and learning, looking for meaningful relationships in the maze of social media.