As a self published author, marketing and publicity are some of the most important endeavors beyond writing and editing your creation. In the modern world, where there is a website for everything, I found that there is also a plethora of websites for readers, authors and librarians as welI. For the author, having good reviews on these sites is conducive to positive sales numbers. Goodreads, Author Database and Bookdaily are just some of the places authors can be listed with their works and readers can go to look for books and their reviews.
With so many sites to choose from, my first mistake was to think that all the sites were basically the same, and that misconception, along with previous editions of my books pre-empting my current editions, were the catalysts for some very stressful moments. Seeing books that were retired years ago (See Nightmares in Self-Publishing Part 1) and not my recently released versions, of course made me want to correct that error as soon as possible. While I was contacting these websites regarding the issue, I went through and checked my reviews and the number of stars. When it came to Library Thing, I saw no stars for any of my books, and so, waiting for some to appear, both my wife, independent of me, and I put stars to rate my new edition books. In addition, I created a profile to match my books, thinking that the author profile was where they put the author’s books. Initially, they only listed those withdrawn editions of my books. That opened me up for an attack from the people at Library Thing who accused me, thanks to my wife posting reviews she had every right to post, of being dishonest, among other quite negative things.
Within one day, some person named “Ravic3” gave me 1/2 a star for each of my books. I received a correspondence from a “Rybie3” that said I could not give reviews to my own books and their staff all the way up to the CEO accused me of being a liar because my wife had posted her reviews. When I complained that Ravic3 and Rybie3 were the same people I was called "delusional" and told me I had no idea what was going on. I kept getting these scathing emails about how I didn’t understand and they were removing my wife’s reviews from the site.
In conclusion, I have given up on these sites completely. Beyond listing my books and making sure I at least contacted the site managers to get them to list my books with my profile, I have found so much negativity through my experience with Library Thing, I don't dare interact with anyone on any other site. I hope that this will help you a little if you are trying to make it as a self-published author. It is best to just create a profile, jump through their hoops and, as they say in buffalo country, let the chips fall where they may.
Matthew D. Heines
No comments:
Post a Comment