I’m hesitant to offer discounts for reviews with Autistic Bookshop because authors would lose 10% profit. I could do 5% for a review, but that results in a different author losing 5% profit for a review on someone else’s book.
Giving 10% off just my stuff doesn’t seem enough. Could give nothing, but I don’t think honesty and good will are motivating enough. Reviews help the autistic authors make more money.
Could the individual author decide, instead of having a site-wide policy?
Also, is your goal just to generate traffic / make sales? I wonder if you could do some kind of discount / reward for spreading word of your shop, rather than for reviewing a book.
@Cassandra If an author wants to put their book on sale to generate more sales, I can do that upon request. Like if they want to do $1 off for a limited time in a mailing list email or something, or price it that way in the store if that’s what they want.
@ashleyspencer@actuallyautistic I think as both an autistic person who loves to read hard copy books, and may well begin writing full books in the years ahead, my main issue is that this sort of petty gaming is what I go to Independent book stores/sellers to avoid.
I read down the thread/responses especially for the price point too & that kind of cemented this for me.... the last time I spent even a penny under $10 for a decent book, that wasn't from a library sale, nor mass market clearance, was over a decade ago.
Paying for book reviews is done by 3rd party entities for big publishers & shouldn't be expanded to the Indy world at all.
@BrahmaBelarusian@actuallyautistic I appreciate that. The bookshop isn’t like my other 2 stores where I can offer discounts on stim stuff and plushies since it’s 100% my profit. But with Autistic Bookshop I want authors to be able to make a decent side income from my store at minimum. On the homepage I’ve built, I just market signing up for the mailing list as a way to stay updated on the newest books and authors with no discounts.
@ashleyspencer@actuallyautistic Good to read, as the average I spend per new book, is $15-25, binding & length depending (& I'm poor) so ... I doubt I'm alone in who'd question your place in as a seller for Indy authors, if you went lower by such discounts. Paying for quality and independence is worth it.
@BrahmaBelarusian Your other reply to my reply disappeared somehow, but this is what I was going to say…
Very good to know. I’m not Amazon and can’t print cheap quality books in massive amounts. I figured people would expect those prices, but good to know people will actually expect to pay that amount for books from an indie bookstore. My book printer costs a lot to print but the books are sooo well made. Way nicer than anything you’d get at a typical bookstore.
@ashleyspencer That's just it I, like many, go to Indy places expecting higher quality and higher costs to match it... Don't get me wrong, if I see a pricetag of $50 or more I will flinch, outside of a college textbook bookstore, but at least once I've also gone home & come back after thinking, to get said high end book.
*I've spinal derived peripheral neuropathy that flares & subsides with weather changes so, to have books made well matters.
@UnCoveredMyths@actuallyautistic I appreciate your perspective. Good to hear things from the author’s point of view. And that’s a good way to look at it as the author paying for the reviews.
All the reviews have to be approved by me before they post. For my stim store, anything that’s trashing me or trashing the store I reject. I don’t approve fake reviews either. Must be verified customers.
And that’s my other concern too, how long will it take people to read the book after they get it.
@UnCoveredMyths@actuallyautistic You also make a good point about people getting annoyed with reminder emails for reviews now that I think about it. I could always just send one email asking for a review a month after it’s delivered and turn off the second reminder email.
@ratcatcher@UnCoveredMyths@actuallyautistic It will vary on whether or not they’ve self-published elsewhere already. My attorney is putting in the contract that they maintain their full publishing rights and can self-publish wherever they want in addition to my store. I won’t work with books that have been professionally published by a publisher though.
If they have previously self-published, they may already have received reviews which could be reproduced on your site (presumably with the permission of the reviewer, unless submitted anonymously).
If the author has a record of books previously sold, they may be able to email previous purchasers explaining that you will now be selling the book and asking them if they would mind putting up a review on your site.
As far as incentives are concerned, I'd be very wary. Maybe treat it as a loyalty scheme: points for each review accepted, exchange x number of points for a money off voucher.
You could even make the money off vouchers valid for your other stores. That would mean you were footing the bill, but it could also generate additional business for the other stores from bookstore customers.
Doesn't need to amount to a lot: just an encouragement to post reviews and a thanks for doing so.
@ratcatcher@UnCoveredMyths@actuallyautistic omg that’s genius. I’d have to figure out the technical logistics behind how to get codes from one store to another. 10% off stim stuff in exchange for the customer leaving a review to help an author get more book sales.
I’ve been looking at my review stats for both the Shop app and online store to assess what is actually working. Shop app gives nothing in exchange and in 1 year 78 reviews. Online store with incentives got 106 reviews in 5 months.
It may be as simple as noting who posted a review, manually flagging that they were issued a voucher code, then manually creating a single-use code on the other shop. You don't necessarily need to tie that code to the person - you could allow them to give it to someone else as long as your shop software allows you to make sure it can only be used once (most do).
@ratcatcher what I figure is I could generate a general code specifically for the bookshop so I can track if people are using it. I just need to figure out if I can send a thank you for your review email here’s the code and link to auto apply it to the cart. I’m sure I can find an app that does it.
I give a 10% off code for signing up to my mailing list and for leaving reviews. It’s how my email list got so big. The code gets used a lot too.
@ratcatcher@UnCoveredMyths@actuallyautistic Thank you so much for the idea! I’ve combed through all my store’s review data and incentives work. Reviews on products and people’s top wishlisted items have a direct correlation. This way people get the incentives they want and that work, and the authors get their 70% profit on the full price book they sold + a review that helps them get more book sales and make more money. Happy middle. Genius idea!
@ashleyspencer I like to read well written reviews. If someone reviews professionally they need to be compensated.
Maybe buyers could add a tip for the reviewer if they liked the book that they got because of the review ?
@ashleyspencer yes, you asked if you should give those people a discount.
I presented an idea for an alternative financial compensation.
I as a buyer could tip buyers before me if I really liked their review. If it helped me find a book that I liked or was looking for.
@ashleyspencer What is the price range of the books you are going to offer? Personally, I think that 5-10% discount on 5$ books isn't something that I needed to go for. I'd probably write a short review or give a rating anyway, if the rating system is easily accessible.
@blue It depends on what it is and what the author wants to price it at. It has to include cost to print + fees for printing + taxes I pay to the area it’s being shipped to. I’ll allow ebooks going as low as $1.99. Most 100 page books cost about $6 to print. I think the cheapest a print book can be priced at is $9.99 depending on what it is. Each book costs differently depending on how many pages, what type of paper, what type of binding. Prices are more expensive but very well made books.
@ashleyspencer ah I was only thinking about ebooks with my ~5$ 😀 Of course a print needs to have a higher price and there the discount would make a bigger difference. But honestly, I think it wouldn't get more reviews. I think a nice e-mail a couple of weeks after the book was bought would suffice in most cases.
@bellenoir@actuallyautistic I could do that. Send one email asking for a review after they’ve finished a book and being honest as to why there is nothing offered in exchange for the review. I could always turn off the second reminder email and just send one.
@bellenoir@actuallyautistic True. I want the authors to be happy and treated fairly and it seems like anything other than relying on the good will of customers would have a negative effect.
@actuallyautistic As backstory to this question for those who don’t know, Autistic Bookshop is my new store that hasn’t launched yet. It’s a self-publishing bookshop for autistic authors.
@actuallyautistic I’m really glad I asked this question here. I’m rethinking the whole review thing and considering not having any reviews on the site at all to be more respectful to the authors.
This is a totally different setup than my other 2 stores. In my stim store, people asked me if my store was a scam until I had a good amount of reviews. I sell a ton of the stuff that has reviews. But with books, whether a book is rated as good or not is subjective.
I agree book ratings are subjective, but descriptions of why people liked/disliked a book are still informative.
I've been put off books by positive reviews that cite aspects I rarely enjoy; & (much more frequently) bought books because of bad reviews eg "too much philosophising, weird characters, no plot." ✅
I wouldn't buy a book online without reading a range of reviews first, so I'd class them as an essential part of marketing.
@ashleyspencer@actuallyautistic I am always suspect of paid reviews. I see them on Home Depot and while they might be honest, the person did get paid...I'd rather an honest, unpaid opinion.
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