Be nice, or be quiet: 7 tips for responding to blogger reviews

This is a post by Donna Brown

Phew, getting reviews isn't always easy, is it? Imagine if you spent ten hours searching for and querying bloggers. Then one person agrees to review your book but then you find out that they read it and wrote a review but didn't post it anywhere. That'd be pretty annoying, right?

Okay, now imagine you're a reviewer. You spent 8 hours reading a book, an hour writing and formatting a post, another hour posting to Amazon and Goodreads, tweeting etc. You sent your link to the author. They read it, filed it and if it had been down to them no one else would ever have seen it.

These situations are comparable and both very irksome – it’s easy to forget the hours that go into the ‘behind the scenes’ work. If you are a blogger, reviewing simply for your love of books, a quick ‘nod’ from the author goes a long way. Guess what? These days it’s okay to respond to a blogger and here are some guidelines to make it plain sailing all the way:

1. Thank your reviewer

The old adage that you never comment on reviews has little place in the modern world. With traditional publishers increasingly looking to bloggers, your personal touch as an indie/self-published author is more important than ever. Charm, don't isolate. Remember that you're thanking them for their TIME rather than the score they gave you. It doesn’t have to be an essay but stopping by to say ‘Thanks’ or dropping a quick email, tweet or Facebook message goes a long way.

2. Share the post

Bloggers put epic amounts of work into building traffic. Share the posts and help them along. Not only does it help you by spreading the word about your book, but maybe the next time you need them you'll even find they have even more reach!

3. Explain but don't over-explain!

If a blogger comments on something and you feel offering an explanation may help, that’s okay. However! Do it because you have information you genuinely believe they didn’t have and not because you think they just couldn’t see the book in the right way.

Okay: “You know what, you’re so right! I’ve decided to do xyz in Book Two for just that reason…”

Not okay: “Well, if you’d read the book properly you’d know that xyz happens because…”

4. Be VERY careful with down voting on Amazon

Amazon allows you to vote on whether or not a review is helpful. It can be a good nod to a blogger who has done a great review to vote ‘yes’. And by great, I mean well written, not just that it’s five stars. As an author, is a ‘This was MEGA, 5/5’ really more helpful to you than a 3/5 that goes into detail about the highlights and lowlights of the book? Maybe to your short term sales but probably not to your long term writing development.

Be even more wary of requesting mass voting from friends and family. In fact, avoid it completely. Both are poor practices but mass down voting is particularly damaging. The reviewer world is smaller than it seems and word gets around quickly about reviews that are suddenly mass down voted. It’s unfair to the reviewer for one thing, but it also suggests that you can’t take any feedback, and that’s off-putting to many reviewers. And if you think this only happens to nasty, 1-star, backbiting reviews, think again. I’ve seen it happen (very recently!) to a very well-written three star review that the blogger had spent a great deal of time on.

5. If you can't say anything nice…

Yep, you know this one. If you really can't bring yourself to just say ‘Thank you for your time

– sorry it wasn’t for you but I appreciate your feedback‘, then say nothing! Sarcastic remarks – however well veiled – can ruin someone's week and make you look bad. Remember, the Internet never forgets, and something said in the heat of the moment can haunt you for a very long time.

6. Be personable

You have no idea if their review will sell one copy or fifty, but you already know that you'll make more money from it than they will – and remember that affiliate revenue often barely covers a blogger’s costs. Pay a little back with the time taken to leave your comment. Use their name. And use it properly. When I receive emails to “Donna Brown of Book Bags and Cat Naps” it makes me feel more like R2D2 than a human being! Do you go to your butcher and say “David Johnson of Johnson Meat and Produce, give me a pound of bacon”? Try and imagine the greeting you’d like to receive if you were getting that email or that comment on your blog.

7. Remember that review comments can encourage discussion

Readers like to connect with authors. Seeing that you as an author have commented on a review shows them that you are approachable and ‘human’ and also offers readers the chance to open a conversation with you. Give them the opportunity to ask you questions by showing that you’re not above stopping by a blog and having a metaphorical cup of a tea and a chinwag!

Most of all, remember that authors and bloggers are just people and are all in this for the same reason – a love of books/words. Spread a little kindness in the book blogger world, and you never know how far it may get you!

About this post's author:

Donna Brown works as a self-employed consultant and freelance editor. She also runs a book blog (Book Bags and Cat Naps) and The Indie Exchange, designed to connect authors and readers.