Frequently, I quote Jim Cox from Midwest Book Reviews. In sharing part of his newsletter, you will see the importance of using a book review effectively. You have to market a book for it to sell.
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
Getting reviews for your book from reputable sources is an essential element in any marketing plan. To obtain a review there is a capital investment comprised of the production costs of the book your provide the reviewer gratis, plus the postage , plus your time (which also has a monetary value).
So now that you’ve got a good review for your book what do you do with it? There have been entire books written on the subject and you’ll find reviews for a great number of them archived on the Midwest Book Review website at:
In this issue of the “Jim Cox Report” I want to share with you two ‘real world’ examples of publisher folk who’ve made very good use of a review as illustrations of what you can do.
This is a snail-mail letter I received from Kathy Cecala who on July 14th wrote me as follows:
Dear Mr. Cox:
I just wanted to thank you so much for the two reviews of”The Raven Girl” which appear in this month’s MBR. Self-publishing is truly a struggle, but your recognition of my book and good words about it were immensely helpful, not only in bolstering my self-confidence, but in winning additional reviews. The book editor of our daily newspaper, the Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ, does not generally review self-published works, but I was told she chose mine based on the MBR review posted on Amazon! So your reviews are quite influential! (Not that I doubted it!) As a gesture of thanks, I’m enclosing a book of stamps. Keep up this good work!
Sincerely
Kathy Cecala
Kathy’s reference to ‘this month’s MBR’ refers to the July 2011 issue of our “MBR Bookwatch”, one of our nine monthly book review publications.
Then this came in:
Thank you for your very kind words and your gesture of support for what we here at the Midwest Book Review attempt to achieve in behalf of folks like yourself and your clientele.I’d like to include your email in my monthly “Jim Cox Report” as an excellent example of how to maximize the effect of reviews. Well done!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book ReviewIn a message dated 7/15/2011 1:25:53 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
karent@thomas-pr.com writes:
James,Thanks for your excellent review of The Great Kat’s “Beethoven Shreds” CD in Midwest Book Review’s Wisonsin Bookwatch.
What I wanted to point out is how Karen utilized pretty much every electronic age social networking tool there is to give our review of her book as wide an audience as possible.
Of course you don’t need to donate postage stamps as a gesture of support for the Midwest Book Review as did Kathy and Karen — but it is always much appreciated!
CityRoom, JustLuxe, Big Blend, Spa Review Magazine, Global Writes
Finalist in the Writing and Publishing category of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, “$uccess, Your Path to a Successful Book,”
Comment writing is something of a new art form, and as many people who get comments will tell you, some are great and some are horrible. In fact, I’ve embedded a hilarious video at the bottom of this article of some girls from YouTube doing a rap song about the awful comments they get on their videos. It’s called “Yo Comments are Whack,” and it’s worth the time. It’s good to know your blog is much better than these and will never end up being made fun of.
Hi,
Thanks for commenting. I checked out your blog and it is useful. So much of what we get is filtered through spam. I appreciate the time you took to comment.
~Maralyn
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