…I’m appalled to learn from news snippets on the Web recently that the pernicious practice of false reviews being purchased on Amazon is rife… as a scribbler myself, I consider each and every review that any of my WURKS attract is a a precious commodity…

…since first dipping my authorly toe into the swirling maelstrom that is the Auntie Amazon Kindle universe ten years ago, my wee literary babies have been honoured with in excess of 500 reviews… the majority of these have been 4-star and 5-star offerings, for which, of course, I am indebted to the reviewers  for taking the time and trouble to record their opinions… but I never lose sight of the fact that they are simply that… opinions… if sumb’dy buys one of my books, then I firmly accept they are at liberty to say whatever they want, positive or negative about it…

…I recall…

As you know, comments on an Amazon page can make or break a product. That’s why the company says that more than 99 percent of its reviews are legitimate because they are written by real shoppers who aren’t paid for them.

But a Washington Post examination by Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg found a majority of reviews in certain categories with certain characteristics such as repetitive wording that people probably cut and paste in. In other words, fake reviews.

Amazingly enough, many of these fraudulent reviews originate on Facebook, where sellers seek shoppers on dozens of networks, including Amazon Review Club and Amazon Reviewers Group. Shoppers are asked to give glowing feedback in exchange for money or other compensation.

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

As I’ve been reporting (Amazon Steps Up Its Antifraud Efforts, and Amazon Rewrites Review Policy), Amazon has banned paying for reviews

Once again, the question of the difference between beta reading and editing has arisen in one the many forums I frequent on Facebook. So, I feel the need to revisit a post from 2015, Beta Reading VS. Editing. If you’ve already seen this post, nothing has changed in the world of editing and beta reading since this first appeared. But thank you for stopping by!

Indies rely heavily on what we refer to as beta readers to help shape their work and make it ready for editing. But in many online forums, authors use the term used interchangeably with editing, and the two are completely different.

And unfortunately, some indie published works are clear examples of work by authors who don’t realize the importance of working with an editor, although it is apparent that they have had assistance from beta-readers.

What is quite disappointing to me, is the many traditionally published works that seem to fall…

I believe we Indie Authors have to stick together people and that is why I am sharing some of my top email list building mistakes. Before I jump to the conclusion that email lists don’t work, I am going to identify some of the things I am doing or have done wrong. Before finding solutions, we must identify the problem. Sometimes it is not that something is not working, we are just doing it wrong.

Problem#1 – Randomly Asking People to Sign-Up

When I started focusing on building my list, I didn’t pay attention to who was signing up. I just wanted the numbers up. I had heard the hype about getting email list subscribers and how helpful it was to authors. By just asking people to sign-up, people subscribed who were not part of my target audience. This means that when I came out with a book, they weren’t…

Step 1: Read a book!

Step 2: Decide to Write a Review.

How often do you pick up a book without a recommendation or perusing reviews online? I still occasionally judge books by their cover at the local library but mostly I rely on recommendations from friends or via reviews online, and I bet you do too.
All of us readers love reviews!
Love a book, want to support an author? The best way is to write an honest review. Reviews are hugely important to us (largely because, like I mentioned, nobody picks up books without looking at reviews).
Love a book and want to support an illustrator? Ditto!
So, if you love readers, authors, illustrators or anyone else in the book industry, support them all and write a review!

Step 3: Don’t Panic!

Maybe you’ve never written a review before, maybe you don’t know where to start.
It’s okay…

 on Indies Unlimited:

Here at Indies Unlimited we work hard to help you make good publishing decisions without getting scammed.

We talk about scammy publishers, scammy services, and scammy agents.

Some of us learned through the school of hard knocks, while others were cautious from the very beginning.

Still, not a month goes by that I don’t see someone make a decision that has me shaking my head.

Quite often, that decision has to do with contracts.

Continue reading HERE

AMAZON.COM SALES RANK

Amazon assigns a sales rank to every product that has sold at least one time.

The lower the number, the better the product is selling.

For example, a sales rank of 2500 is better than a sales rank of 375,000.

The product that sells the best in its category has a sales rank of 1.

CATEGORY RANKS

Amazon has different ranks for different types of products.

Books are ranked independently from sports equipment and video games, for example.

For a given type of product, there are also category ranks.

For example, a few Books categories include Romance, Children’s, and Science.

A great overall rank is more impressive than a category rank.

For example, a book has to sell quite frequently to rank 500 overall in Books, but can sell much less frequently and still rank 500 in Romance.

A good rank in a broad category is more…

I’m moving.

This week has been spent packing, painting, and making seemingly endless to-do lists.

I’m partially moving to be closer to friends and family, partially to be closer to my new job (that I took partially BECAUSE of it’s proximity to the aforementioned friends and family), and partially because it’s cheaper there than it is where I am now.

That’s a lot of change.

I think it’s going to be a good thing.

Getting Away From The Status Quo

In life, if you don’t make changes, you end up doing the same thing, day-after-day, year-after-year. If you want to reach your dreams, you need to be actively working towards them, changing your life to get you there. Wishes are only useful for the direction they give you.

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In writing, if you don’t read and practice and learn how to use criticism to grow, your writing won’t…