Melanie’s Marvelous Measles, a self-published children’s book by Stephanie Messenger, is taking some heat for its anti-vaccine message.
Angry parents are not amused by the book’s pro-measles message and have taken to Amazon to leave bad reviews of the book. The book has 1.8 stars.
“My infant daughter went blind after contracting measles from an unvaccinated child, and yet there’s no braille version of this wonderful book for me to give her someday to explain to her how awesome the disease that took her sight away is,” wrote Seabisquick.
“I can only presume that the author was born after the successful vaccination programme made people complacent about the dangers of measles,” wrote Deborah Cowell. “I was not so lucky. In the epidemic of my childhood I was nearly blinded, and still have scars on my eyeballs. I was the lucky member of the family; my sister died from complications. Measles kills children. This book is irresponsible and misleading at best. At worst it could lead to the death of a child.”
“I recently purchased this book and was disappointed to discover that it does not come with a bit of measles in it,” wrote Mallowpufft. “I was really hoping to give my kids a difficult to treat, potentially life threatening and disfiguring disease. Oh well, off to find some polio samples so they can spend a few years in an iron lung.” (Via Salon).
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As I’ve watched the growth of children’s independent publishing this year, it’s clear that there’s a major problem: an inflated number of reviews.
In the independent world, a review on Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing, etc. is gold. Many of the publicity possibilities open to self-published folks depend on gaining a certain number of reviews on your book.
The biggest and most influential promotion service, Bookbub.com, is a subscription service that sends email to millions of readers about eBook specials. After its launch in 2012, it grew rapidly, found big investors last year and now commands a huge audience. Originally supported by independent authors and publishers, it currently reserves 25-50% of its ads for traditional publishers. In the independent world, it’s considered crucial to your book’s success to “get a Bookbub.” During the days your book is listed at FREE or reduced rates of $0.99 or $1.99, the book may download thousands of copies.
One local friend said his first Bookbub, he had 12,000 downloads of his free title. He’s typical of many indie authors because he has a series of books. Of the 12,000 who downloaded Book 1 for free, a couple thousand bought Book 2, 3 and 4. The sales of the other books in the series paid for the BookBub ad, and left him capital to do another book in the series.
A year ago, you wouldn’t be considered for a Bookbub with fewer than 25 reviews on your title. These day, I’ve heard more like 75-100 reviews are needed. When you apply for a BookBub ad, you’re told that they accept less than 20% of the applications.
What’s an author to do? Reviews on Amazon are GOLD! Reviews on Amazon might get you a BookBub Ad–which might get you thousands and thousands of downloads. Which might mean you have a chance of selling other books.
Yes, reviews on Amazon are GOLD! When an author asks you to review a book on Amazon, it’s crucial.
Social Proof. Reviews on online stores is considered proof that others like a certain product, or social proof. Even negative reviews are good because they are proof that the product hasn’t received reviews from only friends and family.
Comparison of Reviews of Two Books
I am going to compare the reviews of two books in a neutral manner. That is, I’ll set aside my personal evaluations of the quality of the titles. One is a hugely popular, free, independent title, while the other is the winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Young People Literature. From that alone, you might suspect that one is better than the other, and on that, I’ll make no statement because it’s not the point here. You may also suspect that the NBA Award winner would have far and away more reviews. Wrong.
This may not be the fairest comparison: picture books and novels may not receive the same amount of reviews. It’s just that these two books came to my attention at about the same time and I was struck by the difference in the number and quality of the reviews for each book.
Comparison of books: picture book v. novel; self-published v. traditionally published; ebook only v. available in many formats.
Comparison of the Amazon Reviews
As of today, Lily Lemon Blossom’s Welcome, by Barbara Miller has 3569 reviews with an average rating of 4.0 out of 5.0 stars.
5 Stars: 1932
4 Stars: 627
3 Stars: 389
2 Stars: 201
1 Stars: 420
As of today, Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson has 50 reviews with an average rating of 4. 8 out of 5.0.
5 Stars: 42
4 Stars: 7
3 Stars: 0
2 Stars: 0
1 Stars: 1
How is it that an eBook-only picture-book has 3569 reviews? It’s easy, if she’s done multiple Bookbub ads. With 12,000 people downloading a typical FREE eBook advertised in Bookbub, a clever author puts prominent links asking for reviews at the back of the ebook. The ASK is important because it tells people of the need for reviews. Again, it’s one of the popular techniques of today’s independent author, a method that successfully gets multiple reviews on books.
Or is it that easy? In the face of such overwhelming numbers, it’s easy to be suspicious that the reviews are inflated somehow. No one can provide evidence to prove or disprove it–yet the suspicions remain. It’s certainly possible for all those reviews to be bonafide, given the surprising power of a Bookbub. Are book reviews artificially inflated somehow just for the possibilities of promotions like BookBub? Or does BookBub allow for for the inflated number of reviews?
Does it mean that one or the other sells better or makes more money? There’s no way to know unless the authors were to speak out on their incomes. It’s easy to say that both are selling well and making money.
Is this just the difference in a “popular” book and a “literary” book? Possibly. Do popular books may get more discussion surrounding them than literary books? Or do authors of popular books just emphasize reviews more than authors of literary books?
When is 420 One-Star Reviews NOT a Bad Thing?
When it is countered by 1932 5-star reviews?
The thing about reviews is that people tend to artificially inflate their opinion of a book. Many people will say, “I don’t like to trash a book. I only want to give good reviews.” It may actually be a good thing that 420 people felt honest enough to give Lily Lemon Blossom a very bad review.
In the end, the 420 matter less than the total of 3569 overall reviews. The fact that so many chose to leave ANY kind of review helps sell the book and the rest of the books in its series. It’s a book that many people are talking about, so there must be something to it, right? People download the free introductory book to find out what the discussion is about.
Get Thee a Goodly Number of Reviews!
In the midst of all of this, I am an a hybrid author who would love to see 3569 reviews on my traditionally and independently published books. Don’t you want overwhelming reviews on YOUR book?
But it’s daunting. To get that many reviews, I need a Bookbub; to get a BookBub, I need 75-100 reviews minimum and then a lot so luck; the Bookbub might then be a springboard to even more views and possibly a best-seller! But it’s a Catch-22. How do you get the 100 reviews in the first place, so that you can get the Bookbub to get lots of reviews and sales?
Online reviews as social proof may have been a good idea five years ago, but today, I wonder about their usefulness. But the other conclusion you must draw is that Bookbub.com has become a player in the book world in a huge way: if a BookBub ad has the power to make or break the career of an Indie author, it’s an interesting world indeed. Will it soon make or break the career of ANY writer? Already, indie authors who built up BookBub are muscled out by slots reserved for the better-paying traditional publishers; will it ever become limited to ONLY traditional published books?
The case of the inflated number of book reviews says much about the current state of the industry.
When I was a younger man during those BK days (Before Kindle) I could seldom find a bookstore, be it a major giant brick and mortar place like B&N or a cozy independent bookstore that I truly felt a partnership with; I was never truly ever made to feel like anything other than a BOTHER in 99 percent of the bookstores I did signings in or dropped in on for a driveby signing. Now during these days of AK (After Kindle), I am in a true, strong partnership with a bookstore--the Kindle store which has expanded now beyond the UK and into Germany.
The great thing about this partnership is that Amazon is a silent partner and yet they provide such excellent services. Reporting of sales top-notch, book returns no sweat--hardly know they exists, no one boxing up your book while you are still in the store signing! Distribution is worldwide. I can't enumerate all the wonderful pluses working with the Kindle Store. So I won't . Instead, I will draw your attention to the Kindle Community Forums, one of which I began called: What Mioves Kindle books off the shelf? (misspell and all - think iMoves). Here is a recent post I placed on the forum which you will likely find of interest if you are at all interested in ebooks sales or as an eReader, eReviewer, eFan, eAuthor, or ePublisher. The thread here has grown to 18,333 views, 550 posts, 38 pages.
Posted: Apr 20, 2011 3:22 PM:
. . . I can't tell you how many new readers, people who have never read any of my books before have discovered me--my sense of humor, my political rants, my
self on facebook and twitter and have become readers of R.W. Walker's books due to getting t'know me through my tweets and remarks on facebook. In
Bayou Wulf, for example, I have placed maybe ten or eleven facebook friends' names in the book after posting that I needed some extras on the "set" and to expect to be killed in a gruesome manner. I got all kinds of takers and all of them have family and friends, and all are anxious to see themselves in the book, and they will share their demise with friends and family. Hopefully, this translates into purchasing of more books, gifting to others, etc.
I belong to like ten chat groups, and many of the people on these groups, due to what I had to say, decided to check out my books. In other words, it is not entirely a "crap shoot" but more a good faith effort to convince eReaders that one's work--one's book--is worth anyone's time and money.
As to tagging book titles - what the hey -- it certainly can affiliate you with another author. First time I noticed this all of a sudden William Miekle and I were being treated like blood brothers. Checked out his work and sure enough...and Miekle is on fire, so I am associated with him, great. Associated with JA Konrath, what can it hurt? I've known Joe for years; he was best man at my wedding. But when his book pops up on my book page, and mine on his, I have to figure that does have an affect--my readers find him, his readers find me. We have also exchanged opening chapters of our books at the end of one another's kindle titles. (Now Kindle is po
If you’re a book reviewer, chances are you’ve heard about the new FTC (Federal Trade Commission) regulations concerning bloggers who review products online.
What’s going on and what do their new guidelines mean for you, the book blogger/reviewer who writes reviews? Is the FTC keeping records of who’s doing what online? Can the reviewers be fined for accepting books for review if they don’t have a disclosure posted on their blogs stating how they got their books, and whether or not they bought them themselves or were provided by authors or publishers?
The truth is, the FTC has been struggling with how to deal with bloggers for a long time. The FTC doesn’t see book bloggers as journalists, so the guidelines that apply to, say, The New York Times, wouldn’t apply to an independent book blogger. The people at the FTC see blogs as a new type of communication so blogs must be treated in a different way.
What’s the difference between a reviewer who works for a newspaper or magazine and a book blogger?
Basically, their reasoning is that in the case of a newspaper reviewer, it’s the newspaper that gets the compensation, not the book reviewer, whereas in the case of the blogger, she gets to keep the book. So there’s a direct connection between the compensation and the review. Many people think this is silly. After all, there’s nothing stopping a newspaper reviewer from keeping a book. There’s no one at the newspaper making sure all review copies are stored in a secured shelf once reviewers have read the books.
How do you deal with this new regulation if you don’t want to get into trouble and want to come across as an ethical reviewer?
The FTC has made it pretty clear: A disclosure is required.
In order to meet the standard, all you have to do is put a disclosure on your blog, a brief, clear message prominently displayed on your sidebar or on the ‘About the Blogger’ or ‘Review Policy’ pages. Your disclosure could be something like this: “Review copies are provided by authors and publishers. I don’t receive monetary compensation for my reviews.” (If you receive monetary compensation or, let’s say, a gift such an Amazon gift certificate, you must state this clearly). The clearer and more straight forward the disclosure, the more you’ll come across as an honest, ethical reviewer. It’s all about integrity and good practice behavior.
If you go to my blog, www.mayrassecretbookcase.blogspot.com, and scroll down a bit, you’ll see my disclosure on the right sidebar. As you can see, it’s pretty short.
Here is an example of a longer disclosure from a mom blogger: http://www.theclothdiaperreport.com/2009/07/disclosure.html.
Though the degree of prominence isn’t spelled out (as far as I know), some bloggers are including this disclosure at the bottom of every review they post, but this isn’t really necessary, not as long as the disclosure is easy to find somewhere on your blog.
The FTC regulation is a good thing for the consumer. If you’re a reviewer with Amazon Affiliate purchase buttons all over your blog, I want to know if you’ve accepted monetary compensation in exchange for your reviews. Granted, most bloggers earn only pennies from their affiliate buttons, but I still want to know.
The FTC guidelines also put responsibility on the authors, publishers and other marketing people (such as publicists) who are trying to promote a book. For example, if you’re an author looking for bloggers to review your book (as in the case of virtual book tours), you should make sure those bloggers you send your book to have that disclosure. Or at least, this is what the guidelines suggest.
But to go back to one of my initial questions: Can reviewers be fined for accepting books for review if they don’t have a disclosure poste
Thanks to Google Alerts, I learned that the Association of Jewish Libraries included The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing on their book list for children's book reviewers. Not only that, but they marked it as 'essential'... I'm jazzed!
Hi,
Aneeta Sundararaj, editor of How to Tell a Good Story, just reviewed The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing.
"Have you read a review and wondered whether it is good or bad? Have you ever wanted to venture into writing reviews but don’t know how to begin? Are you wary of writing a review and having publishers think that it might be too amateurish for them to consider publishing? Well, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing answers these questions and so much more."
Read the complete review
here.
Best,
Mayra
A client canceled a late afternoon phone call, and I might have been distressed (deadlines, I should have thought, promises), but the fact is that I was already comfortable in my overstuffed chair and Joseph O'Neill's Netherland was balanced enticingly within reaching distance. I didn't even have to stand up. I turned. Stretched. Fit the book in my hands. Found page 177. Plunged back into the story where I'd left it, a few days before. Utterly irresponsible, but there it is. I sat here and read a book of my own choosing. I dove beneath the radar.
I like this book. I am, in fact, amazed by long stretches of it—by how O'Neill, in this novel about displacement (I'll call it that; others have called it elsewise) slides all around the map of time, defusing the Big Questions early on so that readers never wonder what has happened; they only wonder why. The book is pure erudition. It's New York City post 9/11. It's cricket. It's The Chelsea Hotel. It's phantasmagoria and a marriage on the rocks. It's deep dives into stuff I knew not a single thing about. It's not easy, but neither are we human beings easy. We want to hold to the illusion that every life suggests a story, when in fact life is a jumble that works quite like the tumble and tangle of Netherland.
By the time I put the book down, there were three inches at least of new snow on the ground, and it was dark. I had dinner to cook, in other words, but I wanted to stay with Netherland a bit longer, and so I ambled over to Amazon to see what other readers had to say. My thinking being: I'll hang out in this little club of Netherlanders for a while before returning to real life. Some 76 reviewers had weighed in, and the book had four stars, and that was fine, it didn't much matter.
What impressed me, though, was the utter self-confidence of the naysayers. The certainty they shared that this book—acclaimed by so many, likened to The Great Gatsby by more than one—was, in a word, "bad." Bad. Boring and bad. Or pretentious and bad. Interesting combinations of bad. And I thought of how almost impossible it is to write well and how ready one must always be for those who will inevitably dismiss you.
Today I'm over at A Writer's Words, an Editor's Eye, where Lillie Ammann has written a wonderful review of my book, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing.
Thank you, Lillie, for the great review and for hosting us on your blog!
Hi all,
Yesterday I was over at Mary Cunningham's blog with a humorous piece about
Amazon reviews and mothers in law.
If you'd like to take a look, the link is
http://cynthiasattic.blogspot.com
Best,
Mayra
Heather Shaw, Editor-in-Chief of ForeWord Magazine, just gave my book a rave review.
I'm absolutely thrilled!
“There’s not a reviewer out there that wouldn’t benefit from this review of reviewing… this is a great reference book for libraries…”
Read Heather's full review here.
ForeWord seems to have a lot of weight with libraries, and since I'm in the process of an emailing campaign to libraries, this review comes very handy. My co-author and I are contacting all public libraries by state and sending them promotional flyers by email. So far I've done all the libraries in MA. It is a very time consuming activity and after we do a couple more states we'll check with the publisher to see if our promotional efforts have been effective. For a list of public libraries by state, we're using this site:
http://www.publiclibraries.com/
We're also planning to contact college bookstores and English departments of colleges and universities. Already our book is being used as a textbook for a book writing course at Loyola College, MD, so we're quite excited about that and hopeful that other schools will follow.
Here's what other reviewers are saying...
"The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing should be considered mandatory reading for novice and aspiring book reviewers, as well as having a great deal of enduring value as a reference for even the more experienced reviewer. Additionally, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing will provide to be informed and informative reading about the book review process for authors, publishers, publicists, booksellers, librarians, and the general reading public." --Reviewed by James Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review.
"This book from Mayra Calvani and Anne K. Edwards is the first 'Reviewer's Desk Reference' for book reviewers at all levels."
--Reviewed by Ernest Dempsey, The World Audience
"As an experienced reviewer I learned that I do not know it all and will keep my copy of The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing for reference. It is not a book I will loan out because it won’t be returned...If you want to break into book reviewing, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing is a must-have reference. Heed the author’s advice and you can write reviews that will get you and the books you review noticed." --Reviewed by Sharon Broom, Armchair Interviews.
"The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing is a useful took for both amateur and professional book reviewers, as well as book review editors. There should be no doubt that the good tips, thoughtful perspective and resource information can be of considerable value to anyone wishing to practice this art." --Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford, Allbooks Reviews.
"I do recommend The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing as a must-have resource guide. Calvani and Edwards present a well-written gold-mine to potential reviewers as well as a source of information for experienced reviewers and authors." --Reviewed by Irene Watson, Reader Views.
"The Slippery Art... is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in book reviews - writers, reviewers, publishers, publicists, librarians, booksellers and readers." -- Reviewed by Francine Silverman, Editor of The Book Promotion Newsletter
By:
Mayra Calvani,
on 11/23/2007
Blog:
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Hello,
I'm happy to announce that my first picture book, THE MAGIC VIOLIN, is now available on Amazon. They haven't uploaded the cover art yet, but it should go up pretty soon.
Cheers!
Mayra
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By Anatoly Liberman
Many people have seen a dictionary of confusables before. Not only such classic near twins as affect ~ effect, principle ~ principal, lie ~ lay, and biannual ~ biennial get confused. English, it appears, is a veritable pandemonium: all words mean the same, and everything sounds like something else, thereby creating insurmountable difficulties for the unwary. (more…)
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Good info., working on the price issue for mine!