There is this meme that pops up on Facebook from time to time. It usually runs something like this:
- Authors do not earn a lot of money, really.
- If you’d like to help your favourite author, post a review on Amazon.
- Given enough reviews on Amazon, MAGIC THINGS WILL START TO HAPPEN IN THE AMAZON ALGORITHM.
And every time I see it, I cringe a little.
Don’t get me wrong – I like reviews. I would like more reviews of my work out there.
But the focus here isn’t necessarily on reviews, it’s on manipulating the Amazon algorithms. The numbers change, as do the MAGIC THING, but the gist remains the same: get 50 reviews, and the book will start appearing in the recommendation algorithm; get 20 reviews, and you’ll be included in the “others like this book footer.”
Amazon reviews = good things for your favourite book.
I am not against Amazon. They are exceptionally good at what they do, and their recommendation algorithm is fucking awesome at predicting my reading taste. Amazon has their shit together, in the retail space.
But part of that relies upon them being right.
They’re like Google, in that their cache and market dominance is partially reliant on providing the best resource available when you search for something. And I did my time in SEO right about the point Google released the Panda Update to their search algorithm in order to cut down on the number of scraper-sites and article farms that existed purely to draw people to pages loaded with advertising.
People who had played the game of SEO up to that point, assuming it was never changed, lost their shit in that period. People who provided good content basically shrugged and kept doing what they were doing.
Trying to work the Amazon review system feels like the same sort of thing. You can work a system for a time, but it’s a short-term thing. Sooner or later the system stops doing what it’s meant to do, and someone will try and adjust things so it can resume its original function.
It’s not like Amazon hasn’t done this already, in other parts of their site. Spend some quality time on the indie publishing forums looking for threads about Kindle Unlimited, and you’ll see a whole bunch of folks wailing in consternation as the rules change and their business model is made redundant.
If you really want to help your favourite author, review their book. Not on Amazon – although I won’t discourage that – but just in general. Tweet about it. Blog it. Facebook it. Talk about it with your friends and tell them what’s awesome. Do not keep your reading private – talk about it out in public, even if it’s short and sweet: Reading <insert book here>.
Authors build their readership fan by fan, book by book, and there is nothing in the world more powerful than one person talking to another and saying, have you read this? It’s brilliant.
Nearly every book I’ve read in the last year has been the result of someone I trusted saying that. As good at the Amazon algorithm is, it can’t replace the trust that comes from one reader talking to another about the books they’re passionate about.
(Although, given time and resources, I am interested to see Amazon try)
For the record, and to put my money where my mouth is, I’m currently:
- Re-reading The Grand Sophie by Georgette Heyer (Brilliant)
- Reading Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart on a friend’s recommendation (30% of the way through, worldbuilding is fucking awesome)
- Rereading Lauren Dane’s Laid Bare for a blog post/essay thing I’m writing (I freakin’ love this book)
- Reading Beneath An Oil-Dark Sea: The Best of Caitlin Kiernan volume 2 (So freakin’ good that I loose my fucking mind after every story)
Two of those came out of personal recommendations with people. Lauren Dane I picked up because I became a fan of Dane after she was recommended on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. The Kiernan I picked up because I am a long-time fan, and will habitually pick up every goddamn book she releases.
And I largely became a fan because one of my favourite authors linked to her first novel and said: read this, its phenomenal.
How about you, peeps? What are you reading. Tell me about the things that are crushing your heart or bringing you joy? Tell me about the things that make you happy you’re a reader.
