by Linda Rodriguez
Some
of the things I’ve learned as a published novelist have turned me
into a better fan of my own favorite authors. I’ve written on this
blog before about pre-ordering and how I learned of its importance to
writers. Instead of waiting for the books of my favorite author to be
published, I pre-order now, knowing I’m contributing to their
success as well as assuring I’ll have their book as soon as it’s
available.
I
thought I was already helping with reviews. On my blog,
www.LindaRodriguezWrites.blogspot.com,
I try to spotlight books by literary writers of color who might be
hard for the average reader to find, as well as mystery novelists who
are writing high-quality fiction. I do this with profiles,
interviews, and sometimes reviews of individual books. However, I’ve
learned that reviews on Amazon and Goodreads count more toward sales
than those longer ones on my blog or elsewhere.
I’ve
always just given stars to books on Goodreads. I’ve read so many
books that I didn’t think I had time for more than that. I was
wrong. Those stars don’t do much good. It’s the reviews that make
others decide to pick up the book to read. It’s the same with
Amazon—reviews lead to sales. Even for authors who seem to have it
made! Often even famous writers are just a breath or two away from
tumbling down the slopes in the fickle game of publishing (as we saw
recently when the major publishers all suddenly threw off multiple
mystery writers, leaving many scrambling for new publishers or trying
to reinvent themselves), and success is even more volatile for
midlist authors.
I
learned about how important these reviews can be to authors, and I’d
set myself a goal to post a daily review of a novelist whose work I
enjoyed on either Amazon or Goodreads. Unfortunately, Amazon now
won't allow me to review many of the books I'd like to, because they
assume I'm friends with the author. In some cases, I barely know the
author, and in others, I don't know them, at all, but Amazon has
decided that, since I'm an author myself, I must necessarily know all
other authors, apparently. So this is one way that I can't contribute
to keeping my favorite authors publishing, but if you can, those
reviews matter more than almost any others. I have learned how to
link my blog, so a review on my blog posts to my author page on
Amazon or Goodreads, however. This is one thing I can do to make sure
the writers I love don’t disappear on me.
I’ve
always been a person others ask for book recommendations, primarily
because I read so much in so many areas. Now that I’ve learned how
important that word-of-mouth advice on books can be, I’ll be doing
a lot more book recommendations and not just waiting for folks to ask
me. I have occasionally requested my library system buy a book I want
that they don’t have. Now, as soon as I know a book is coming out
by one of my favorite writers, I will request my library system order
that book—and my own pre-orders for those books will be through
local bookstores because that helps them decide whether or not to
order in that book to have on the shelves.
The
publishing business is in deep flux right now, and authors are being
required to do more than ever to promote their books. Every novelist
I know, famous or unknown, is buried in a mountain of promotion
efforts while still trying to write the books we fans love and wait
for breathlessly. The sheer numbers, literally millions, of books
flooding the market now, some by authors who haven't bothered to
learn to be good writers or good editors, makes it hard for the
potential buyer to find the writers who have worked for many years to
hone their craft. Everything we, as fans of good writing in whatever
genre, can do to make our favorite authors successful ensures that in
the volatile atmosphere of publishing today these favorite novelists
will survive and thrive—and continue providing us with our favorite
addiction, their good books.
Do
you know of other strategies we fans can do to help ensure the
success of the book and authors we love?
Linda Rodriguez's Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel, based on her popular workshop, and The World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East,
an anthology she co-edited, are her newest books. Every Family
Doubt, her fourth mystery novel featuring Cherokee campus police
chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear in autumn, 2017. Her three earlier
Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust,
and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart's Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as St. Martin's
Press/Malice Domestic Best First Novel, International
Latino Book Award, Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices
& Visions, Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and
Ragdale and Macondo fellowships. Her short story, “The Good
Neighbor,” published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has
been optioned for film.
Rodriguez is chair of the AWP
Indigenous Writer’s Caucus, past president of Border Crimes chapter
of Sisters in Crime, founding board member of Latino Writers
Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of International
Thriller Writers, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and
Storytellers, and Kansas City Cherokee Community. Visit her at
http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com
I rarely buy hardcover books, but I do follow your routine of suggesting good books to my libraries if they don’t have them. I do not write reviews for books that already have hundreds (although on Goodreads I’ll add my star rating). Those folks don’t need my help so I concentrate on those that do.
ReplyDelete~ Jim
Good advice, Linda. I need to be better at this.
ReplyDeleteI suggest book purchases to the Cincinnati Hamilton County library system, particularly those from small presses. I post reviews and ratings on Goodreads and Amazon, though frequently Amazon won't let me post.
ReplyDeleteI need to do more for the authors I know.
When I buy books on Amazon because the nearest book store to me is almost an hour away, they always ask me to review the book, and I give a good review. I think if I tried to do a review without buying the book from them, they might not use it. Because I belong to two book clubs, I either pick the book when it's my turn to have the book club at my house, or I tell others about it. I have gotten some people following a series when I lend them the first book in the series, but probably nobody no one buys more books than I do, so in hat way I really support the authors I like.
ReplyDeleteJim, I have had to cut back on buying hardcovers myself, and I know that's a difficulty for many authors whose books only come out in hardcover. Recommending that libraries buy them can really help in that case.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julie. Whatever you can find time to do helps your favorite authors stay in print.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, your emphasis on recommending library buys for small-press books, in particular, is excellent. Books from smaller presses are often dealing with more difficulties and obstacles to sales than books from the Big Five. Small-press books are less likely to get library sales or reviews, etc., so any help we can give those authors will make a real difference.
Gloria, book club recommendations are a great way to help the authors you love. Book clubs are a huge market and often lead to lots of word-of-mouth buzz and sales for a book.
ReplyDeleteI write reviews, "Watch this space" on WWK and on Amazon for good books. I beg for reviews of my books on Amazon. I've noticed that often the number of stars is unrelated to what the reviewer writes.
ReplyDeleteThese are concrete, excellent suggestions, Linda. I'm learning how absolutely crazy the publishing business is and how hard it is for good books to get the attention they deserve.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that big name writers who don't need publicity, get the publicity. Same with library purchases - there are many writers who are "automatic buys" - leaving little money for libraries to take a chance on unknown authors. But I have seen reader word-of-mouth make a difference. If we request the books and get them on the library radar, those books will be purchased. I'm going to try to be more engaged in this effort moving forward.
Warren, you're absolutely right. There seldom seems any real connection between what a review says and the number of stars given. Go figure!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot of readers don't know is that most bookstores and many libraries use Ingram's (a book distribution service). Often when you try to order a book from a small press through a bookstore, you'll be told they can't get it or that it's unavailable. What that usually means is simply that Ingram's doesn't have it. Ingram's charges publishers several thousand dollars to be distributed through them, and if sales are small, they'll still drop publishers, even after those big payments. Small publishers with merely average sales can't get distributed by Ingram's unless they allow them to use their printing arm to print their books on demand. It makes it difficult for smaller university press and independent presses (I know because my husband runs a small university press) and means their authors face a real uphill battle. Requests and check-outs (even if you own the book at home) are the best ways to help these books get into library systems.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about requests and checkouts making a difference.
ReplyDeleteThis post made me recommit to reviewing. I had been religious about it for a while, but then Amazon began removing my reviews, and it got to be discouraging to spend the time to write a review only to have it disappear in a day or so. I generally review on Goodreads now but often don't post the review back to Amazon. It always strikes me as strange that Amazon makes the assumption that all authors know each other, and that the friendship affects our ethics and perspective.
Thank you, Linda. Wonderful information as always!
Kait, order requests and checking out books at the library really do make a big difference. Libraries today often look at how often something has been checked out in the past year when deciding which books to get rid of. That record of checkouts also affects whether or not they will order the next book by that author. Libraries' funds are limited, as is space, so they have to make these decisions.
ReplyDelete