As an author, you no doubt have a full appreciation of how important your books’ reviews are for sales. Reviews provide essential social proof that your books are worth reading. After all, few people want to spend time reading something that they may not like. However, your book reviews are the only ones that matter. When you read the competitions’ book reviews, you can sell more books with confidence.
How Other Authors’ Book Reviews Help You Sell More Books
Your readers no doubt enjoy numerous books over the years, and their full spectrum of comments about those books are available for you to check out and learn from. These other book reviews focus on specific books that, well, they’re just not your books. Why do they matter to you? You need to focus on the reviews your readers left for your work, right?
Well, sure. But you can gain invaluable knowledge by reading book reviews for competing books. This knowledge is often more profound when you’ve read the other books and can fully see where the reviewers are coming from. How can these book reviews help you sell more books?
Learn About Your Audience Through Book Reviews
You likely have some significant assumptions about your audience, such as specific tropes that they prefer and how complex they want the plots to be. These and other factors don’t need to remain assumptions, however. Your competitions’ book reviews have thousands of comments, including praise and criticism alike. Through a deep dive, you can more fully understand what they expect from a novel and who they actually are.
Understand Likes and Dislikes
Does your audience like a strong female character? Are they interested in books that take more of a legal edge, a business edge, or something else that you haven’t fully considered? What about settings? Should you write a holiday-themed book? The last thing that you want is to write a book that ultimately will fall on deaf ears (or blind eyes, as the case may be.) Discover what your audience wants and needs from a book.
Write a Better Book with Book Reviews
There may be a dozen books on how to rebuild an engine, for example, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for one more. Check out the reviews. Did the other books leave out valuable information? Did they write at a higher or lower knowledge level than the audience needs? Perhaps the formatting was wonky, or some photos and diagrams would be helpful. Identify what you can do better, and write a better book that delivers everything your readers need.
Read Your Own Book Reviews, Too!
When your books initially hit the market, you may eagerly await reviews and scrutinize every word. However, as you work on other projects and reviews mount, you may look at your reviews as a star-rating. (“My book ‘How to Rebuild an Engine’ has 4.4 stars.”) The individual reviews lose emphasis, and the star rating grows in importance.
Don’t do this!
Each person who took the time to read your book and write a review is a valuable resource to you. While the competitions’ reviews are crucial sources of information, your reviews are directly tied to your specific books. Are you writing a series? Discover important details to include in your next book. Do readers question your credentials for providing financial advice? Build up your background and experience in the next book.
Too often, reviews are viewed simply as a source of social proof that benefits other readers and drives book sales. However, they can and should be used to improve your future books, too!