Because I Love to Give Value Here …

HOW TO GET LEGITIMATE READER REVIEWS

This is a column not only for (a) readers (how to get to read and review ARCs of new books for free) but ALSO for (b) writers.  (How to get more, and often more professional, book reviews).

Let’s start with the readers. 

Here, I think you have to be ruthless with yourself. First, have you got enough time? (To dedicate to NetGalley, Edelweiss etc.) 

This is because, if you don’t stump up at least some decent percentage of reviews for the books you’ve requested, they shove you into outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Second, can you be honest? Not PERILOUSLY honest, because – just as some of the ARCs you get will thrill you – some are bound to disappoint you. 

You may need to square your conscience here. Because the unspoken point of these review-promoting sites is not only to help authors – who fork out a modest monthly subscription to get reviews– but also to keep going!!!  In other words, offended authors resigning from the site thanks to one-star stinkers isn’t going to do the site’s profit margins any good at all. 

It’s crucial that you avoid being rude or sardonic. If the grammar/spelling/typos are awful, of course, you must say so. However, I recommend that you say so along the lines of “Definitely needs further editing” and not, “I almost burst a blood vessel laughing, the typos were sooooooo unconsciously funny!” Similarly, if the plotting/characterization/dialogue needs work, it’d be great if you’d put your finger on the weaknesses concerned. But you really can’t go full-frontal unbuttoned, along the lines of, “Once I put it down, I just couldn’t pick it up.”

Well, you can on Amazon or Goodreads, if you’re really sure you want to, but NetGalley, etc. monitor their reviewers’ performances. You can even grow a following on them and become an  influencer.  The best rule, as a reviewer,  is two good things to one bad thing. (“Despite pacing issues in the middle chapters, and a seriously unbelievably wicked uncle, this book was worth reading for its crisp dialogue and period detail.”)

That kind of a thing.

Now, for the writers… First, you have to determine whether you write real romance – or not. If you do – YAY!!!!!!!! – you’re lucky bunnies!!! 😊😊😊

In addition to being guaranteed fellow writers queuing up to trade newsletter swaps with you on BookFunnel (of COURSE you have a newsletter and swap mentions on BookFunnel! If you don’t, stop reading this and start NOW!!!!) 

Sorry… where was I? Yes!!! In addition to these advantages, you – I refer to you, the romance author – will thrive on every site I mention here. Readers will queue up, panting – sometimes literally – for your every offering. This is because romance RULES, especially post-Covid. It’s romance first, the other genres nowhere!!! (There’s this analytical whiz who analyses what’s hot in books. Check him out, if you don’t believe me, on https://k-lytics.com/) In short, the only thing you have to do, if you’re a real, honest-to-God romance author, is to shove one of your romances on each of these sites and then monitor on which site you get the, er, hottest reviews. Easy peasy!!!

But not so easy for me – and not for many others, too.  My books are too classic, and too like Austen’s. They feature romance, but they also feature social satire. (See excerpt below.)

Which is why I have lovely emails – some or these even accompanied by refunds, from BookSprout, Voracious Reader and BookSirens, regretting that, due to my novels being not-really-romances I didn’t get enough sign-ups/reviews. The readers of historical fiction are just not as numerous, or as keen, as romance readers, some of whom can gulp down a romance a day, like candy. You want to make out like a moose on these review sites, you want to write romance. My impression is that whether it’s steamy or clean isn’t as crucial as the romance bit.

However, if you’re NOT writing romance MOST of these review-gathering websites WILL NOT WORK FOR YOU. This means – gulp – we’re into the realms of big spenders. The only sites that work for writers like me (and possibly you?) are the two expensive biggies: NetGalley and Edelweiss. Yep. You’re right. The ones the “big four” publishers use. Having said which – handy hint – Books Go Social have a discount deal with NetGalley, and IndieReader has cut a cool deal with Edelweiss. Both of these shave the author’s costs quite a bit!! 😊)

Where was I? Yes, well, rather like Goodreads, authors love to moan about NetGalley and Edelweiss and I can certainly see why. Nothing in life is perfect, but these readers certainly expect something to be, and that something probably includes your novel.

Just as Goodreads readers famously award classic authors and Nobel prize-winners 3 or 4 stars – ridiculously, as if they’re not in a different league from the rest of us –  these reviewers, mostly teachers, eagle-eyed editors, librarians and wannabe authors – expect a professional product. They famously attend to every detail, too, so don’t even think about submitting a book that hasn’t been professionally edited. 

But Netgalleyers and Edelweissers can still be fantastic. I am a convert. Yes, I admit that I’ve had it up to HERE with those of their reviewers who scribble “Loved it!! Fantastic book!! Best Austenesque novel I’ve read yet!!! Th–rrrrr-eeee whole stars!!!!” But there are also librarians who’ve not only given mine five stars BUT even ordered it for their library and for practically every other library in Arizona or Florida (or wherever they happen to live). Yes, they’re just that keen. And sometimes that influential. These two  sites, assuming you’re professionally edited, are worth the money.

So. For most of you writers, it’s a no-brainer: you’ll KNOW if you write romance – or not. I’m probably the only dumbo here! And here’s why: because DARCY is much more romantic than my other Austenesque novels, I originally tried to market it as historical romance. That is, I did until a load of romance readers taught me that it wasn’t their idea of romance.  (The irony being that CIBA/Chanticleer thinks I write romance, because they moved my book from historical fiction to – romance! (Where DARCY is a current semi-finalist, as well!) Small wonder I’m confused!!!)

Anyway, to summarise, romance writers need to hot-foot it to BookSprout, BookSirens, or Voracious Readers. (Comparison here: https://booklaunchers.com/best-paid-book-review-sites/)

My fellow historical fiction lovers, try NetGalley and/or Edelweiss.  

As for readers – as usual – you, of course, can take your pick!!

Happy reading!!!

XXAlice

Excerpt from DARCY: ROMANCE WRITING – OR NOT?!?!?!

As our visitors left, I chose to accompany the Gardiners and their niece to their carriage, taking the chance to thank Elizabeth. ‘It was very good of you to come.’

‘Not at all. Your sister is charming,’ said she. ‘How I long to hear her play!’

‘Thank you, but I hope to hear you play again, as well.’

‘I fear that would be only an embarrassment, as I have not touched an instrument this long age.’

‘But the voice can surely not have altered? Colonel Fitzwilliam said, only the other day, how it had brightened Rosings last Easter.’

She turned to look at me, as if contemplating some swift rejoinder, misjudged the depth of the marble step beneath, and slipped, with a little cry. Taking three steps in one, I caught her round the waist, secured her against the balustrade and released her. So strange a moment – locked close, a third of the way down the marble staircase – time itself suspended!

Her aunt, following, heard the cry and rushed to the head of the stairs. ‘Lizzy! What has happened?’

‘Why nothing at all! I fell, I cannot think how, but Mr Darcy caught me – for which I am most grateful,’ she said to me, with a private smile. ‘I am sorry to have alarmed you, Aunt, for I am rarely clumsy, as a rule.’

How I wished I could have prolonged that instant on the stair! I was then obliged to return to the saloon, where Miss Bingley was saying very spitefully, ‘How very ill Eliza Bennet looked this morning! I never in my life saw anyone so altered. She is grown so brown and coarse!’

I could not sleep that night, for recollecting that moment on the stair.