Launch is getting close. I’ve been putting off posting because I’m waiting for some responses from prospective reviewers, but figure I’ll post now before the whole launch is over. One strategy that worked was getting involved in a Goodreads board, where I agreed to read a book by a guy who was asking for reviews (and his book was actually on topic for that message board, unlike the others asking for reviews), and it turned out to be a great book. I tried that again and the next book was trash, as one would expect from a random self-published book. The guy who wrote the great book, ‘Seed: Judgement,’ went on to read my book, and loved it. I put his review on the front page of my site, and am building a review page in my book. The problem is timing. I have other reviewers who will be reading my book. On the one hand, I want to time it so that they read my book and don’t post their review until my book goes live. On the other, it would be nice to have the review beforehand so that I can add it into the book itself (you have to upload the text five days before launch. If you make changes to your book after launch, Amazon considers it a new addition, and you start from square one in their algorithm). So, I’ll have to ask the presumptuous question, could you read my book early, give me a blurb, and then sit on your review until my book launches, even though they are doing me a favor to read and review my book, and most of them are probably struggling to read books and review them in time to meet their deadlines. If I have to choose one, I’d rather the review come out after launch (for sales, because I never buy presale books so I figure that a lot of other people don’t) and miss them in the review page in my book than vice versa, but if I can get both, that’s great. The idea of a book review page at the front of the book is to encourage people who already have a copy that it’s worth their time to read.
Like I’ve said previously, I’d like to get good reviews, and then use those reviews to prove to other reviewers/influencers that I’m legit. At this point I’m trying to determine who I can approach cold, and who I should wait to approach until I have some good resume bullet points. Problem is at this point, it seems like almost everyone is hard to get a response from, so I’d have to wait until almost launch to approach anyone. Which leads me to yet one more strategy, which is getting the orange Best-seller sticker on Amazon. I’ve bought Publisher Rocket and found the Amazon sub-categories where I have the best chance to get to number one. Of course it remains to be seen how hard that is, but the author I mentioned in the first paragraph did it, so it could happen. And if it does, then I’ll mention that I’m an ‘Amazon Best Seller’ in every ad copy blurb and interview/review request that I write from now until the end of time, and see if that opens any doors for me. The next post I write will be right before launch about how things have come together and what I’m expecting. It’s almost finally here!