How to Make the Most of a Good Review of Your Book

So your book just got an excellent review . . . Congratulations! Good reviews are like gold. If you're fortunate enough to get one, you'll want to make sure you do everything possible to put that endorsement to work for you to help sell more books. So where do you start?  Here are a few tips for ways to help spread the word about recommendations for your book . . .

Press Releases

Submit your book review as a press release to all your local media (newspapers, magazines, radio, television news, etc.)   If your book appeals to a specific niche, make sure you submit your press release to any publications online, or otherwise, which cater to the demographic of your readership.  Don't forget to use online free press release services to help spread the word. 

Back Cover

If you've received a positive review from a reputable review agency, make sure you put it out there where potential buyers can see it. Use a quote, or an excerpt of a quote for any future print runs of your book.  Don't forget to credit the source of the reviewer; if you've received a great review from the New York Times, then you want to make sure everyone knows about it!

Banners & Signage

If you're attending book-signings at festivals or other venues, you'll want to create professional looking signage.  Banners and signs are a great place to promote positive reviews of your book.  Take the time to do this well.  Professional looking banners with sturdy banner-stands are eye-catching and can do wonders to create a professional image for you and your book.  If a banner is impractical, or out of the budget, you can also print professional looking signs to place inside plexiglass frames.  

Social Media

Do you have a blog?  Great!  Post your review there.  Don't forget to share your review on your Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn pages. Make sure to use #hashtags to increase your post's visibility.  Go ahead, be shameless, and ask your friends and family to like and share your posts.  

Amazon's Editorial Reviews

The Editorial Review Section on your Amazon Author Central profile was created to help you bring attention to your professional reviews and literary achievements. This is a great place for sharing your success as an author!

GoodReads Profile

Post your reviews in your GoodReads profile (go to your dashboard to do this).  Also, don't forget to blog the review in GoodRead's blog section.

Your Barnes and Noble Profile

Post your review in the section entitled: More About This Book.  Take the time to get this right the first time though, because Barnes and Noble does not make it easy to edit your posts here.  

Your Website

Post all, or a portion of your all your positive reviews on your website.  Don't forget to include images and logos (with permission) to help bring attention to those reviews which have been provided from reputable and well-recognized agencies. If you have a media page include a PDF of your review which can be downloaded directly from your site.  

Your Sell-Sheet

Your sell-sheet is the perfect place to include reviews of your book. A sell-sheet should include pertinent information for bookstores, libraries, and buyers to tell them why and how to purchase your book.

What Makes A Great Publicist?

A great publicist is hard to come by these days. There are so many publicity firms out there which claim to guarantee the success of their clients and charge a hefty dollar for it, only to leave the client feeling neglected, disappointed and financially depleted. So how do we distinguish between a mediocre publicist and one who is first-rate?

Your publicist should typically begin by assessing your content in order to design a customized publicity campaign which suits your needs and public. This includes assessing the size of the campaign and publicity channels needed to reach the targeted audience, creating a press release to send out via email, compiling a list of press contacts to which they will pitch the material, and finally, evaluating the cost of the entire endeavor. The publicist needs to be transparent with you. By that I mean, they must let you know on a day to day basis exactly what is being done.

Choose someone who you see is genuinely passionate about your project. If they’re not they won’t have the drive to promote your material, especially when they may not see immediate results from your campaign. Take the example of “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” which got rejected 33 consecutive times from publishing houses. Health Communications took a chance on the now multi-million dollar series because they believed in their project. The rest, as you know, is history. A publicist who is passionate about your work will ensure they exhaust all possible avenues to promote your book.  And, make sure the publicist wants to read through your book so they know exactly what it is they are talking about.

In all aspects of life, you always want to work with someone honest. Honesty doesn’t mean being brutal and stepping on a client’s toes --it means being honest in business dealings and having the courage to tell the client that they can only go so far with the project. An honest publicist will want to ensure you will benefit from their service to the maximum ability.

It’s advisable to choose a publicist who has a past track record of successful publicity campaigns and a well-developed network of contacts.

Finally, an exceptional publicist will offer you financial flexibility in terms of repaying the service fee you owe them. Publicity costs money because it’s a big, time consuming job, so if it’s too financially burdensome for you then try to find someone who can arrange a feasible payment plan. The expense will pay off in the long haul by hiring a publicist who knows what they are doing.

Sherri Rosen's first client's book was on The New York Times Bestseller's List for 63 weeks. She has had her own business in NYC for 17 years giving a powerful voice to authors who are doing good things in the world. She just published her third Amazon-award winning book, "Publicity From The Trenches: For Published And Self Published Authors".