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First, this is about reviews on Amazon. The same stuff probably applies to other places, but I'm not sure.
I am NOT an authority. This only comes from having read a lot about reviews in many books, posts etc. and having watched the impact of reviews on new books. If you have better information please tell the rest of us. I am happy to be corrected.
Reviews on Amazon do two jobs. They move your book up in the rankings and they help customers decide to buy (or not).
Let's look at the first job of moving you up in the rankings. When you first publish Amazon handles your book differently for the first thirty days. Every review you get in the first thirty days has an impact on the books rank. For example a book that is not doing well after two weeks is listed at rank something like 275,000 a single new review will move it up to around 125,000. Sure, at 125,000 it is still not doing anything, but the point is, the review had a big impact on the rank.
The most critical time is the first week. Prepare in advance.
Amazon apparently understands that most authors will not have huge sales in the first few days or two weeks. During that time reviews have a very big impact on moving up in the ranking. The more reviews you can get early on, the greater impact they will have on rank.
The first ten reviews are the most critical. Prepare in advance.
According to Glyn Williams who wrote a book on Kindle marketing, he has watched the results of reviews close enough to understand what happens. I'll make up numbers here because I don't remember his. He says the first review has, let's say, 100% effect. Then the second will have 90%, and the third will have 80%. Then somewhere around ten they stop having a big impact ON THE RANK. Remember we are only talking about how your book ranks - not on how people buy it. But also remember they have to see it to buy it and that is a direct result of where it ranks. Apparently after the first ten reviews, the rank is as much a matter of sales as it is reviews.
After the first 30 days new reviews have almost no visible impact. If your book is struggling above the 100,000 mark getting more reviews after the first 30 days will not have any impact. Why is this important? Don't chase reviews after the first 30 days unless they come along with sales. Some blog interviews will give you both sales and reviews - good and fair, go after them.
If your book is selling along well, anywhere below 50,000 rank you won't notice a difference with new reviews during the third and fourth week days or after that. That is because the sales are what is causing you to rank, not the reviews.
I have read that getting over 50 review helps after the first 30 days, but it was not written by someone who said they studied it, but rather believed it did.
Bottom line, get those first ten reviews lined up weeks or months before your book is published. Then get them posted in the first few days.
If you have ideas on how to do that, please add that in your responses.
The other reason to get review is people buy books that are reviewed. Social proof is valuable. On another thread the question was asked if it mattered how long the reviews were. Yes and no. If you have 10 or more reviews a few will be long and excellent and a few will be short. You might even have a couple that are meaningless "Great book, I loved it" As a marketer, you want the best worded top rated reviews at the top and the lesser reviews buried below. This is a shade of grey, but something easily in your power to do. If you ask a few friends (it only takes two or three) to vote up the better written review as helpful it will push them up to the top where new customers will read them first.
Is it important to have the best reviews on top? How many reviews do you really read when you buy a book. I typically read the first two, maybe three. If most of the reviews are four and five star reviews I don't read more - they are usually just repeating what the first review said but not as well written. My point? In my opinion, don't push for the most eloquent review the person has ever written, just be grateful for the positive review and work on getting more reviews. People write a great review because they want to do a good job, not because someone asked them to.
What is the magic number for social proof? Depending on how new/old the book is, it seems to go in increments of the number of digits. Double digits above 50 are good for books a few months old. After the first year, three digits seem to be the requirement. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. I see books with half a dozen reviews ranked in the top 1,000 on sales. There are exceptions to everything. Lousy movies have been box office hits and great movies have flopped and the same is true of books. But this is not about the exceptions, it is about the rule of thumb for the rest of us.
Now, if you have any insights into how to get reviews, please share.
I am NOT an authority. This only comes from having read a lot about reviews in many books, posts etc. and having watched the impact of reviews on new books. If you have better information please tell the rest of us. I am happy to be corrected.
Reviews on Amazon do two jobs. They move your book up in the rankings and they help customers decide to buy (or not).
Let's look at the first job of moving you up in the rankings. When you first publish Amazon handles your book differently for the first thirty days. Every review you get in the first thirty days has an impact on the books rank. For example a book that is not doing well after two weeks is listed at rank something like 275,000 a single new review will move it up to around 125,000. Sure, at 125,000 it is still not doing anything, but the point is, the review had a big impact on the rank.
The most critical time is the first week. Prepare in advance.
Amazon apparently understands that most authors will not have huge sales in the first few days or two weeks. During that time reviews have a very big impact on moving up in the ranking. The more reviews you can get early on, the greater impact they will have on rank.
The first ten reviews are the most critical. Prepare in advance.
According to Glyn Williams who wrote a book on Kindle marketing, he has watched the results of reviews close enough to understand what happens. I'll make up numbers here because I don't remember his. He says the first review has, let's say, 100% effect. Then the second will have 90%, and the third will have 80%. Then somewhere around ten they stop having a big impact ON THE RANK. Remember we are only talking about how your book ranks - not on how people buy it. But also remember they have to see it to buy it and that is a direct result of where it ranks. Apparently after the first ten reviews, the rank is as much a matter of sales as it is reviews.
After the first 30 days new reviews have almost no visible impact. If your book is struggling above the 100,000 mark getting more reviews after the first 30 days will not have any impact. Why is this important? Don't chase reviews after the first 30 days unless they come along with sales. Some blog interviews will give you both sales and reviews - good and fair, go after them.
If your book is selling along well, anywhere below 50,000 rank you won't notice a difference with new reviews during the third and fourth week days or after that. That is because the sales are what is causing you to rank, not the reviews.
I have read that getting over 50 review helps after the first 30 days, but it was not written by someone who said they studied it, but rather believed it did.
Bottom line, get those first ten reviews lined up weeks or months before your book is published. Then get them posted in the first few days.
If you have ideas on how to do that, please add that in your responses.
The other reason to get review is people buy books that are reviewed. Social proof is valuable. On another thread the question was asked if it mattered how long the reviews were. Yes and no. If you have 10 or more reviews a few will be long and excellent and a few will be short. You might even have a couple that are meaningless "Great book, I loved it" As a marketer, you want the best worded top rated reviews at the top and the lesser reviews buried below. This is a shade of grey, but something easily in your power to do. If you ask a few friends (it only takes two or three) to vote up the better written review as helpful it will push them up to the top where new customers will read them first.
Is it important to have the best reviews on top? How many reviews do you really read when you buy a book. I typically read the first two, maybe three. If most of the reviews are four and five star reviews I don't read more - they are usually just repeating what the first review said but not as well written. My point? In my opinion, don't push for the most eloquent review the person has ever written, just be grateful for the positive review and work on getting more reviews. People write a great review because they want to do a good job, not because someone asked them to.
What is the magic number for social proof? Depending on how new/old the book is, it seems to go in increments of the number of digits. Double digits above 50 are good for books a few months old. After the first year, three digits seem to be the requirement. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. I see books with half a dozen reviews ranked in the top 1,000 on sales. There are exceptions to everything. Lousy movies have been box office hits and great movies have flopped and the same is true of books. But this is not about the exceptions, it is about the rule of thumb for the rest of us.
Now, if you have any insights into how to get reviews, please share.