I continually recommend that authors get book reviews—lots of them. And I occasionally provide you with directories of book reviewers. I also suggest that you check to find out who is reviewing books in your book’s category and attempt to contact them.
But the question comes up from time to time: what are the true benefits of book reviews? What if you get a bad review, does this discredit you and doom your book sales? Not necessarily. Everyone has an opinion. And yes, people can be swayed. But I believe that a book would have to be pretty awful and there would have to be many negative reviews before they would affect sales to any degree.
If I believe that, then why would I encourage book reviews at all? If reviews don’t deter people from buying a book, why would good reviews inspire people to buy it?
All good questions—something to ponder. And there are no absolute answers. The thing is, books need exposure. Readers won’t buy a book they don’t know exists. Reviews appearing at various review sites, published in magazines and newsletters, posted at Amazon.com, included in the author’s promo material and so forth compute as exposure for that book.
Simply showcase your book at your website, tell people you meet about it and sit with it at a book festival in the fall and 1,000 people may discover it. Do all of the above and also have it reviewed by even a dozen reviewers and it may get noticed by 10s of thousands more potential readers.
Do the math. If 2 percent of the people who see your book end up buying it, certainly, your pocketbook will benefit from wider exposure, right?