“Advanced readers” read books before publication and prepare their reviews to coincide with the launch.
That’s the theory, anyway.
MISTAKE 1: First, my advanced readers needed longer than the six weeks I gave them: time to respond to the invitation, time to get around to reading the book, and time to craft the review. If possible, I provide an eight-week window the next time.
MISTAKE 2: I handed out about sixty advanced copies and got a handful of reviews. It turned out most of the readers didn’t normally read my genre. Many, if not most, didn’t get past the first chapter.
To be fair, if you are a romance or horror writer, I’m not your advanced reader either.
MISTAKE 3: This one is debatable. As noted above, most of my initial reviews were from people who didn’t normally buy my genre, which some say messes up Amazon’s logarithms. They’re right.
But few strangers will risk a book that has no or few reviews, so it’s a catch-22.
I’ve decided to seek initial reviews from anyone kind and gracious enough to consider doing so, as well as grow a base of reviewers who typically buy sci-fi, especially my flavour of apocalyptic adventure sci-fi.
***Are you willing to read and review one of my books for any reason? Send me a message through the contact page, and I’ll gladly get a copy to you.