How To Get Reviews For Your Self-Published Book
This is another article for a mini-series on self-publishing misconceptions. However, it’s also standalone. In this article I’ll tell you the simple way to get reviews for your self-published book, both on Amazon and away from it.
Firstly, let’s review why we’re here.
Should Self-Published Books Have No Reviews?
I saw a topic the other day on Reddit about some guy’s view on self-published books. It contained a lot of misconceptions and I’ve been working through those in a few articles. I’ll link them in the list below, but here are the topics I’m covering:
- Self-published books have poor covers or no covers
- They contain no editing or poor editing
- Price competition – self-published books should be cheap
- Self-published books should have no reviews and self-published authors pay for fake reviews
- I don’t know the last point? Sneaky self-published authors masquerade as a publishing company or something?
Today, I’m talking about reviews. Allegedly, self-published books can’t possibly have reviews, so they must be fake.
Needless to say, this isn’t accurate. The last thing I do when I go to post a book review is think, “Hey… did some guy self-publish this or is this book published by Penguin? If it’s the former, I’m definitely not reviewing it!”
In no scenario would that occur. Think about it for a second and it’ll be clear to you.
So, how do you get reviews for your self-published book, bearing the above in mind?
On Amazon
Amazon is where you’ll want reviews, providing you’re selling on Amazon. It’s where they make the most difference – other platforms don’t have so much weighting on reviews.
Now, how do you get Amazon reviews assuming you’re a self-published author with no street-cred?
Simple:
- Ask for them
If there’s one thing I noticed when I started becoming a good copywriter, it’s that most things in life have no call-to-action. People wander around like headless chickens and people want stuff but never ask for it.
At the end of every book have a page saying, “GIVE ME REVIEWS.”
If you want, incentivise it. “I’m always looking for your honest reviews. Let me know by emailing me.”
Then you get the review sent to you. If it’s good then ask them if they can post the review on Amazon and give them specific instructions on how to do that.
If it’s a bad review, give the person something free or try and correct what they didn’t like about it.
You don’t have to incentivise people, but it never hurts.
Now, let’s take that thought a step further.
Start An Advanced Reader’s Club
If you’re pumping out material on a regular basis, then it makes sense to create a list of your reviewers (mostly positive ones!) Ask your mailing list if any of them would like the ability to sample books before they’re out in exchange for their feedback.
This can be used for a lot of different things, but your diehard fans will jump at the chance. They love free stuff, and they probably love the idea that you’re hearing their thoughts.
So you give them the free book and they give you their thoughts. Then, when you release the finished product say, “Hey… could you do me a favour? Your thoughts on this book were great… could you put the review up on Amazon/Goodreads/wherever?”
You’ll get a few reviews from this, and that’s all you need to start with.
Bear in mind that there’ll be free-riders who don’t review and/or take the free book and leave you negative feedback. Don’t let them do it more than once. Kick them out of the exclusive club.
Off-Amazon
This is all a lot easier when you’re not talking about Amazon reviews. Amazon are harsh when it comes to relationships between people who are selling stuff. If you have the same surname, they’ll flag your account. When you review in little groups of people, they flag your account. Try and buy fake reviews – they’ll flag your account.
Of course, people do it, but it’s the same as any other race-against-the-man then – you’ve got to make sure you don’t get caught.
Now, when you’re talking about reviews outside of Amazon, it’s a different kettle of fish. Do some networking with other authors. Comment on their blogs. Become their friend and generally help people out.
A lot of people who have blogs in the same niche as you will gladly review your book without you asking. People are always looking for content ideas and it’s a quid-pro-quo system; you review their book, they review yours.
This is true with fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Build relationships with people and they’ll help you out.
Final Thoughts
This is obviously a pretty straightforward subject, but it’s one that remains mysterious to a lot of writers. The upshot is:
- Produce a good book that people want to review and share
- Make friends and build a list of people that like your book sand want to read them
- Ask those people for reviews
- (Possibly) give people something in exchange for those reviews
Don’t buy reviews or do anything shady. Not because it’s bad (although it is) or because the risks outweigh the benefits (i.e. you’ll get banned from Amazon which is a major roadblock in being a successful author) but simply because you don’t need to.
Build a good product and ask people kindly to review it. That’ll get you there.