Bodacious & Sundry #11: Review of “Getting Book Reviews” by Rayne Hall

Bodacious

I read this book several weeks ago after finishing Rayne Hall’s excellent Twitter for Writers, which I have also reviewed in this blog. December was an extremely busy month for me, so I’m just getting to this review now.

First, Rayne Hall knows her stuff when it comes to writing and book marketing. It took me years to find what I think are actually good book marketing strategies, and Hall is one of the authors I trust.

Customers often make buying decisions based on what others have said. Testimonials are important for all sorts of businesses, and they are for books as well. Getting Book Reviews, part of Rayne Hall’s Writer’s Craft series, explores many ways to encourage customers to review our books. The chapter titles will give you an idea of what this entails. For example, Chapter 1 is “At the End of the Book, Ask your Reader to Review.” Chapter 3 is “Ask friends and family.” Of course, exactly how you should approach a suggestion is covered in its chapter. You’ll even learn how a few bad reviews can increase your sales.

One of my favorite sections is Chapter 19, “Funny Negative Book Reviews,” because it’s good to have a sense of humor about this. One complaned about a novel not ending the way the reader wanted it to, another about characters that aren’t in the book.

I found Chapter 20, “How Other Authors Get Book Reviews,” the least helpful, and I think it’s because the advice simply didn’t measure up to what Hall had already shared.

Since finishing the book, I’ve been attempting to get more reviews for my first two novels, Children of Rhatlan and Tamshi’s Imp via Twitter, and now and then I’ve sent out a tweet about one or the other. One person wanted a free copy of Children of Rhatlan to review. So for me, at this point, reviewers haven’t been knocking down my proverbial door. However, my Twitter following is still growing, so I’m not worried. One side benefit, however, is that many people have retweeted those messages for me and I’ve gained many new followers.

Some of the advice is best suited to books just about to launch, and I will employ those leading to the release of my next novel, Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western.

While Getting Book Reviews isn’t perfect, the advice is still excellent, and it may just be the best book of its kind. In fact, in a few months, I plan on publishing a blog post with my favorite marketing books for writers, and it will include Getting Book Reviews.

Also, the Kindle version costs just $0.99! I see no reason for any writer to pass up this book.

Sundry

One bit of Rayne Hall’s advice is to offer free digital copies of your books for review. If any of you would like to review Children of Rhatlan or Tamshi’s Imp, send me a message via my contact page letting me know, and I’ll send you a free .mobi file for Kindle. It’s easy to send them to your Kindle devices, including all tablets with the Kindle app, and Amazon explains it on their Send to Kindle page.

I also recently read Cogwheels: Ten Tales of Steampunk, edited by Rayne Hall, and enjoyed every story. I’ll post a review soon.

Meanwhile, feel free to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or to simply comment below.