If I have to explain the benefit of a rave book review to an author, I’m happy to do so. All the “pro’s” in the headline refer to this point and this point alone. A book review, for an Indie, is a lovely morsel of advertising that delivers credibility and the promise of quality that didn’t come from your own self-serving mouth. A positive book review is something you can slap on all your collateral and sales material, hell, you can slap it on the book itself. In fact, a positive book review, if it has a catchy line in it, can serve as a sales element nearly as valuable as the title of the book, and certainly more important than the author’s name.

Plus, a positive book review makes the prospective reader’s job that much easier. A positive book review allows everyone to relax because a higher power has deemed that the book you’re about to read is fine…maybe even, Saints be praised, good! And if you, as an unknown Indie author had to pay for that review, much as you had to pay to get your prose line-edited, and your cover designed, well, isn’t that just the cost of doing business as an Indie? If you’re like me, I can just see you fantasizing about the 14-point bold type tripping across your book cover above the title: “Storytelling that tingles the spine and enchants the soul…” Kirkus Review. It’s a lovely dream. Except for two teeny tiny little points:

One. Kirkus Review is not a paid review service and they don’t review Indies. Kirkus Indie, on the other hand, does. The good news, is that you get the name “Kirkus” one way or the other. The bad news is that you’ll pay $425 for a review in 7-9 week and $575 for 3-4 week turnaround.

Two. There is no guarantee the review will be positive.

So, if you don’t contest the benefits of positive reviews and being able to use them to promote your book, then you probably know you need to be spending more time asking for reviews. Whether you pay for that review and take the chance on it being favorable or not (a bad review is a painful way to spend $400!) depends on the state of your checking account and how strongly you believe in your book.

Well? Any comments? Anybody who paid for a review and was happy or not happy?



Here are a few more links to check out on the subject. (BTW: When I checked out BlueInk Review, they wanted $395 for a 7-9 week response or $495 for the review in 4-5 weeks. (I don’t know about you, but if I’m paying $400, I want to be able to use the name Kirkus on my sales materials.))

http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/2011/06/kirkus-review-guaranteed.html

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/indie/

http://www.blueinkreview.com/

http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/07/case-for-fee-based-reviews-self-published-books/