Self-Publishing Review’s Author Manifesto for 2019

We asked authors what they want this year. It’s a really simple list: Personal customer service, something to help set up on Amazon, flexible pricing, tons of shares on social media, to sell books, Amazon Customer Reviews, free advice, leave disinformation behind, and have the freedom to publish without shame. How will we deliver this in 2019?

Personal customer service

To be a service provider to single-person businesses, i.e. authors, is a specialist concern in any industry. Dealing with highly fragile confidence and high impact delivery – i.e. big fail or big win – should be the overreaching priority. One factor that means we have succeeded in 2018 is that however big we grow, we keep it personal. Every author has a dedicated manager for their order, however small. Often, authors get freaked, much like a rabbit in the headlights. The slightest criticism in a review can cause dramatics and upset after several years of slogging over a manuscript. One success factor has been the fact we ask authors if they want their review published before doing so. Many companies sling up the review before asking clients if they are OK with it. That’s not cool in our opinion. We’ll be continuing this policy over the next year.

Scalable Pricing and Services

We’ve kept it tight on pricing. We serve indie authors. Prices need to include indie pricing options. We have kept overheads to a minimum by employing a trustworthy, small team who work all the time, instead of employing at-home workers who do one or two reviews a month, becoming disparate and expensive. This has increased our productivity, and has meant that we can train reviewers in our house style for a consistent result. This has also increased orders for sequels – the same reviewer can be scheduled. What authors need is scalability. By building simple packages that have add-ons and upgrades, we help authors start small and scale up when they need more publicity, from small $20 quick-fixes up to $2000 publicity missions. We’ll be developing this scalability over 2019.

Amazon

All authors mainly want, after fame and success, is to have something to put on Amazon. We have two completely legal and morally ethical ways to do this: get an Editorial Review for your Book Page from one of our professional reviewers, or you can ask us to promote your book to our qualified readers’ lists online to garner Amazon Customer Reviews. While debates rage about what’s right and wrong with doing this, the bottom line is that all authors who do this put themselves in the game to sell more books. Those that don’t, well, don’t.

Amazon is still the first port of call for book search over Google, and GoodReads has never been a direct sales portal (requires more than one click to search, and then purchase is off-site), so we need to concentrate efforts on Amazon marketing and exposure, and getting those Amazon book pages in good order where one-click purchase is available.

Amazon maintains that Editorial Reviews are essential to a Book Page and help ranking within Amazon’s algorithm – completed product pages with Author Central links do better than incomplete ones – and continue to show Editorial Reviews above the fold, i.e. the first reviews any potential customer reads on the screen before scrolling. Whatever you may read from amateur horror stories on forums, properly written reviews are highly important to your book campaign.

We’ll continue our studies of Amazon’s terms and conditions, and its algorithm and features, and we’ll be bringing in some new experts to the team who deal directly with Amazon product promotion and applying that to books for 2019.

Tons of shares on social media

One main aim of any author is to be seen. Authors want to do the rounds on social media without having to do it themselves (we share to Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.). Unlike any other review service, we have increased tenfold our social media sharing of reviews. This is a full-time concern for a social media team, but it’s been worth it. Sharing on an author group just doesn’t cut it anymore. Did it ever? Probably not.

We’ll continue these megashares for 2019, with a look at how we can increase social media marketing on platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

Freedom to Publish Without Shame

One other fact became clear – many author groups make writers feel bad they haven’t got a million reviews, and that their book isn’t selling. There’s an aggressive edge to self-publishing we’d like to see stamped out. Well, newsflash, it’s okay to be a hobbyist with authoring. If you would like a professional review solely for the back of your book to produce your lovely finished product, that’s fine. You deserve to be able to package your book with a professional edit and cover too.

We find that many authors just want to enjoy the process of self-publishing, and they honestly couldn’t give a fig about selling books to make a living. They just want the finished product in their hands, and a moment to enjoy their achievement.  This is akin to the Buddhist monks who draw sand mandalas for the pleasure of doing it before sweeping away the finished product. It’s akin to people who buy a drone for $3000 simply for the pleasure of using it. How many of us had an uncle whose train set cost more than his weekly wage? All fine. There is no shame in being a writer who simply enjoys writing, and wants all the bells and whistles for that purpose. It’s an extension of a fancy pen or laptop for the pastime of writing.

You’re entitled. Don’t let others bring you down. We give all authors who purchase Classic and Lead Story Reviews a chance to read their review before publication for this reason.

We champion every writer at all levels, offering free membership for hobbyists and those who just want to dip their toe in. You can join and get the same discount codes seasonally as the Pro Members.

Leave Disinformation Behind

We don’t offer a member forum. We have found them to be petty and full of disinformation. Forums encourage bullying and bad judgement, and give kudos to the loudest voices, not the most honest. Some authors get trolled and flamed online and accused of ignorance and worse. We certainly don’t think authors gain true support in forums.

We realize we don’t really need these blowhards. Stephen King says, “And, instead of pelting these babbling idiots with their own freshly toasted marshmallows, everyone else sitting around the fire is often nodding and smiling and looking solemnly thoughtful.”

We don’t think authors need constant news on trade information such as author earnings from month to month. They don’t need to know how to deal with legal papers for translation rights in Hungary, or worry about copyright issues that don’t even apply to them, and the worst, scaremongering about Amazon and other services. We call this “white noise” and it is generated by self-publishing blogs who believe writing themed content on self-publishing, however obscure, will bring them more views online. While it might get authors in a hot twist, it’s doing this unfairly so, and worrying inexperienced authors on matters that are really not something to think about.

We’ll encourage authors to figuratively “smile and nod” and to concentrate on the job in hand – completing their own book. After all, any time spent not writing your book – well, it’s time not writing your book.

We also discourage authors from spending money on workshops and online seminars. These seminar organizers offer deals to “experts” to pay to speak at them, and will accept anyone to give “advice.” Furthermore, they charge authors vast sums of money for advice you could basically get online. We will be uncovering this deceptive practice further in 2019.

We will continue to share bona fide, solidly confirmed, streamlined information on all aspects of self-publishing in 2019, but only information that you need to finish your self-publishing journey. We will further all SPR staff’s training and education on the publishing matters we need to help our clients.

Free Advice

After our successful Book Hospital free trial in 2017 and 2018, we’ll be launching a free auto-triage clinic for authors in March 2019.

We answer any questions for any SPR client after purchase, forever. This has been highly appreciated in the community, and we will continue to do so for our several thousand clients.