Giving back, Marketing, and Community Good Will.

[robertbevan]

Do you mean that don't allow reviews on books that are listed as completely free, or that they don't allow reviews on books that were made free via coupon? I'm almost certain they allow reviews in the second case. Disallowing that would be moronic.

Edit: Just checked: I can certainly leave reviews on free books on Smashwords.

i don't mean anything. i'm purely inquisitive right now. i was just trying to clear up what you meant in the bit i quoted from you.

please reconcile these two statements, and i think i'll have it all sorted out.

(only confirmed sales can post reviews there, as opposed to Amazon)

I can certainly leave reviews on free books on Smashwords.

again... i'm trying my best not to sound like a prick. i'm honestly confused and just trying to understand how everything works. i'll make all of my stupid questions up to you with a quality review.

 

[Telcontar]

Heh, no worries. Confusion doth not a prick make.

Original statement:

JC, would you accept a free book through Smashwords? If so, you would be able to post a review there as well (only confirmed sales can post reviews there, as opposed to Amazon).

"... only confirmed sales can post reviews there," - Referring to Smashwords.


as opposed to Amazon." - as opposed to, i.e. unlike or the opposite of what is possible at Amazon. Meaning that anyone can leave a review on any Amazon product, regardless of whether or not they bought it through amazon.

That was my original statement.

However, free books on Smashwords are not technically sold, and thus Smashwords lets anyone leave a review on a free book. I have not actually left a review on a free book from Smashwords, but when I tried it let me go to the review writing page and so I assume it is possible.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Heh, no worries. Confusion doth not a prick make.

Original statement:


"... only confirmed sales can post reviews there," - Referring to Smashwords.

as opposed to Amazon." - as opposed to, i.e. unlike or the opposite of what is possible at Amazon. Meaning that anyone can leave a review on any Amazon product, regardless of whether or not they bought it through amazon.

That was my original statement.

However, free books on Smashwords are not technically sold, and thus Smashwords lets anyone leave a review on a free book. I have not actually left a review on a free book from Smashwords, but when I tried it let me go to the review writing page and so I assume it is possible.

Quoted verbatim from Amazon review page:

To submit a customer review: you need to use an Amazon account that has successfully been charged for the purchase of a physical or digital item. Free digital downloads don't qualify. You don't need to have purchased the product you're reviewing. There's a 48-hour waiting period after your first physical order has been completely shipped, or your digital item has been purchased, before you'll be able to submit your review.

 

[robertbevan]

okay guys. thanks a bunch. that makes a whole lot more sense now.

 

[Telcontar]

Oh, well sure... you could be boring and do that.

 

[JCFarnham]

As long as shipping type issues aren't a massive drag on the proceedings I'll accept free copies of work.

For people who don't yet know I'm living in the UK so I would request that if you want to send me physical copies rather than digital, or either really, unless I can get it from a dealer here in good ol' GB (.co.uk sites and such) that you stick to stuff I can download onto (or email to) my Kindle... or laptop for that matter.

 

[JCFarnham]

@Steerpike: Here's the review as promised: Supercritical - The Alchemy of Writing: R. Scott Kimsey and a New Cause


What would people say to these reviews being tweeted? (hah, like above I suppose.) It would certainly help spread the word about our fiction, but when it comes to Twitter one needs to consider permission so that's what this is.

 

[robertbevan]

i'm relatively new on the self-publishing scene. so, while i'd like to make a suggestion, i'm welcome to someone pointing out the faults in it.

here's the suggestion: we should buy each others' work. as long as we're talking about a tit-for-tat system, if you purchase my book and i purchase your book, at the very least it will bump up our amazon rankings, and there's not a huge financial loss. also, if we read something that we genuinely can't get behind while keeping our integrity in tact, then we can send a private message to the author saying "this just isn't for me", but he or she still gets that little rankings bump for the purchase.

thoughts?

 

[Steerpike]

@Steerpike: Here's the review as promised: Supercritical - The Alchemy of Writing: R. Scott Kimsey and a New Cause


What would people say to these reviews being tweeted? (hah, like above I suppose.) It would certainly help spread the word about our fiction, but when it comes to Twitter one needs to consider permission so that's what this is.

Thanks for the kind words, J. C. I appreciate it.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

i'm relatively new on the self-publishing scene. so, while i'd like to make a suggestion, i'm welcome to someone pointing out the faults in it.

here's the suggestion: we should buy each others' work. as long as we're talking about a tit-for-tat system, if you purchase my book and i purchase your book, at the very least it will bump up our amazon rankings, and there's not a huge financial loss. also, if we read something that we genuinely can't get behind while keeping our integrity in tact, then we can send a private message to the author saying "this just isn't for me", but he or she still gets that little rankings bump for the purchase.

thoughts?

I'm in favor of that. It's nice to get free things but if the goal is mutual support, then an actual purchase is a good goal.

 

[JCFarnham]

I'm up for that as well, but as I've said previously I'm not currently in the money so to speak. I would love to be able to buy the books I'm reviewing but the necessity of paying bills dictates that free is an easier prospect to deal with for the moment. After all, even if I can't pay, that doesn't mean my words can't reach some one else who may pay.

 

[robertbevan]

i'd prefer my first swap to be a paid one, simply because i still need to purchase a book on amazon in order to be allowed to review books.

but i'm not opposed to a free swap. if there are no takers for a paid swap, i'll just go buy a book to read for pleasure. i've been meaning to check out that abercrombie guy's work.

is anyone actually ready to give this a whirl? i'll be honest about what i can offer. i'll post a review on your book's amazon site (provided that i'm willing to give it three stars are more... that's how we're doing this, right?) and i can put the review up as a blog post. but my blog is just starting out. i've only got three posts on it so far, and i've had all of ten people look at it in its entire history.

that's what i'm able to give. any takers?

 

[JCFarnham]

There was never any requirement per se to review the book on Amazon or Smashwords itself (just as there's no requirement to do so on a blog). Therefore there is no real requirement to pay for said books. However all of this is pretty unimportant and akin to splitting hairs, as the plan here in its entirety is simply give reviews for reviews in order to increase the visiblity of a friend's book. Even if that visibility is only between Scribes members. Then again, Scribes members could then recommend the hypothetical book to others outside our community (their friends and family, random acquaintences or crazy people in the street) and the cycle continues.

I'm just trying to emphasise the idea over the method here, because the method doesn't matter. However you wish to do this, you can as long as the promotion is some how reciprocated (eg, linking back to blogs, or site where one can buy the book themselves) and the circle is completed.

You dig?

I mentioned twitter only because I'm aware of the fact non-forum members/others in the wider writing community are being recommended articles and things via #Mythic Scribes. If we were to broadcast reviews via the hash tag there (and our own I suppose) then we would be able to reach that wider audience that is of course our end goal.

 

[JCFarnham]

is anyone actually ready to give this a whirl? i'll be honest about what i can offer. i'll post a review on your book's amazon site (provided that i'm willing to give it three stars are more... that's how we're doing this, right?) and i can put the review up as a blog post. but my blog is just starting out. i've only got three posts on it so far, and i've had all of ten people look at it in its entire history.

that's what i'm able to give. any takers?

My blogs traffic is pretty small as well, but that doesn't matter in terms of this agreement either. After all, reviewers looking at each others blogs? More traffic for you. Link it into twitter or some other social media site. Even more.

You see where I'm heading with this? Everything in marketing is really rather interconnected these days.

 

[robertbevan]

i've never used twitter. i'm only have a vague idea of how it works. i guess it's time to bite the bullet and set up a twitter account.

 

[JCFarnham]

In terms of marketing and literature Twitter only becomes useful, in my opinion, if you can capitalise on trending hash tags and the like. If you don't understand the hash tag concept, they are "key words" anyone can add to their tweets in order to call to mind a wider conversation without breaking the 140 character limit. Via these tags joe public will be able to search for something that interests him (Idk, #Jubilee or something) and see nigh on every tweet tagged as such.

Useful huh?

A decent amount of articles and interesting Fantasy writing tid bits are tweeted by Mythic Scribes every day or so, therefore linking the two together would capitalise on an ready packaged audience. In fact, it might even get Mythic Scribes trending higher which is good for us and the site. A never end cycle in theory

If I were you I would first consider getting an account only to follow other authors/interesting people you're intrigued by. See what they're doing and hopefully you'll be able to learn what works and what doesn't.

What doesn't work in terms of twitter is almost certainly mindless "I feel ill/look at my beans"-type tweets, by which I mean useless stuff no one needs to know haha.

 

[robertbevan]

gonna be harder than i thought. i just tried to make a twitter account. it turns out my email address is already being used. that's funny... i don't remember setting up a twitter account. maybe i did it a while back when i was drunk or something.

so i ask the site to send me a password reminder. i get back an email from twitter in portuguese for a guy i've never ever heard of with instructions on how to reset my password. so i clicked on the guy's account to see who he is and how/why he's using my email address. but then i see that the account has been suspended.

so... an email to twitter. we'll see what happens.

 

[JCFarnham]

gonna be harder than i thought. i just tried to make a twitter account. it turns out my email address is already being used. that's funny... i don't remember setting up a twitter account. maybe i did it a while back when i was drunk or something.

so i ask the site to send me a password reminder. i get back an email from twitter in portuguese for a guy i've never ever heard of with instructions on how to reset my password. so i clicked on the guy's account to see who he is and how/why he's using my email address. but then i see that the account has been suspended.

so... an email to twitter. we'll see what happens.

Oh my. Bad luck there Robert. I hope you can get this sorted out though, as I said, Twitter can be fun and useful depending on how you interact with it

 

[Steerpike]

Mine is here, if others are interested (it is relatively short):

Lorelei and the Lost and Found Monster: R. Scott Kimsey: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

I'd be happy to return the favor with a book review on the blog here and also on the Amazon.com site.

 

[JCFarnham]

Mine is here, if others are interested (it is relatively short):

Lorelei and the Lost and Found Monster: R. Scott Kimsey: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

I'd be happy to return the favor with a book review on the blog here and also on the Amazon.com site.

I have copied the review on to Amazon for you (and tailored it slightly). Tell me if you would like it to appear anywhere else