My Review of The Naked Reviewers.

I recently published my novel, The Rise of Kali on Amazon. Being eager to promote it, I volunteered to have it reviewed by The Naked Reviewers. You can find the reviews here: https://thenakedreviewers.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/the-rise-of-kali-a-hunter-recovery-novel/#more-537

Sherry Terry runs the site. She’s multi-talented and wears many hats. She’s a published author. You can find her book here: https://www.amazon.com/Voyeur-Mist-Sherry-Terry-ebook/dp/B06XTSQW3R/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510080538&sr=1-2&keywords=sherry+terry+in+books

I’ve bought the book. Sherry is a good writer. I’ve read her work on Scribophile.com. I’m sad to say that I haven’t read Voyeur in the Mist yet. It’s on my to-do list. But, I’m two-thirds through another friend’s book and I want to finish it first.

Sherry is also a very good editor and her rates are reasonable.  Check her site out here: https://verysherryterry.wordpress.com/

Sherry edited one chapter for me and although she thought she was a little tough on me, I deeply appreciated her honesty and found the edit constructive and extremely helpful.

And, of course, she runs the group, The Naked Reviewers. Her criteria to qualify your novel to be reviewed is that she reads some sample chapters and feels that it’s worthy of a minimum of four stars. You also have to make your book available for free for two days in order for her group to read and review it. (More on this later.)

To date, I have received 5 reviews. All five appear on the Naked Reviewers site, but only 3 of them are posted on Amazon. You can read them here: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Kali-Hunter-Recovery-Novel-ebook/dp/B07567XQV2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1508519713&sr=8-2&keywords=the+rise+of+kali

Of course the complimentary reviews are the ones every author wants, but it’s the ones that aren’t so complimentary that help you the most. After all, it may be embarrassing for someone to tell you that you have a piece of lettuce stuck in your teeth. However, how much more embarrassing would it be to go home that evening and discover it was there it was, on display all day without your knowledge? So in that area, every review is helpful. Even the ones that you don’t like.

As an author publishing on Amazon, you want reviews. In this case the old maxim, “If a little is good, then a lot is better,” couldn’t be more true. On Amazon, fifty is the magic number. With fifty reviews, your book goes up in the standings and your novel has better visibility. Three reviews is a long way from fifty, so I have an uphill climb ahead.

During the two days that I made the book free for download, twenty-two people downloaded a copy. I have no idea how many of that number were members of The Naked Reviewer group. I could only guess at the number because anyone that stumbled across my novel on Amazon could have downloaded it. Was it coincidence? Who knows? But it makes me think that there are a number of members in the TNR group who are only there to get free books. That thought didn’t set well with me. But, Sherry assures me that she’s going to jettison the non-participating members and that’s reassuring.

The other possible drawback is that in order to make a book free on Amazon, you have to sign up for KDP Select, which makes your novel available on Kindle Unlimited. The sign-up period is for 90 days. To me, this is a two edged sword. One the positive side, anyone who has Kindle Unlimited can read your book for free while you, the author, get paid by the number of pages they read.  On the downside, you have to sign up for three months. And as long as it’s on KDP Select, you’re not allowed to publish your book anywhere else. That’s putting all your eggs in one basket. I’m planning to post ROK on Smashwords when the 90 days is up. Smashwords will place your work on at least a dozen other sites like Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, etc…

So, would I recommend The Naked Reviewers? Certainly. Reviews that are complimentary and constructive are never, ever a bad thing. If I had 22 reviews on Amazon I’d be singing praises from the rooftops. If anyone asks me, should they submit their novel to TNR, I’ll tell them that I think it’s a good idea. After all, every review is a good review.