It Takes Ten 5-star Reviews to Overcome a Single 1-star Review
Readers want quality.
Authors and readers both win when a book is well edited.
Thanks to digital publishing, indie authors have been pushed from the relative safety of small book shows and local reading groups into the dangerously vast ocean of the mainstream reading public.
These readers don’t care that you’re an indie author—rather, they care about whether your book is worth reading. What this means is that it had better be a well-written book, with professional polish.
In other words, it needs to be edited.
Tell Me If You’ve Heard This One
Andy has always wanted to write. Inspired by the newly invigorated digital Indie, he writes the book he’s always dreamed of writing. He brings in his friends and family, as well as other new authors that he’s met through Kindle Boards and Goodreads, to assist him in editing his masterpiece.
Everyone says how much they love the book. They praise Andy for his talent and his daring. He proceeds to format the book, posting it through Smashwords to every available outlet. He enlists his friends and Twitter followers to write reviews, and they all give him 5 stars. Andy is thrilled at such a positive response; he watches his sales figures rise from 20 units per month to 20 per day.
Soon, however, his book’s overall rating declines. As 1-star and 2-star reviews begin to surface, his sales dwindle from 20 units per day back to 20 per month, and even lower. In a bit of a panic, Andy delves into Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and assorted other blogs—“marketing” harder and harder in order to raise his sales and exposure.
After a time, Andy realizes that he’s been marketing an awful lot more than he’s been writing. Closing his laptop one night, he can’t help but wonder: “What’s happened?”
Quality Is The Best Marketer
We’ve been studying self-published e-Books since Kindle was introduced. It is safe to say that recent digital indie writers fall into one of two camps: (1) previously published authors seeking to reinvigorate their backlists; and (2) new authors issuing fresh material.
Those backlist titles have already benefited from editing; they are clean, smooth, and written as intended. But many new authors, concerned with cost, try to self-edit, or have their friends and family help. The result is a notable difference in quality and sales. As the quality isn’t as high, the rate of recommendation is low. Sure, there are a lot of sales at 99cents, but there are fewer and fewer repeat sales.
Eventually, purely active marketing is what drives sales—NOT word of mouth—resulting in a dramatically increased marketing effort.
The reality is that more than 90 of Kindle’s Top 100 sellers are professionally edited. In light of that fact alone, a professional editor appears to be a good investment for an author.
How An Editor Can Help You
A good editor does much more than proofread your manuscript. The editor’s job is to ensure that a book is all that it can be—establishing clarity, moderating tone, smoothing the narrative, and catching mistakes.
What kinds of mistakes? You ask. Well, to answer that question decisively, we went to the source: the readers. We sifted through thousands of Amazon reader comments to unearth the 4 major reasons for poor reviews.
1) Character Development. The most common reason for a low rating is related to characters—that they’re shallow, unbelievable, inconsistent, or trite—suggesting that the writer was unable to convey character nuances in writing. A good editor can help bring life to your characters.
2) Weak Plot. The second-most prominent motivator of a bad review is a dull story. Mysteries should be mysterious, adventure ought to be exciting, and romance deserves to be sexy (or at least romantic). Unfortunately, new writers can have difficulty translating their ideas to words. When, in the service of encouragement, friends become “yes men,” an impartial editor is needed to tell the hard truth.
3) Improper Pace. The third source of negative reviews is based on pace. Books can start slowly, slog in the middle, or finish too quickly. Pacing can make or break a story. Ensure that yours is on target.
4) Language. Finally, we have poor usage of language. While this includes errors in typography and grammar, readers can actually take offense to hastily written dialogue, repeated phrases (porcelain skin, anyone?), and clichés. Fixing these types of errors is what makes an editor’s world go ’round.
Why Isn’t Everyone Being Edited?
Okay, so it’s obvious that an editor can provide an immense amount of help to an author.
Why, then, doesn’t every author involve an editor in the creative process?
While each writer is unique, the reasons boil down to four big showstoppers:
Lack of trust. Sharing work can be a nerve-wracking experience. You may not only fear the judgment of others, but also distrust their aesthetics, criticism, or motives.
Lack of awareness. It is often the case that mistakes occur because it is not known that they are mistakes. This is as basic as it gets. Nobody knows everything.
Lack of options. In an age when changes are occurring so rapidly with respect to writing, publishing, and reading, it is easy to see yourself as having “missed the boat” when it comes to having your story read and seen by an audience. Guess what? You have not missed the boat.
Lack of funds. The result of decades of publishing-house marketing , editing is falsely associated with being wildly expensive and out of the price range for individuals.It’s a lot more affordable than you think.
How Is UWS Different?
We created UWS not only to provide quality service at affordable prices, but also to make the process easier for independent writers. In other words, in addition to a team of fantastic editors, you’ve also got all of the reinforcements that you need to get that book from your laptop to your readers:
Executive Editor. A point person to help you ensure that your story maintains compliance with your vision. The Executive Editor keeps every order on time and at high quality, looking after the details so that you don’t have to.
Quality Control. Itemization of services assures your satisfaction with UWS as work progresses.
Project Management. Perhaps the most daunting aspect of the independent-publishing process, Refers to the delegation of tasks, and orchestrating the seemingly disparate elements at hand (Editing, Formatting, Cover Art, Presentation) into a discernible timeline.
This doesn’t have to be anywhere near as ghastly as it sounds; you set the scene for the level of involvement that you would like from UWS.
Fair Pricing. We understand the financial reality of being on your own, so we keep it lean. All killer, no filler!
Absolute Trust. Your book is just that: YOURS. We work for you. We help you to refine your voice, create your characters, and build your brand. We operate in complete confidence. Just as with lawyers and doctors, we would never divulge what goes on between authors and their editors.
The Possibilities Are Endless
An editor’s job is to help a writer to strengthen narrative, improve pacing, develop characters, and refine style. When these four elements are stronger, the book is stronger. And that means more sales for less effort.
Many independent authors dream of writing on a full-time basis . Partnering with an editor not only brings you closer to that goal, but also helps you to write full-time, NOT market-full time.
Writing Is in Your Future, and UWS Wants to Help!
UWS is pleased and proud to offer:
Proofreading
Line Editing
Substantive Editing
Outline Reviews
and
Personal Coaching.
Contact us now about editing your book.