New Tips and Tricks - or - How There is Power in Numbers

I am FB friends with a wonderful person who has figured out the mystery of Amazon and reviews. And unlike everyone else lately, she is doing it with much integrity and not a scrap of deception.  Her concept is simple: make ebooks available to people who will actually read them, then post their opinions, fabulous or not, on the Amazon site, as well as others.  So brilliant you might wonder why no one else thought of it.  I know why.  Because Wanda Hartzenberg, the architect of this brilliance, is something many are not.  

She is selfless.  

She does this because she genuinely loves books, loves reading, and loves the indie author.  We are blessed to know her.  Please, read on and find out more about her alarmingly simple program and facebook page.

How There is Power in Numbers - by Wanda Hartzenberg of WaAR (Wanda's Amazing Amazon Reviewers)

So the ever popular and brilliant writer Samantha Combs asked me to do a blog post.  The topic she asked about was relatively simple.  She asked why did I start WaAr or Wanda's amazing Amazon review group and in general, why did I start assisting Indie authors.

My reply, I can't write about that - My motivation for starting everything I had thus far was because I started to befriend some authors and became involved in their daily struggles.  I got the impression that people sit around, waiting for a book to be offered for free, reading it, and then moving onto the next.

Thus, my impression of most people on Facebook was that they were opportunist.  I can't write about that, can I? As it turns out, I can. 

See this is how it started, step by step, breath by breath I first saw the one side of an Indie Author life.  As an Indie you spend mass amount of time and effort and money to promote your book in the hopes for A SALE.  A single sale makes these people jump for joy.  Then to build a following and gain reviews these same authors gift the fruit of their labor to readers in the hopes of?..

According to me, very few of these hopes were met.

So I grew upset and made it my mission to change things.

But boy was I wrong.

Soon I saw that this story has another side. 

It became apparent that Amazon has certain specifications regarding the way they will promote authors.  First the author needs 50 reviews on Amazon per Amazon site.  Thus 50 in UK, 50 on .com etc.  That is a lot of reviews.  Then Amazon want 100 likes on that books, Amazon page and a further 50 agreed tags.  This way Amazon will start to promote a book to a wider audience than we can ever reach on Facebook.

                So I figured?.let's see if we can do this?

I started WaAr and it is a smashing success, apart from...

I soon realized that my first impression of readers was wrong.  Or mostly wrong.  It turns out that nobody took the time to educate Indie book readers.  They do not know about Amazon's review policies for books; they do not know the import of an honest review.  Most still do not know about likes and tags, so it came down to educating readers as well as authors.

I was delighted to find that I am wrong.

So what is next for WaAr? we will be branching out to Goodreads to a greater extent than we are currently involved, taking and making WaAr and the authors we support even more known. 

If you are an avid reader who would love to exchange an honest review for a free copy of a book? Then look up Wanda's amazing Amazon reviewers under groups on Facebook and ask to join.  We would love more reviewers. 

You heard the girl:  If you are a reader and want to be a reviewer, Wanda wants you.  Contact her here:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/328607697211329/

And if you are an author, make sure you tell her THANK YOU!