eBook Marketing: Is Buying a Great Book Review Your Cup of Tea?

With the huge controversy brewing in the Book Publishing Industry over book reviews and how they’re obtained and used, I thought I would jump in on this.

We have exposed a problem in the trust of one of the decision points buyers have. Is the ebook as good as the review says it is? How much do readers/buyers rely on reviews? Could this start the end of a time-old tradition? Are there professional reviewers still out there that have strong ethics and do the job honestly?

Reviews are Part of the Game

Indie authors are easy to point the finger at. They already have an uphill battle against the traditional publishing and their large marketing machines. So if they buy a good review, is it gaming the system? What happens if they get a bad review? Do they bury it?

On the other side, traditional publishers call it a marketing plan. It’s the same thing, they just do it differently. It is just an investment in marketing. They sent out review copies to all the high powered media groups and get their feedback and then cherry pick the best reviews. The buying public has never called it a conflict of interest. Think back. Have you ever seen a bad review on a dust cover? I don’t think so. You’ll see the bad ones only online, where they are from customers or the reviews aren’t paid for.

Decision Making
So how important are book reviews to the buying decision? Will an author’s success depend on good reviews?

My first move was to review a study conducted by Mark Coker from Smashwords through Mobileread and posted on his blog. The study question was: “Select the single most common criterion you, the reader, follow to discover your next read.” The result was different than I expected but it should help guide indie authors in focusing their marketing effort.

The first item that caught my eye was: Reviews are considered first in the decision process only 7% of the time. I guess you can get used to reading words like: spell-binding, a real thriller, engaging, etc. after a while.

My pick for top method was second in his survey: 18% picked the ebook because it was one of their favorite authors.

That gets me to the survey’s top pick: 29% indicated that online recommendations from fellow readers, forums, blogs and message boards were first. That tells me that online communities are what readers are using the most to guide their decisions. The 7% may put this problem in perspective.

Do bookstores still fit into the process?

Remember the good old days when there were one or two bookstores in every mall. You could browse a store, make eye contact with the book cover, read the dust cover and the prominent reviews and that would close the deal right there.

Bookstores are slowly moving out of the equation. That touch and feel is not part of the process anymore. They are becoming more of a showroom.

Not the Internet. It has a massive number of books online and it’s really only starting. The reader has started to change their selection process and indie author must take notes. Ebooks will stay on the virtual Internet shelves of online retailers for a very long time without a space issue and so will all their reviews.

Time Management

As most indie authors know by now, time management is the key to their productivity. If you’re writing a novel, doing your marketing thing and trying to handle 1,000 followers on your twitter account, you have to manage your minutes.

Buyers and readers have the same problems. That is why the successful indie author must target their readers online. Your audience/reader’s attention span is getting shorter. As Coker’s study suggests, you must rely on online communications to get to your customers.

Remember you are dealing with a community of unorganized people talking about what books they like and don’t like. The question is: How much will they rely on reviews to make their buying decision and should you invest in them?

Are Buying Reviews your Cup of Tea?

An indie author has a big decision to make about buying reviews to sell their ebook. Some marketing experts say that word of mouth is the best way to promote your book. Whether it is word of mouth or tweet to tweet or by cultivating Facebook friends, the process will be online.

I am always doing a little study here and there trying to figure out what is going on in this crazy industry. Here is a quick one I will share. This is a very limited one involving reviews and success.

I choose a prominent indie author for the study who has had major success in the ebook market place. I took one of the author’s latest books and looked at the reviews versus success.

Source: Amazon buy page: contained the usual book description, a book trailer, editorial reviews, online reviews from major outlets, individual reviews and a brief question and answer session with the author.

Priced: $9.99 (not a cheap one).

Reviews: This book had over 350 reviews from verified customers and top ranking reviewers with lots of comments. (Would anyone ever read 350 reviews to make a buying decision? People have a hard time going to the second page of a Google search.)

Results: A 3 star overall rating (not one of the author’s better books)

Kicker: the ebook is 35^th in sales in the Kindle Store.

Conclusion: The quantity of reviews gave the buyers a good indication of the quality of the ebook and they didn’t care. They purchased it anyway. In this case, the reviews really didn’t matter. The downside to the author is that the mediocre reviews will stay online forever.

So how important are book reviews and should you pay for them?

The goal is to get readers to go to your buy page, charm and convince them this book is for them and then buy the book. Right. If paying for book reviews is not your cup of tea, you must come up with another plan of attack.

You need to understand how the buying process works and study your audience. Where are they? How can I get to them?

The author sighted above has developed a following through social media and has written to a popular genre. The author is not relying on reviews to sell books.

The Internet has lots of noise in the social media area but that is still becoming a popular method of marketing and communications.

Independent Book Reviews

I hate to see the individual review services take the heat on this. Many are honest, reputable, long standing people. Some of them do the reviews because they love to read. Just a few cross the line.

The Internet has changed the way we look at book reviews because of the quantity of them available to readers. No more does the reader rely on quick-snapshots on the dust cover or a glowing review in a major magazine or newspaper. Now we have real live readers giving their opinions. I think one of the reasons only 7% use the reviews to make the buying decision is that there so many book reviews, which in some cases are not reliable, they look for information.

The tea party is not over.

Some of the big hitters are trying to add credibility to the process. For example, Amazon has had their own accredited review system called Vine for several years now.

It is an invitation-only review program that allows manufacturers and publishers to receive reviews for books that have been offered on Amazon.com. Companies that use this service pay for access. Some receive a free book in exchange for the review.

The criteria for picking the reviewers is based on trust, whatever that means. The reviewers are not paid and the review will be published regardless whether the review is good or bad.

Another player in the review game is LibraryThing. They call their program Early Reviewers. They are more focused on publishers who furnish free advanced copies to readers in exchange for reviews.

They do have a program for self-published authors called Member Giveaways. The authors list their book in the program to give free to prospective reviewers. The reviewers are picked randomly. The catch here is they are not required to review the book.

Our host here, SPR provides a book review service. For a very small fee, the author gets his book reviewed by an expert and the review gets posted by SPR and with on-line retailers.

From reviewing SPR’s reviews they have posted, they do a good and fair job in reviewing the books.

There are other good review services that also show professionalism in their approach to the review process. Those are the reviews we need to get in front of the readers.

Maybe we can have some sort of industry accreditation system for reviewers put into place; a review that will give the readers a better idea of the quality of the book. You know, one that raises the flag when the book doesn’t match the reader’s expectations.

A big question I have is: If only 7% of readers use reviews to make the buy decision, do you need to buy 5 star reviews to sell your ebook?

That’s your decision. Before proceeding, check out some of the most popular online communities. There is a lot more to marketing than the book reviews.

Some sources

Some of the forums I follow are: Mobilereads, Kindleboards, Goodreads, Nookboards and LibraryThing.

A great blog discussion on the book review topic is: Should Authors Pay for Book Reviews? by Joel Friedlander on August 29, 2012

Another great blog that can help indie authors in the right direction is:

How To Get Amazon’s Top Customer Reviewers To Review Your Book by Joanna Penn on September 16, 2012. 

So do you have any ideas on how to improve the practice of paid book reviews?

How does buying your way in, benefit you in the long run?

Let’s build a list of forums through your comments that will help indie authors get exposure to there readers.

Follow Me on Twitter: @jimhbs

Or EMAIL at: jim@jamesmoushon.com
View my website: James Moushon – Mystery Writer

Or visit my blog: The eBook Author Corner
Take a look at my NEW blog: HBS Author’s Spotlight

Check out the Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel: Call Off The Dogs

 

 

 

Library eBooks: Is the eBook Ecosystem affected by the Amazon Library Lending Process?

My usual blogging direction is toward the ebook author and the self-publishing world. With this blog I take a left turn and explore the Amazon Library Lending Process and how it affects the ebook ecosystem.

The Jungle

The Inhabitants

In the ebook jungle, the traditional publishers are indeed the king of beasts. They control the prices and the access to the ebooks. Even the authors who create the content have little say. If publishers don’t want you to borrow one of their titles, you can’t. If they want you to wait for a title, you wait.

The next level of control is Amazon. They play the leopard’s role in this habitat. No matter how you look at the lending program, all paths out lead to their sales pages. I don’t see them changing their spots, ever.

Then there is Overdrive. They are the facilitator in this process. They feed you directly into the lion’s den.

The hunters in this jungle are the readers. They get to borrow what is put on the table. It is not their choice what is available. The decisions are made by the control groups.

The Problems

For something that was highly sought, library ebook lending has some major problems. I guess we thought that the ebook library process would mirror the decades-old tradition of libraries and their lending practices. You know the days when the library purchased a book from any source and placed it on the shelf.

For sure, problems with the new process are swirling around the blogosphere like a down pour in the rain forest. Let’s check in on a couple of the more popular discussions.

Privacy of Information

There is a lot of discussion about Amazon using the library lending process to more accurately profile our wants and habits and using that information to sell more products. I think it is the penalty we have to pay to get a free copy to read. Amazon’s incentive is to get you to buy something but this concept is everywhere? If I am not going to buy a $14.99 ebook, all the marketing in the world is not going to change my mind. There are some great discussions on this topic and I see merit in both sides of the argument. (Check references listed below.)

Of all the bantering and opinions about how to solve the privacy problem, the most absurd is to just pirate the ebook file, put it on the Internet and let everybody share in the free copy. Didn’t this happen in the music business? I wonder if those folks are out of jail yet?

Or I could pay cash for a hardcover book and avoid security cameras.

All I know is when I go to the grocery store and start shopping, I have a list of needs but I am also looking for discounted items I can buy with my shopper’s card. Today I found some hotdogs on sale. Because I am a hotdog kind of guy, I purchased a couple extra packages.

Then I headed to the checkout. I have several alternatives. I can give the checker my shopper’s card, get my discount but give up my personal information and buying habits. Or I can have the checker process my order without my card, lose the discount and save my privacy.

And I have another alternative. I could use the pirates’ method and walk straight out the door, saving my privacy and getting my groceries free.

Checkout limits

This is an old business concept called a ‘click charge’. That is the payment for incremental usage of an item. In the Libraries’ version, the ‘clicks’ or checkouts are paid for in advance.

The ‘click charge’ concept in the digital world was tried in the 1990’s when businesses started converting their paper forms to electronic forms. Several software development companies created e-forms design software to assist companies in the conversion.

Once the process started and the software companies saw how popular digital forms were going to be and how much money businesses were saving on the e-forms, they decided they wanted more than just the money for the design software. They wanted a fee for each form designed. This was called a ‘click charge’. They sold a license for blocks of forms (usually 50 or 100 at a time). Once a company surpassed their block, they had to pay for a new batch.

Companies didn’t go for this very long. They looked for other alternatives. Eventually application software companies added e-forms to their systems. Now e-forms design software, with no extra fee, is everywhere.

By the way, the original e-form design companies are no longer in business. New ideas and competition drove them somewhere else.

Expansion of the Audience

With the low price point of the new Kindles there is a potential of three times as many patrons demanding to checkout ebooks. And it will get worse. In November, there will be a ‘Kindle Fire’ in the jungle. Because of the expanded audience and the way copy access is handled, Nook will take a direct hit on this one. Once free to roam the collections, Nook users will now compete with the Kindle users. This should deeply impact the library budgets, their collections and availability.

A quick look at my libraries’ James Patterson’s collection shows 718 access copies with only 36 copies available or 5 percent. Only one title is available that was published since 2009. With these stats many people move on to something else. They either select something else in the library catalog or because they have their Kindle in their hands, they just buy it. Amazon’s motive, I am sure.

Survival

As long as we have unlimited checkouts, the library must encourage early RETURNS.

The Principle of Maximizing Library Returns states that in the library lending process, returning one book earlier than the  loan expiration date, while keeping the titles available constant and with no checkout limit, will at some point yield a monetary return to the library.

Of course, all ebooks will never be checked out at one time but popular ebook titles will almost always create a waiting list. On hold, if you will.

So does the library buy access to more copies of the popular title or do they let their patrons wait for the title to be available? Trust me the wait can be very long.

So what happens when the reader is done with the title and returns it early? The next reader in the hold line has the opportunity to check the ebook out. If this happens often enough, the need for the library to purchase access to another copy of the ebook diminishes.

Let’s take a quick look at one title to illustrate the point.

Don’t Blink x James Patterson

There are Only 4 ebook access copies in my library’s collection.

There are 71 patrons on the waiting list. At the rate of a full 14 day checkout, it will take 248.5 days to meet the demand. If the ebook was returned early, let’s say 5 days, the wait decreases to 88.75 days. (Still a three month wait.)

A better scenario would be to purchase 6 more copies (about $60.00) and encourage early returns. A 5 day return would bring the demand down to a 35 day wait.                                                       

Click Charge Strategy

If the publishers elect to impose a checkout limit, then the libraries must modify their strategy. In a way it makes the process simpler. Just buy short and adjust up.

Maybe you could test this now with HarperCollins. Only buy one copy of a title. If you see a hold list developing, buy another. With this strategy at least you won’t get caught holding 10 copies of a title with no activity.

Managing your digital collection will be the key to handling ‘click charges’ and reordering.

I wouldn’t boycott but I would not embrace the limit system either. Just adjust your buying model and limit the bad apples. Libraries do have the final say on which ebooks they purchase access too.

Living in Harmony

So what does this mean to the ebook ecosystem? I do know the natives are getting restless. As new technology and software enter the ecosystem, the pressure on libraries to keep up will grow dramatically.

I believe that ‘Returns’ are a key for libraries to maximize their investment in their collections. The less days an ebook is on loan, the greater the opportunity for the library to not buy access to an additional copy. The patrons need an incentive to return the ebooks early.

In the end we need a new animal in the ecosystem. Competition could solve some of the problems. Whether it comes from Google or 3M or another player we need more choices. Maybe we are looking at Smashwords entering the lending business or Amazon themselves. They have access to the content and their selection should be much greater.

Library access to a source of self-published authors and their works at discounted pricing could help patrons get exposure to new writers and relieve some of the pressure from the Overdrive lending system we are seeing currently.

What are your thoughts?

What can we do to encourage patrons to return ebooks early?

Will libraries have to change the way they manage their collections?
Is the ebook lending privacy issue a major problem or our current way of life?
Will libraries ever be able to purchase a copy of an ebook, place it on their server and have unlimited distribution to their patrons, like they do hardcovers?

References

eBook Authors: Is the New Kindle Library Lending Program a New Opportunity for Self-Publishers? by James Moushon

Publishing Industry Forces OverDrive and Other Library eBook Vendors to Take a Giant Step Back from the blog Librarian by Day by Bobbi NewmanBottom of Form

Libraries Got Screwed by Amazon and Overdrive from the blog Librarian in Black by Sarah Houghton

Lessons For the eBook Industry – Study the E-Forms Industry Beginning by James Moushon

A Helping Hand

I need to thank Brenda Brown from the Chandler, Arizona Public Library. She helped me to be able to ‘see the forest for the trees’. Sometimes I get involved in the details and I don’t see the whole picture.

View my website: HBSystems Publications
Specializing in the ebook experience

Or EMAIL at: jrm@hbspub.com

LinkedIn Profile: James Moushon

Author: Call Off The Dogs, a rendered eBook

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