By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Last month I wrote about how to get book reviews (follow the link to read it). In this article I return to the book review topic yet with a different angle, details and focus. First, a little background of my involvement with book reviews. For two different print publications, I was their book review columnist and each of these magazines had a circulation of about 200,000 readers. Neither publication exists today and then I turned and began writing online reviews. To date, I’ve written over 1,000 reviews on Amazon and about 900 reviews on Goodreads. Writing reviews is a way to support other writers but I also do it because I know readers are making buying decisions every day as they read these reviews. American psychologist and bestselling author Robert Cialdini said that 98% of people who purchase an online product have read a review before they buy it.

As I look at what other authors are doing in this area of reviews, I often see books launch into the market with zero reviews or only a few reviews. With over 4500 new books entering the marketplace every day, it is a challenge for any author to find readers—and to find readers who will write a few sentences of honest review and post it on Amazon and Goodreads and other sites.

First, take your own responsibility as an author for getting book reviews. Whether your book is brand new or has been out for a while, continually work at getting reviews. When you get a review—especially a positive one—promote or tout that review on your social media connections (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc). Also include a page in the back of your book encouraging readers to write reviews, then give them a template or series of questions to answer in case they have no idea what to write about your book. I often use this template tool from book marketing expert Sandra Beckwith to encourage readers to write reviews. Also take a look at this page that I wrote to encourage people to tell others about my Book Proposals That Sell. I encourage you to take these ideas for your own book promotion efforts.

Second, study this 16-page article from Jim Cox, editor-in-chief at Midwest Book Review. (http://terrylinks.com/May2017JCR). I found this interview with Shelby Londyn-Heath was filled with insights. Jim has been in this position for over 40 years and provides an amazing free service to help people discover books. I want to make several points from this article:

* They receive an average of 2,000 titles a month to review and select 600 to 700 a month to actually review.

* Books are rejected for possible review for several reasons including not following their submission guidelines, poor covers and serious production problems.

*Midwest Book Review emphasizes self-published books and books from small presses. Cox also encourages authors to produce excellent books—edited and designed well. These foundational elements are missing in many books and some of the reasons for books not to be reviewed (rejected in this process).

It’s one of my classic quotes and I apologize if you have heard me say it before but it applies here. Mega-promoter P.T. Barnum said, “Without promotion, something terrible happens. Nothing.” This statement is true for promotion and marketing, but it is also true for almost every aspect of the publishing business. If you are not tapping into the power of asking, you are not having opportunities for your writing to be published and sold.

For example, if you want more reviews on Amazon for your books, are you consistently asking people if they are willing to read your book and write a review? It’s been proven that a steady stream of reviews on Amazon (even if your book has been out a while) helps your book to sell even more copies. I understand it is important to get over 20 Amazon reviews (if possible) and 50 reviews is another benchmark. And when it comes to these reviews, I’ve often found willing people—but they haven’t posted their review. Part of the process is to return to these individuals and make sure they have the book and remind them about the review. I understand there is a lot to read and write about since new books are being released into the market every day.

With the sheer volume of books entering the marketplace every day, it is a challenge for authors to get book reviews. Write a great book. Produce a great book (design and production is important) then finally take action to get your book reviewed. I’ve seen a number of books that have well-done production, great endorsements and zero or few reviews. The details are important, and I encourage you to take an active role in this process of getting book reviews.

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in California. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s newest book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com