How Many Times A Day Should You Be Marketing Your Book?

Welcome to another edition of the Publishing Watchdog. If you aren’t sure what we do, please take a look through our blog as well as visit our website: www.zlspublishing.com

It is often said that the book publishing business is often like the music business. If that is the case, then writers need to think like Independent music artist and market at a minimum 10 times a day and take their books everywhere they go. If you look closely at the history of some of the Independent music rap artist such as Chamillionaire, No Limit Soldiers, etc. These individuals and groups believed they had viable music that could do well and so they carried their music with them everywhere they went and sold it everywhere they went. If they went to the grocery store, they had music with them. Even if they walked to the corner store, they had a few cd’s in their pocket. This tenacity allowed them to become known and to do well in sells. They got such a buzz in the streets that they were either picked up by a major label or sold enough records to get them some space, in which they could start their own Independent record labels.

The same tenacity needs to be done with writers. Everywhere you go you need to have your books with you. Books, customized book bags and maybe even pens. Carrying your books with packaged items such as pens and customized book bags serve dual purposes: 1) you can pull out the customized pen (which people always need) to autograph or write down important information; 2) You can put your book in a bag customized with your book cover information on it. You always want to make sure you have a bag for someone because you never know when they’ll need another bag.

As a writer, it is your responsibility to plan for the unplanned opportunities. Whether you’re shopping, paying a bill, or just taking a walk, you must have a few copies of your book on hand along with your bags and pens. If you go out 10 times a day, you are to carry a book with you all 10 times of the day. Carrying these items allows you to present a visual to impress upon someone that you are an author. Talking about being an author is impressive to most people because it looks as if you’re famous and even accomplished. If you take a look at how local people react to local musicians and how they drool over them, it’s mainly because they seem famous. You’ll be surprised how many people will go “Wow” when you hand them your book package. They may even ask to buy two or three, ask more information about you, or even ask you to come and speak. You never know who you’ll meet, but you have to be prepared. Musicians aren’t scared to walk up to someone and tell them about their music or sell them out the trunk of their cars, and neither should a writer. If you don’t tell them, you can’t expect them to know.

10 times a day isn’t a lot when you think about it. You do more than 10 activities in a day, so trying to reach at least 10 people a day is minute. It’s easy to start off with, “What do you do for a living?” You’ll be surprised how many conversations start off and continue with this very easy question. For those of you who are shy out there, you don’t have to think of anything complicated. Just asking this simple questions can encourage a conversation about you without sounding like a saleperson.

People are fascinated with talking to a real life author with a real book in their hands. Having a book in your hand gets the potential buyer excited. It’s fun for them and should be fun for you, as you get to talk about yourself and your book. Marketing is getting people to know you, but more importantly remember you. You have to be ready to have people know you at least 10 times a day and you have to be remembered. Carrying customized book products in addition to your book ensures that you are remembered, and that is important when trying to market your books.

Until the next time!
The Publishing Watchdog

The Biggest Mistakes Most First Time Authors Make-Part 1

Welcome to another edition of the Publishing Watchdog. If you are unfamiliar with who we are and what we do, please take a look through this blog. Today we will be discussing the biggest mistakes most self-published authors make.

1) Publishing books with unprofessional covers-If you use a self-publishing company and decide to pay for them to publish your books, you will get a book cover template. Read our blog on the author who almost spent 7800 with a self-publisher and nearly got a book cover template with a picture found on the clipart section inside of Microsoft Word.
2) Printing books in large quantities without proof they could sell them-Just because you’ve written the book doesn’t mean everybody is automatically going to buy it. This is why marketing while you’re writing is important.
3) Working without an action plan, book coach or project mentor-Go get help from people that have already done it and have done it successfully. Utilize the internet, go to the library or the bookstore. Just make sure you get the tools and the help necessary to make sure your book is known.
4) Not testing your book cover or title, before it is published-This is one of my personal pet peeves. Just because you like the book cover or title and because you will pick it up doesn’t mean the majority will. Of course, you’ll pick it up because you wrote it, but book sales isn’t about you, it’s about your fans. Ask a group of people from your job, your club, your neighbors, even your enemies if they would pick up the book cover and if the majority say no, then change the book cover. Better yet, ask a bunch of children. Children are brutally honest, even when adults aren’t. If neither the title or the book cover don’t work for people, get over yourself and change it.
5) Waiting until the book is printed before marketing it-(Another pet peeve of mine! I think this is the top of the list of my pet peeves. Nobody cares that you have written a book. They don’t care because chances are they are writing one too. If you want people to care about your characters, your story, you have to make them care from the beginning. I have done so many surveys and focus groups on this, and everyone says the same thing-they don’t care that you’ve written the book after it’s out, they want to know about the book while you’re writing it. Take an example from the big publishing houses, they take 18 months to publish a book because they spend 18 months promoting it. They spend 18 months promoting it while it is going through the editing and rewrite process. Introduce people to your characters while you’re writing, get them excited. Let me say this again-NOBODY CARES THAT YOU’VE WRITTEN A BOOK! NOT EVEN YOUR MOTHER. YOU WANT PEOPLE TO CARE, YOU MAKE THEM CARE AND YOU DO THAT FROM THE BEGINNING, NOT THE END!
6) Pricing the book too high or too low based on what you think it should sell for-Do not be afraid to price the book correctly. Look at what the standard market rate for a book is in your genre and price it accordingly. Too many writers under price because they think that people won’t buy their book and they believe that the industry standard is too high. Other writers, price too high because they think they’ve written something as expensive as a pot of gold. There is a reason why books are priced the way they are: most people will buy at that price. Put your fear or your cockiness aside and be smart with the pricing of your book. If you don’t you’ll only end up hurting yourself, because the publisher or the bookseller is going to make their profit, the problem is you making yours.
7) Self-publishing and naming their publishing company after themselves-(John Doe Publishing Company) To name a company after yourself is a dumb idea. I didn’t say using initials like JD Publishing Company, but actually using a name. Names are as common as body parts and using your name does not make you stand out or make anyone remember you. How many brands do you know, can you name, that are famous with a name of an actual person? My point exactly.
8) Assuming you know where your book sales will come from-Just because your mother, father or aunt claim they will buy your book doesn’t guarantee that they will. Assume they won’t and get a marketing and sales plan together, ensuring that you will actually get some sales from people other than your family members.
9) Not thinking of a product line to sell in addition to your books- Most writers don’t get rich off their books. The authors who do best have product lines in addition to their books. This means workbooks, dvd’s, coloring books, etc. to sell in addition to their books. Adding product lines to your books, makes your books more valuable or at least seem that way. Also, sometimes people don’t want ot buy the book but want to buy the book products. This is still revenue for you and still helps get your name out there.
10) Solely relying on one marketing model to sell your books-Sadly, most authors aren’t versatile and don’t know how to hit the market from every angle. They either rely on just word of mouth marketing, or just online marketing. They don’t utilize different marketing sources to help market their books, which only hinders getting their name out instead of helping to market it out. Every writer needs to be marketing their books at least 5 times a day, and you can’t do that utilizing just one marketing model, several different kinds are needed.
This is it for Part 1, stay tuned for Part 2.
Until the next time!
The Publishing Watchdog

Pre-school Publishing

There is a harsh reality about being an author that most authors don’t want to admit: authorship is a business. Yes, you can dream and imagine a world of creativity, but if you have any hopes of becoming a successful author, you must realize that authorship is a business. Once, you’ve decided that you want to be published or even self-publish yourself, you must! must! must! put on a business person’s hat.

What do you mean authorship is a business?

Most writers come into the publishing arena believing that they’ve written the next best thing since sliced bread. They are looking for someone to believe in them and their book and they don’t want to put in the hardwork necessary to make their book a success. Most authors are lazy: They want to submit their book to a publisher, get the book published and expect the publisher to either do the rest or just tell them what they want them to do, so they can go do it. They don’t want to create a marketing plan, promote or work on distribution for THEIR book, nor do they want to take any initiative to go out and about to bring their book in front of customers.

Personally and professionally, I’ve never understood this sort of thinking. Your book is your baby. Your baby gets accepted to a great pre-school. Do you stop teaching or raising your baby because they’ve gotten accepted to this school or do you continue to nurture and teach your baby? It’s the same concept. To think that just because your book is or has been published means that your job is done is absolutely ridiculous.

Whether you like it or not, the reality is that-it is your job to keep nurturing your book. Nurturing by ways of promoting and marketing it. The publisher, like the pre-school, is only going to do so much. As for believing in you-the publisher, like the pre-school, believes your baby has potential or they wouldn’t be bothering. Now how much potential is between you and the publisher.

Just like your baby is not the only child in the pre-school, your book is not the only one being published by the publisher. If you want your baby to stand out, there are certin things you have to work on with your baby to make that happen. In the world of publishing, it’s marketing and promotions. So, when I hear writers complain about what the publisher isn’t doing for their baby, I wonder about their parenting skills.

What kind of parent are you?

Top 5 Publishers Frustrations

We received a letter the other day from a small publisher asking us to post these truths as they have become increasingly frustrated with what they see as a lack of understanding from authors who want to be traditionally published as opposed to self-publishing. We understand the frustration and decided to post these five publishers frustrations. We hope it will be a helpful benefit to authors looking to still get published traditionally and for those who are to have a better understanding of the role of a publisher.
1) Expecting the Publisher to Do It All for Them
Publishing is a business. If you go out and start any other business, you don’t expect the bank who gives you the loan to do the marketing for you. It is the same with book publishing. Publishers take on titles based on the assumption that you will actively sell your book, and they are expecting you to deliver. They take on your title based on the assumption that you understand that the public wants to hear from the author and not the publisher. Remember, it’s your career hanging in the balance if the book doesn’t sell.

2) Not Knowing the True Role of a Publisher

The role of a book publisher is NOT to make your book a bestseller, that is YOUR responsibility. It is the role of the book publisher to make your book look professional and make it available to the public. Marketing is NOT the role of the publisher. Just like the bank has the role of making available to you a loan to get your business going, it is the role of the publisher to make available your book and make your book look professional so as to get your publishing career started. The publisher, just like the bank, is investing in you. When you sign with a traditional publisher you don’t have to pay for anything. If you get an advance that is a loan further investing in you. Other than investing in making sure your book looks great and is available for sale, there is no other responsibility that the publisher. Marketing is your only responsibility, just like it is in any other business that invests in you.

3) Authors Thinking This is a Parent/Child Relationship

Nothing is more frustrating to a publisher than to find out that the author has the attitude of, “just tell me what to do and I’ll do it” or “tell me where to go and I’ll go.” That is how parents raise their children, not how grown folks interact with other grown folks in a business environment.Publishing is a business just like any other business and no other business just tells you what to do and you go do it. Publishing is the ONLY industry in which folks expect to have this parent/child relationship and for the publisher it is frustrating. The publisher that signs the author believes in the author but this relationship attitude looks as if the author does not believe in themselves.

4) Authors Not Realizing the Public Doesn’t Want to Hear From the Publisher

Authors don’t realize that when the publisher is always in the face of the public screaming, “here’s my author, here’s my author, here’s my author” that the public starts to tune the publisher out. The publisher starts to look like a snake-oil salesman and nobody likes those guys. The public wants to hear from the author. They want to question the author, they want to see the human side of the author. When the publisher is around it only shows the business side and most folks could care less about the business side. The key to success for EVERY author is showing their human side. Again, it goes back to marketing. Marketing it the responsibility of the author. Marketing is about building relationships and no publisher can build a relationship for your audience for you.

5) The Author That Does Not Do Any Marketing At All

We’ve repeated over and over again that marketing is the responsibility of the author. As publishers we try to do some marketing for our authors despite the public backlash. We try to do blog tours, get on blog talk radio, talk about them in social networks, etc. Again, the expectation of the publisher is that the author will do some marketing for themselves. The expectation is that the author who knows about a blog talk radio show, or blog tour will tell their audience ahead of time and not the last minute, if at all. The expectation is that the author will blog about their book, tweet about their book, Facebook about their book throughout the entire process and after the book is published. The expectation is that the author will do some form of marketing, some form of telling the public about their OWN book.

The truth is that not every book gets a marketing budget and publishers save those budgets for authors who take the initiative to regularly market their book. If you can’t invest the time to tell folks about your book, I, as the publisher am NOT going to invest money into fruitless marketing. It is a waste of money for the publisher to be out there and the author is not, especially since it is clear that the public wants to hear from the author.

The other truth is that the authors who build relationships with their public do better than the ones who don’t. All those New York Times Bestsellers and regular Amazon bestsellers happen to authors who market their own books regularly. Nobody is going to buy your book just because you wrote it, you have to go tell folks about it and do it so much that you stay on their minds.

We hope this blog has been helpful to those traditionally published, looking to get traditionally published, and even those embarking on self-publishing. At the beginning, middle and end of the day, marketing is YOUR responsibility as the author. It is your responsibility to be the spokesperson for your book, your baby. Nobody can tell your child’s story like you. Nobody knows your child better than you. A bank, a publisher, a reporter, can’t tell it like you can, so go out and tell it. Don’t be shy. Your babies success depends upon you.

Until the next blog!

This is a ZLS Publishing Blog. To find out more about ZLS Publishing visit us at: http://www.zlspublishing.com.
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Shapeshifter Stories Contest

ZLS Publishing is giving away a free copy of our Paranormal Romance Author Roberta DeCaprio’s book-Altered Journey. Her book has shape-shifting, time travel, Druids, and all that great stuff in it.

If you could shape-shift into anything or anybody who or what would that be and why? The winner will be picked by Roberta DeCaprio herself and we will mail the winner a copy of this book for their collection.

The Top 10 Book Marketing Lies Ever Told

As a book publishing company, we harp constantly about book marketing and how important it is for authors to market their books. More often than not, we get these explanations, excuses, reasons, etc. why authors won’t or can’t market their own books. When we ask authors where they come up with these things, we often hear, “Oh it’s what we’ve been told for years,” or “Honey! That advice is all over the internet.”

So, in an effort to debunk the marketing lies that hold authors back from successfully marketing their books, we list and explain why these are nothing more than lies, lies, and more lies.

1) I don’t need to market my book because it will sell itself: I wrote it didn’t I.
Why it’s a lie: No book sells itself and it doesn’t matter who wrote it. Even the most famous authors around have to tell others about their books.Let’s address the fact that you wrote it for a second. Um, and you are? Nobody cares who you are or what you do. They care about what your book is going to do for them. They care about whether or not your book will entertain them, annoy them, or change their life somehow. Being a celebrity in your own mind will not just sell your books.

2) The celebrities I know on Facebook or Twitter will help me sell my book.
Why this is a lie: First, most of the celebrities such as Puffy, Barack Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, etc. are either authors themselves or have had books written about them. Their focus is going to be marketing their own books long before they market yours. Also, celebrities are too busy growing their own business or running the country to take the time out to market your book. Marketing takes time and when you’re running a country or a conglomerate, marketing some author they don’t know and is just a Twitter or Facebook follower is not going to happen.

3) If I could just get on Oprah’s OWN network or on the Ellen Degeneres show, my book will be a bestseller.
Why this is a lie: There have been authors who have been on numerous national TV shows. There is no denying it is fantastic exposure, and it’s the kind of exposure that most authors who love to have and those that have it work hard on it.However, making one appearance on a TV show does not guarantee bestseller status. If your book doesn’t seem interesting or you don’t come across as genuine or interesting, all the TV shows in the world are not going to sell your books and even if they do, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll sell enough to be considered a bestseller.

4) All I’ve got to do is create a website, send people there and my books will sell.
Why it’s a lie: Having a web site should certainly be a part of your marketing strategy, but it’s only one part of an overall strategy. Authors should use social media sites, do events, blogging, media appearances, etc. to help sell your books. Your web site alone won’t help you sell a lot of books.

5) My book appeals to everybody.
Why it’s a lie: No book appeals to everybody. Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes. Take a look at the Amazon Top 100 list or even the New York Times bestsellers list and we’ll bet there are books on that list you have no interest in reading.

6) I’m an author, not a salesperson.
Why it’s a lie: Your book, your responsibility. Your book is not going to sell itself. With publishing comes the responsibility of putting your own name out there and letting folks know you’ve got a book out there and convincing them to buy it. This might mean speaking at your local school, doing webinars, doing book tours, etc., but whatever it is you do, it is still your responsibility to do what needs to be done to get your book out there.

7) If I buy an ad on Facebook, Google (or some other highly populated website) my book will sell tons of copies.
Why it’s a lie: It is true that millions of people use Facebook and Google but hits here don’t necessarily turn into sales. Think about it: when was the last time you purchased something as a result of seeing an ad for it on one of these sites? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably “never.”

8) Once my book is out it’s going to sell so well, I’ll get to make writing my full-time gig.
Why it’s a lie: This is every author’s dream, but unfortunately few writers are able to make a full time living from doing nothing but writing. Most authors make $1 to $2 in royalties for every book that is sold and if you’re selling your book as an Ebook on Amazon, you’re making even less. Plus, since most books don’t even sell 500 copies and even if it did 500 copies isn’t enough to live off of, you won’t be able to quit your day job.

9) My success is going to be immediate.
Why it’s a lie: There is no such thing as immediate success for an author. Not one author alive or dead got immediate success. We know it’s a great fantasy to have but it’s just that, a fantasy. Success is never immediate and when it is, it doesn’t last long. Success takes time, effort and lots of hard work. This lie goes hand in hand with the author believing that just because they wrote the book, they think it will sell. Nope!

10) If my publisher published my book, they will spend a lot of time and effort marketing it.
Why it’s a lie: Please read what we are about to write and take heed to it: The fact is, your publisher has already taken a chance on your book by agreeing to publish it. They have already paid for editing, layout, cover design, printing, distribution, shipping, and marketing. The publishers only responsibility is to make your book available for sale. We know that’s a hard pill for most authors to swallow, but it’s the truth.
Not every title gets a big marketing budget. In fact, few books get marketing budgets, period. These budgets are usually reserved for authors who already have a reputation for producing books that sell. These are authors who have a platform, a fan base that wants to read the books that they write. Publishers are depending upon authors to deliver the fans that will buy their books. Publishers, now more than ever, are expecting the author to do most of their own marketing. If you get a chance to get a publisher the first time around and your book doesn’t sell well because you haven’t marketed your own book, don’t expect to be published the second time around from the same publisher. Investing in an author is expensive and nothing is more frustrating to a publisher than investing in an author that won’t invest in themselves. Investing in yourself means telling folks about your book, marketing your book. It’s your book, your responsibility.

So, we’ve just debunked the 10 biggest book marketing lies ever told. Hopefully, you understand that marketing begins and ends with you. There is also no “one size fits all” approach or magic bullet when it comes to marketing your books. It takes a lot of different things: writing great books, building relationships, hard work, persistence and patience, to achieve success as an author. So tell everyone about your book, consistently tell folks about your book, work hard, don’t give up, and believe that you can and will be successful.

Until the next blog!

10 Ways to Keep People From Laughing At Your Book Cover

As you know by now, we are very socially media friendly. We are on places like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, etc. Being so socially media friendly exposes you to lots of different things and different discussions. One such discussion is the topic of book covers. The other day, in one of the groups we are in, the topic of book covers came up as someone posted what they felt was a bad book cover and started a discussion joking on it. What followed was an entire thread of jokes on the authors book cover.

We, over here at ZLS Publishing were flabbergasted as we’ve seen folks talk about how bad book covers can be, but this was the first time we ever saw a thread with jokes about an author’s book cover. It dawned on us that there are authors that still don’t understand that folks really do judge their book covers.

There is nothing worse for an author than to have folks cracking jokes on your book cover, or worse writing a review and shouting out how badly your book cover looks. Here are 10 ways to keep people from laughing at your book cover:

1) Do not use your own artwork, or your children’s artwork, on the cover. It’s always a terrible idea.

2) Do not put your face on the cover. There are a few rare exceptions to this, such as if you are famous. People are very judgmental and just because you think you look cute, doesn’t mean that other folks think you’re cute. You do not want folks to not pick up your book because they don’t think you’re attractive. When you’re famous, how cute or ugly you are doesn’t matter, but when you’re not famous (famous in your own mind doesn’t count) you only do your book sales a disservice as no one other than your mother, your boyfriend, or your spouse will always think you’re beautiful.

3) Do not use cheap clip art on your cover. I’m talking about the stuff that comes free with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or other cheap layout programs. Quality stock photography is OK.

4) Do not use any of the following fonts (anywhere!): Comic Sans or Papyrus. These fonts only work if you are writing a humor book, or intentionally attempting to create a design that folks will laugh at.

5) No font explosions! (And avoid special styling.) Usually a cover should not use more than 2-3 fonts. Avoid putting words in caps, italics caps, outlined caps, bullet points, etc. Do not “shape” the type either. Just because you think it looks pretty, nine times out of ten, it looks terrible. There are exceptions to these rules such as when designing a cover for a romance novel, but most likely it should be avoided.

6) The title should be big and easy to read. This is more important than ever. Many people will first see your cover on a screen, not on a shelf and if it’s hard to read, they will pass it on by.

7) Do not stick an image inside a box on the cover. This is such a self-publishing move. It looks extremely amateurish. Get rid of the box and extend the image all the way out to the edge. It’s a book cover, not a t-shirt. This design method only looks good on t-shirts.

8) Avoid loud color combinations. Sometimes these covers are meant to catch people’s attention. Usually, it just makes your book look amateurish and we’ve even seen them called freakish.

9) No sunrise photos, no sunset photos, no ocean photos, no fluffy clouds.

10) Don’t design your own cover. Designing your own book covers goes hand in hand with the lawyer who defends himself in court. It is NOT a smart move. Hire a professional who is not emotionally attached to your book cover. Hire one who can see the forest for the trees. It’s been shown again and again that the more attached to your book that you are and when you do it yourself, the worst the book comes out. Save up the money, sacrifice the shoe or sneaker budget and hire a professional designer. Extra tip: Most designers work on payment plans.

Now, while everyone won’t like every cover and folks will always have an opinion, knowing the rules and following the rules will help tone down folks opinions and definitely tone down the jokes.

Until the next blog!

5 Things to Remember Before Cursing The Book Reviewer Out

We are very active on social media. We are in several groups on both Facebook and LinkedIn. Lately, the question about responding to reviewers who leave bad reviews or seemingly bad reviews has come up and it is obviously a question that lies heavily on an authors mind. Their online reputation is at stake. To curse the reviewer out or not, that has been the question.

It is no secret that authors care about their books. Their books are their babies. Completing that book is like giving birth and for most authors that is on the list of great accomplishments. Their books are their children and they are the parent. Like most parents, these authors are sensitive about their children and what folks have to say about their children. They are sensitive to the criticisms because they want to be and feel they are the best parent in the world. Their child can do no wrong, so don’t talk about their baby because you are in essence talking about them.

However, children are NOT perfect and neither are parents. Just as a parent that is in denial that their child is not a “good boy or girl” can ruin a child’s chance for success, authors can do the same for their books if they fail to accept the fact that their books are not always “good boys or girls.”

In the real world, when a parent curses out a teacher, professor, principal, etc. the parent is seen as ghetto or a trouble maker. In the literary world, the author can be seen as unprofessional or as we saw an author called recently, “a big baby.”

While it is hard to remember to mind one’s manners as an author when they see what they don’t like about their babies or hear what they don’t like about their babies, if they fail to have common courtesy or to remember the human side of readers and reviewers, they can look bad and sometimes ruin their careers before they start, or even bring their careers to an immediate halt.

It is very hard not to take a criticism to heart. However, before you decide to curse the reviewer out there are some things you should try:

1) Remember You Cannot Be All Things To All People
With that said, remember that your book is not going to be for everybody. Like everything else, there will be folks who like you and what you do and there will be folks who won’t like you and what you don’t do. My mother use to say, “the folks that are meant to like you will, the folks who aren’t meant to like you won’t. Take those that don’t like you with a grain of salt, they’ve been chosen for that purpose.” This is something authors should remember.

2) Wait 24 Hours If You’re Going To Respond:
When you first get that review and it’s bad, you’re mad as hell. You’re first instinct is to respond and curse the reviewer out. You’d do best to respond to reviews as you do with anything else and don’t respond right away. Given the emotions involved, given all the years you spent writing your book before someone came along and stepped on it, it’s extraordinarily difficult to respond to a bad review with grace when you first read it. Give yourself 24 hours to cool off before responding, if you’re going to respond. Remember though, if you are going to respond that when you write what you write you are going to be writing what amounts to public relations content in the reply and it needs to be your best work.

3) Remember What Your Mother Said About Having The Last Word
One author who’d responded negatively to a book reviewer was asked why they responded at all. The response was, “why should the reviewer have the last word?” Do you remember when you were a child and your mother use to tell you how it wasn’t always wise to have the last word. Well, this is a perfect example of that.
Reviewers are entitled to their opinions, and they’re allowed to not like your book. If they’ve given you a nasty review, you diminish yourself by getting into an online fistfight with them.

4) Remember You Are Your Own PR Rep and Firm
What you write in response to a reviewer is read by other reviewers. Over the months and years, your book page may be reviewed hundreds or thousands of times by potential customers making decisions on whether to buy your book based on others’ reviews. It’s arguable that your response is more important than your own website.

You want to be seen as an author with grace. In one of the discussions on Facebook about reviews, an authors review page was linked. More than one buyer in the group when they saw the authors response said that they would NOT buy from the author because the author responded to the reviewer and did so in a way that showed an attitude. The author doesn’t realize the impact that responding has. What may seem like just a simple response without an attitude can come off as an attitude. You cannot control how your words are interpreted, so sometimes it’s best to do what PR firms do and make the decision to let things just blow over by not responding.

5. Ask For More Reviews Every Chance You Get From Folks You Know Who Bought The Book
There is an old saying that the good can outweigh the bad and this is often the case when it comes to book reviews. The more positive book reviews you get especially on Amazon, the higher your star ranking. The hardest thing to do is to get reviews but that should be a goal of yours. Reviews sell books especially good reviews.

Another thing to remember is not to have your friends come on and blast the reviewer. Your friends blasting the reviewer is equally as bad as you doing it.Those responses speak for you and it’s not like you can pull out a press conference and defend your words and neither can your friend’s. When you announce that you got a bad review, also remember to announce that your trying to be seen as an author with grace and to please don’t negatively respond to the reviewer as it makes you look bad.

Bad reviews can be inevitable because everyone has an opinion. What can be controlled is your response to them. Either say nothing or just say thank you for taking the time to review my book and leave it at that. One sentence and it has a thank you in it. Other reviewers, book buyers, and customers will remember that thank you if your sentence is short and sweet. As tempting as it is to write a long sentence or go back and forth with the reviewer, remember it is YOU who will look bad, look unprofessional, look as if you can’t take negativity and that could backfire for you.

Until the next blog!

his is a ZLS Publishing Blog. To find out more about ZLS Publishing visit us at: http://www.zlspublishing.com.
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