Social media has become a big part of my life. And here is how that all went down.
The truth is, I started going online in early September of 1997. It was my 35th birthday, and Princess Diana had just died. I was not a big fan of hers.
This does not mean I was actively hostile or even uninterested. It was more that I was not a royals watcher. And I am still not much of one.
Whatever Harry, Meghan, Will, and Kate are doing is not much more fascinating to me than what the Kardashians are doing.
That is, not much at all. But I digress.
I was shocked to find people (this was on MIRC) who had whatnot to talk about. Now, this was not a great swath of highly intellectual jargon. And I was not making deep, long-lasting friendships.
But I was finding out that there were people out there with something to say. And, I was learning that I, too, had what to say.
Then Came the Early Years
I switched over to the New York Times’s forum, Abuzz, in maybe 1999. There, I found more intellectual discussion but also a lot of silliness and a lot of heart. The friendships were deeper.
In fact, I am still friends with some of the people from that time.
When Abuzz finally folded, Able2know.org was born. This continued the smart talk but it also opened up less intellectual talk.
Facebook
I joined Facebook on October 5, 2008.
And when I first got there, it, too, was a more geeky and almost intellectual place. But that changed.
At some point, Facebook converted to a more egalitarian site much like it is today.
So, swag is necessary when you go on the road. Work a convention at a dealer’s table, or get your book into a library, and you may need a little extra something to give away. Hence here are a few choices.
Bookmarks, a Very Common Form of Swag
Maybe the best and closest kind of giveaway item is the humble bookmark. In one sense, it’s perfect because it relates directly to books and reading. And you can spend as much or as little as you like. Plus maybe you only want something straightforward, perhaps a section of your cover, often printed on one side on heavy cardboard stock. And that’s great!
Because you’ve got some real estate, consider some additions, such as your website or even a QR code for a discount off one of your books. However, I suggest leaving one side blank for notes. While that’s not strictly necessarily, it may end up cheaper for you, not to mention it having an actual purpose.
Bookmarks are particularly useful because not only can you put them in your own books, you can put them in library or bookstore books. Yes, they might be removed and discarded. However, you need to consider that these are loss leaders; you need to be ready to lose some cash on these.
Business Cards
These seem hit or miss. If you go to conventions and run a table or booth, you will need cards. And again, try to keep the back blank. Pro tip: use matte. Shiny card stock costs more and it makes it harder to write on the card. Because you want people writing on your cards. Oh, and don’t be stingy with them. Give them away. Meet someone? Give them a card. Someone stops by your table? Give them a card. Like bookmarks, these will be discarded by a lot of people. Accept that as a cost of doing business.
Tee Shirts
These can work really well if you have a fantastic and memorable cover design, or a great catch phrase. Imagine a tee shirt which has your cover on the front and your catch phrase on the back. You can make people into walking billboards this way. Be ready to give a lot of these away, and maybe even use them as contest prizes. Most people will not purchase these unless you become really famous. Again, this is a cost of doing business.
Toys and Action Figures
Funko Pops lets you design your own male and female characters. But volume is an issue here. And so is the startup cost. The blank figures in that link are almost $10 apiece. Hence a large run of these may not be in the cards – so take advantage of their rareness and play on the scarcity aspect when giving these away or selling them.
For other types of action figures, look at prices and consider what you want to settle with. If the figure doesn’t end up looking a lot like you, how will that make you feel? If the answer is ‘terrible, of course’, then you might want to do something else with your swag budget.
Swag: Some Takeaways
Giving away swag may seem counterintuitive. After all, you want to make money, rather than spend it. But if you are new on the scene, it can be a great way to get noticed and show how you’re different from all the rest.
In my travels online, I have seen blog posts that were under 50 words long. I have seen blog posts that were a good 10,000 words long. Tweets, of course, are limited. But there have been plenty of Pinterest pins with just an image and nothing else. Or they’ve got enough verbiage behind them to seemingly rival War and Peace. So, what’s ideal? Is there any science behind it?
Blogs
How long should blog posts be? Buffer likes blog post titles to be six words long (oops, this blog post’s title is too long). Interestingly enough, the blog post where I got the inspiration for this blog post from also has a title that is too long.
Interestingly enough, Buffer said blog posts are best at 1,600 words in length.
However, Yoast (the fine makers of an SEO plugin I use for my own blog posting–as do many other people!) provides good SEO credit for blog posts that are at least 300 words in length.
The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but one thing is for sure – those fifty-word blog posts just plain are not long enough.
Facebook
How big should a Facebook post be? Buffer said forty characters.
Keep it short, snappy, and to the point. According to Lee, Facebook posts that exceed forty characters degrade in engagement as they get longer.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but that 700-word screed you wrote? Better make that a blog post instead and just link to it. But if you put the whole thing on Facebook, people will scroll right on by. Yes, even if you add an image.
Here’s a trick to get around the forty-character wall – links show the title and some text, and you can always change these.
Or add an image with some text. But don’t go nuts! It is very, very easy to hit and exceed critical mass.
Best Lengths for LinkedIn Posts
How long should a LinkedIn post be? Buffer clocks in at twenty-five words, based upon clickthrough data.
Pinterest
How large should a Pinterest image be?
Buffer’s got you covered – 735px x 1102px. These taller pins seem to stand out more, and are therefore shared more often.
Best Lengths for Twitter Posts
How long should an effective Tweet be? Buffer said to limit it to 71 – 100 characters, in order to provide some space for people to comment before sending out a modified tweet (MT).
So keep hashtags at six characters for maximal impact. Yes, we all know that people sometimes use hashtags as a bit of wry commentary.
Tumblr in particular seems to inspire hashtags like #DudeLooksLikeALady (and not just for fans of Aerosmith). Excessive hashtagging is one of the characteristics of Instagram. However, the best length hashtag on Twitter has six characters.
Best Lengths for Posts: Takeaways
TL; DR – Check out the chart, and the cited article, for more information. The research on best lengths for posts is sound, and fascinating, and the article was a hell of a find.
Is it still relevant, years later? Eh, kind of. You make the call, sports fans.
The best lengths for social media posts keep changing. But there’s one constant in life—cut to the chase!
Want More About Social Media?
If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.
Life, Liberty … And Facebook for All – Your Home Page
Your home page is vital. Log into Facebook, and it’s the first thing you see. It’s your Home Page. So here’s what’s in it. You can divide it into what look like columns.
NOTE: Facebook constantly A/B tests. Features move around, change, are renamed and resized, or disappear all the time. These are rolled out in stages; your neighbor may have a different-looking Home Page from yours. And this is 100% normal.
Home Page Links
So first of all, column one (left side, top):
• News Feed † Messenger • Watch † Marketplace
Then shortcuts; this is a section you add to or subtract from.
Then …
• Explore † Pages • Groups † Events • Fundraisers † Games etc.
Your Feed
Then column two (center):
• Status messages on friends’ pages † Other friend activities • Anything your friends or the pages you follow are sharing
Column Three
Then column three (right, top):
† Events • Friends’ Birthdays † Marketplace • Groups You Might Like † People You May Know • Targeted Advertisements † A list of friends available on chat (at the bottom)
Let’s start with Column One:
Groups
So this is a list of the groups you have joined.
Pages
These are pages you are following.
Friends
So pretty obviously, this is a way to access your entire list of friends.
Create Group
So you can create groups for any reason. And this includes to support a beloved entertainment figure, promote your business or just complain about people wearing Crocs. So I’ll get into the specifics later.
Games
These will rotate as you access more games, depending upon recency.
Status Messages on Friends’ Pages
So this is the actual News Feed itself. And you can comment on others’ statuses (statii?) or posted links.
Your Home Page Still Shows Other Friend Activities
First of all, you are served everyone’s activities. Facebook can be a tsunami of data. However, a lot is aggregated; you are usually shown that six people joined a group, rather than separate messages on all half-dozen.
Events
So if you’ve got upcoming events and you haven’t RSVP’d, they’ll show up here, but you can jettison them by clicking the x on the right side. Note that you’ll be invited to all sorts of stuff, including sponsored activities and openings by commercial ventures. And RSVP’ing is not strictly necessary. However, as an event organizer, I have to say it’s appreciated so as to at least get a handle on headcount (and know who not to expect).
You need not RSVP for commercial store openings or whatnot.
Friends’ Birthdays
Whether they’ve made the year apparent is their own business. But if they’ve got the month and day up on Facebook, birthdays will show up here. And of course you’re under no obligation to wish people a Happy Birthday, but it is kind of nice.
People You May Know
So this is based upon some sort of an algorithm whereby Facebook looks at things like your current friends list, their friends, your location and possibly also your school(s) and workplace(s). However, I don’t believe the latter are included at this time. So if you have any mutual friends, Facebook lists them as well.
Facebook does not always get this right, or it gets it wrong in interesting ways, e. g. Facebook says I “may know” the spouse of someone I attended High School with. Well, unless I went to High School with the spouse (over 30 years ago), then there isn’t much of a likelihood there.
Hence there are times when this list is bewildering. Hey, Facebook is doing the best it can.
Targeted Advertisements on Your Home Page
Well, they’re as targeted as Facebook can make them. This apparently has a basis in your click activity, your likes, your friends’ likes and whenever you click on an ad to get rid of it. Again, sometimes Facebook can get this wrong in rather spectacular ways; for example, when I wrote this post originally, it showed me an ad for Toyota. And I have neither owned nor contemplated owning one, ever.
Your Home Page has a List of Friends Available on Chat
It should go without saying that you should never click on links from chatters you don’t know well. And you’re under no obligation whatsoever to answer anyone’s instigated chat.
So a big part of the Facebook experience is not only playing games but also sharing them with others, or sharing status or links. The way you see and can participate in this sharing is via your Home Page. It is, essentially, a bulletin board between you and your pals. But keep your own wall the way you want it. If you don’t want people to swear or argue politics, etc., that is 100% within your rights.
Want More About Facebook?
If my experiences with Facebook resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about the largest social network on the planet, by far.
Have you tried advertising on Facebook? It’s easier and more affordable than you might think.
Keep in mind that Facebook is constantly A/B testing (e. g. checking to see if any new layouts or color schemes, etc. will make you click more), so these instructions might be a little out of date after a while. This has worked in the past. It might not any more. Caveat emptor.
Getting Started
About half the time, Facebook will just come to you and suggest you start advertising. I can’t say what their algorithm is for selecting a post to promote, although they usually suggest a popular one.
If they are not suggesting a post you want to promote (e. g. you would prefer to promote another one), or you are new to promotions and there are no suggestions, or you just want to see how to start one from scratch, go to your Author Page and go to Publishing Tools.
Then, on the right, pull down on Help and click Advertiser Support. This will get you to the Facebook for Business page. In the upper right corner, click Create Ad.
For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll choose Boost Your Posts as our campaign.
Selecting an audience for a post
Audience is important; you do not want to just send to everyone, as even failed clicks are going to cost you money. You will do a lot better with targeting as that will help assure a greater percentage of your clicks are meaningful and helpful. Click Set Audience and Budget.
You can choose an audience from demographics, or from preferences or from lookalikes, who are people similar to those who like your page.
If you are just getting started, and a greater percentage than normal of your likes come from friends and family trying to help you out, do not use this option!
Select a location by navigating around the map and dropping a pin in your preferred location. The age ranges are also pretty self-explanatory. You can even exclude some people.
Setting an Advertising Budget
Start small. You can always add. The minimum is generally $1/day. I prefer what Facebook calls a Lifetime budget, which sets a total. It’s a lot easier to rein in than a Daily budget, I believe.
Scheduling
Go to your analytics and take a look at when more people are on than usual. Select those days and times for your ads! Next click Select Ad Creative. I recommend allowing everything unless you absolutely know your targeted audience is not in a particular area.
Choosing Which Post to Promote for Advertising on Facebook
Choosing a post to promote (if Facebook has not done so for you) is easy. So, select a popular one, representative of your brand. If you have a limited time offer, that could be perfect. Just make sure your ads don’t run after the offer has expired.
If my experiences with Facebook resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about the largest social network on the planet, by far.
A Look at The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott was a fascinating book that I had as required reading for Quinnipiac University’s Social Media Platforms course (ICM522).
The Premise
First of all, the premise is, like a lot of other books about the Internet and social media marketing, that marketing has become less of a one-size-fits-all/push system. Instead, it has instead evolved into a far more balanced bilateral conversation.
And perhaps the most interesting part of the book consists of the rules themselves, which are in Chapter 2, on page 31 and are as follows –
• First of all, marketing is more than just advertising † In addition, public relations is for more than just a mainstream media audience • You are what you publish † And people want authenticity, not spin • People want participation, not propaganda † Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it • Furthermore, marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the web † In addition, public relations is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the web • Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. Instead, it’s about your organization winning business
And the internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media
• Furthermore, companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content † In addition, blogs, online video, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate • And social networks like Twitter (X), Facebook, and LinkedIn allow people all over the world to share content and connect with the people and companies they do business with † Finally, on the web, the lines between marketing and public relations have blurred
Because customers are talking back. And companies and their marketing departments had better start listening.
Essentially, what Gary Vaynerchuk is saying is, little bits of content and engagement which reach your potential customers are the setup for the big finish (which is not really a finish, actually) of a call to action and an attempt to make a sale.
The other major premise of the book is that all platforms have their own native quirks and idiosyncrasies. Therefore what is reliable on Pinterest, might fall flat on Facebook.
What is killer on Tumblr might get a shrug on Instagram. And what is awesome on Twitter might bring the meh elsewhere.
But that all makes sense, as these are somewhat different platforms. Their demographics are different. They have differing user bases and numbers of people online at any given time.
Breaking Down What Went Wrong, and What Went Right
So, the most powerful part of this work was in the analysis and dissection of various real-life pieces of content on the various platforms. Why did something not work?
Maybe the image was too generic or too small or too blurry. Or maybe the call to action was too generic and wishy-washy, or the link did not take the user directly to the page with the sales information or coupon.
Or maybe there was no link or no logo, so the user was confused or annoyed.
While this book was an assignment for my Community Management class, the truth is, I can also see it as applying to the User-Centered Design course at Quinnipiac.
After all, a big part of good user-centric design is to not confuse or annoy the user. Vaynerchuk is looking to take that a step further, and surprise and delight the consumer.
Give people value. So, give them what they want and need, or that at least makes them smile or informs them. In the meantime, show your humanity and your concern.
And then work your tail off.
A terrific read. Everyone in this field should read this book.
Ten Years Later, What Do I Think?
Well, I think that the points Gary V makes are exceptionally valuable for the purposes of marketing. If the user has no idea what you want them to do, then they’ll just do nothing.
So, what do you want them to do? Download an app? Leave a review? Click on a link? Make a purchase? Share a post?
This is why virtually the best buttons you see on any website are the only that just say Click or Buy Now. Nobody writes War and Peace on those. Hell, you just plain can’t! The same should be true for any place where you’re putting a call to action.
This is vital for writers as well, and not just for the marketing of their wares. If you want to evoke sadness in the reader, then you had better make it clear that the characters have experienced, or they are experiencing a sad event.
Show the first with crying or depression or the like. And then show the second with a truly sad event: a death, a divorce, losing a job, failing a class—you get the idea.
This book and its contents have never been more relevant. My review and rating still stand.
Rating for a Right Hook…
5/5 Stars
Want More Book Reviews?
If my experiences with book reviews for social media and writing resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other book review blog posts.
Check Out Book Reviews on Social Media, SEO, Analytics, Design, and Strategy
White Space is not your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen
I read White Space is Not Your Enemy on my own, and then for class.
White Space is not your Enemyby Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen is a beginning design book. And I purchased it because I definitely need assistance with design. While I (at least I think I do) have something of an understanding of which color goes with which, it is sometimes difficult for me to make something look good. Seeking some inexpensive professional help, I turned to this book.
Practical Help With Your White Space and More
So apart from the obvious title, the book offers tips on color combinations, font selection, focal points and even how to prepare a document for a professional print job. And the chapter on design sins really resonated with me.
I have seen poorly designed advertisements (both online and offline) and websites, and have never really been able to adequately articulate just why they were so hideous. So now I can.
Exercises
The exercises in the back of each chapter seemed, I thought, somewhat superfluous. However, I did find myself beginning to look at designs with a more critical eye.
For example, I noticed a print advertisement where the background photograph was of varied colors. Some were light, some, dark. The print, however, was pure white, and cut horizontally along the middle of the photograph.
Hence this would have been fine, except the copy crashed straight into a white space, so some of the print was invisible. Which part? The company’s name. Epic design fail.
Foolproof
Another extremely helpful chapter: the one on the “works every time” layout. This layout is all over the Internet and all over print media, and for good reason. It is, essentially, a full width photograph or other graphic across the top third of the screen or page, with the remaining two-thirds divided into two vertical columns for text.
A cutline (caption) goes directly underneath the visual (if appropriate; some visuals don’t need a cutline), with a more prominent headline directly below that.
Break up the columns into paragraphs and beware widows and orphans (one or two short words on a line). Place tags (these aren’t Internet meta tags), which are the logo, company name and small nugget of information such as the URL or physical address, in the lower right-hand corner. In addition, round it all out with generous margins all around. Voila! An instant beautiful (albeit somewhat common) layout!
If nothing else, that chapter has a greater value than the price of admission.
Learning Creativity
Creativity cannot, truly, be taught. But the peripherals around it can, such as how to gather ideas and nurture them, and how to place those ideas together in a coherent format. It’s like teaching pottery and smithing but not cookery: you get enough so that you can set the table, but not nourish anyone.
For that, you need to be an artist. And that, sadly, no book can ever teach you.
Check Out These 5 Ways for Charities to use Social Media
First of all, before anything else, here are 5 ways for charities to embrace the modern and use social media to help them. Because I still love an older great blog post on five possible uses for social media for charities.
While I think these were good ideas (the TwitterTwibbon was one of them), I suspect that charities could go even further. After all, much of social media is free. And free is one of charities’ favorite words (along with cure, and donation, I suppose).
The social media landscape is always changing, so charities should continue to think creatively. As with businesses, listening to and observing their donors would be a good idea.
Some Ideas
So, how about using Facebook and LinkedIn to promote charitable events? While these RSVPs are often unreliable (a yes often really means maybe, a maybe means “I might get to it if nothing better comes along” but at least no still seems to mean no), this could serve as a way to get the word out.
Or what about keeping donors informed of totals by tweeting them? Hence if a $1,000,000 donation total is desired, how ’bout keeping donors informed on how it’s going by using X (Twitter)? See, this would be in place of an old thermometer bar.
So could volunteers check in with a locative app like foursquare and get badges? Uh, why not? Seriously, I’d love a blood donation badge. So long as it wouldn’t be an emergency, well, why not?
How About Another 5 Ways?
Maybe. It certainly makes sense to try to reach people where they spend a lot of their time.
I’m sure there are plenty more where that came from. Got any ideas of how charities could use social media? Toss ’em here, if you like.
If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.
Another Look at Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
This is something of an updated review of Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff as, by the time I got to the ICM 522 Social Media Platforms class at Quinnipiac University, I had already read this seminal work.
But no matter. Because this is still a terrific work by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, and it remains more than a little relevant.
And in fact, I think I understand it better than I ever have.
Changing the Way You Think about Online Marketing for Good
For Li and Bernoff, the online world is a rich and diversified community. And in that large umbrella community, there are several smaller communities. But unlike in the case of the classic Matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls), there is an enormous amount of overlap.
Above all, they put forward the idea of a system called POST. And if you read nothing else, read this part of not just my review but of their book itself.
• Personae – who are your potential buyers? Who are your readers? And who makes up your audience? † Objectives – what do you expect to get out of going online, and continuing online, or going in a different direction online? • Strategies – how will you implement your ideas? What comes first? In addition, what must wait? † Technologies – which platforms will you use? How will you use these differently as your strategy begins to click into place? So the last time I read Groundswell, I suspect that I did not really understand POST.
And now I know never to start a social media campaign without it. So thanks to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff! This work is a classic for a damned fine reason. It really is that good. Because you need this book in your social media library.
Thirteen Years Later — are Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff Still Relevant?
Social media platforms come and go. Fads rise and fall. Yet through it all, the lessons of the POST strategy, and why it’s so vital? Those are a rock, an anchor in an online world that sometimes feels like just so much jello stuck to the wall, ever sliding downwards.
Ew, sorry for that image, folks.
But never mind that for now.
I think the biggest and most vital part of POST is the first initialism, the P. The buyer persona is someone who we should be thinking about all the time. Not just sometimes, and for God’s sake not just when there’s an exam at school or the boss comes around at work.
It is even a vital concept in a place that you would least expect it — a personal blog. And even in our own social media postings.
For if we are flinging those pixels out to the universe, then we are expecting an audience. We are wishing and hoping to be read!
But if we don’t take that buyer persona into account at all (even when we aren’t selling anything and not expecting anyone to ever want to buy anything), we should still account for our audience.
Social media is exceptionally performative. We curate our photos and our words and our stories and our snark. If we want any sort of a reaction, then we have our audience in mind. Even if that’s subconsciously.
Being offensive is bad. Being unfunny is worse. But being unread? Quelle horreur! That is the worst.
I am EJ Roberts, the reviewer for A Drop of Ink Reviews. So let’s sit and talk about what all of this entails and how it affects the indie author.
First off, I’ve been reading since I was four. I made my family teach me how to read when I couldn’t get anyone to read to me often enough to keep me happy. And I have been devouring books left and right ever since.
I honestly can’t get enough of the written word. Though it wasn’t until about 2009 that I began to have an inkling that such a thing as an “indie author” even existed and could be viewed in a good light.
Writerly Ambitions
I used to think I wanted to be a writer.
Welcome to EJ Roberts of A Drop of Ink Reviews!
And I have some skill at putting words together, but the idea of exposing yourself as an author and facing the rejection and judgement of others – that scared me to death.
I eventually came to the realization that I could use my skills in writing for something else entirely.
I frequented a writing group on Facebook that featured mainly indie authors. There were a few traditionally published writers in the group, but not many. However, their lament was all the same. They couldn’t get reviews for their books. So, in 2015, A Drop of Ink Reviews was born.
Why Reviews Matter
Reviews are incredibly important to an author, and more so for an indie author than one traditionally published. The reviews tell other potential readers that someone took a chance on this unknown author. The more reviews there are, the more the book gains recognition.
Indie authors don’t have advertising and marketing budgets. They have to do all of the work themselves, so each and every review is precious. It’s free marketing and helps propel their book further.
How She Got Her Start
Until that moment, I’ll admit I’d never written a review. I looked at a lot of review websites out there to see how others were doing them. I then created my own idea and ran with it. Before authors would trust me with their books, I had to essentially audition for the right to read and review them for free. I started with a few books I had on my shelf and off I went. It wasn’t long before I was swamped with requests for reviews.
How to Get a Review
Most indie book reviewers will do this free of charge. The only thing being they are given a free e-book. Each reviewer will have their preferred genre, so it’s always important to pay attention to their submission guidelines. Think of it as trying to get an agent. You have to pay attention to their guidelines or your book will be tossed aside.
Personally, I’m quite open about what I’ll review. I do avoid horror, LGBT, non-fiction, poetry, and erotica. I joke that I’m a prude and don’t even want excessive scenes in a book. If they’re important to the storyline, that’s one thing. If they’re thrown in for shock value? Please don’t bother. I’m also fond of Young Adult and Middle Grade books. A lot of reviewers won’t touch those, so it’s important to pay attention.
The Indie View
But how does one go about finding these elusive reviewers? There is an excellent list out there called The Indie View. They sponsor a list of active book reviewers. They also list what genres the author will and will not read so you can eliminate a lot of guesswork. This is not a comprehensive list as indie reviewers must submit themselves. I was on there at one point, but have since been removed.
That’s okay though as I have a steady stream of people still interested.
It’s Just an Opinion (from EJ Roberts or Anyone Else)!
One super important thing to remember about a book review. They are all the opinion of a single person. Once, I posted a 2 star review on my site. I rarely post those, but I was one of the few of hundreds of people who’d read it and gave it a low star rating. I figured the readers of my blog would still be interested and it could bring more readers to the author.
About four people told me they were going to buy the book and read it themselves. That was until the author approached me about removing the review from my site and I made the mistake of doing so. From that moment on, an entire wave of people vowed to never read anything that author ever wrote.
While your feelings might be hurt by a review, let it stand. Don’t say a word. You never know when that negative review will actually bring readers to you.
The Joys and Occasional Downsides of Being a Reviewer
Being a book reviewer I’m put in a unique position. I’m handed someone’s pride and joy and they wait anxiously to hear my opinion. I take this position seriously. My greatest joy is when I can put a 4 or 5 star rating on the book and recommend it to everyone I can think of. I have actually come across a few authors that I will buy their books as soon as they’re released because of my review site.
Unfortunately, along with the fun of discovering a great new author comes the pain of having to tell an author their book wasn’t ready for publication. I do not review those. I quietly give the author a review in an email and point out the flaws. Then there are the books I cannot read for whatever reason. That hurts the most.
Though I believe there is an audience for everyone, sometimes I’m just not it. I am not in a position to review the book if it wasn’t written for me.
Pet Peeves
As I continue to review, I am finding I’m growing a small list of pet peeves. I’m fairly lenient because I still dabble in writing on the side and I know I have my own flaws.
However, the longer I dwell in the indie book world, the more I’m finding less excuses for what are obvious errors. One being not taking the time to proofread your book. A ton of typos drives me nuts. The author cannot see them. He or she has been looking at the book too long. It requires another person to do it. Have a friend who’s picky as all get out help you. Your other option is to pay someone.
When faced with this decision, keep in mind you are investing in the future of your book. I have had the privilege of watching a book blossom from a new cover and editing services. It went from being dead in the water to netting the author a decent little income. Never underestimate the power of editing and cover art.
One Book, Though …
In the past year and a half I’ve been reviewing, I have come across a single book where I could get past the fact it wasn’t edited. A single book. I have 77 reviews on my site. I have read over a 100 books. Only one book. Think about that.
The storyline was so incredible and amazing I could overlook the typos, and there were a lot. Do not think your book can do that. Do not make that mistake. It takes an incredible author to pull that off and they’re a rare breed.
What’s Next for EJ Roberts?
I love what I do. I love reading new books and sharing my opinion with others. And I love that I can shine a light on unknown indie authors and convince people who’d never think to look at an indie author to give one a try. Indie authors break the rules.
Sure, there are a lot out there who will still follow the same worn paths as traditionally published books, but the rule breakers are here. The ones that are carving out the new genres are alive and well in the indie world. I’m glad to be a part of it.
Thank You!
Well, Hello There
It’s me again (Janet). Thank you to EJ Roberts! Please check out A Drop of Ink Reviews when you get a chance.
Just about seven years later, the need for reviewers is still huge! Indie writers need reviewers. And readers need them, too.
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