I got a great question from a Mandy Moore in the comments on my post, How to Write an Ebook that Doesn’t Suck. It’s such a great question, I’ve written a post to answer it. Here is her comment:
This was both useful and timely as I’ve been putting off writing an ebook that many people have asked me to put together just because I didn’t know where to start.
I’m wondering what your thoughts are about soliciting reviews and editorial feedback. My current plan is to send one of the last versions to several friends as well as many of the well-known bloggers in my industry to see what the reaction is. My hope with the bloggers is that it will not only potentially earn me a blog mention but also help gain the attention of those who might want to do some affiliate sales. Pretty much just as an ARC for printed books go out to stores and reviewers.
Does that make sense or do you think it might be best to just keep it in the family (so to speak) until it’s ready to go and then give out review copies when the book is complete and the site is 100% up and running.
Thanks for any thoughts you’re willing to share and thanks again for the great post.
OK, so: should we get feedback, and how do we get reviews and feedback, especially from well-known bloggers?
Getting Ebook Feedback from Your Own Audience
There’s no doubt in my mind that getting feedback and reviews & testimonials from people before you put the book on sale is a winning idea. Presenting it to well-known bloggers has its pitfalls, however (which I’ll get into in a minute). The people you’re most interested in hearing from are the ones you plan to sell (or give) your ebook to.
Pick a few members of your audience with whom you have regular communication and email them. Ask them if they’d be willing to help you out with something special. To those who respond favorably, send them a little proposal: they get a free copy if they review it and offer honest feedback to you.
My friends Dave Navarro and Naomi Dunford have this covered beautifully in their ebook: How to Launch the **** Out of Your Ebook, which I highly recommend you get if you’re even the tiniest bit serious about selling ebooks.
Another idea is to ask friends on social media or in a forum you’re a member of.
None of this works if you don’t know anybody–reason number one why you should be actively networking with others!
And that leads me now to the notion of pitching well-known bloggers to review your ebook.
How to Get Your Ebook Reviewed by a Big-Name Blogger
For the most part, it’s best if you already have a relationship with a well-known blogger. You’re much more likely to be heard and responded to if the other person already knows you. Stalking someone for the purpose of slipping them your ebook, however, is disingenuous and generally not cool.
I asked around on Twitter to see what some of the bigger names in the blogosphere wanted to see when someone wanted to approach them to review an ebook. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger kindly responded:
@remarkablogger a quick email telling me why it’s relevant to my audience with a copy attached and any other relevant info (aff program etc)
What’s important to Darren is the ebook’s relevancy to his audience and whether or not there’s a monetary opportunity for him via an affiliate program if he decides to write about it on his blog. This is absolutely appropriate and a very common-sense approach. Now, when we’re talking “review” here, we mean a review in the form of a blog post. I don’t think Darren took this as review for feedback prior to launching it. However, that would be my fault for not communicating the idea clearly enough (I blame Twitter’s 140-character limit, yes, that’s the ticket…).
Regardless of what kind of review (or how “big-name” the reviewer), I think anybody would appreciate the same thing.
The bottom line is this: feedback/reviews will help, and all you have to do is ask.
Good tip-of-the-iceberg post, Michael. While I value Problogger’s opinion, I’d have also liked to have seen some feedback from a few other well-known bloggers. I know you have access to Chris Brogan and some others. Did you solicit their feedback and was it the same as Darren Rowse’s?
This is a very apt blog post topic and I’d like to see more on it.
@Allen – I did, but Darren was the only one who replied. No biggie: when you’re following that many people, it’s easy for tweets to slip by you.
One thing to keep in mind is that you should not be offended or nag if a review is not forthcoming in what you regard as a reasonable timeframe. Once you do a review then inevitably it leads to other people sending you stuff to review. They build up, and most blogs do not have the capacity to take lots of reviews all in a row, even if the blogger has the time to review them all.
So my advice is to only send stuff to blogs that are already selected as relevant, who know you and trust your stuff (one thing I worry about is a friend got caught reviewing something he later found to be largely plagiarised, not cool as once you have been quoted praising something your name is attached). Once someone says they will accept something for review, prod them *gently* occasionally but do NOT demand a review.
For other bloggers, do get into reviewing relevant stuff as it is great content when done sparingly and well, and the free stuff is a perk of the “job” when you do not allow it to influence your judgment.
@Chris – Chris, those are some really great points. Thanks for commenting! Bloggers who are still somewhat new and starting out can help each other by reciprocating reviews, as well.
Great post! I actually saw that he responded to you about this. It is definitely good information to know. The monetary value is probably one of the most important things. And of course it has to be somewhat relevant to one of his blogs.
The problem is, it is likely that top bloggers will not promote any of your free ebooks.
@Franklin – Hmm… I don’t think I would agree that a top blogger would not promote a free ebook. Affiliate commissions are great, but they don’t make your audience love you any more. You what does? Fantastic content. Free fantastic content, too.
Be sure your ebook has been edited before you send it for review. You cannot overcome a bad first impression. When you hire an editor, you will usually get what you pay for–amateurs for little, professionals for more.
If you cannot afford a professional editor, ask a local English teacher to read it and check for grammatical errors and typos.
Nicki D. Harper
This is exactly the question that I want to ask but (a bit) afraid to do so
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Thanks to Mandy and to all Pro-Blogger who are replying to Michael’s post. I’m reading this as if you knew what I want to ask next.
Michael,
What good timing that this popped into my inbox this morning! I am actually in this situation right now. I’ve written an ebook. It’s going to be a freebie. It’s written well, is entertaining and informative at the same time.
I got a real surprise a few days ago when I received a reply from a big-name social media consultant:
Ewwwww! Write a review myself and slap your name on it? I think I’d rather have been told ‘No’.
This arrogant behavior is a far cry from a reviewer asking me what do I most want the review to focus on? That, to me, is a valid question and helps you get a review that is both helpful and targeted. But this crap? No. This person just lost a fan.
I don’t need a review so bad that I’d take a fake one. Please tell me this is not normal practice among big-name folk.
@Suzanne – That’s not as unheard-of (or as bad) as you might think. But it works best when trust is involved. In other words, if you and I know each other and I trust your ebook will be good, that approach makes sense. It’s still not as good as the real thing (and I would never do it), but as long as the information is correct, it falls under the “little sins” category.
Thanks, Michael. That’s exactly the answer I expected. And I agree – if this person and I knew each other well, it would be a whole different situation that would fall into the “little sins” category you mention.
I’m glad to hear you don’t do this, and it reconfirms my own unwillingness to do it…either side of it.
I really appreciate your candor.