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!
