Low Sales mystery

[-K2-]

Along these lines, I’ve wondered whether or not to put any stock into the numerous people who offer to write reviews or ”readers” who are strangers. Is there any merit to that approach whatsoever? As much as it is a numbers game, that strikes me as inauthentic or am I just cynical?

I'm ignorant to the whole system, yet here is what common sense says to me...

If you mean 'readers who are strangers, to you,' obviously they'll not carry as much weight as someone you know and trust. If you mean as a 'stranger to the writer,' considering that friendship and support influences opinions voiced (often), then clearly a stranger to the writer would make the review more genuine.

That said, there are people who now make a living by voicing their opinion, which can be bought... I believe 'influencers' is the term. They spend the bulk of their time expanding their social media presence and followers, then offer to review products, services or artistic work, usually for a fee. Though I've heard of such people who can be bought to run down a p/s/a, eventually, that degrades the value of their opinion--REALIZING, there are vast numbers of people out there who don't care, it's their entertainment (seeing the reviewer burn one work after another). So, to have any credibility, honest reporting should be their goal.

But lets face it... it's an opinion in the end, nothing more. I'll grant you, if someone reads a lot and has refined as they've grown their knowledge and exposure to a genre, they'll have a better foundation to offer a comparison, yet the final direct verdict is still an opinion. Even professional critics reviews are tainted by opinion, often arrogance or some other motivation (The Fountainhead, a great fictional example of that...which coincidentally, receives terrible reviews by many people. I personally love the writing, and think it's a great story... guess who's wrong?).

In the end, what those sorts of folks offer is the ear of many people. Whether that opinion sways 1 or 100,000 resulting in book sales, it's hard to say. But, it may be 99,999 more than you'll typically reach. Then again, it might be 99,999 you don't want to reach, having no interest in the genre, so they might do more harm.

As to the value of it... Well, I'd pay anyone a nickle to read my stuff. Five bucks, no way.

K2

 

[The Judge]

Along these lines, I’ve wondered whether or not to put any stock into the numerous people who offer to write reviews or ”readers” who are strangers. Is there any merit to that approach whatsoever?

Morally, none whatsoever. Practically, as discerning readers get more and more cynical about undiluted 5 star reviews and generic praise, I'd suspect probably very little.

You do want readers who are strangers when it comes to reviews, or at least friends who are going to be scrupulously honest. But you -- ie "one -- certainly don't want to pay them, since you need reviews which are genuine, not ones conjured up by a hustler who hasn't read a word of your work. And personally, I wouldn't want to risk my reputation as a writer by flaunting obviously fake reviews.

 

[Overread]

Plus if you ever get caught it will stain your reputation for years. Even though readers are very used to writers using alternative names to publish their work under, by and large they are casual conventions not super secret identities. So you can bet if you get caught once people will take notice (for all the wrong reasons) and might well hunt down your other name if you try and distance yourself from it.

Whilst it can be terribly tempting to pay for reviews to boost your score, its not practical nor safe. Plus you'd need a good 50 or 100 reviews to make a real impact and by that point you might well get enough attention that if the reviews were significantly different from the average experience you'd suddenly spark yourself getting a huge wave of negative reviews (some from readers, some from those who caught on to what happened and are then going to hound you even if they've never ready your work).


I'm sure people do risk it and do get away with it, but I'd never advise it. Short term it might gain you something, but long term it could do far more damage.

 

[tinkerdan]

Ah. a portmanteau how clever...

even if they've never ready your work

Ready meant to be really read, perhaps; we should make it readly
even if they've never readly your work.

 

[Pyan]

Short term it might gain you something, but long term it could do far more damage.

And you wouldn't believe the number of people that open an account with the Chrons just to tell us they've discovered this, like, amazing book that we all should go out and buy, and whose IP is coincidentally the same as the author's website or whatever. Even short-term this gains you exactly nothing except a ban...

 

[Ashley R]

I recently self-published "The Witch's Box" on Amazon. Having been assured, despite my doubts, that it was a better book than my previous effort, with a stronger appeal to that important reader group, the adult female reader, and with various people volunteering that they liked the cover, I was hopeful that with its several enthusiastic 5 star reviews it would do a bit better than my previous book. But it hasn't. At all.
Which leaves me wondering if this s**t is normal, or is the problem that people don't like what they see when they get to the Amazon sales page, or is the problem that people are not finding out about the book?
I set up some Amazon pay-per-click advertising, which so far has cost the price of several Kindle royalties without generating a single sale. I will have to turn this off as it is never going to be cost-effective at this rate. I also tried posting on sundry Facebook groups with no apparent effect on sales.
Any comments or suggestions?

Okay, came to this late, but your title didn't come up in my search of it on Amazon, though without an author name, and given that I didn't want to troll though loads of pages that my be my fault.

What I will say is that marketing one book is a forlorn hope. I recommend getting Kristine Kathyrn Rusch's Dicoverability if you want to learn what works when marketing books.

My advice, go write the next book.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

From what I understand, the best way to encourage more sales is to just write more. I've been told on multiple writer's groups on FB not to expect a lot of sales until I've released (at least) 5-10 books and to wait on putting a lot into advertising/promotion until I had a completed series, bundle it, and then promote that instead of the individual books. That's a long ways off for me yet, so, in the meantime, I largely write for myself and don't worry about how many sales I do or don't have.

 

[JohnM]

Before the internet and ebooks, new books would go through a publisher who could tell good from bad. This tended to weed out bad manuscripts, with the writer getting a rejection slip. Self-publishing was available but expensive. The total number of titles published was greater than what the average reader was reading. Say 8 to 10 books a year. Really, does the average reader want to read more? There have been no additions to the number of hours in a day.

Before the internet and Amazon, books were sold in bookstores, in catalogs and at conventions. The cover price was based on what similar books were selling for. The book sold or it didn't. The book distribution model was 'keep it on the shelf for a given period of time and then return any unsold copies,' which, if you were lucky, included some copies that were not badly beat up.

After the internet and ebooks, the flood gates opened. More people could publish more books. The reader now had an ocean of choices, the same amount of time to read, and since the number of books was literally a flood, a hard time finding good, enjoyable books among those that did not read well.

With thousands of writers promoting thousands of books, would anyone try 100 or 10? Price matters, but even if you get a guarantee that 10 out of 100 are great books, will you read that many?

Advertising/promotion takes time. Generally, writers who want to be commercially successful must understand their audience, whatever they write. Who are they? How do you find them? Persistence pays off. Promotion must be ongoing, especially as new books are released. Eventually, word of mouth saying positive things will spread. If the book does not read well, just take note of honest criticisms.

It would be nice if a book could be a guaranteed success right before release. But the problem is not just the contents but a good cover and a compelling cover blurb. Most writers do not know how to art direct a cover while writing a good cover blurb is not that difficult.

 

[autoretscriptor]

I searched for "The Witch's Box" --

* On Amazon.co.uk under BOOKS, it comes up first in results
* On Amazon.co.uk under KINDLE STORE, it does not come up in the first two results pages
* On Amazon.com, it does not come up in the first two pages of results under either BOOKS or KINDLE STORE

If I search for "Cowie" on Amazon.com, it comes up in the first results page for both BOOKS and KINDLE STORE

The bottom line is that US readers probably aren't retrieving your book in search results at all -- unless they search specifically for you as an author.

I'm sorry that I know nothing about Amazon sales, so I don't know a solution.

But if there is a way to address this, that would likely increase your US sales.