Book Trailers (tm) & Author Web Sites discussion

Hello, everyone!

(Hopefully I picked the right folder to put this in.) :o)

I am running a poll on my blog: http://jaimeygrant.blogspot.com called "How Much Importance Do You Place On Reviews?" I am curious to know how much readers listen to reviews when deciding what books to buy. I realize that this group is primarily for authors but heck, we're readers too! Please take a few moments to vote in my anonymous poll. If you'd like to share your particular opinion, comments are very welcome.

Thank you for your time and have a lovely day!

~Jaimey

Hey Jaimey,

I voted on your poll.

Reviews are such a touchy topic. I usually read reviews after I read a book. Sometimes that is a good thing, other times its not :]

Thanks for posting the link to your poll :]

I'm the same, Dee. I read them afterwards.

I find that author interviews (and photos) are more likely to impact upon my decision to buy a book.

I am still driven by the cover more than anything else.

I voted moderately important and that seemed to be the consensus. I also read reviews after I read a book. I pay most attention to the synopsis.

I have a theory: good reviews may actually hurt the book sale. I see plenty of book with a few good reviews (meticulously written, grammatically correct and overly analytical and esoteric/academic) but with sales ranking below #500K, which means those book barely sell a piece a week/month.

On the contrary, I've seen bad reviews driving a book's sale up. If you care to browse through Amazon's erotica section, you will be amazed how many 3-star books are in the #60K rank, which means the author sells a piece or two a day. And erotica writers normally writes with rabid fecundity, so they have 10 titles selling at 2 a day.

Here's a classic example of a good book review that drives the sale up: http://amzn.to/17XniXn

This book has only one review and if you look at the sales rank, it is likely a 5 copies a day deal. If I am to venture a guess, people buy it because of that review -- it's just tantalizing enough for prospective buyers to click on that Buy button.

Disclaimer: I do not read erotica or browse Amazon's erotica section for entertainment. I only know Jennifer's book because she is one of the many authors who bought my book KDP's Best-Kept Secret Revealed: How to Embed Videos and Widgets in Your Book Description and used the technique to boost her book sales by embedding an Amazon affiliate carousel in her book description -- the Flash peice that scrolls through her many titles. She definitely put my know-how to good use.

Reviews are only one source of input. I look at the blurb and, if that interests me, the 'look inside' excerpt. I'll check the reviews after that. If the volume is low (<20), I take it with a grain of salt. Over fifty begins to be meaningful. Then I always read a couple of the highest and a couple of the lowest rated to get a balanced perspective.

I don't usually look at reviews until I've finished reading a book or given up on it. I never look at them beforehand.