Seond Edition Headaches: I Don't Want to Lose My Amazon Reviews

I sometimes run Q and A a la Ann Landers columns in my SharingwithWriters newsletter using questions that my clients ask me or that subscribers send to me. This is one of my favorites because involves two subjects that seem to interest authors most--Amazon sales and getting reviews. 

Q&A A La Ann Landers

Wahh! I Don’t Want to Lose All My Amazon Reviews

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QUESTION:
Do you lose your Amazon reviews when you publish a second edition of your book?

ANSWER
You can get Amazon to post reviews from the first edition to the second through Author Connect. and, you can get Amazon to put a referral widget from the first edition to the second. They tend to move this widget around, but it's always been near the top of the first edition buy page (though not as prominent as I'd like to see it!). 

You can see what it looks like on this page for the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452289798&sr=1-15&keywords=carolyn+howard-johnson). But please don't buy the first edition! The second edition is expanded, updated and, if I do say so, lots prettier! (-:

Do know that Amazon only transfers all of the reviews; you can't pick and choose. So if something in the first edition has been criticized and you fixed it in the second edition, they won’t discard that earlier review. Your only recourse is to use the comment feature that is found at the end of each review to dispute the claim—maybe with a thank you to the reviewer for helping you correct that in the second edition.

Just an extra here: If you just update your old edition rather than publish a new one, you may be losing more marketing opportunities than you ever dreamed of.  Of course,  a second edition should have something new about the cover (like the words second edition) or a whole new cover and at least 10% new content).

PS: Watch for the August-September release of my newest book in the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. It is Getting Great Reviews Frugally and Ethically.   

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 Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Yay! Your Book Now Available in Deutschland!

I just received notice that those of us with books published on Kindle are now also published in Gemany at the new Amazon.de site. Of course, I rushed over to see. Not all of mine are there as the letter I've enclosed promises but you can see that I've added some pictures to make the sales page look as if it is cared for. I know a very little German, but I suspect that even without any, you'll be able to figure out how to add some pictures to your pages. See what I've done with Maggie Ball's and my Cherished Pulse chapbook of love poetry:

http://www.amazon.de/Cherished-Pulse-Unconventional-Celebration-ebook/dp/B004HB1W9Q/ref=cm_cmu_up_thanks_hdr

And here is the letter directly from Amazon.  Please let me know if your Kindle-published book(s) are there and what you were able to do make them stand out a bit on this site. (-: 

Hello,


We are excited to announce Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.de!

To learn more about publishing your book on Amazon.de, including royalty and payment options, click here:

http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help

Any books you’ve published through Kindle Direct Publishing which have rights in Germany are already available in the new Kindle store on Amazon.de, based on the list prices and royalty plans you've provided for the Amazon.com store.

In addition to the launch of Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.de, we're also thrilled to offer royalty payments for our European publishers via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). To learn more about this option, including how to sign up to receive payments via EFT, click here:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=200641050

We hope to see you soon!

Sincerely,
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
http://kdp.amazon.de/

Now I'm off to see if I can spruce up The Frugal Editor and The Frugal Book Promoter pages. (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: