Book Promotion Articles

Paid Reviews – What Everyone Keeps Getting Wrong (Still)

Myths about paid reviewsWhy does everyone misunderstand a paid review? Let’s get into the myths. Also, scroll down for real time proof that paid reviews do in fact sell books.

MYTH A paid review is any review you paid for

TRUTH There are three types of paid review. Here, I list 1 and 2 (good methods) and 3 (stay away).

  1. Professional editorial review service (Kirkus, SPR, BlueInk, Foreword, Indiereader, Reader’s Favorite) The reviews you buy direct from a professional review service should only be posted in your Editorial Reviews section as provided by Amazon for this purpose. They are considered a boost to
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2019-02-03T09:31:50+02:00February 11th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: , |

Ten Ways To Take A Negative Book Review On The Nose

Crying babyA mixed or negative review can be instrumental in development of an author’s career for many reasons, and even if published on Amazon it should not be regarded as a personal affront or an attack. Cate Baum outlines the main reasons your review could be surprisingly negative, and how can you deal with this?

This morning, two authors I worked with completely melted down at their (not at all badly rated) 3-star and 4-star review respectively. Full-on tantrums. Quite incredible. I understand they paid for their review, but this doesn’t mean they are entitled to a positive review, only an […]

2019-02-03T09:32:07+02:00February 4th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: , |

How Not To Ask For A Free Review – From A Top 1000 Amazon Reviewer

Amazon ReviewerAs well as being a professional reviewer at SPR, I am also one of Amazon’s Top 1000 reviewers (no, you can’t have my moniker, sorry!) and I sometimes review books for free, depending on how I am approached. I am not one of the Vine or Top 100, so bear this in mind while I give you my perspective on how it feels to receive a request from an author to review – and imagine how in demand they must be if I am getting so many requests in the Top 1000.

Why so many review request suddenly? It’s because […]

2019-02-03T09:30:40+02:00January 6th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: |

New Survey Proves Editorial “Paid” Book Reviews Sell Books

A survey of over 300 indie authors worldwide from Kindlebookreviews.net proves unequivocally that while many self-published authors thrash out the “morals” of paying for a book review,  the presence of paid editorial reviews on your Amazon book page will help sell your book – and only a quarter of authors are strongly against the idea of paying for a review.

  • The  vast  majority  of  authors  greatly  appreciate  the  value  of  honest  book  reviews,  and  believe  they  help  improve  the  credibility  of  their  book,  and  helps generate sales.
  • The majority  of  authors  approve  of  paid  review  services  as  long  as  they  
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2020-02-21T06:34:11+02:00December 30th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: , |

How Paid Reviews Sell Books – Facts and Figures

As one of the most trusted professional review services, and one of the first self-publishing sites around, it’s SPR’s job to make sure we are bringing books to readers with our paid review service, and we’d like to put the “don’t pay for reviews” myth being spread around by certain self-publishing pundits to bed with some hard, analytical, independent facts. The plain truth is, paid reviews do sell more books in the majority of cases.

Distinguishing Experts From Pundits

There are many independent studies available from trustworthy sources that have nothing to gain from approving of paid review services, and […]

2019-02-03T09:30:03+02:00December 15th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: |

How Indie Authors Can Make Two Categories Count On Amazon

Amazon made a decision sometime in the last two months or so to cut off new indie books to the five plus two categories allowed to all indie/self-published authors who had both paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon. Why could this decision have been made, and how can authors make the most of the measly two categories now allowed when publishing on Kindle?

Spoiling It For The Rest Of Us

What happened? Maybe the mounting problems for authors who had trad-published, or had genre books in the last couple of years with categories forced a change. Publishing companies and […]

2019-02-03T09:36:19+02:00May 20th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: , |

What Should You Charge for an Indie eBook?

The short answer to the question in the title is there’s no set answer. Indie book pricing is a tough matter because each book and each genre will sell differently at different price points. A 10,000-word erotica short can actually get away with charging $3.99. A first (non-erotica) novel by a new author generally can’t.

On Reddit, this was a comment on a post by a new author who was struggling how to set price. I argued that he should lower his book to $.99 from $1.99, as he wasn’t selling any books. This was a response:

99c essentially

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2019-02-03T09:35:00+02:00March 25th, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: |

How To Stop Worrying About Google and SEO And Still Sell Your Book

google hqThe Internet is throbbing with “SEO Social Media Marketing Specialists” bursting to tell you how you messed up your author website by adding a link! Google penalties are coming to get you! You’ll be excommunicated from the INTERNET if you DO NOT ADHERE TO SEO GUIDELINES! Oh my god, the FTC are coming for you too? Six-figures fines? And don’t get me started on Amazon. If you don’t do the ten thousand things here listed, you will be PENALIZED by Amazon, and your book will become nothing, NOTHING I tell you! You may also find that you are hounded via […]

2019-02-03T09:35:08+02:00March 9th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: , |
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