Last week we talked about the importance of getting book reviews, so I thought you might be interested in reading Dana Lynn Smith’s article that I found on Maggie Lyons Blog http://www.maggie-lyons.blogspot.com/. Maggie is always on the lookout for writing information to share. I think Dana’s information will really help you promote your books.
Six Common Myths about Book Reviews
by Dana Lynn Smith, the Savvy Book Marketer
Book reviews are a powerful promotional tool, but many authors have some misconceptions about reviews and how to obtain them. Here are some common myths about getting book reviews.
Myth #1 – Book reviews are just for new books.
It’s true that book review journals read by librarians and booksellers review books at or soon after publication. It’s best to focus your review efforts during the first year of a book’s life, but some venues will review older books.
Myth #2 – No one will review a self-published book.
It is more challenging for self-published authors and small presses to get reviews in certain venues, but it’s certainly not impossible. Self-published books are far more likely to be reviewed if they are produced to industry standards (well written, edited and designed). A number of book review websites welcome self-published books or even focus specifically on them, and there are several book journals like Midwest Book Review that are friendly to independent and small presses.
Myth #3 – Book reviews are just for books being sold to bookstores and libraries.
Trade journals like Publishers Weekly and Library Journal are designed to meet the needs of booksellers and librarians, so they focus on books that are available through major distributors and wholesalers at standard discounts. But there are plenty of other places to get book reviews, including book blogs, topical blogs, online bookstores, specialty publications, literary magazines, and reader networks.
Myth #4 – You can’t get reviews for ebooks.
It takes some extra research to identify revenue venues that will review books that are available only in ebook format. Many reviewers accept only printed books, although that is slowly changing as the use of ebook readers becomes more widespread. There are several websites, such as Kindle Obsessed, that focus on ebooks.
Myth #5 – No one pays attention to the reviews in online bookstores.
It’s true that some shoppers view online reviews with skepticism, but I do believe that reviews (or the lack of them) influences shoppers in online bookstores. In my book, How to Get Your Book Reviewed, I cite a research study by the Yale School of Management that backs this up. With so many books to choose from, shoppers are often looking for some factor to help them decide between several books.
Having very few or no reviews on an Amazon sales page can give the impression that the book isn’t very popular. Reviews can also give the shopper more insight into the book, beyond the product description.
Be sure to encourage customers and book reviewers to post their review or recommendation on Amazon.
Myth #6 – It’s not worth the effort of pursing reviews.
Book reviews serve two basic purposes: they bring your book to the attention of people who might not have learned about it otherwise, and they help potential customers decide if your book is a good fit for them. The more reviews you have, and the more places those reviews appear, the greater your reach and your selling power.
All book marketing plans should include a strategy for maximizing the value of reviews, endorsements and testimonials.
About the Author
Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, helps authors and indie publishers learn how to sell more books through her how-to guides, blog, newsletter, and private coaching.
Learn how to use reviews to sell more books in her comprehensive guide, How to Get Your Book Reviewed, and get more book marketing tips at TheSavvyBookMarketer.com.
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
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Interview with Maggie Lyons
Maggie Lyons was born in Wales and brought up in England before gravitating west to Virginia’s coast. She zigzagged her way through a motley variety of careers from orchestral management to law-firm media relations to academic editing. Writing and editing nonfiction for adults brought plenty of satisfaction but nothing like the magic she discovered in writing fiction and nonfiction for children. Several of her articles, poetry, and a chapter book have been published in the children’s magazines Stories for Children Magazine and knowonder!
What inspired you to write?
I’ve always loved words. My parents read stories to me when I was small and I became an avid reader. Language has always been a great love of mine, including learning how to read, write, and speak foreign languages, and read, interpret, and play music.
Have you had any training to become a writer?
In terms of formal training, one summer, centuries ago, I attended a short creative writing course at Georgetown University. Informally, all those years of writing business-related nonfiction certainly helped, as have countless pieces of advice from members of my critique group and articles on writing, and reading the works of master writers.
Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? If yes, how did you ‘cure’ it?
I suffer from writer’s block whenever I try to write something worth reading. My “cure” is a walk down a country lane, or through a quiet field, or if it’s really bad, I move to another country.
Can you share some writing experiences with us?
One experience rockets to mind even though it happened decades ago, when Paul Hume was music critic at The Washington Post. For several years, I was the program annotator for the National Symphony Orchestra, which has its home in Washington, DC. Program annotators contribute notes on the music that can be found in concert program booklets. It’s that stuff most people in the audience don’t read because they’re too busy trying to find their names in the list of donors. Mr. Hume decided my notes were too frivolous and said so in the newspaper three weeks in a row. Since I prefer to avoid aspersions cast against me in newspapers, or wherever, I began including technical musical analyses in my notes, even though I suspected many, perhaps most, of the few who read the program notes would bypass even a whiff of technical analysis. That dried up the flow of invective from the Post, but more people fell asleep during the concerts.
Like all authors, you have had your fair share of rejection letters. You obviously did not let the letters deter you. How did you keep your determination without getting discouraged?
My characters were screaming their heads off to be released from their files. I couldn’t let them down and I was tired of all the noise in my writing space.
Please describe to us your relationship between you and your editor. What makes an author/editor relationship a success?
My relationship with my editors can be slightly tense at times because I’m a professional editor and therefore quite opinionated about editorial matters. When I manage to get off my high horse about editorial style, I find my editors have some amazingly wise advice about writing style. The two things are not necessarily related. While my nonfiction writing experience helped improve the fluency of my fiction writing, it didn’t do much to hone the stylistic techniques that distinguish the highest levels of that particular art.
How do you see the future of book publishing, both traditional, electronic, and print on demand?
I doubt that electronic publishing will wipe out old-fashioned print books for a very long time, if ever. But the new developments in interactive electronic books for children are truly exciting. I’d certainly love to see my books published in an interactive format some day.
What advice would you give to a new writer?
Write, read, read, write—everything you can, not just on the art of writing and promoting your work. Study the work of great writers. Join a critique group and online writers’ groups. You can’t have too much input from others.
Thank you Maggie for taking some time to share with us about writing. For those who want to know more about Maggie Lyons you can follower her at
Title: Vin and the Dorky Duet
Publisher: Halo Publishing Int. & MuseItUp Publishing (Canadian e-book publisher)
ISBN: 978-1-61244-091-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-77127-073-1 (eBook)
Genre of Book: Children’s Chapter Book Adventure
About the Book:
A twelve-year-old boy named Vin, goes on a mission—reluctantly. He doesn’t share the optimism of the knights of old who embarked on impossible missions without a doubt they’d succeed. When magnetic compost heaps, man-eating bubble baths and other disasters erupt, Vin comes close to packing in the whole ridiculous business. He calls it Operation BS, his code name for a mission to introduce his sister to a boy she has a crush on. He doesn’t want to play matchmaker, but Meg’s promise to reward him with a David Beckham autographed soccer jersey is a decisive incentive.
Available wherever books are sold and online.
Benefits of Literacy and Children - What Some Studies Show
by Maggie LyonsThose who read a lot will enhance their verbal intelligence; that is, reading will make them smarter.
Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich, “What Reading Does for the Mind”
That statement won’t come as a surprise to many, but the widely shared belief in the power of reading is not just a matter of personal opinion. When it comes to literacy among children, there is solid scientific evidence that the more children read, especially independently—that is, outside school—the more likely they are to do well in other subjects at school and in their adult lives. From a study they conducted in the 1990s (see “What Reading Does for the Mind” in American Educator, Spring/Summer 1998), Professors Cunningham and Stanovich found that children’s vocabulary, spelling, verbal fluency, and general knowledge were significantly influenced by the amount of time they spent reading, and this is considered a conservative conclusion.
According to Cunningham and Stanovich, a child who reads—outside school—for 21.1 minutes per day (1,823,000 words per year) learns more than 200 times more words than a child who only reads—again, outside school—one minute per day (8,000 words per year). Conversation doesn’t come close to expanding vocabulary as reading does. When children become habitual readers, they are much more likely to enjoy opportunities as adults that may occur more slowly or not at all for children who don’t read much. The benefits of reading can be enjoyed not just by smart or more skilled readers but by children with limited reading and comprehension skills.
The benefits listed above are considered to be conservative. Many others have been listed in numerous academic and nonacademic sources. In the ongoing British Every Child a Reader project, which stimulates reading among school children, teachers have reported that students who improved in reading comprehension also improved in motivation, behavior, work habits, and emotional health and wellbeing. The more proficient readers enjoyed learning. Their “oral language skills, ability to following directions, work habits, social interaction with adults and classmates and self-confidence all improved.” One teacher reported that the increased effort her students made with reading changed “their whole outlook … from being a negative ‘I can’t’ to a very positive ‘I will have a go.’” Students in this study even acquired “long-term aspirations for an economically successful future.”
Elizabeth Pretorius, lecturer at the University of South Africa, believes what we “can’t read will hurt” us because most of our knowledge is contained in printed literature. So “we must read to access it … successful learning relies on the ability to read.” Reading develops our ability to decode characters, in other words, our ability to make sense of information on the written page. This skill is especially necessary in our technological age when we now have access to massive amounts of text via the Internet.
Research into the benefits of reading, especially reading in childhood, is still in its infancy, but everything I have read so far confirms the widely held belief that it is important to encourage children to become avid readers, and the earlier the better.
* * * * *
Maggie Lyons is a children’s author and freelance editor. After a career of business and educational writing and editing, she has discovered the magic of writing fiction and nonfiction for children.
This is great info! Thanks, Kathy, Maggie and Dana
I hope I have reason to put it to use someday 
SO helpful! Thank you!