Getting past the hurdle of little to no reviews

So I'm an indie writer with 2 books published, both in select.

After a decent initial 2 day promotion being picked up by various free book sites, I gave away 1500 copies. If I had known that was EXCELLENT I would not have pulled the promotion and tried again a month later. O MY GOD. Next promotion I didn't submit to the sites and I got 500 downloads. Over three days instead of 2.

Then with this latest one, I have zero reviews, and haven't been picked up by anything fancy despite submitting everywhere. Behold - 3 days now and less than 150 downloads.

But this is still the best way to break out. It still is. I mean, I'm just using my intuition - but basically we have two choices. Go Select or try your luck on other platforms.

I am almost certain that every sale I have made has come from one of two places:

1. People I know online / offline
2. Select promotion word of mouth

I haven't had any other sales that I can see aside from this. That's on Amazon. With all the other sites doing a small percent on Amazon, do you really think I would try my luck there? Some random person is going to run across my random story for 2.99 and buy it? Why??

Eventually, when I have tonnes of titles and am making success through Amazon, then I will switch over gradually to other platforms. Otherwise, I'm going to select it. Even if I only make 100 freeloads each promotion, that's 100 chances I didn't have before for a review. Every three months every book gets  another chance, and that's another chance for reviews. Get the reviews, and that's a chance for free sites or whatever, and then you build from there.

Obviously, you can't not be prolific. You got to be a hardcore obsessed writer to get ahead here.

Now, I don't know if Amazon will suddenly kill Select, when that happens we just keep going with the best that is available to us, but right now, I think that is the best.

That's just my thinking.

A few observations, for what they're worth:

- Promotional tactics are great, but your underlying philosophy is key. Most authors starting out focus on selling books. What they should be doing (IMHO) is building their readership. Some folks think the two are the same thing, but they're not. You have no way at all to directly control how many books you sell. If we did, we'd all be millionaires. But you can control how many individual people you reach out to, how often, and in what manner, and you have a much larger array of tools for doing that nowadays than authors once did (social media, email lists, sites like Goodreads, etc.). Some number of these readers will convert to true fans who will be eager to buy your future works. At some point, the number of fans will achieve a critical mass that will push your sales beyond the "hobby" threshold into the "holy crap this is real money" realm. And giving away freebies, of course, is a fantastic way of getting your book into the hands of potential readers.

- If you focus on building your readership and you interact with people, ask - nicely and gently! - for what you want. If someone compliments you on your book, thank them and then ask if they'd please consider leaving a brief review wherever they bought it. I emphasize the "brief" part because many readers are intimidated by the thought of leaving a review, or don't want to take the time, thinking they have to write a long book report. They don't. "Just write what you thought of the book in a sentence or two, like you'd tell a friend if you only had a minute before you had to head off somewhere." That's gotten a lot of people over the hump.

- Blog reviews are nice, but I've found that the best thing about them is the blurbs you can pull out of (positive) reviews to use for the sorts of "reviewers say" plugs you can put on the book's detail page on the retail sites, your web site, marketing materials, etc. They're very transient and don't usually convert to many sales, so I wouldn't bang your head against the wall over them. Sure, ask for them - exposure is always good - but don't lose sleep over it. Reader reviews on product pages (or sites like Goodreads), by contrast, stick with your book so future prospective readers can see them, and the vast majority of readers take a gander at them.

- Oh, and while I think most people have this firmly in mind these days, NEVER pay for a review... 

Here is how I work it:

-About 3 months prior to releasing my book, my throw a giveaway up on Goodreads.  Book bloggers often look for material to review that way, so if you don't have a huge network in place, thats an excellent place to start generating one.  Interested parties aren't shy, they're going to track you down and ask (nicely) for an ARC.  I have a policy of never saying no to new faces.  I generally begin compiling a list of interested parties and let them know the exact DATE I will have their copy for them.

-On my website (if you don't have a website, use your blog) I put a notice that ARC of my novel are available for review.  You'd be genuinely surprised how many bloggers randomly can find your work.

-I find the blogs that work in my genre and contact them myself -- this is the best time investment prior to launch.  It takes me normally a full work day (10 hours) to e-mail a bunch.  You won't hear back from everyone, so cast a wide net!  

The bloggers are usually the first reviews up on Amazon.  If you can secure 10 solid blogs that like your book and those 10 blogs leave favorable reviews, you're well on your way to being able to court those sites to publicize your books.  

Then, ultimately, it's about keeping your list for later use.  I only approach bloggers who really enjoyed my book, obviously, but the process begins again so the list keeps growing.  It makes the future releases that much easier.

Good luck!