Book reviews are an essential part of promoting your book, drawing in potential readers, and increasing your success of selling any future books that you put on the market. However, getting those first few reviews, even from people who read and loved your book, can be challenging and often requires initiative on your part. Here are a few tips to help you get the best book review:
Encourage and Enable Readers to Get A Book Review
There are some people who won’t even remember that leaving a review is an option, or perhaps they won’t make the effort to leave one on their own, but if you remind them and make the review process easier for them, many would be perfectly happy to help you out. One option is to insert a page in the back of your book thanking the reader, asking for a review, and providing them with a link to your book’s Amazon page where they can drop a review. If you have a website or professional social media pages, you can also pin a link that directs to your book’s Amazon page and encourages visitors to leave a review.
Contact Amazon Top Reviewers
Amazon has a list of Top Customer Reviewers whom you can reach out to for a review. They are largely anonymous, but if they happen to list their e-mail or website, send them a polite, personalized e-mail asking them to take a look at your book and leave a review. Wait at least one or two weeks before following up if they don’t respond. If they do decide to leave a review, be sure to thank them and keep them in mind for your next book.
Ask Book Bloggers to Review Your Book on Amazon
In addition to the tips included in our previous blog post, “How to get book bloggers to review your book,” it never hurts to politely inquire as to whether they would be willing to leave an Amazon review as well. Be gracious, be courteous, and don’t pester a reviewer if they decline your request.
Additional Options to Get A Book Review
There are other ways to boost your review count, including setting up a launch team or relaunching your book. You can read more about these tried-and-true strategies at self-publishingschool.com.
Follow Amazon’s Rules!
The reviews you receive will be useless if they do not follow Amazon’s Community Guidelines and are subsequently removed from your page. Here are a few of Amazon’s guidelines for what are considered unacceptable reviews:
- A review written as a form of promotion.
- A review by someone who has a direct or indirect financial interest in the product.
- A review by someone perceived to have a close personal relationship with the product’s owner, author, or artist.
- A review by the author, posing as an unbiased reader.
- A review in exchange for monetary reward or any form of compensation.
- A positive review from an author on a peer’s book in exchange for receiving a positive review from them.
It is strongly recommended that you read Amazon’s Community Guidelines and Customer Review guidelines thoroughly before asking for reviews.
