Resources and tips for the self-published author.

The Easiest Way to Ask for Reviews and Engage Readers

by Miral Sattar •  May 30, 2013  •   Follow miralsattar

Published in Publishing Tips  •  3 comments

This week I finally bought best-selling author David Gaughran’s book, Let’s Get Visible”. I’m a huge fan of his why/howto self-publish book titled “Let’s Get Digital.”

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“Let’s Get Visible” is a practical guide to getting more visibility through various retailers like Amazon, Apple, BN, and Kobo without incessantly tweeting, over-promoting yourself and basically being one of those jerks whose only purpose is to sell their books. Yes, we all know them. The ones who jump into Twitter chats just to promote their books or spam you with emails.

Here’s a couple of ways you can engage your readers pretty much immediately. They’re so simple you can do them today.

  • Have a short note at the end of your book asking readers for a review.
  • Setup an author mailing list at the end of the book

We’ll break down his tips through a series of posts, but the first two seem so obvious and take so little time we thought we’d share them. So, what are you waiting for? Go do them!

For a book that was just released a few weeks ago, it’s got a lot of reviews, almost all positive. The only negative review (3/5) is by one veteran self-published author who says the tips work, but if you’re already an experienced indie author, you know all these tips. That’s kind of a positive negative review.

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About Miral Sattar

Lover of books. CEO & founder of Bibliocrunch. Love storytelling in all its forms. Formerly TIME. I'm a new media entrepreneur who has worked in the media industry for 11 years. My mission is simple – to innovate the publishing industry with technology. My company has been featured in BBC World News, Money Magazine, Bloomberg, Consumer Reports, Forbes, WSJ, MediaBistro, PBS, Columbia Journalism Review, The Next Web, Publishers Weekly, and a bunch of other places. Bibliocrunch was also selected as The Next Big Thing in media by the Paley Center. I also used to run a popular South Asian culture blog called Divanee. Before I ran my own company and became a mom, I used to be on the board for several literacy organizations, and wrote a LOT more. Hopefully, when things are calmer I can go back to that! :)