why is it so hard to get reviews?

Just a thought: maybe your friends consider it sportive enough to buy and want to remain sportive by following the sage advice of Thumper's mama.

By the way, .

I agree with Chase. I'd consider it support if I just about a book from my friend. Did you ask them to write reviews? You should have sent copies to reviewers a few months before to ensure reviews once out. :/

You could start by linking to your book in your sig line, and asking for suggestions about how to get it reviewed. Us agreeing with you that it is hard and talking about why it is hard will not help you get more reviews.

the Publishing Forum in AW has lots, n lots, n lots of good info on marketing approaches, including ways to get reviewed.

best of luck and welcome!

I just stumbled upon this forum today, after someone posted about it on CreateSpace. I'm very happy to be here. I made a comment on Amazon, that I would be willing to proofedit and give feedback in exchange for people linking my blog to theirs or perhaps writing a review. Would you believe I got bullied? Seriously, it was one post, that I then removed because of the controversy. So I totally understand how you feel.

I have had some good sales numbers, but I have found that people do not read a book as soon as they buy the book. So keep in mind, if they bought it March 1st, and it wasn't received through the mail until March 8th or so..... then they had to find time to read it... and we all read at different speeds... then it is quite possible that they have not finished reading it.

I forgot that I gave a pdf file of my book to someone a month ago, and miraculously a glowing review popped up on Amazon & BN from that person. People get busy in their lives and they forget.

You might want to check out the Book Promotion Ideas and Advice sub forum.

Welcome. I don't know much about book promotion, but a lot of people on here do.

This has a lot of pieces to it. Not sure if this is the best place for this question, but Medievalist has it covered. I'll add a quick bit of information. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Reviews are hard to get. They just are. Receiving bad ones or not receiving any is something writers have to deal with when they enter this career. Not having tough skin might make you crumble, so you have to be strong. I'll try my best to break it down using arithmetic. If you compare book sales to the amount of reviews, you get an ugly picture. Let's look at one example:

The first book from the Divergent series because it was released further in the era of buying books online.

On February 7, 2014, Rob Friedman, co-chairman of the Lionsgate motion picture group, which produced the first movie, said the Divergent series has at least 13 million books in circulation (the books in circulation are probably higher now as sales increase for a book before the movie comes out and this interview occurred almost two months ago) Here is the website for reference.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lionsgate-execs-talk-divergent-release-678229

Okay, let's say the first book counts for a third of those books in circulation. That equals about 4.3 million books. Let's look at the top review sites--Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Nobles.

Divergent review totals
Amazon - 12,259
Barnes and Noble - 7,706
Goodreads - 64,738

That equals 84,703. I won't subtract overlap, although many people write reviews on several sites and sometimes even review a book twice on the same site.

There most likely isn't this many, but let's say we add 200,000 extra reviews from all around the internet and from newspapers that we might have missed and add that to our total.

284,703. Let's round that up to 300,000. Divide 4.3 million by 300,000 and you get roughly 1 out of every 14 people will write a review, but if you are looking for it to be reviewed on major sites like Amazon and Goodreads, the number is even less. I didn't even factor in how many people borrow the book from the library or from a family member or from a friend, or the people who buy the book used. That might triple the amount of people who read the book compared to reviews given.

The life of writer is tough. We write letters, but we are ruled by numbers. Don't get me wrong, writing the best book ever is the most important piece, so try not to be discouraged, but you have to be realistic. After the writing is done, this is a numbers game.

Just an idea, c heck with some Blog Tour Sites and see if one of them might be of help. Like you, I've sent many paperbacks and eBooks to so-called researchers, but never got a review. I even swapped several, reviewing their books, but they did not review mine in turn. One said he was too busy writing to review mine. Another said his dog ate it (yeah!). Anyway, I review certain genre books. Visit my Blog sometime, and good luck.

Welcome!

Welcome!
Take some more time and just be excited that you published a book! That alone is a pretty big deal. If the readers are there the reviews will come. Just be patient

I'd like to throw my two cents in here....as others have mentioned, there's some pretty good resources on this site, and a lot of it has to do with patience as well.

Having said that, as a musician with multiple projects, I can tell you that in a lot of cases, for some reason it's hard to get people close to you to review or comment on your work. Facebook/twitter friends, especially if you aren't HUGE yet, are often in that closer circle of people, right along with family and friends...and for whatever reasons, they find it difficult to give you good feedback (or any at all). I've noticed this with other musicians and writers as well. I don't know why; it's just a pattern I've noticed. Moreso with music, but I'd imagine it's the same with writing. I've just recently launched the writing part of my career, so I'm taking the same approach that I did with music.

On another note, if you're just starting out, it's obviously going to take some time to get the ball rolling...a lot of internet searching for reviewers, a lot of forum posting, a lot of giving away things for free, and yes *cringe* even some paid internet advertising. I've gotten a lot of return on investment through Google and Facebook advertising. If you point enough new people towards your work, the reviews and mentions will come eventually.

Another issue is that you may be "hard-selling" too much. Maybe try to be a little more subtle or gentle about it? There's a fine line between being assertive and being too forceful. It's very easy to turn people away and not even realize it because you're pushing your product too much. Try just idly mentioning it once in a while, when the timing or situation is right, rather than "hard-selling" promos and such. I guess that's the best way I can explain it.

Unfortunately, in the end, as cliche as it sounds, you have to just let things happen to a certain extent. There's a lot of material and a lot of new writers out there, and not a lot of people who care enough to go to the effort of giving feedback at all. People get wrapped up in their own lives and don't realize how precious our work (and their feedback) is to us. Give it time.

Welcome to AW! Good luck getting some reviews! You should give a couple of copies away in exchange for reviews.