Book reviews

Anyone can add a review as long as they adhere to the login procedure (which is essential to ensure that we can control the content being uploaded to the site), so ask your friends to hop online and write a great review! They can also use the ‘Tell a Friend’ feature and email other people they think would enjoy the book. This is a form of ‘viral marketing’, which is not as dangerous as it sounds — in fact it can be an essential marketing tool for selling you book online! Viral marketing refers to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in the awareness of your book. It is basically a word-of-mouth campaign delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. The facility is there on your book site so make sure that you use it! We’ll talk more about using the other links on the website next month.

To check out how to upload a review to your site, click here.

Of course, if you have your own website and/or blog, you should upload reviews on these sites, too. Remember that you must always gain permission to use professional reviews and ensure that you credit the author/publication. Good reviews are very valuable so make sure that you follow the correct procedure — you never know when you’ll be sending another book to them for review! Personally, I always think that it is only good manners to thank the reviewer for their time and willingness to review the book, even if only by a quick email.

A couple of good Australian book review sites that have come to my attention recently are www.thebookchook.com andwww.aussiereviews.com. Aussie Reviews also provides links to author websites, so contact Sally Murphy and request a link to your site. Remember, the more websites that link to your site, the better for your Google ranking — it also makes it easier for people who are searching for new reading on the Internet to locate your book. We’ll talk more about Internet marketing campaigns in future editions of this newsletter