For Indies, Reviews Are Both Gold and Hard to Obtain
Photo credit: Adrii Zorii
It was one sentence in a half-hour presentation, one of context. Noted mystery and thriller critic and reviewer Oline Cogdill recently spent an hour with the Citrus Crime Writers chapter of Sisters in Crime and acknowledged what most of us probably already guessed
“I don’t review indie novels,” she said.
There it is.
Those of us who are indie authors understand that among the many hurdles to selling gobs of books is that of getting legitimate reviews of any novels we publish. All of us indies work hard to get reader reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble and other respected book sales sites.
And securing a review — any review — from someone who freelances for a newspaper syndicate and contributes reviews for Mystery Scene magazine and Publisher’s Weekly, that’s a gold nugget that is almost impossible to attain.
It’s a slice of heaven not just for heavyweights like Tess Gerritsen and John Sandford but also for wannbe-bigger authors like Sandra SG Wong, Michael Wiley, JA Konrath and Hank Phillippi Ryan.
Book critic Oline Cogdill
For indies like myself Ray Flynt, Nancy Cohen and thousands of others, a review from someone like Oline, a respected journalist with a long track record of fairness, not to mention a legion of fans and followers around the globe, would be something we’d use on our book jackets for the rest of time.
But that’s not where we are. Indie publishing is still in its infancy. Although it grows consistently, the number of indie reviewers simply hasn’t kept up with the number of authors who put out their own books.
Funnily enough, though, both indie authors and indie reviewers — bloggers and the like — suffer from the same issue. We’re voices in a vast wilderness, hoping to be heard (read) by anyone. And for that writing to be recommended and passed along.
Don’t mistake this as a whine. It’s not. If nothing else, I’m a realist and a pragmatist. I made my choices with open eyes.
When it came time to peddle the final manuscript of “Dead Odds,” my first novel, I had decisions to make. They were the same choices all new authors have. Traditional, indie or hybrid?
After dancing with a few agents at Thrillerfest in New York and via email for several months thereafter, I finished the last revisions to “Dead Odds” knowing I’d take the indie route. I wasn’t 25 anymore, and I didn’t feel up to waiting years while I searched for a fearless agent and then waiting longer while my agent found a publisher.
I decided to handle it myself. That decision comes with consequences. Chiefly, it means that as an indie author I had to learn eBook publishing, print publishing, book-launching, marketing and business. All of which comes after you learn how to write a tight and interesting novel.
All this in addition to the mountainous task of writing a solid tale of suspense, one worthy of capturing the reader and being a worthwhile purchase as a paperback, eBook or audio book.
“I realized this is a blow to writers who self-publish and puts a lot of pressure on you all to work harder to get reviews.”
During her Q & A discussion with the Citrus Crime Writers, Oline said that when she was writing reviews for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, she had about 500 colleagues around the country. That is, 500 other book critics working full-time at American newspapers.
We all know what’s happened to the U.S. newspaper industry, a profound victim of greedy corporate ownership (now greedy hedge fund ownership) and the resulting need to maximize revenues and lower costs.
Today, Oline said, there are about 25 working journalists who review books, and many are former full-time critics who are keeping their careers alive as freelancers. I was surprised there will still that many left.
Oline gets picked up by hundreds of papers across the country. There are many, many more papers that not only don’t publish them, they also don’t put any book reviews in the paper — or online. In those cities and towns, it’s as if reading for fun simply vanished. There’s some irony for you.
Instead, third-party book reviewers are now mostly bloggers or website owners. They do what they do because of their passion for a genre (say, romance or Sci-Fi) or because reading and reviewing books is part of who they are. They want to share their new books and authors with the world.
Personally, I’m grateful to anyone who spends time reading and writing about what they’ve read. That is one of the pillars of being an author: having an audience of readers and having someone to help you reach them.
Selling your book blog by blog, as it were.
But first authors must find those bloggers and convince them you have a book worth reading and reviewing. There aren’t many out there, probably much less than 50 covering all genres. Oline estimated there are three to five good ones who review mysteries, suspense and thrillers.
“I realized this is a blow to writers who self-publish and puts a lot of pressure on you all to work harder to get reviews,” she said.
Work, yes. Pressure, no. We don’t have to justify our sales to anyone but ourselves. Although securing reviews is difficult, the real difficulty is morale.
I was fortunate to have paid attention to agents and editors and took their advice not to publish too soon. To publish only after the novel was tight and right. To hire a stellar line editor and a quality cover artist.
I was also lucky that “Dead Odds” turned out to be an award-winning book, capturing first place in the Royal Palms Literary Awards for best novel of suspense that year.
But because I could not — or did not — market the book effectively, it has not sold well in the months after it was published. For you other indies out there, marketing = sales, and don’t let anybody tell you differently.
As always, it starts with, and comes down to, the bit of advice all agents and editors tell would-be authors. Write the best book you can possibly write no matter how long it takes. Quality wins.
Even if the book never reaches a traditional book reviewer’s desk.
