Reviews Not Influecing Buying?

[akchf]

Even if online reviews aren't useful in persuasion or giving an accurate take on the book, I think they offer quite a bit in the line of free publicity. I know there are books I wouldn't have heard of had I not seen them reviewed on ENWorld or even heard people talking about them.

 

[Umbra]

I've bought two products very recently that I probably wouldn't have bought if I didn't already know that they were solid products - Elements of Magic, and MMS:Western Europe (long time on waiting for that one, I know).

I purchased MMS:Western Europe after reading the reviews and it winning an award. I hadn't (and haven't) seen a single copy in the stores here downunder and the couple of times I asked about it there was a lot of uhm-ing and ahh-ing and foot shuffling. But because of the reviews I ordered the hardcopy online from Exp.R. Prior to that I had never ordered online (but I have since).

So the reviews definitely made a difference in my case.

 

[Monte At Home]

It's impossible to track print sales to the appearance of a review in order to know how it influenced people. With pdf sales, however, it's pretty easy, since I can track them day by day (hour by hour if I wanted). And I can say that the appearance of a review almost never has any noticeable effect on sales. In fact, I've seen bigger "spikes" due to people having a discussion about a new product here on ENWorld or on our site than I've ever seen for a review.

 

[Belen]

It's impossible to track print sales to the appearance of a review in order to know how it influenced people. With pdf sales, however, it's pretty easy, since I can track them day by day (hour by hour if I wanted). And I can say that the appearance of a review almost never has any noticeable effect on sales. In fact, I've seen bigger "spikes" due to people having a discussion about a new product here on ENWorld or on our site than I've ever seen for a review.

I can agree with this one. I have bought a large number of books based on threads here at ENWorld, such as Destan's Valus sourcebook. A thread on the general boards will cause me to seriously look at a book.

Monte,

Your rep is such that a lot of people buy your stuff no questions asked, although a thread that reminds me that a book is out always causes me to hunt down that PDF.

Dave

 

[shadow]

I never use review to influence my buying. It just seems that my tastes are too different from most other people's to put too much trust in reviews. Too often I see reviews that say that a product sucks when I think it rocks, or vice-versa.

 

[Vanuslux]

As a side note, even with PDFs I don't necessarily run right out to immediately buy something that a review has perked my interest in. I don't always have the money to spare right there and then. It may be several days or weeks before I get around to it. The thing is I don't think it's possible to really know how much reviews affect sales because what people look for is sales spikes whereas I think reviews lead more to a small sales swell. A publisher would really need to poll their customer base to know how many sales came from a review.

 

[Krieg]

And I can say that the appearance of a review almost never has any noticeable effect on sales.

That is based on two assumptions...first that reviews are read immediately after being posted, and second that folks who are influenced by a review are going to purchase the product immediately after reading said review.

Neither may in fact be the case.

 

[EricNoah]

I don't peg "review readers" as "impulse buyers" -- in fact, quite the opposite. Reviews are mostly for those who might be "on the fence" -- and can give a gentle nudge one way or the other.

 

[Psion]

It's impossible to track print sales to the appearance of a review in order to know how it influenced people. With pdf sales, however, it's pretty easy, since I can track them day by day (hour by hour if I wanted). And I can say that the appearance of a review almost never has any noticeable effect on sales. In fact, I've seen bigger "spikes" due to people having a discussion about a new product here on ENWorld or on our site than I've ever seen for a review.

It's my feeling that reviews are primarily about "buzz" and net presence. I think Malhavoc is a strong enough operation and has a strong enough net presence all by itself that a single review doesn't add that much to their immediate PDF sales; we are seeing diminishing returns on our contribution to your net presence.

When it comes to operations that are a bit smaller, with companies that don't have as well established a net presence and regular community, a single review is more likely to raise awareness of your products. Often very good products, like Sidewinder: Recoiled or Book of Templates.

 

[EricNoah]

I wonder if one could correlate the lack of reviews for a product with its sales strength? Those are the products that make me suspicious -- if no one has taken the time to write a review of it, what is wrong with it? That's what goes through my mind anyway...