Reviews, Feedback, and Sharing – Why They Matter

I’ve touch on the importance of reviews and feedback before. I want to come back to this, though, because for independent authors, I cannot stress enough just how big of a deal reviews, feedback, and sharing are.

Independently publishing a book is more than just hitting submit on Amazon or Smashwords and waiting for sales to come in. Thousands of books are self-published every day. Your new release is going to get lost in the shuffle quickly, so as an independent author, you have to not only write the work, possibly edit the work yourself, and submit it to your platform of choice, you also have to promote it and advertise it. You have to see out reviewers.

And sometimes, you have to remind people who have read your book to share their thoughts.

For consumers, the importance of reviews is pretty simple. It tells you what to expect and gives you an idea if what you are about to get is worth while. For example, when my husband bought me Doctor Who DVDs for Christmas, we quickly learned, Christmas Day, that we could not play them on the DVD player because he purchased them through Amazon UK, not Amazon USA. I got online and searched through reviews of different region-less DVD players until I found one that, by the reviews listed, appeared to be what I needed. And when it turned out to be so and to reliably play my DVDs, I was sure to share that feedback as well.

For independent authors, however, reviews are much more.

Self-Publishing …

So, I have been out of work for less than a week and already have learned more about the dos and don’ts of self-publishing than in the year and a half I have been doing it.

One of the things I learned about that I did not know about before: street teams.

So, these are people who basically are the foot soldiers of a good book release. They repost, like, and tweet information about the book. They are also the initial purchasers. They recommend and review. The author does not pay them, though sneak-peaks, give-aways, and other swag are not uncommon.

I’m researching now how to put them together. Among the ideas are creating a reader group and then encouraging the interested members to act as a street team.

Anyway, I’m learning. I’ll keep you posted, though, on what I am doing and will probably put a call out for those interested once I decide.

Somewhere in between writing short fiction, editing Book of Susan, et al…