how to get amazon book reviews

How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon the Quickest and Easiest Way

Book reviews and sushi restaurants have a lot more in common than you might think. Discover the secrets to getting book reviews on Amazon!

Would you risk getting sushi from a restaurant with a 1-star average and a dozen bad reviews talking about getting food poisoning? Didn't think so.

The thing is, Amazon reviews function the same way. They warn readers about books that might not be worth their hard-earned money or precious time. So, how do you convince someone you've never met that your book is worth taking the chance?

In this blog post, we'll walk you through a ton of budget-friendly and compliant ways for how to get book reviews on Amazon, and skyrocket your sales (and royalties).

Are you tapping into all of Amazon's potential? Check out our free webinar that shows you exactly how one publishing method has already generated a collective $50 million in revenue for thousands of students of all ages all over the world with no publishing or tech experience required.

Why Do Amazon Book Reviews Matter?

A dozen 5-star reviews can usually offset a single bad review, but a single 5-star review won't always offset a dozen negative reviews. It's just the nature of the game and human psychology. We tend to gravitate toward what's safe and comfortable.

Here are some more reasons that a book's review matters:

Credibility and Social Proof

Let's knock the obvious one out of the way. When potential readers are browsing Amazon for a new book to read, they are more likely to choose a book that already has previous other readers. Positive reviews act as social proof and give credibility to your book. They show that others have enjoyed your book and that it’s worth reading.

Sales and Ranking

Amazon book reviews can also impact your book's sales and ranking. Books with a higher number of positive reviews tend to sell more copies. Additionally, Amazon's search algorithm takes into account the number and quality of reviews when ranking books in search results.

Momentum and Feedback

Positive reviews just feel good. They're a good boost to your confidence and can motivate you to keep publishing. Even a negative review can help you improve your work by providing constructive feedback to implement in your future work.

A Breakdown of Amazon's Review Policy and Algorithm

Amazon's review policy is designed to ensure that reviews are genuine and unbiased.

That means they prohibit the following:

Reviews that are fake
Reviews that are incentivized or come from a bribe
Reviews that are written by the author or publisher of a book or their family and friends
Reviews that include profanity, hate speech, and personal information

Note: Violating these policies can result in the removal of reviews and even account suspension.

Amazon's algorithm uses various factors to determine the authenticity and relevance of book reviews. The algorithm considers the number of reviews, the rating, and the recency of reviews as well as the location that the reviews came from. They can typically tell when friends and family are leaving reviews by checking whether you've ever sent each other gifts through Amazon or shared an address.

Most people can get away with one or two close friends leaving a positive or leaving a review too, but is it worth it? For one, it’s unethical. And secondly, it throws off the algorithm. If you wrote a book about bulldogs and none of your friends even have dogs, then they wouldn't be your target audience anyway. Their data would then affect the types of readers Amazon suggests your book to, and this can skew your marketing plans. Just something to keep in mind!

How Many Reviews Is Enough?

When it comes to the number of reviews you need on Amazon, there's no magic number that will instantly turn your book into a bestseller. Good reviews can essentially sell the book for you, so the more positive reviews you have, the better.

A good goal to aim for (and what we teach our Publishing.com students ) is at least 50 reviews for every new book that you publish. This may seem like a lot, but we've found this to be the sweet spot for gaining traction, and this blog post is full of ideas to help you get started.

Another pro tip? The timing of your reviews can have an impact on your book's success. Ideally, you want to have as many reviews as possible around the time of your book's initial launch to help it get more visibility.

Identifying Your Ideal Readers

There's no use reaching out to people who won't get any value out of reading your book. Sure, they may leave you an honest review, but it might not be a good one. Here's what to consider when trying to connect with the readers who are most likely to leave you a positive review:

What genre does your book fall into? You can use Amazon's categories and subcategories to help you identify your genre. Maybe you want to target fans of romance or hobby books, or you want to tap into the children’s book market. These categories will help you when you're looking for various social media groups to connect with reviewers (more on that later).

Keywords are the words or phrases that readers use to search for books on Amazon. By including relevant keywords in your book's title, subtitle, and description, you can make it easier for potential readers to find your book. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Amazon's keyword tool to find relevant keywords.

Demographics

Think about who your book is intended for. Is it for young adults or older readers? Is it for men or women? Is it for people who enjoy a certain type of hobby or interest? If you're publishing children's books, you'll need to remember that the parents are the ones who will be purchasing your book and deciding whether to leave reviews.

How to Ask a Reader to Leave an Honest Review on Amazon

There are plenty of ways to get free book reviews, which we'll talk about here. The best strategy to find reviewers usually comes from a combination of these tactics. So, don't be afraid to experiment and see what method works best for you!

Let's dive right in:

Leverage Your Mailing List

One of the quickest and easiest ways to get reviews is by leveraging your mailing list. That is...if you already have one. Many authors and publishers take the time to create their own websites and collect readers' emails to keep them up to date with their latest book launches.

If you don't have a mailing list yet, you can start building one by offering a free sample chapter or some kind of bonus content in exchange for someone's email address. You can then follow up with emails that have the link to purchase and review your book.

Pro Tip: The more steps something takes, the less likely people are to follow through, so you want to make it as easy as possible for them. Always include direct links so they don’t have to go searching for them!

Email Template to Ask for a Book Review

Need some book marketing inspo? We've got you covered.

Here's a handy email template you can tweak to your style and voice for launch day!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email Subject Line: 🌟 It’s Finally Here! Want to Help Other Readers? 📖

Hey [Reader's Name],

Big news: “[Book Title]” is out today! 🎉 I’m super excited (and a bit nervous) to share this story with you. It’s been quite the adventure bringing it to life.

If you enjoy the read, I’d be over the moon if you could take some time to drop a quick review on Amazon. Your honest thoughts really help—both me and other book lovers.

Here’s how:

Pop over to [Insert Link].
Scroll to "Customer Reviews" and hit "Write a Customer Review."
Share what you think about the book—there's no right or wrong answer!

That’s it! Short and sweet does the trick. 🌟

Thanks a million for your support. It means the world to me, and I can’t wait to hear what you think of “[Book Title].”

Happy reading and happy reviewing!

Cheers, [Your Name]

Connect with Book Bloggers and Top Reviewers

Book bloggers and full-time reviewers can help you get the word out about your book by engaging their audiences.

Here are some tips on how to connect with them:

1. Do Your Research

Not all bloggers and reviewers are the same. You want to target those who are interested in your genre and have a following. Look for bloggers and reviewers who have already reviewed books similar to yours.

2. Personalize Your Pitch

When reaching out to bloggers and reviewers, make sure to personalize your pitch. Address them by name and mention why you think they would be interested in your book.

3. Follow Up

After you've sent your pitch, follow up with the blogger or reviewer. Politely ask if they've had a chance to read your book yet and if they have any feedback. Following up shows that you're interested in their opinion and can help build a relationship for future reviews.

Just be careful not to cross into begging territory. If someone doesn't want to read your book, there are millions of other potential readers out there who might!

4. Be Genuine

When engaging with bloggers and reviewers, be genuine. Focus on their experience rather than the review itself. Be open to their feedback, even if it's not what you were expecting. It can help you grow and connect with future readers.

Pro Tip: The only real failure in the publishing world is giving up!

Create a Call-to-Action Inside Your Book

A Call-to-Action (CTA) is simply a marketing term that means giving your intended audience a very specific action to take. You've probably seen a ton without realizing it, like "click here," "sign up now," or "order now!"

Another simple way to increase reviews for your book on Amazon is to create a call-to-action (CTA) inside your book. This is a message that encourages readers to leave a review immediately on Amazon. By doing this, you're taking advantage of the fact that readers are more likely to leave a review while the experience is still fresh in their minds.

Here are some common locations for CTAs:

Your author bio
In the middle of your book, at a natural stopping point between two chapters
The end of your book

Many authors and publishers include a QR code that takes the readers to a website. This website can be a simple landing page that thanks the reader for their support and encourages them to leave a review on Amazon. Make sure to emphasize the importance of honest reviews and how they help other readers make informed decisions about whether or not to buy your book.

Other CTA tips:

Be clear and concise
Focus on only ONE action you want the readers to take
Use strong action verbs
Offer up your gratitude even if they choose not to take the next step but still took the time to read your work

Create an ARC Team

An ARC Team stands for an Advance Reader Copies Team or Advance Review Copies Team. The idea is simple: You build a dedicated team of people who are ready to give all your new books an honest customer review.

To build an effective Advance Reader Team, start by reaching out to your email list, social media followers, and other fans of your work. Let them know you are looking for readers who are willing to read and review your book before your book is live. Be clear about what you expect from them, including the timeline for reading and reviewing the book.

Once you have built your Advance Reader Team, provide them with a full copy of the book of your book in a format that is easy for them to read, such as a PDF or Kindle file. Follow up with them to make sure they have received the book and are on track to finish reading it by the agreed-upon deadline.

Note: Participating in ARC review methods isn't against Amazon KDP's terms; however, posting your full manuscript online would be if you were planning on making your book available through Kindle Unlimited.

Take Advantage of Social Media

One effective way to use social media is to create a Facebook page for your book. This page can be used to share updates about your book, interact with readers, run ads, and, most importantly, request book reviews. You can also join Facebook groups that are specifically designed for authors and reviewers.

Goodreads is another social media platform that can be used to request book reviews. Goodreads has a large community of readers and reviewers, making it an ideal platform to promote your book and request reviews.

Pro Tip: No one likes spam, so stick to the golden rule. Treat readers how you would want to be treated.

Leverage Free or Low-Cost Book Review Sites

Some popular free or low-cost book review sites include Goodreads, Pubby, and Online Book Club. These sites have large communities of readers who are eager to discover new books and provide feedback.

When submitting your book for review on these sites, be sure to follow the submission guidelines carefully. Some sites may have specific requirements for the format of your book or the information you need to include in your submission.

Remember : Amazon doesn't allow incentivized reviews.

Here's how these platforms tackle compliance:

Pubby operates on a book review exchange model. Authors who join Pubby agree to review other authors' books in exchange for reviews of their own books. This peer-to-peer system is designed to increase the number of reviews without direct financial incentives or specific demands for positive reviews.

This differs from review swaps, where both parties leave a "5-star" review regardless of their true opinions about the work.

Goodreads is a community platform for book lovers. It allows users to leave reviews, rate books, and engage in discussions about books. Reviews on Goodreads are user-generated and are not part of a paid or incentivized system.

Although Goodreads is owned by Amazon, the review system on Goodreads operates independently of Amazon’s review system. Reviews on Goodreads are generally not subject to the same strict guidelines as Amazon's product reviews, but there are still ways to go about asking for reviews ethically and unethically.

Consider Ethical Paid Services to Get Reviews

While it's always best to get book reviews on Amazon organically, sometimes it's necessary to use paid services to get your book reviewed with the attention it deserves and to scale your publishing business more quickly. Ethical services offer legitimate ways to connect with reviewers and get more reviews on Amazon without violating any rules.

A quick word of caution: Some UNethical services may violate Amazon's terms of service by offering to buy reviews directly, so always be sure to do your own research!

Authentic reviews for their services
A proven track record with the genre you're publishing in
Transparent pricing and policies
Access to support (whether through email, chat, or phone) in case you ever need it

Some legitimate services offer a variety of a la carte options, such as running a review campaign or connecting authors with reviewers who are interested in reading their books. Some services may also offer to promote your book to their audience, which can help increase visibility and generate more sales.

Overall, using ethical paid services to get reviews can be a great way to boost your book's visibility on Amazon and get more readers interested in your work. Just be sure to choose a reputable service and always follow Amazon's publishing guidelines to ensure that your book stays in good standing on the platform.

What Are Editorial Reviews on Amazon?

Editorial reviews are essentially "bonus" quotes and reviews housed on your Amazon book page through your Author Central Account . They may be written by professional reviewers, such as book critics and editors, or they may simply be quotes you want to highlight about your books from others.

To get editorial reviews for your book, you can submit your book to publications and websites that review books, or you can hire a professional reviewer to write a review for you. Once you have an editorial review, you can then submit it to Amazon to be published on your book review page.

Editorial reviews can be a great way to get exposure for your book and build credibility with potential readers, but customer reviews are just as important for building out your review page.

Avoiding Fake Reviews and Ensuring Genuine Feedback

Your reviews set the stage for your reputation as a self-publisher.

Here are some tips to avoid fake reviews and ensure genuine feedback:

Seek Verified Purchase Reviews

Amazon marks reviews from customers who have purchased your book on their platform with a “Verified Purchase” label. These reviews carry more weight as they are more likely to be authentic. You can encourage your readers to leave such reviews by reminding them to buy the book directly from Amazon.

Aim for Balanced Reviews

Genuine reviews often provide a well-rounded perspective of your own book. They don’t just heap praises or pile on criticism; instead, they offer a nuanced view, discussing various aspects like plot, characters, writing style, formatting, and pacing. Be on the lookout for reviews that offer specific, balanced insights into your work.

Stay Alert to Fake Reviews

Be cautious of reviews that may not be legitimate. These can be overly effusive or excessively negative, exhibit repetitive language or phrasing, or appear in an unnaturally large number within a short span. Amazon allows you to report suspicious reviews by using the “Report Abuse” option.

Sabotage is rare, but it does happen. If you suspect that a competitor has given you a false review, flag it and keep moving forward. You can rest easy knowing that you’ve put in the work and you’re running your publishing business from a place of integrity.

Foster Authentic Engagement

Encourage genuine feedback by interacting with your readers. Express gratitude for their reviews and engage with their comments. Addressing their thoughts and concerns not only shows your appreciation but also demonstrates your commitment to putting out quality content.

Although you cannot respond directly to Amazon comments, you can interact with your mailing list and social media following.

Optimize Your Book Launch for Reviews

Getting book reviews on Amazon is crucial for book sales, traction, and visibility.

Here are some tips to help you get the most reviews from your book launch.

1. Set a Launch Date

Setting a specific launch date helps you plan your book launch, coordinate your promotion plan with your publishing team (if you have one), and start your PR campaign two to three months before the launch date. It also enables you to coordinate book signing events with local bookstores three to four months before the launch or publication date.

Pro Tip: Some niches are more profitable during particular times of the year. See what your competitors are doing to get a better idea of what works and what doesn't.

2. Create a Pre-Launch Checklist

Creating a pre-launch checklist helps you explore your book launch to-do's at a glance. It might even include a marketing and PR plan tailored to each social media platform.

3. Stay Up to Date with Amazon's Review Guidelines

It doesn't hurt to check Amazon's guidelines every quarter or so to make sure there aren't any updates that might impact your plans. The truth is this industry is constantly changing—especially as AI becomes more and more common!

4. Don't Be Shy Asking for Reviews

Asking for reviews can be uncomfortable at first, but this is just another one of those skills that take time and practice, like strength training and weightlifting.

5. Think Outside of the Box

You're in charge when it comes to marketing your Amazon book , and within reason, the sky is the limit. Virtual events like Q&As can help your audience get to know you, but there are thousands of other ideas out there to help your book stand out in a crowded market.

Here are just a few:

Collaborative Storytelling Event : Host an online event where readers contribute to a live, interactive storytelling session based on your book's universe.
Interactive Web Series : Produce a short web series or interactive videos that explore your book's characters or setting, inviting audience participation.
Flash Fiction Contest : Organize a writing contest where participants create short stories inspired by your book, with the best entries featured on your website.
Podcast Series : Launch a podcast discussing themes, background stories, or characters from your book, possibly including guest speakers or experts.
Themed Cook-along or Craft Workshop : If your book involves unique cuisines or crafts, host a live cook-along or crafting session teaching these skills.
Charity Event Partnership : Tie your launch to a charity event, where aspects of your book's theme help raise awareness or funds for a relevant cause.
Book Playlist Release Party : Curate a playlist of songs that captures the mood of your book, hosting a listening party with discussions about how each song relates to the story.

Publishing.com's Student Reviews

Which of the following types of people have found success with publishing?

A) Grandmas and grandpas who weren't necessarily tech-savvy but wanted to find a way to supplement their retirement

B) Stay-at-home moms and dads who wanted to find a way to make money without missing out on any of their children's milestones

C) College students who wanted to find a way to stop drowning in student loan debt

D) All of the above

The Publishing.com team has earned a verified review average of 4.8 out of 5 stars on TrustPilot , and the answer is D! All of the above!

Here's what some students had to say:

If you're looking for a sign to take that first step, it's this!

Just head over to our free beginner-friendly webinar to see the exact formula that can completely transform your schedule and income and bring you the freedom you crave!

Happy publishing!

Table of Contents

Why Do Book Reviews Matter?

How many reviews do i need, editorial reviews, how to get amazon book reviews, how to get reviews for your book on amazon.

What good is writing a great book if no one knows that it’s worth reading?

That’s where book reviews come in.

Reviews matter. They’re a key influencer of buying behavior and provide important social proof even to non-buyers.

Just think about it: how many times have you bought a book without looking at the reviews? I can’t speak for you, but I always read at least a few reviews of every book I buy.

So how do you get more? Most important, more good reviews?

Lots of people are trying to make money off Authors’ confusion in this area, and giving out terrible, deceitful advice about getting reviews (and a few straight up scams).

That’s why I wrote this blog post.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about getting reviews effectively and ethically, especially on Amazon .

If you’ve put in the effort to write a good book, then it’s worth taking the time to get honest feedback from your readers.

Quick note: I said “a good book.” All of my advice assumes you wrote a good book. I’m going to teach you how to get honest reviews, so if your book is not good, my suggestions will backfire. You’ll get reviews, but they won’t be ones you like.

1. Credibility & Social Proof

Imagine that you’re going out for a nice dinner, and you have a choice between two restaurants. One of them has two Michelin Stars, received glowing reviews on Yelp, and even has reviews on Google Maps.

The other restaurant looks nice from the outside, but it doesn’t have a website, and you don’t know anyone who’s been. You know nothing about the chef, and your only guideline for the food comes from the very basic menu posted outside the door.

Which restaurant are you going to choose?

Books work the same way.

If you had to choose, would you buy the book with 50 5-star reviews, or would you buy the one without any reviews at all?

People want to read books other people have read. If a book has a solid number of reviews, a strong blurb, and plenty of customer feedback, it’s going to do better.

Reviews are social proof. Proof that you have something to say, that you have the chops to say it, and that you can be engaging while you say it.

A book without reviews isn’t necessarily a bad book, but it also won’t have the same appeal as a book that consistently gets rave comments.

2. Influence search algorithms

You know what the third biggest search engine is?

Google is first, YouTube is second, and Amazon is third.

When people use Amazon, what they see first is determined by Amazon’s search algorithm…and reviews are a very important part of that algorithm.

Most of our authors write books not just to sell copies, but to use as a tool to market themselves . If this is the case for you, then people searching for your book topic are very important.

The better your ranking , the more likely it is that people will find your book. And the more likely it is that people find your book, the more likely you are to sell it.

3. Drive sales

Reviews won’t automatically make you a New York Times bestseller , but it will make your book more visible to potential readers.

Every review boosts your rankings, emphasizes your credibility, or entices potential readers.

And good reviews drive sales. Think about it–when you go to buy a book, what is the first thing you do?

Read the reviews.

The more reviews you can get—assuming they are good—the better. Lots of reviews are strong social proof a book is popular, and popular books sell.

For a minimum, you should try to get 20 reviews within the first two months after your book release date. That shows your book has traction with real readers.

At around 50 reviews, you are probably good to go. Around that point, you have solidified the book as reputable and should continue to generate reviews.

A Note Before We Start: Don’t Try to Cheat Amazon

Amazon is savvy. Their algorithm is no joke, and if you try to cheat them, you will get caught. They actively look to find and remove any review that is not a real review written by a real person–and they’re very good at it.

Amazon also has a zero-tolerance policy for any review that is designed to mislead or manipulate customers. They’re not shy about removing reviews that violate that policy.

Here’s a list of things to avoid:

You can’t pay for reviews. This includes cash or giving reviewers a free or discounted product.
You can’t offer reviewers gifts in exchange for reviews.
You can’t exchange positive book reviews with other Authors, so don’t head to Facebook or Twitter to find review swaps.

This may seem pretty restrictive. After all, don’t most of us rely on business associates, friends, and other members of our networks to sell books? And what about giving away free review copies? Does that violate the promotional terms?

Well, there are a few caveats .

You can give away free or discounted books to potential reviewers, but you can’t tell them what to write. If they hate it, they have to be able to rant and rave to their heart’s content.

That’s why I said earlier that you have to write a high-quality book. Any free copy you give away has to be given with no strings attached.

Most of this information applies to customer reviews, but they aren’t the only kind of reviews on Amazon.

Editorial reviews are either written by Amazon editors or they come from established publications like Publisher’s Weekly or Kirkus Reviews. Official book endorsements also fall under the category of editorial reviews.

Let’s say that you are a physical therapist, and you have a colleague who is very well known in the field. If she likes your work, it would probably be better to ask her for an editorial review. That way, when people look at the Amazon listing, her review will be front and center. It won’t be buried in the middle of 45 other reviews.

Editorial reviews aren’t subject to the same kinds of restrictions as customer reviews. It’s still not ethical to pay someone to give you a review, but you can and should make the most of your connections to get these.

Step 1: Set-up For Success: Ask for Reviews In Your Book

The easiest way to get book reviews is to ask for them. What better place to do that than in the book itself?

Usually, it’s best to include a short, direct review request towards the back of the book, since good reviewers tend to read all the way to the end.

Few people realize how important book reviews are to Authors. There are probably many people who enjoyed your book and would be willing to write about it if you give them a little nudge.

There are unethical ways to ask, and you should avoid them.

For starters, don’t say, “If you really loved my book, please leave a review.” I know that Authors say this all the time, but it’s presumptuous. It’s like telling someone that their opinion doesn’t matter unless it’s glowing.

People leave reviews because they want to express their feelings. Those feelings might be more complicated than, “I adored the book.” Of course you want positive reviews, but you also have to leave space for readers who enjoyed the book but are reluctant to call it the best thing they’ve ever read.

It’s better to ask readers, “I’d love to hear your honest opinion.”

Here’s another thing to avoid: Don’t ask readers, “Can you take a minute to review my book so I can sell more copies?” This comes across as desperate.

Other people typically don’t care how many books you sell. They need a better reason to take the time to write. Try framing your request around the impact that the book had on them and the impact it could have for others.

Here’s an example: “Did this book help you in some way? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Honest reviews help readers find the right book for their needs.”

Step 2: Ask Your Network for Reviews

One of the most effective ways to get reviews is to set up a launch team .

To do this, put together a list of people who would immediately do a favor for you. You want to aim for 30-50 people.

One month before the book release, send this team a copy of your book so they can read it in advance. It’s easiest to email the book as a PDF, along with a short call to action. Here’s a sample:

Hello there!

I’m excited to let you know that my new book, [Title], launches on [date]. It’s been an amazing journey to get it completed, and I’m excited to finally share it with the world.

If you’re receiving this email, it’s because you’re someone I trust enough to (a) send a free copy of the book to in advance and (b) ask that you leave an honest review when it goes live.

Early reviews are the single most important factor in determining if a book succeeds, so I’m incredibly thankful for people like you who I can rely on to leave one.

No action needed yet. Attached is your free PDF of the book, and I’ll follow up when the book launches with a reminder to leave a review.

Thanks so much for your support. I deeply appreciate it.

Just before the book launches, use KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) to discount the e-reader version to 99 cents for the week of the book launch.

Then, follow up with your team, asking them to leave a review. You can highlight certain things that you would like reviewers to mention, but again, it’s good to emphasize that you want their honest opinion.

Also mention that your book is 99 cents, so if they’re feeling generous, they can buy a copy so their review will be verified. A verified review means that the writer purchased the product through Amazon, and they didn’t receive it at a deep discount. These matter more for your Amazon ranking.

Here’s a sample email: Hey [Name],

The day is here! My book, [Title + GENI.US link], is finally live on Amazon.

I have one simple ask:

If you were able to look at the book and enjoyed it, can you leave a short review?

Reviews should only be 1-2 sentences and should take about 30 seconds to leave (and would make a huge difference for me). If you can’t come up with one, here are some examples:

[Insert example review]

Finally, I wanted to give you a heads up that Amazon can sometimes block or remove reviews if they deem our digital relationship too close, or if your account is too new. This is few and far between so I’m sorry if you run into this and thank you all the more for your support!

Thanks so much for your help! I can’t thank you enough.

Best, [Author]

As you can see, this email alludes to Amazon’s “family and friends” rule. Most book reviews and sales come from word of mouth, and you will of course be asking your network for support. The key here is that you aren’t forcing or bribing people to give you good feedback.

Step 3: Set Up Your Assets to Remind Your Network

Social media is a great way to remind your network that your book is ready to be reviewed.

Use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or whatever social media assets you have to keep your book present in people’s minds.

For example:

Pin a tweet requesting reviews at the top of your Twitter feed
Add the book to your email signature
Put your book in the header of your Facebook and Twitter profiles

Step 4: Reach Out to Authority Reviewers & Top Reviewers

Amazon has a list of top reviewers who are enthusiastic and authoritative about certain areas. If you notice that someone consistently reviews books in your field, they might be a good person to reach out to.

Be cautious about contacting too many top reviewers, especially if your book isn’t in their realm of interest. No one likes spam, so only reach out with good reason.

You have to know your audience , so look at book bloggers who might have some knowledge in your area or podcasters who might be interested in your book’s topic.

Alternately, you could use a site like BookRazor to find people interested in your book. If you send them a free copy, they agree to follow up with a review.

Be aware though: cold calls have a high failure rate. We haven’t found this method as effective as tapping personal networks.

Step 5: Don’t Ignore Negative Reviews

It’s highly likely that, at some point, you will get a negative review . This is just a fact of life.

One thing to keep in mind before you get upset is that bad reviews aren’t always a bad thing. Books that only have 5-star reviews often don’t seem credible. Bad reviews can actually convince people that your other reviews are real.

There are many ways to deal with negative reviews:

Ignore it. There’s no upside to responding to toxic people.
Answer it…but be careful. Responding can be a double-edged sword. Respond in a way that addresses the issue without coming off as defensive.
Admit it hurts to receive a bad review, then move on.
Keep things in perspective. Don’t give negative reviews more weight than positive ones.
Consider if the negative comments have any lessons for you.
Try to get Amazon to take down the review if it doesn’t comply with their guidelines. They probably won’t remove it unless the person has been fraudulent or crude.

BONUS Step: Use Paid Services

Okay, I know I said that you shouldn’t use paid services. But what I meant was, “Don’t use paid services to directly buy reviews.” That’s cheating the system, and scamming Amazon isn’t a good idea if you’re trying to be a legitimate Author.

But there are paid opportunities that you can use to get the book into potential reviewers’ hands in an ethical way.

Goodreads is a social media site for book lovers. Their book giveaways are a good way to increase exposure and create hype. Goodreads requires participants to add the book to their wish list, and they also remind winners to leave reviews. They offer several packages at different price points, depending on how many promotional options you want.

BookBub features discounted books in their daily newsletters, which have more than 10 million subscribers. You can pay to have your book featured, or you can buy ad space in the newsletters. The pricing depends on how deep the book’s discount is.

The Scribe Crew

How to Get Free and Honest Book Reviews on Amazon

By c.s. lakin.

Imagine seeing an ad pop up on Facebook advertising your recently published book—an ad you didn’t pay for. Imagine seeing your book appearing first in a line of recommended books on the product pages of similar books, and you didn’t pay for a sponsored ad.

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Imagine hearing from readers that they learned about your book from an Amazon email blast that encouraged them to buy it. Wouldn’t it be great to get all that free promotion? You can—when you get enough authentic, approved reviews on Amazon.

Will Amazon Promote Your Book?

While Amazon’s algorithms are somewhat of a mystery, it’s a known truth that when your book accrues a certain number of reviews, or a lot of reviews in a short amount of (unspecified) time, Amazon kicks into gear multiple promotions for your book. Free promotion that would probably cost a fortune if you had to foot the bill.

The magic number to start the ball rolling in this free promotion is 50. Fifty reviews merits cross promotion and ranking your book higher than others in the same categories based on search terms. With 75 reviews, Amazon is triggered to send email blasts to customers who’ve bought similar books. Amazon utilizes customer data to provide relevant recommendations.

I get tickled when I’m reading a blog and suddenly one of my books pops up on the side—an Amazon-sponsored ad—suggesting I buy that book. No thanks, already have it. But it brings a smile to my face. Did I mention I love free promotion? I am sure you will too.

Every time your book is reviewed, the algorithms are updated, and your book’s internal ranking increases.

While Amazon isn’t the only site where writers need reviews, it’s where most customers shop for books. Reviews you get on Amazon can often be used on other platforms, but no other marketplace engages in free author promotion as extensively and generously as Amazon.

Getting numerous, honest reviews on Amazon should be at the top of your market strategy list. Having the best keywords might help your book turn up in search results, but if you don’t have a slew of reviews, your book will be overlooked or dismissed by a large number of potential readers. High numbers of reviews adds cred to your brand and your talent as a writer .

Amazon also allows authors to give away their book for free for 5 days over a 90-day period (when enrolled in KDP Select). Why is this helpful in getting book reviews? Because it gives you great exposure to potential readers who might pick up your book because it’s free.

This also increases your chances of ranking high in the Top 100 Free Books list, exposing your title to many more potential readers (readers who might very well write a review for it—but watch for my warning further down).

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What are amazon’s rules on reviews.

Due to problems with dishonorable people, Amazon has developed tight rules regarding reviews. While these might seem annoying to authors, they serve to protect unscrupulous people from publishing gobs of fake or paid reviews to skew rankings and algorithms.

Here are some of the things Amazon forbids and flags (and may cause your book to be removed): paid reviews, reviews garnered through bribery (you offer something free in exchange for the review), and swapped reviews (arranging with other authors via social media sites to review each other’s books, which usually does not include actually reading said books).

What Are Verified vs. Unverified Reviews

While it can’t be quantified, it’s likely that some potential customers look at how many reviews are “verified” purchases as opposed to unverified. A “verified” purchase means the reviewer bought your book on Amazon, whereas anyone who acquired your book via some other means (purchased elsewhere, given as a gift, a free ARC) will have their review marked “unverified.”

As a potential customer, I don’t pay attention to that. I’m more interested in what the reviewer says about the book. I know that many authors—myself included—send out files of their books to people for an honest review, pre- and post-publishing. So some of those reviews are going to be unverified. But it stands to reason, having predominately verified reviews could positively influence some potential readers. I wouldn’t stress about this.

How To Balance Quantity and Quality

Getting book reviews takes work and time, and the last thing we writers want to do is waste time, spinning our wheels and getting no useful results.

However, it should go without saying that we don’t just want a lot of reviews; we want good reviews. Ones that are thoughtful, detailed, and personal. And that can take time to accumulate.

It stands to reason that having a lot of positive reviews for your book is social proof that you’ve written something worth reading.

If you want to get a lot of reviews fast, and you’re willing to pay, promo sites like Bookbub (there are many!) can help. I’ve gotten up to 50,000 free downloads in one week via a Bookbub ad offering one of my ebooks for free. And that led to a truckload of reviews (not to mention future sales of my book and other installments in my series as a bonus). However, it can also be hard to land such ads, as the competition for slots can be fierce. It’s worth repeated submission, though, for the book review payoff.

Another way to garner reviews is to do some legit giveaways (but, here, you again run the risk of getting some negative or not-so-great reviews because the winner may not generally read or like your genre). Some of the sites writers use to do giveaways are Goodreads , Bookriot , BookishFirst , BookDivas , FreshFiction , and Kingsumo , to list a few.

While it can take some time, researching top Amazon ( Vine ) reviewers can net you some weighty reviews. You can peruse the list of these 1,000 reviewers and find ones who review books like yours (and if they leave a lot of negative reviews, beware). Even if you only get a handful of Vine reviewers to read and review your book, that can be super helpful and influential.

You can Google “free book review sites” and look for ones that promote honest, legal reviews, like OnlineBookClub . Reedsy has a list of 200+ book blogs, updated for 2020, that you can use to find reviewers of your type of book.

How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon: 3 Effective Strategies

You might utilize the above strategies to get a lot of book reviews quickly, but if you’re a writer hoping to build a solid, enduring, and stellar reputation, you’ll want glowing reviews to come in steadily that come across authentic and sincere.

Here are 3 aspects to focus on for the long run:

1. Develop Relationships

One suggestion that I never see mentioned but is one that has served me very well is to attend writers’ conferences. Not only I but many writers I know have gotten endorsement blurbs from some of the most successful blockbuster authors by attending conferences and creating genuine relationships.

Let me emphasize those last three words. If you go around conferences strong-arming famous authors [read: ingratiating yourself], begging them to spend precious hours of their life reading your book and write a glowing review, you are going to be labeled a pesky pariah.

Conferences provide opportunities to rub elbows with these authors, and engaging in sincere and considerate conversation could open the door to a generous and willing heart happy to help out. You may find only one, but that’s a great start!

This is also good advice for any effort to garner reviews—be it from friends, writing associates, or your coworkers at your job. Don’t be pushy or whiny. People who sense your humility and genuineness will be drawn to take you up on your request to read and review. Give it a try!

2. Build Your Mailing List

The best way to get quality reviews is to reach out to those on your mailing list, your social media contacts, and those you’ve sent advance copies to. Ask them in a friendly, non-pressuring way to leave a review, expressing gratitude for their taking the time to read and review your book.

Even if you haven’t finished writing your book, you should get a mailing list started and work on building it. These folks are going to be your most faithful fans and reviewers. Some authors set up street teams (a group of super fans) and get them enthusiastically involved in sharing news about their new release, and once the book is published , they’re usually asked to post their honest reviews right away. With a mailing list, you can share excerpts of your new release and offer an ARC to any who want to read and review. I do this often with my new releases.

Keep these tips in mind:

Don’t bribe, coerce, or cajole.
When you send a copy of your book to a potential reader, thank them and tell them: “Be sure that when you leave a review on Amazon for me, you state that you were given a free copy in exchange for writing an honest review.”
DO ask them to give you an honest review. DON’T threaten them. You’ll make more friends this way, stay out of trouble, and have a clear conscience (reread above section on developing relationships).
Be professional. Remember: there is nothing disgraceful about asking for reviews or blurbs of endorsement for your book.
Provide a choice of epub, PDF, and mobi (Kindle) files. You can save a Word doc as a PDF, and there are free sites online that can convert from one file type to another. I like to put my cover on the first page, and it’s wise to test the file (send the mobi to your Kindle and download a program that can open an epub file (I use Adobe Digital Editions )

3. Encourage Readers to Leave a Review Right after They Read

While Amazon emails customers to leave reviews some days after they purchase anything on their site, a personal encouragement at the back of your book, along with a link (if an ebook), will probably persuade readers to leave that honest review.

This is what I write: “The best way to thank an author for writing a book you enjoyed is to leave an honest review! Click here to post your review of [book title]. Thank you so much for taking the time to let other readers know what you thought of my book.” I put a hyperlink in connected to the words click here (don’t show the very long URL).

If your book isn’t published yet, you will have to wait until you’ve at least got it up for presale (one good reason to use that feature) in order to get your Amazon book page URL. Once you have that, plug in the URL to your request for a review.

Once the book is published, you can use the link that directly goes to the book review page for your book. Here’s how you do it:

Go to your product page once your book is live, click on the reviews button, then scroll down to the bottom and click on “see all __ customer reviews. Click on that link.
Now, grab the URL in the search bar at the top.
Only grab to the end of the numbers and include the forward slash. It should look something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Colorado-Hope-Historical-Western-Romance-ebook/ product-reviews /B00PIAD22K/

Notice that the URL includes “product-reviews” in there. That’s the nice, clean link to your reviews page.

So what happens when the reader clicks that link?

She gets taken right to the top of your review page where there is a nice button that says “write a review.”

Why You Should Never Stop Attracting Reviews

In order to stay ranking high and keep Amazon’s algorithm attention, you’ll need to get a steady stream of reviews over time. That’s why it’s not a great idea to tell all your fans or mailing list recipients to post their review on one specific day. It’s better if they flow in as a stream and not a tsunami.

Don’t run that free KDP promotion during launch week . Offer your book for free one or two days a month, and that will draw in new readers whose reviews will come in over time.

Consider using a free, reputable book review site—maybe one each month—to attract new readers. I recently did a NetGalley promotion (yes, I did pay for that), and netted a lot of readers who downloaded (for free) my book file. NetGalley reviewers are bloggers, librarians, booksellers, educators, journalists, and members of the media. Reviewers give your book a rating and offer feedback. My next step is to contact the reviewers who haven’t yet left a review and politely ask if they would post one on Amazon.

Keep in mind that any reviews you get, you can manually enter them through your Author Central account on Amazon so the reviews will show up on your product page. So no worries about pressuring readers to head over to Amazon to post it themselves. However, these reviews appear on your page’s Editorial Reviews section, not in the usual Amazon review pages (and so won’t be ranked by 1-5 stars or counted as part of your number of reviews).

Go back to your list of book bloggers and review sites. Consider contacting blogs on a weekly basis to accrue new contacts and get more reviews. Keep a chart of who you contact when.

How to Avoid Negative Reviews

Let’s face reality here: you will get negative reviews. But you’re in good company. The most famous, successful authors have plenty of negative reviews. Not everyone will love your book.

The few negative reviews I’ve gotten over the years have mostly been from readers who picked up my book during a free promotion. Some admit in their review “I never read this genre” or “this isn’t my type of book.” Meaning, they wouldn’t have bought my book (which makes me groan and mutter, “So why did you bother reading my book?”).

This is part of the tradeoff with doing free promotions. You will probably get reviews from those who don’t like or understand your genre, and, sadly, you can’t block or forbid them from leaving a review or remove said review. Good news is they probably won’t download your next book during a freebie period.

Here are some ways to fend off negative reviews:

Have your book professionally edited and proofread.
Better yet, have a professional critique of your book before editing to ensure it’s well structured.
Make sure your formatting looks good, for both ebook and paperback. It’s not hard to learn how to format an ebook. Get Mark Coker’s free style book (Smashwords founder). I download Amazon’s templates for paperback and paste all my content in. Or you can hire a designer to help you. But do it right.
Write description copy that accurately describes the genre and story—don’t mislead potential readers. Also, if your book contains “heat” (venturing into erotica) or descriptive violence, warn your reader. It’s the responsible thing to do. And, honestly, you want your target readers to be enjoying your book.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep. This applies to self-help and other types of nonfiction. You might hope your readers will get healed, rich, happy, or successful by following your five-step secret method, but if you guarantee they will get these results, you are going to have some pretty angry customers leaving scathing reviews.
Your book shouldn’t be a thinly veiled advertising platform for other books or services. It’s fine to list some of your other publications or resources at the back of your book, and it’s wise to include an excerpt of one of those other books to entice readers to buy it (and putting in a link to buy is fine). But don’t have promotions and special offers sprinkled throughout your pages. It’s spammy and off-putting.
Did I mention you must have your book professionally edited and proofread?

Getting reviews on Amazon—honest, authentic reviews—will take time and effort, but it’s worth it. As the reviews pile up, you’ll see your sales ranking rise and your book will come up higher in search results.

But don’t forget the big picture: it’s about relationships. Build a fan base of happy readers who love your books. Take the time to master your craft, write the best books you can, take pride in them, and make sure they are professionally edited, with attractive covers and description that accurately describes your content. If you focus on those things and put out the effort, you will have a lot more than just reviews. You’ll have a joyful writing career.

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Amazon reviews: 3 ways to generate 25+ reviews for your book

Amazon reviews. When you see a book (or any product) with a lot of them, how do you think they got there? Most people assume that the book is popular. If a lot of people are reading it and enjoying it, they must be leaving reviews. Right?

In fact, most of the time this isn’t the case. Most of the time, authors who wait for reviews to trickle in don’t see many results. I should know – even before my recent relaunch with Morgan James Publishing , there were over 1,000 copies of Book Blueprint in circulation. Hardly any of those sales and giveaways led to reviews.

(Having said this, if you’ve read Book Blueprint and it helped with your writing journey, I’d love it if you left a review on Amazon .)

Yet I still managed to relaunch with 28 reviews.

I asked for them.

In most cases, when a book has more than a handful of Amazon reviews, those reviews have been solicited.

Is soliciting Amazon reviews ethical?

One of the most frequent questions I get when it comes to soliciting book reviews is, is it ethical? Is it ethical to ask people to leave a review for your book?

Don't approach friends and family who haven’t even read your book. And don't ask random people on the street to leave a vague comment with a 5-star rating. Those are both, of course, unethical.

However, if you are asking people to read your book and then share an honest review , then that is ethical. You can even request that they mention that you they received a free copy of your book in the review itself.

The key here is asking for honest reviews. When I reached out to my reviewers, I made this very clear, and was open to negative reviews, if they were their honest thoughts. Fortunately, if you have written the best manuscript you can, and have engaged an awesome team to turn it into the best possible book it can be, this shouldn’t be an issue. Even if there are one or two people who don’t ‘get’ you or your content, the good reviews will balance them out.

It's also important to note that the free copy cannot be dependent upon the recipient leaving an Amazon review. That is also strictly against Amazon policies. Rather, provide the free copy first, make the request, and trust that many will in fact leave a review.

Is it worth it?

I can hear what you’re thinking – it seems like an awful lot of work, doesn’t it?

Yes, it is a lot of work. In fact, of all of the people you approach for reviews, less than a quarter will actually leave them. So is it worth the time you’ll spend crafting emails and social media posts, or submitting your book to review sites?

My thoughts? Absolutely. Soliciting reviews is worth it, for three reasons:

1. Amazon reviews establish your book’s credibility

When we’re looking for products, choosing between restaurants, searching for a hotel room and even shopping for books, we all look at reviews and ratings.

A product that has a lot of positive Amazon reviews and an average rating of 4-5 stars looks like a better deal. It looks like it will deliver on its promises. In the case of a nonfiction, how-to book, it looks like it actually teaches readers what it says it will teach them.

This is especially true if we’re comparing two similar products – if one product has dozens, or hundreds, of 5-star reviews and in-depth feedback, while another has no reviews (or worse, an average rating of only 1-3 stars), which would you choose?

2. Amazon reviews are another weapon in your book’s marketing arsenal

One of the most challenging pieces of marketing anything is trying to think of new things to say.

You’ve shared a behind-the-scenes look at your publishing journey . You’ve shared all of the benefits your book can offer. And you’ve even shared excerpts of content to entice people to buy. Once you’ve done all of that, what else is there?

Reviews give you a reason to continue talking about your book. Every time a good review comes in, you have something to share on social media and with your email list. And if you’ve built a genuine relationship with your followers, they will be genuinely excited on your behalf. This leads to likes, comments, and clicks through to your book’s listing on Amazon.

This brings me to the third benefit of soliciting reviews.

3. Reviews help drive traffic to your Amazon listing

When you share your good reviews on social media or with your email list, it reminds your followers that your book exists. It also reminds them to visit its Amazon listing.

On top of this, some reviewers have other channels where they publish their reviews. Their own blogs, Goodreads, and review sites where they are members all help your book get in front of more people.

Finally, there are a number of book advertising sites out there where you can promote your book if you’re running a special discount. Examples include BookBub , Kindle Nation Daily , and The Fussy Librarian . Some of these sites require a minimum number of reviews before they accept books. Once you break through that threshold, these new marketing opportunities become available to you.

How do you do it? 3 tactics to launch your book with 20+ Amazon reviews

So how do you do it?

There are several roads to reviews. Here are the three that I’ve found to be the most effective.

1. Ask your beta readers for Amazon reviews

If you have time, a great way to ensure you write the best book you can is to enlist a team of beta readers in the publishing process. Beta readers are simply trial readers who read your book before it is published to give you feedback on how you can improve your book. If they like it, why not ask for a review at the same time?

Here’s how you do it:

a) Find your beta readers

Because you want people who can give meaningful feedback, your mum probably isn’t the best choice. Instead, look for other people in your industry (who can give feedback on the veracity of your content) or people who meet your target reader demographic (who can give feedback on how engaging and useful they found the book).

You can make a shortlist of specific people, or reach out to communities (such as Facebook groups targeting certain demographics) asking for volunteers. I targeted a business Facebook group where a lot of the members want to write a book.

b) Make your pitch

Like when you’re making any pitch, you want to focus on the benefits for the person you’re approaching. In my case, the benefits were a) learning how to write an awesome book, and b) get their testimonial featured in my book, along with their name and business name. Here’s the pitch:

I’m looking for volunteers!

My book ‘Book Blueprint : How any entrepreneur can write an awesome book’ teaches entrepreneurs how to create a blueprint so detailed that their book will write itself. While I’ve done this work with clients and used the process to write my own book, I’m looking for someone who can test the process in book form.

What’s in it for you – if you’ve been struggling to get your book out, this will teach you how to write it fast while avoiding the big mistakes many entrepreneurs make when writing their first book. You’ll also get a signed copy of the book once it comes out and, if you’d like to write a testimonial, that testimonial along with your business name and book (if you already have one) will be featured inside the front cover.

Caveat – I’m on a very tight publishing deadline, so need feedback in the next week (i.e. by next Tuesday). Because of this, please don’t volunteer unless you can read a 37,000 word book and do the exercises (these include mind mapping, brainstorming and answering questions) in the next week.

Thanks in advance :)

The results

I had 37 people volunteer to read the book (though I stopped taking on volunteers at 20). I sent out the book to the first 20 of them and ended up with 13 testimonials I could use before the one-week deadline was up.

When it comes to timing, I recommend sending the draft to beta readers after you’ve had an initial structural edit , as sometimes this can lead to significant changes in your book, making it hard for them to give good feedback on earlier drafts.

It’s also important to be clear about when you need them to come back to you with their feedback. If you have a tight publishing schedule, you don’t want it to get put on hold because they don’t have time to look at your book. Instead, be clear about your deadlines up front and only send your draft to people who agree to have feedback back to you in time.

c) Get their feedback

Review their feedback, and look at how you can address it in your book (if you want to, of course). If their feedback is positive, ask if they’d be willing to leave a review on Amazon once your book is published – they could just copy and paste what they’ve already sent you.

d) Remind them to leave Amazon reviews

If they are happy to leave the review, copy and paste their feedback somewhere safe. Once your book is live on Amazon, send them an email (or Facebook message) asking if they’re still happy to leave a review, including the text that they’ve already sent you. Most of us are busy with a lot of our own things going on. It’s your job to make it as easy as possible for them to leave you a good review if they can just copy and paste what they’ve already written.

2. Reach out to people who leave a lot of Amazon reviews

Beta readers are fantastic, but if you don’t have time to engage beta readers in your publishing journey (or if they don’t get around to leaving a review – remember, people are busy), where else should you look?

Amazon has over 300 million users , who have collectively left hundreds of millions of reviews for books and other products. When it comes to those reviews, other shoppers can vote on whether or not they found the review helpful, which then contributes to the ranking of the reviewer themselves on Amazon.

If you look at Amazon’s top reviewers , you’ll find that these people have reviewed a lot of products (often in the thousands). But their reviews also tend to be balanced and go into a lot of depth, which is why they have so many ‘helpful’ votes.

Why should this matter to you?

Because Amazon gives you free access to reviewers who have the ability to read your book and provide a review quickly. They will also put a lot of thought and energy into your review to ensure it's of value. This makes the review more helpful for your potential readers and a more powerful endorsement for your book.

Just consider these examples of reviews for Book Blueprint – review 1 , review 2 , and review 3 .

But how do you do it?

a) Find relevant reviewers

I’ve found the best way to find reviewers is to find people who have already reviewed books like yours. After all, this demonstrates that they have an interest in your subject area, which means they are more likely to read and review your book.

This is how you find them:

1. Search on Amazon for books like yours.

In other words, you want to find other books in your genre that are targeting a similar audience. In my case, I looked for other books on writing, self-publishing and book marketing that were targeted at an entrepreneur audience. For example, Your First 1,000 Copies by Tim Grahl and Published by Chandler Bolt .

2. Make a list of people who have reviewed that book.

Because time is precious and I want the best return on the time I invest, I restricted my approach to people who had:

Reviewed the book in the last 12 months
Left a review longer than one paragraph (after all, I want credible reviews, not someone writing ‘great book’)
Also reviewed similar books (you can see this by clicking on their profile link, which has a list of all of the products they’ve reviewed)

Keep in mind that not everyone will respond. Not everyone will agree to review your book. Some of those who do agree might not get around to it. So, aim for at least 50 names on your list. You can also compile a new list in a few months’ time, when more books like yours have been released, and when more reviews have been added to the old ones.

3. Compile their information in a spreadsheet.

I created a spreadsheet with columns for the reviewer’s name, the book they reviewed, a link to their profile and their contact details. If you come up with the initial list of books, a VA can be a great help when it comes to building the list of reviewers and tracking down all of their information.

Next pitch them! Ideally via email, using the contact details you’ve sourced (though I’ve also approached reviewers over Facebook Messenger and via contact forms).

Here’s a template you can use for your own pitch:

Dear [Reviewer Name] ,

I saw your review of [Book Title] on Amazon and, when I clicked through to your profile, I noticed that you’ve reviewed a number of other books like this in the past.

[Explain why you like this person’s reviewing style. Is it that they go into depth? Is it their honest criticism and feedback? Is it that they summarise the main learnings of the books they review?] Because of this, I wanted to reach out about my book.

[Tell them about your book, including the title with a link to its Amazon page, as well as what it will help your readers achieve.] I’m happy to send you a free copy of the paperback and/or a PDF and would love it if you could share your thoughts.

I understand you probably get a lot of requests like this, so if you could let me know either way, I’d appreciate it.

[Your Name]

c) Follow up

Again, people are busy, so if you don’t hear from someone after a week, don’t stress. Instead, follow up to confirm that they got your email and to check whether they’d be interested in reviewing a free copy of your book.

If they agree to review your book, then be patient. These reviewers are reading and reviewing your book as a favour to you – someone they probably don’t even know – so be patient. If you haven’t heard anything in 4-6 weeks (allowing time for postage), follow up again.

3. Submit your book to Amazon review sites (paid and free)

There are also a range of book review sites where you can submit your book, some of which will republish their review on Amazon. For those that don’t, you can republish the review yourself as an editorial review through your Amazon Author Central account.

The submission process can vary depending on the site (or publication), with some being paid while others are free. Some require physical copies while others are happy with a PDF, Word doc, .mobi or .epub file. Further, some guarantee reviews, while with others you just send your book out into the ether and hope for the best.

However, here are some common steps involved.

a) Online submissions

1 Compile a list of review sites: There are a lot of these sites out there, so vet them based on the types of books they cover. Do they cover other books like yours? Also look at the size of their audience.
2 Gather information about your book: Most review sites require a standard suite of information. If you have all of this ready to go, you can easily submit to a range of sites in a single sitting (or ask a VA to take care of it for you). This information includes:
Book title, book subtitle, author name, and price (eBook, paperback or both)
Your author bio
Book synopsis/blurb
Links to your book’s listing on Amazon and other retailers
Image of your book’s cover
Author headshot
Keywords (usually genre and other relevant terms)
3 Submit! Once you have all of the information together, gather it into a Word or Excel file and simply copy and paste the information into your submission forms. Note that many of these sites have a lot of traffic, so it might take a few months before your Amazon reviews go live.

b) Paperback submissions

As mentioned earlier, some reviewers prefer paperback submissions to eBook ones. Some of these review publications and websites include the Barnes and Noble Review , Booklist Online , BookPage and Foreword Reviews .

With electronic submissions, you’ll receive a submission confirmation by email and will be alerted when your review is live. Paperback submissions are much harder to track. You probably won’t get told when your book arrives, if it will get reviewed, or if it has been reviewed. However, the only cost to you is a copy of your book and the cost of postage, so why not?

The steps are:

1. Compile a list of reviewers and review sites

Let me know in the comments if you’d like a list of the different sites where you can submit your book!

2. Write a cover letter to go with your book

Most review sites require a standard suite of information, which they will list on their website. You can then write a standard cover letter and add, remove, information as is necessary. Here’s a sample cover letter you can use:

Dear [Contact Name] ,

Please find enclosed a copy of my book, [Book title] , for review consideration in [Publication] .

The details of the book are:

– ISBN: [If your book is available in multiple formats, include all ISBNs]

– Publication date:

– Publisher: [If applicable]

[Your name]

Post a copy of your book and cover letter to them. Note that many of these reviewers require books 2-4 before their publication date, so you’ll need to be looking into this well in advance of your date of publication.

And there you have it – three simple ways to collect Amazon reviews for your book, even before you launch.

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Your good knowledge and kindness in playing with all the pieces were very useful. I don’t know what I would have done if I had not encountered such a step like this.

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How To Get Reviews On Amazon Books—10 Valuable Ways to Boost Your Rep

September 18, 2022

Book reviews matter.

If you’re a self-published author and you’ve uploaded a book to Amazon, you’re probably wondering how to boost your book’s reach and drive sales.

While many marketing techniques and tactics increase your chances of success, one of the most effective is to receive book reviews.

If you can add positive reviews to your Amazon book, you can significantly boost your reputation as an author and drastically improve your sales.

In this article, we’ll show you how to get reviews of your self-published book and enjoy the benefits of your bolstered reputation.

How to get reviews on Amazon book

You can try several methods to get more reviews on your Amazon book.

Below we’ll advise you on the most effective and ethical means of receiving reviews so that you can boost your book’s visibility and reputation, as well as your own reputation as an author.

1. Identify your target audience

It’s important to note that the earlier you get reviews for your book, the better.

You’ll want your review ready by the time the book gets published to drive sales and boost your visibility and reach as early as possible.

So, to get started, identify your target audience.

Who will read your book? Is it aimed at a young adult audience or experts in a given field? Is it aimed at science fiction or fantasy fans, or more toward romance or mystery readers?

Once you’ve identified your target audience, find where they spend time online.

Consider forums, Facebook groups, Reddit, Twitter, and other reader-based online spaces and establish a presence in these areas. Doing so will help you find readers already interested in your book’s genre, and what you have to say or the story you want to tell.

2. Reach out to book bloggers

Book bloggers have an established reputation among their followers, so they’re a great option when you’re seeking an Amazon review.

Bear in mind that reviewing your book requires reading it first, so you’re asking this blogger to spend their precious time on your book.

The first step in finding a blogger to review your book is to find those who are popular reviewers of your genre.

Find social media accounts or conduct a Google search to find bloggers in your niche. Once you find an active and popular site, it becomes easier to find other sites and bloggers through that site’s blogroll.

Once you’ve found a blogger with potential, write them a query letter. Explain that you believe your book is one they will enjoy, and relay information about their blog site and how you like their previous reviews of other books.

It’s important to connect with the blogger and not just view them as a source of reviews.

3. Connect with Amazon Top Reviewers

Amazon Top Reviewers are known to leave high-quality reviews on books in a given genre or field. If you can identify a top reviewer you believe may be interested in reading and reviewing your book, reach out to them with a review request.

Note that Top Reviewers receive an abundance of review requests regularly. As such, only reach out to those whose interests lie in your genre.

It will damage your reputation if you spam top reviewers with review requests about books they have no interest in.

Further, don’t send multiple review requests to the same reviewer if you don’t hear back the first time. Your reputation as an author is essential, so don’t damage it with spam and desperate attempts to get a review.

4. Use paid book review services

Typically, self-publishing authors want to save as much money as possible.

Given the costs required to cover editing and proofing, designing, layout, and other essential publishing steps, you may be hesitant to add even more to your expenditure by paying for book reviews.

However, several online book review sites can help you gather real, honest reviews for your book for a fee. Given that reviews drive sales, it may be worth investing in book reviews.

In general, paying for book reviews may seem unfair. It’s fair to think that way, and Amazon generally frowns on obtaining reviews this way. So directly buying reviews is not recommended but subscribing to services or purchasing ads on Goodreads or Bookbub and paying for such a service is not cheating. These services will put your book in the hands of readers who will read your book and write honest reviews.

Moreover, those who read and review will already have plenty of experience in reviewing books, so you can trust that the reviews you receive will have been thought-out and based on a seasoned reviewer’s opinion.

5. Distribute advance reader copies (ARCs)

An advance reader copy (also known as advanced reader copies, advance review copies, and ARCs) is a free copy of your book that you send to readers in exchange for an honest review of your book.

Library Thing and Hidden Gems Books are two popular resources authors use to get reviews for their books. On these sites, avid readers can request a download of your book in exchange for a review.

The great thing about advance reviews is that those you send your ARC are already engaged readers and like to review books as a hobby. The rule is that these readers are not paid to leave a review and benefit only from receiving a free copy.

6. Seek editorial reviews

Editorial reviews are powerful marketing tools.

While customer reviews are exclusive to those who have purchased and read your book, an editorial review counts as a review from someone who has received a copy of your book for free and agreed to review it.

The great thing about editorial reviews is that you manually add them to your book’s page, meaning you can choose which reviews go there.

7. Ask friends and family for support

If you haven’t got much of a social following just yet (and even if you have), don’t be afraid to reach out to friends and family for support.

Your close friends, family, and acquaintances will probably willingly write a positive review for you, but make sure they read the book.

8. Reach out to your followers

If you’ve got a following on social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram, don’t hesitate to post about your published book and ask for honest reviews. Establishing and cultivating a social following is essential, as doing so helps bolster your book’s reach.

Your loyal followers will not only be excited to read your work but will also probably be happy to give you a review.

You may be reluctant to ask for Amazon reviews, but you don’t get them if you don’t ask. It doesn’t take much time or effort to leave a review once a reader has read your book, so ask your followers politely to take that time and help you out.

9. Reach out to your network

If your book is about to be launched but not launched just yet, it’s wise to reach out to your industry network with a brief email and ask them to review it.

10. Add an author note at the end of your book

Some authors don’t like to ask for reviews within the book’s pages, but doing so can help you gather more reviews.

You can get more reviews in general by using free book review sites such as Book Page , The Kindle Book Review , and Love Books Group .

These sites publish your free book reviews, so they don’t count as Amazon reviews. Still, this is a great way to get more readers, and when avid and committed readers get to the end of your book, they may be willing to take that extra step and leave a review on Amazon.

How to see your review on Amazon

Unfortunately, Amazon does not notify authors when their book receives a review. You’ll have to visit your book’s Amazon page to see how many reviews you’ve received.

The benefits of Amazon book reviews

Amazon book reviews boost both your credibility and visibility, increasing your chances of success as a self-published author.

1. Credibility

Book reviews establish credibility.

Readers who notice that your book has an abundance of positive reviews are more likely to trust you. This principle applies to most products and services, and books are no different.

While some readers don’t read reviews, many will assess your reviews if they’re on the fence about purchasing a copy.

Reviews are one of several factors that influence a potential reader’s purchasing decision. Other factors include:

Your existing reputation
Word of mouth recommendations
An impactful blurb
A foreword from another credible and reputable source, such as an established author
Effective marketing

Of course, just because a book has few reviews doesn’t mean people won’t buy it. Any combination of the above factors will positively impact your book’s success, but reviews will have a further positive impact.

2. Visibility

Google and YouTube are the two biggest online search engines. After those, in third place, is Amazon. So, when people search on Amazon, their results pages are influenced by the Amazon algorithm.

The more reviews you have on your book’s page (including both positive and negative reviews), the more likely you are to see your book by a potential reader: the higher your ranking and online visibility for every review you receive.

Self-publishing a book on Amazon means that you as the author need to do more in terms of marketing than you would if you were to take the traditional publishing route.

One of the most effective marketing tactics is to gather an abundance of reviews on your book’s Amazon page.

If you decide to reach out to book bloggers or social media influencers, make sure that you ask with politeness and a genuine interest in that reviewer’s work.

If you decide to pay for your book reviews, weigh the cost per review against how much you expect to make from your book.

Moving forward, understand that reviews work wonders for your reputation, so the reviews you receive for your first self-published book on Amazon will positively affect the success of later pub

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Posted on Aug 11, 2021

Amazon Editorial Reviews: An Indie Author’s Secret Weapon

Love ’em or hate ’em, book reviews are an indispensable part of the publishing process. Not only does a positive review let people know your book exists in the first place, but it also helps readers decide whether to take a chance on it.

Most of the time, self-published authors obsess over user reviews: star ratings and short write-ups that any random user can post on a book’s Amazon page. And while user reviews are certainly valuable — we’ve found that a given book needs at least 10 positive ratings before most readers will consider buying it — don’t overlook the power of professional editorial reviews.

Reviews from the people who know best

Major publishers will bend over backward to secure editorial reviews from publications, like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker , as well as respected figures like popular authors and authorities on the book’s subject. Getting this seal of approval from an institution is something they can promote on the book jacket, on a subway ad, and indeed on the book’s Amazon page.

Amazon Editorial Reviews | Reviews for Say nothing

This post will focus on the power of displaying editorial reviews on Amazon. We’ll show you some of the places where you can secure editorial reviews, then give you some top tips for making them shine on your book page.

Getting reviews in time for your Amazon launch

In addition to showing readers that a trustworthy professional thinks your book is the bee’s knees, the other key advantage to an editorial review is that you can display it on your Amazon book page before your launch date.

This is a departure from standard user reviews. According to Kindle Direct Publishing ’s terms of use, user reviews can only be posted after a book’s release date — in theory, to prevent the page from flooding with fabricated reviews, as most readers wouldn’t even have access to the book yet. So to make sure your book’s Amazon page has enough “review-power” during your launch week and pre-sale period, you must start securing editorial reviews in the months before.

FREE RESOURCE

The Guide to Getting Book Reviews

Learn to pitch your book to potential reviewers with our handy checklist.

Of course, most of the big-name review outlets — national magazines and the like — will have their hands full with big releases from major publishers. But if you’re a humble indie author, don’t panic: there are plenty of reviewers online who are looking for books just like yours! Here are a few promising editorial review outlets to try.

Reedsy Discovery

Reedsy Discovery is a network of over 1,000 professional reviewers. For $50, you can submit your book to the entire pool, or pitch it directly to individual reviewers who specialize in your genre or seem like they might enjoy your subject.

You can even specify your launch date to ensure your reviewer knows to publish their review by that day. And once the review is published, not only will it appear on a dedicated Discovery page with its own URL, but the book itself will be featured in that week’s Discovery feed for users to upvote — and maybe even in our newsletter to over 250,000 readers.

Book review blogs

You can cast a wider net by searching for book review blogs in your genre and pitching your book to them for a review. Some will charge a fee for an unbiased, professional, and prompt review, while others will do it for free — but not always with the same gravitas, availability, or expedience. Learn more about how to get editorial reviews from book bloggers .

Which book review site is right for you?

Find out here! Takes 30 seconds

Endorsements

Sometimes confusingly called “blurbs” or “testimonials”, these short reviews are offered by experts and specifically intended for promotional use (as opposed to longer reviews that can be used for promotion, but are primarily meant to inform readers).

In fiction, these experts are often other authors — in a perfect world, it should be someone fairly prominent who writes in your genre. If a Brandon Sanderson fan sees his blurb on the Amazon page for your sci-fi epic, there’s a very good chance they’ll be swayed by his opinion!

For nonfiction, the criteria are a little broader: your testimonials can come from fellow authors, experts in your subject matter, and/or those who have benefitted from your book. So even if you’re unable to get Malcolm Gladwell to endorse your book, you can surely find someone with some kind of authority — someone whose opinion your target audience will trust.

And even if you already have esteemed publications backing you, it never hurts to add more editorial reviews from a variety of sources. For example, in amongst the glowing magazine reviews and celebrity endorsements for James Clear’s Atomic Habits is a testimonial from a military doctor:

amazon editorial description | testimonials

For more tips on this, check out this Reedsy webinar on securing endorsements .

Now, let’s jump ahead a bit to when you’ve gathered some sweet reviews and endorsements for your book. How do you add them to your Amazon page?

Upload your reviews through Author Central

KDP’s user interface, Amazon Author Central , isn’t always the easiest to navigate — so for everyone’s benefit, here’s how to load up your editorial reviews step-by-step.

1. Log onto Amazon Author Central and go to “BOOKS”

Once you log onto your Amazon Author Central dashboard, you can view what your author page looks like in different regions and give feedback. But don’t let that distract you — you want to click on BOOKS, either from the center of the dashboard or the tab in the upper left corner of your browser window.

2. Select the book(s) for which you want to add a review

When you’ve selected the book format and edition that you want to add a review to, click on “Edit book details”. If you have more than one format or edition, you’ll have to add the reviews to each version separately, but this won’t take long if you have everything already on hand.

3. Select “Edit” next to “Review”

Once you’ve opened the overview for the correct edition, select “Edit” next to “Review” to either add new reviews or edit older ones. Then preview the review, hit “Save changes”, and presto: a brand new editorial review to bolster your Amazon page!

So you’ve figured out how to upload editorial reviews — and if you play your cards right, you’ll have your pick of testimonials. How do you pick which reviews to display, and which elements of them to highlight?

Cherry-pick your quotes and make them stand out!

Once you have reviews to post, don’t get too excited and just start copy/pasting them in their entirety. Your goal here is to curate your reviews for maximum impact, which means you should pick the best line or two from each review — coordinating your quotes such that each one says something unique about your book.

For example, say you receive the following editorial reviews (abridged for convenience):

1. “I was hooked from start to finish. A hypnotically compelling story, full of characters you love to hate, only for them to turn all your assumptions on their heads. The pacing was taut, with answers expertly doled out — it’s a domestic fiction novel with the pounding heart of a thriller. Would recommend it for fans of Meg Wolitzer and Gillian Flynn alike…”

2. “This is a fantastically compelling read. The characters took up residence in my psyche and refused to leave. I felt a particular connection to Sophie, the cheery suburban mother battling an onslaught of invisible demons. The way she never hesitated to make sacrifices for her children, bleeding internally all the while, reminded me far too much of the matriarchs in my own family…”

Both these reviews mention the compelling story and strong characters, so make sure one review’s Amazon blurb doesn’t repeat the other. From these reviews, in particular, you might pull the unique genre description from the first and the quote about the characters from the second.

As well as avoiding repetition, Amazon offers a few other suggestions in the editorial review guidelines...

Don’t paraphrase and make sure your source is legit

As per Amazon’s guidelines:

Reviews should consist of transcribed text from reputable sources. The name of the source should be credited after the quotation.

In short, you’re not allowed to edit or paraphrase what a reviewer has written, and the review cannot be something your uncle’s cousin said. An exception might be if your uncle’s cousin is an actual, seasoned reviewer or someone who has some authority in your book’s subject matter — but basically, don’t include any ol’ user review in this section.

Keep your quotes short

Quotes from outside reviews should follow “fair use” copyright guidelines and be limited to 1-2 sentences.

Copyright law in most countries allow you to include short quotes from a published text (in this case, a review) for educational, editorial, or critique purposes. If you replicate more than just a few sentences, you run the risk of breaking copyright guidelines — which is not a cool thing for an author to do. So from the reviews above, you’d take quotes of about this length:

“I was hooked from start to finish. A domestic fiction novel with the pounding heart of a thriller.”

“The characters took up residence in my psyche and refused to leave.”

This is a blurb, not War and Peace

Limit your reviews to 3,000 characters.

Regardless of what Amazon says, 3,000 characters are way too many. Even the most acclaimed books on Amazon only have a few hundred characters in their Editorial Review sections. Your prospective readers don't want to read whole essays about your book — again, just cherry-pick the most impactful, complimentary quotes.

Don’t include “forbidden” details

Having covered what you should include in your editorial reviews, here are the details you shouldn’t include (again, as per Amazon’s restrictions):

External links (e.g. to your author website)
Personal information like email addresses or phone numbers
Advertising or promotional links
Price information
Information that is subject to change (e.g. temporary campaign information)

Apart from all this, everything else is up to you!

Do format the text for maximum impact

Amazon Author Central’s text edit feature is a bit limited, though it does allow you to use bold text, italicized text , bullet-point lists, or numbered lists. Just because you can format your text, doesn’t mean you need to make every other word stand out. Your goal is to help Amazon customers who are scanning the page to see what you want them to see.

Most people don’t actually remember what the review says, but they will notice who said it or what their qualifications were. So what you highlight will differ depending on the review itself. For instance, you might emphasize:

The reviewer's name (if they’re well known in relevant circles)
Their qualifications, or
A publication that they work for.

Note that if you’re copying text from other word processing programs, some of the previous formattings may transfer and slow down the page. It’s, therefore, better to either write it directly into the box or copy your reviews from a plain text editor like TextEdit or Notepad.

And with that, congratulations: you’ve finished setting up your editorial reviews! In the indie publishing space, editorial reviews are a bafflingly underused feature of books’ Amazon pages. But with the help of this article, you should have all the information to take full advantage of them — before your competition realizes what they’re missing.

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How to Write Book Reviews on Amazon That People Will Read

With so many titles available on Amazon, it can help to leave book reviews. Here's how to write ones that people will actually read.

Amazon has almost a quarter of a billion titles in popular demand. A good review can help spread the word about great titles and best-selling books.

Writing book reviews on Amazon can help readers find the perfect matches for their book lists. It's also one of the best ways to show readers that you're an experienced and knowledgeable person who can provide valuable insights into a book.

Here, we share some tactics you can use to write book reviews on Amazon that people will want to read.

1. Carry Out Thorough Research

If you're going to write a book review, it's important to know what you're talking about. Consider doing some research on the book itself, and the author's overall body of work.

There are plenty of books out there, so you'll need to convince readers what they're missing out on by not reading them. The more familiar you are with the content of the book and its author’s other work, the more credible your opinions will be.

Read up on the author's background and reputation to get a sense of their writing style. Doing so will help you understand the author's perspective, and you'll be able to make an informed decision on whether to recommend the book.

2. Use Correct Keywords and Active Voice for Your Target Audience

The next step is to identify who your audience is and what they want from your review. Do they want advice on how to improve their business? Do they want information on how to use technology in their daily lives? Or do they just want an entertaining read that makes them laugh?

Once you know who your audience is, it's time to start thinking about how exactly you'll address their expectations from a book. We recommend writing in an engaging tone and using real-life examples from the story so that everyone can relate easily with what you're saying.

3. Stay Up-to-Date With Amazon's Community Guidelines

You should make it a point to adhere to Amazon's Community guidelines while posting book reviews on the site. To be eligible for reviewing a book or product, you would have to spend at least $50 on Amazon.

Make sure your views are informative and constructive. These must be genuine and reflect your honest opinion of the book you've read. That said, they should not contain spoilers or excessive promotion for other products or services that are unrelated to the original content.

4. Use Appropriate Headlines

A key aspect of a book review on Amazon, or any other platform for that matter, is to craft an appealing headline. This should be short, sweet, and catchy.

You'll also need to make sure that you have a strong introduction before diving into the main body of your review. It's tempting to just touch upon the points in the blurb from the back cover, but that's not going to work.

A compelling introduction should grab the reader's attention with a powerful hook or an interesting fact about the book. Take a moment to think about what makes this book unique. What makes it worth reading?

For instance, you can try and highlight in a sentence how their life will change if they read this book, or by explaining why they need to read it in order to accomplish something important in their life today or tomorrow (like improving their career).

5. Apply Proper Formatting and Include Images or Videos

Book reviews go a long way in helping potential readers decide whether they want to buy a book or not.

Make sure your review is informative, not promotional. Readers should have all the information they need to decide whether that book is for them. You can include at least one quote or fact from the book, if you need to, but don't overdo it.

Use bullet points and bolded letters or italics to highlight key points in the text. You can also try doing a video review if that is something you're comfortable with. Use appropriate images or videos that may be helpful.

Given the huge sea of content on the Internet, you should exercise caution when it comes to reading others' reviews or doing your own research. We recommend checking tips to spot fake reviews online .

6. Give an Insightful and Unbiased Opinion

Follow up your introduction with your unbiased opinion or analysis. Talk about the best parts of the book and explain why you feel so.

You can also mention any issues that may come up while reading the book. You can talk about them in terms of how they affect your understanding of the story, or how they impact your ability to connect with characters (in fiction) in some way or another.

Your reviews might vary with genres, such as fiction or non-fiction. When reviewing nonfiction titles, your review should consider the author's writing style, accuracy and clarity, structure, and logic.

In the case of fiction books, it all comes down to a compelling plot, characters who are memorable, and an ending that leaves readers wanting more. Your review should look at the characters, setting, and plot. It should also consider whether there were any significant flaws in these areas.

For example, if you're reviewing a fantasy novel, you might discuss how well its characters were developed and how convincingly they interacted with each other. You might also comment on whether there were any plot holes or inconsistencies in the narrative.

You should include what you liked or disliked about the book. You may mention whether you agree with the author's point of view. Reedsy recommends using an appropriate tone and style for note-worthy bestseller reviews.

7. Assign Star Ratings Wisely

Reviews are a great way for you to share your opinions on what you read, but star ratings are the first touchpoint where readers often decide whether to go for a purchase, so you should assign your star rating wisely.

The ratings you give your reviews carry distinct persuasive weight and can either make or break a book. Reviewers who write three-star and four-star reviews with honest, constructive criticisms are more likely to be read than reviewers who write very brief one-star reviews, which are often unconstructive rants.

8. Use a Book Review Template

You can always start off with a book review template to help you get started. You can find them for free on sites like Sample Templates, which will give you a basic outline of everything that needs to go into each book review.

Use them to submit a well-structured and readable review. It will help you focus on the most important aspects of the book.

Download: Sample Templates (Free)

9. Feel Free to Provide a Recommendation

You can leave a recommendation if you found a book extremely engaging and helpful. Consider if the book is something that would interest your target audience. While this is by no means necessary, reviews which include recommendations are more likely to be read by others.

If you're a new or experienced author, here's a list of tips on how to get positive reviews for your book .

Make Your Reviews Stand Out

Writing book reviews can be rewarding and fun, but it's also very hard to write them well. In order to get people to read your reviews, you have to ensure they're good.

And that means maintaining both a consistent level of authority and clarity in your reviews—no easy feat! With some practice, however, you should be able to take your reviews from average to outstanding by playing off the elements mentioned above. And there are other platforms for you to take your love of reading to as well.

How would you rate your experience using this page?

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Home / Book Marketing / How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging

How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging

You probably don’t have to be convinced of the importance of getting free book reviews as well as Kindle reviews.

However, how does a new author get those crucial Kindle book reviews or editorial reviews that will help to drive up sales ?

Most resources rely on tactics that require already existing fan base, elaborate platforms, and major connections.

That’s all fine and dandy…if you have those resources at your disposal or are willing to trade in your friendship for a favor.

But what about the rest of us?

The ones who don’t have raving fans ready to drop reviews on request. Or those of us without a giant email list, social media following , and oodles of friends that we ‘want’ to send our books to?

Despair not my friends, because in this guide on how to get book reviews, I’ll show you how you can legally, and legitimately get those reviews, even if you’re a brand new author.

In This Article I Will Show You:

A proven step-by-step method on how to get your book reviewed for free
Tactics to getting high conversions and good grades on book reviews
A time-saving method to expedite your book review process
Amazon’s rules regarding book reviews – the REAL rules

And yes, as you’ll see at the end of this article, each step is fully compliant with the up-to-date Amazon rules for getting book reviews.

1. Create Special Links to Go Straight to Your Review
2. Design a Book Review Ask in Your Book
3. Free Book Review Sites
How to Build a Giveaway

5. Using Launch Teams & ARCs Effectively

6. Reminder in Your Auto Responder System
7. Relaunch Your Book
Editorial Reviews vs Amazon Reviews
Amazon’s Rules on Book Reviews
Some Legit Paid Ways to Speed Up The Process

Also, while I’m writing this with the new author in mind, it’s totally applicable to all authors…even the pros. Finally, please be aware that I did use some affiliate links in this article. Those links did not sway my thoughts on the article, nor does it affect your pricing. It's just a little something that goes towards my coffee fund to keep me writing.

One mistake many authors make is when they request for someone to give their book a review, they just send the person a link to their book, making the person click around till they finally get to the review page where they can write the review…yeesh, that’s a lot of steps!

Because of this, readers will more than likely not follow through. I know I haven’t in the past.

However, what if there was one special link you could send them that would take them straight to the review of your book? All they’d have to do is click, and they start writing the review.

Well, you can and here’s how:

Step 1. Depending on the format you want the review to be directed to, either find your ASIN for the eBook, or the ISBN -10 for the book (NOT ISBN-13), or the ASIN for the Audiobook.

Step 2. Take the following link, and add your number from step 1: http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin= + (ASIN or ISBN 10)

Step 3 . The above link is only to the US market. If you want a different market, you need to just change out the “.com” to the appropriate one like “.de” for german, or “.co.uk”, and so on. However, be sure to check that country's ASIN or ISBN-10 for that same book…because sometimes it will be different – although this is mainly for published books and usually isn't the case for self-published books. But just check – you don't want your links to not work.

Example of What The Result Should Look Like : US: http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B0041JKFJW UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/create-review?&asin=B004H4XAXO DE: https://www.amazon.de/review/create-review?&asin=0765365278 etc…

As you can see, that will take you directly to The Way of Kings Audiobook review, since I used the ASIN for the audiobook. (PS: I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson, and will be meeting him in a couple of months to discuss book marketing …fan boy scream).

Now, any time you request a review in an email, message, or whatever, send them that special link to your book. That way, all they have to do is click the link and type the review. You’ll have a much higher chance that they’ll follow through and leave the review.

Caution: Your Link Not Working? First, if your link isn't working, just remember that Amazon won't allow you to leave a review for your own book. So, have someone else try your link. Also remember that in order to leave a review, someone needs to have made $50 purchase on Amazon that year.

Also, for the rest of the steps below, make sure you use this link when necessary. That’s why it is the first point in this list.

This may sound crazy but when you ask for a review after your book is done, you’ll not only increase the number of reviews, but also improve your review grade.

When I did this one simple addition to one of my books, I saw the conversion rate of book purchases to reviews left increase by 3x and has stayed that way since.

You see, we authors know how important a review is. But we forget that readers don’t always understand this and need more coaxing to take the little bit of extra effort to write a book review. Therefore, just by asking, you’ll see much higher conversions.

But that’s not all. There are actually some tactics to this section that can and will improve the number of book reviews you get, as well as the review grade.

When creating the ask, it is best to do the following:

Humanize Yourself : Find ways to remind the reader that you are actually a human with emotions and feelings. Remind them of how hard it was to put this book together. By doing this, they’ll be more likely to leave ‘you’ a review. Extra bonus tip: I sometimes like to post a candid non professional or staged picture of me with my family in this section because it really goes a long way to getting to know me, and feel more personal.

Impress Upon Them the Importance of the Review : Like I mentioned above, readers don’t fully understand the importance of a review. Therefore, remind them how they help you as an author and your book.

Tell Them You’ll Read the Book Review : When readers think that you’ll read and take to heart their review, two things will happen: they’ll feel more obligated to leave one since you’re depending on them, and their review grade will probably improve since they’ll know you, the human, will actually read it. We’ve all been there where we have a bunch of gusto against sometime, but the moment they’re there, we soften our tone. Same thing with reviews. I assure you, most criticism will become more constructive in nature when they know you’ll be there to read it.

Below is an example that Ken Lozito did with his absolutely incredible book series “ First Colony .”

I can’t show it all, but ultimately Ken told the story of the sacrifice he made to become an author and some inside information about his life, and struggles to get that series out.

He did all three of the things listed above without sounding cheesy or coming across as begging. It’s a fine art!

Needless to say, I had listened to 7 of the books in that series, but on the 7th one where he put this in his audiobook, it legitimately made me not only give the 5 stars at the end, but take the time to write a well-thought-out review. I felt like it was the least I could do.

So, as you can see, there needs to be a fine balance of asking without overstepping. But when done right, you’ll see more reviews come through with better grades for every reader you get.

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There are websites out there where some fans of a genre or subject loves to read books and leave reviews. Many of them have different reasons for this, but overall, they can be beneficial.

Be advised though, most of the review sites out there will read your book and make a review on their website, but that it won’t be an Amazon review (see below to read more about Amazon reviews vs Editorial Reviews). Even without the Amazon review, a book review site’s review can still be a powerful editorial review. Imagine being able to put in your editorial review for your scifi book, a glowing acknowledgment from TopSciFiBooks.com . Just the domain alone will carry anyone to better belief in your book, then some person or author name they've never heard of.

Here are some of my favorites free book review sites:

Love Books Group : Reviews books on their site is a easy process to submit. Affaire de Coeur : A bi-monthly magazine that publishes reviews in historical, contemporary, paranormal, erotica, YA, and nonfiction primarily. Book Page : Must send an ARC 3 months prior to publication date The Kindle Book Review : Offers a list of reviews to contact individually based on preferred genres. Compulsive Reader : Mainly focuses on literary fiction and poetry, they also review music CDs and other interesting things. Crime Fiction Lover : Recommends sending a Press Release (***) and a bit hard to get into. Book Smugglers : a highly read book blog that likes to focus on Horror, Urban Fantasy, SciFi, and YA. Crime Scene Reviews : Reviews Crime and Mystery novels SF Book : Started in 1996, SF books offers a list of Scifi Book reviewers you can contact individually Fantasy Book Critics : Lists a bunch of legit book review sites, as well as offers their own in the Fantasy realm Top Sci Fi Books : This website lists the best scifi and fantasy books based on certain subgenres. They have a sweet spot though for self published authors. Barnes & Noble Review : An incredible name for a Editorial Review, however, they require you to physically mail a copy and a cover letter in for consideration.

If you’d like to see more niche-specific examples, Reedsy has done an AMAZING job of curating a list of book review websites , their requirements and even how much traffic each site potentially gets. However, do note, many sites on that list aren’t always free.

You can check out that list here: https://blog.reedsy.com/book-review-blogs/

I also wanted to mention StoryOrigin . When you use StoryOrigin, not only do you join a community of other authors, you basically have all the not-so-fun back end of things taken care of by using them. They help you build your email list, find reviewers, deliver lead magnets and more. Be sure to check them out!

4. A Giveaway Contest that is Legal!!!

In truth, I almost didn’t include this one. Not because it breaks any rules, but because you need to ABSOLUTELY follow my steps in order to stay compliant with Amazon.

But when done right, this tactic is extremely killer!

What you do is create a giveaway contest. In this contest, if they click the link that points to your book’s review page (see special link discussed above), they are automatically entered into the contest. That's it.

This works because, when they click the link, many readers will decide to leave a review since they are already there. This is compliant in Amazon’s eyes because they are entered in the contest by just clicking the link, not by submitting a review. Therefore, the review is not incentivized. You can see an example below on how to word this for best optimization as well as staying compliant.

Step 1 : Build a giveaway Step 2 : Make it clear that to enter the giveaway, they just need to click the link that points to your book’s review page (see #1 above) Step 3 : And that’s it.

There are two ways to build a giveaway:

1. Use Your Email System : You can send out an email blast to your readers with the instructions on how to do this. With most email systems like ConvertKit , you can mark which subscribers clicked on the link in the email. Then when the time is up, you can select from there.

2. Use KingSumo : This is a paid app that is around $49 for life, but it makes creating contests SUPER simple. Furthermore, it handles the legality issues on contests, and you can post links to the contest on Social Media, email, or even embed it on your website. You can check it out here .

Using a launch team or Beta Readers and sending Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) is an important tactic that help with your book’s overall launch by ensuring you have good reviews on day-one of the launch. If you’re unfamiliar with that, then check out this article here .

But the short and simple to this tactic is that prior to launching your book, you send ARCs to people who will hopefully read the book, and or be prepared to leave a review upon your book's launch.

However, working with lots of authors, it’s become apparent that most DO NOT do ARC reviews as effectively or efficiently as they should, creating a super low conversion rate of beta readers who leave a review. Most times, this tactic sounds promising but is actually a complete let down.

Well, not if you do the following extra saucy tips, which will ENSURE you get more reviews out of it:

1. Stop sending mass emails to all Beta Readers : If you really want people to take action, ensure you talk to them personally. Send each beta reader a personal email asking him or her to take certain actions. They’ll feel more obligated to act when you are specifically emailing them and counting on their review. Whereas when it's obviously a mass email, many will inherently think that it's fine and you won't notice if they don't.

2. Track Your Readers : I actually develop a spreadsheet listing each beta reader or launch team member, when I last talked with them last, if they've left a review and any other notes. It’s important to keep track of them and that way no one slips through the cracks. You can also use a plugin like ReaderScout to know exactly when someone has left a review.

3. Have Them Notify You When It’s Dropped : Tell your beta readers or launch team members that once they’ve dropped the review, to let you know so you can read it. It isn’t just the expectation that you’re specifically waiting for their review, but also that you really want to know what they thought. Make it clear that it would mean the world to you. With this, they’ll feel as though you truly care and are waiting on them.

4. Remind them They Don’t have to Read All Of It : The biggest hang-up I get from Beta Readers is that they couldn’t finish the book in time and will leave one “later” (which they never do). However, remind them that they do not have to finish the book in order to leave a review, and that they can always change the review once they’ve finished it if they’d like. They can instead talk about what they’ve read so far, or even your legitimacy on the subject or genre. This way, there is not excuse to not leaving a review.

If you employ these four tactics to beta readers or launch teams, you’ll absolutely double your conversion rates of reviews left.

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If you have an email list, then make sure to use your auto responder to help with your reviews.

Think about it…

If they signed up for your email list, then it means that they read your book and liked it. However, it definitely does not mean they left a review.

Therefore, set in your auto responder an email that specifically uses the tactics of 1 and 2 above to convince them to leave a review. This will help increase your book’s review frequency, its grade, and even help with your email system. Furthermore, employing #2 above, in the email, you'll build a stronger author brand and connection with your readers.

There are a couple of different ways to relaunch your book, and things to think about when doing so. However, let's discuss why this really helps with your book reviews and should be considered.

Amazon loves new books: I call this the Amazon honeymoon period. I don't have any empirical data to prove this, but through years of working with books, when a book is launched, Amazon gives preferential treatment to new books.
Use a new launch team: Perhaps you didn't effectively use your launch team or beta readers as well as we discussed in step 5. Well, by relaunching, you can. So, employ those steps and see real good come from it.
Update some information: Look at your book as it is, and ask if there is something you can do to improve it. Perhaps you've seen some comments brought up in the reviews? Or you know there is a section you should add? These changes will help improve your book's review grades.

We all know what Amazon reviews are. But do you fully understand what a Amazon Editorial Review is?

On Amazon, there is a section on your book's sales page where you can enter “Editorial Reviews” through you Author Central Account (here is how to setup one if you haven't already). In the editorial review, you can put just about anything here.

It could be from what a website said about your book, a news paper, a verbal recommendation, etc. The point is, you can use what people say outside of Amazon, here. As we showed from a heat map study, readers pay attention to the section. So, therefore, use the tactics listed above in order build a persuasive Editorial Review section for your book.

However, these are NOT Amazon reviews. Amazon reviews are where someone went to Amazon and left a review for your book itself.

There is a little bit of confusion when it comes to giving a free book and asking for reviews. In truth, Amazon was a little confusing about how they look at this.

However, I went through all of Amazon's user agreements, FAQ's and even their own memo's so as to give you a definitive answer of:

YES, you can give a free copy of your book in advance for a review.

But there are some caveats and nuisances to this statement. So, check out the video below and learn all about Amazon's Book Review policy and ensure you are continually operating in Amazon's good graces.

So, here is a list what you can’t do:

1. Pay or Incentive Someone to Leave a Review in any way: This is different from the giveaway because they entered the giveaway by clicking the link and not by leaving a review

2. Offering a free gift if they review

3. Offering to refund the author their money for the review

You can give the book for free to them as an ARC. But you can't cover their costs. While they are both essentially “free,” the second one requires a review in order to make it free, thus incentivizing the review.

The same can be said about offering to send a Amazon gift card to cover the book

4. Swapping reviews with another author

I repeat, you cannot pay or incentive someone in any way to leave a review. But you can pay to promote your book to readers who are likely to leave reviews .

Self-Publishing Review is one example of a service that sells email list promotions designed to result in more sales and more unbiased reviews. If you're looking for opportunities, that could be worth looking into. Use the code KINDLEPRENEUR5 to save 5% on anything from their site.

ReaderScout is another tool I highly recommend for authors who want to track all of the reviews that come in. This makes it much easier for you to know when your ARC readers, for example, have actually left their review. ReaderScout is a completely FREE Chrome plugin and reviews aren't the only thing it tracks. Check it out here.

Now, Let's Go Get Those Book Reviews

No matter which route you’ll go, there’s no easier way to get the initial reviews, especially if you’re an unknown author. An additional benefit of this approach is that you’ll get to speak with your readers directly, thus getting valuable feedback and building new relationships.

I hope you enjoyed this guide on how to get free book reviews. It seems pretty straightforward, but can be a little time-consuming…but as most authors will tell you, getting your book reviewed can be a powerful metric that should have a positive effect on your Kindle sales.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

5. Using Launch Teams & ARCs Effectively

The most searched amazon keywords and trends in 2024, how to change your audible categories & keywords, the truth on selling books direct: insights from 876 authors, sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

Learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks.

208 thoughts on “ How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging ”

Hi Dave, Am I missing a step or is adding the review link to your e-book something you can only do after book release? In order to use the link you need an ASIN. My plan was to hit publish for my paperback and hope after doing so I would see the ASIN to add the completed book review link – so that I could then hit the publish button on my e-book. Is this even possible or should I be patient and add the link at a later date? Thanks in advance!

For this, if you do a pre-order, you can get it preemptively.

I was wondering if you have any suggestions for getting reviews on low or no content books as they are not generally available on Kindle.

Well, that’s one reason why making a ebook version can be helpful for those books (if you get the formatting down). If not though, then I guess that is a bit of a game changer on what one can do. Limitations being physical books and all.

Hi, Dave, Thanks so much for all of these tips. Some excellent ideas!

Per the giveaway, do you find that people leave reviews if they haven’t yet read the book? And if they decide to do a quick star rating rather than a written review, does that still carry any weight with potential readers?

Thanks for your response.

I’ve seen some come in where it looked as though they hadn’t read it. So it definitely happens.

Hi Dave, thank you for the valuable information’s, just a question please

In the way the person has to write a review for entering in contest giveaway, how’s can be the next step to send to the winner his copy paperback as promise ?

Using a program like the one discussed in the article, it will handle selecting the winner. Then contact them, get their mailing address and send them the prize.

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How to Get Reviews on Amazon in 2024 – 7 Proven Methods

Brian connolly.

March 5, 2024

In 2023, online shopping was a lifestyle mainstay: 57% of consumers shop on Amazon at least once per week, and 61% of consumers say they’re influenced by the product with the best ratings and reviews.

We know reviews are a key influencer in consumer decision-making and how much sellers value them. In fact, one of the most common Amazon seller challenges is getting product reviews. That’s why we’re providing the latest on how you can earn more for your business in 2024.

Product reviews can make or break a new Amazon FBA seller. According to our Consumer Trends Report , the majority of consumers are influenced to purchase a product that has the best reviews and ratings. When you launch a product this year, it’s important that you know how to get reviews on Amazon — and how to get them quickly and within Amazon’s ToS .

In this article, we’ll cover the seven most effective ways to get product reviews on Amazon. This includes Amazon programs and features, as well as off-Amazon strategies that third-party sellers can use to seek and gain reviews.

Important: As of this writing, all of the methods listed below are viable ways to get product reviews and do not violate Amazon’s terms of service.

How to get reviews on Amazon in 2024

Gaining new reviews on your listings is hard but not impossible. Let’s go over seven effective ways to grow your review count on Amazon!

1. Use Jungle Scout’s Review Automation feature

This feature inside Jungle Scout is the easiest way to request reviews from your Amazon customers . Jungle Scout’s Review Automation feature takes a “set it and forget it” approach to earn product reviews.

This first-of-its-kind, Amazon ToS-approved feature sends automated review requests to customers who have purchased your product. While you can manually request reviews in bulk with the Jungle Scout Chrome Extension , this in-app tool streamlines the process by automatically doing it for you. It eliminates the tedious task of manually requesting reviews from buyers in Seller Central so you can save time, and invest it back into your business.

You can easily see the status of review requests and track how much time you’ve saved on your Review Automation dashboard. Never miss an opportunity to earn a review — simply turn on the feature, and you’re good to go.

Review Automation also allows sellers to skip review requests for orders or specific products, delay review requests for orders, and create a more detailed and customizable order table.

Skipping

If you do not want Review Automation to send a review request for a specific order or product, you can turn on the skipping feature, and review requests will not be sent.

Skip Review Requests for Orders : The ability to skip review requests for specific orders based on the user settings. The user can select an Amazon order ID and Review Automation will not send out a review request.
Skip Review Requests for Products : The ability to turn off review requests for a specific product or products. Select the ASINs that don’t require a review request.

Review requests will not be sent for the order if it contains a product whose product settings are set to “Do not send review request.”

Delaying

The delay feature allows sellers to customize when review requests are sent out. These time delays can be set at three different levels.

Marketplace : Change the send time for all ASINs and orders in a marketplace.
Product : Change the send time for all orders of a specific product.
Order : Change the send time for an individual order.

This feature can be very useful for products that need more time for a consumer to use and evaluate, such as a bottle of daily vitamins. If a review request is sent the day after the vitamins are delivered, the customer will not have had enough time to use the product and evaluate how it has worked for them.

Informing

This feature makes it easier for sellers to customize the Review Automation dashboard. These new widgets provide more insight into how many reviews are getting set out and provide a more accurate estimate of how much time you are saving with the tool.

Redesign of the Order Table : New columns added showing the orders, product name, and images
Request Canceled : Seller cancels the review request for an order
Scheduled : Scheduled to be sent
Request Sent : The review request was sent for the order
Amazon Issue : When there is any syncing issue, Review Automation will try to resend the request three times
Refunded Order : If an order is refunded, a request will not be sent
*If the product is outside of the 5-30 day window
Bulk Operations : Change the request status of orders in bulk
Filter by Status : The ability to filter the results in the table based on status
Updated Widgets : Shows important stats related to reviews (Time Saved, Request Sent, etc.)

Jungle Scout subscribers can also take advantage of other multiple tools that enable you to get more Amazon reviews .

The Review Automation tool is available through the Jungle Scout Suite and Professional plans.

2. Use Amazon’s “Request a Review” button

Amazon’s “ Request a Review ” button allows you to manually request reviews for each of your orders in Seller Central within four to 30 days of purchase.

This is an incredibly powerful feature that can exponentially increase your chances of receiving a review.

Here’s some proof: Prior to the release of the “Request a Review” button on March 8, 2020, the average review increase for orders was 3.6 reviews. For 94.7% of sellers who used “Request a Review” after it was released, the average increase jumped to 25.9 reviews. That’s a massive difference!

Of course, going through each and every order to click the “Request a Review” button can be tedious and time-consuming. This is where Review Automation and our next solution come into play.

Bulk Request Review

If you have Jungle Scout’s Extension , you can request reviews for your Amazon FBA orders in bulk, rather than sending a request for each individual order.

On your Amazon Seller Central order page, click on the button for Jungle Scout’s Extension . It will then open and ask you to add additional permissions. Once you agree to the permissions, a new “Request Reviews on This Page” button will appear on the far right on your orders list. When the requests are done sending, the button will change to say “Finished Requesting Reviews.”

Select a date range (we recommend between four and 30 days as that is the time period during which Amazon allows you to request reviews) and click the button. Amazon will then automatically send review requests to all of the orders on that page that qualify for the “Request a Review” button.

You can also submit individual requests without clicking on the orders. That way you won’t have to go through each individual post.

Bulk Requests in the Extension is available with all Jungle Scout plans .

3. Enroll your product in the Amazon Vine Program

Amazon’s Vine Program is open to sellers who have Amazon brand-registered products and fewer than 30 reviews.

In the Vine program , a seller submits 30 units of inventory. Vine reviewers receive the product for free, test the product out, and write a review.

In many ways, it is similar to the incentivized review programs banned by Amazon in late 2016. The only difference now is that the reviewers in the program are being vetted by Amazon.

According to Amazon, “25% of reviews received occur within 5 days of the order, while 99% of reviews received occur within 35 days of the order,” so (naturally) this is a game-changer, as it helps newly registered products get reviews fast.

Amazon Vine does have an enrollment fee but the actual fee depends on how many units you enroll.

If your product does not receive any reviews within 90 days, you will not be charged an enrollment fee.

4. Use third-party automated email responders

In addition to Amazon’s internal automated responder, many sellers use third-party responders to send messages through Amazon’s seller messaging system.

It’s important to note, however, that Amazon limited the quantity and types of messages that can be sent via its Seller Messaging System. From Amazon :

“You may send proactive Permitted Messages for the following reasons: resolving an issue with order fulfillment, requesting additional information required to complete the order, asking a return-related question, sending an invoice, requesting product review or seller feedback or both, scheduling the delivery of a heavy or bulky item, scheduling a Home Services appointment, verifying a custom design, or any other reason where the contact is required for the buyer to receive their purchase.

“Permitted Messages do not include any of the following message types (in many cases we are already emailing customers with this information on your behalf):

Order or shipping confirmations
Messages that say only “Thank you” or that you are here to help if buyers have any problems
Marketing or promotional messaging, including coupons
Language that either incentivizes or persuades the buyer to submit positive product reviews or seller feedback, including by offering compensation, money, gift cards, free or discounted products, refunds, rebates or reimbursements, or future benefits
Language that requests removal or an update of an existing product review
Language that requests a product review only if they have had a positive experience with the product
A repeat request (per order) for a product review or seller feedback”

Basically, you can only send permitted messages to request for a review/feedback or where contact is required. You can no longer send shipment updates, thanks for ordering, etc.

5. Create a contact list for emails

Since the seller messaging system and third-party automated responders have become limited, you will need to find other ways to communicate with your shoppers.

Remember: as long as they’re buying your products via Amazon, they’re Amazon’s customers. To get past this hurdle, you will need to build your brand off Amazon, and one of the best ways to do that is by building your own email list.

Thankfully, there are a number of ways to create an email list. You can build one through social media . Or you can create a blog that asks for people to subscribe. Once you have a mailing list, you can request reviews from those who have purchased from you.

6. Utilize product inserts

Easily, the most popular way to encourage shoppers to leave product reviews on Amazon is through the use of product inserts . Many sellers insert a card into their packaging, asking shoppers to leave a review.

However, product inserts have recently caught the attention of Amazon. They’ve noticed that some sellers have been breaking the “guidelines” described in the “Don’t forget to follow the rules” section of this article.

The example picture below is against Amazon’s terms . You cannot divert negative reviews or tell people to email you instead of leaving a negative review.

Here are some best practices for product inserts:

Ask for product reviews, but remain neutral . Telling people to leave you a five-star review — or even showing a picture of five-stars — is against Amazon’s guidelines.
Give useful information about your company and product, such as tips on how to use the product correctly.

Never ask a customer to contact you outside of the Buyer-Seller Messaging platform in Seller Central. Good customer service goes a long way toward preventing negative product reviews.

7. Mitigate negative reviews

You can mitigate poor reviews of your products proactively by ensuring that your product is top-notch and worthy of a commendable review. Reactively, you can address any customer service issues that may arise.

Plus, by using a tool like Jungle Scout’s Alerts , you can be notified whenever you get a poor review. Previously, Amazon did not allow sellers to reach out directly to customers who left negative reviews. Currently, however, sellers who are enrolled in Brand Registry can now contact customers .

This new feature can help you improve the customer’s experience with your brand, giving you a chance to have them remove their negative review, or even better — change it to a positive one.

Amazon product review rules

Amazon takes its product reviews very seriously. In fact, many sellers are suspended from the platform due to review manipulation.

When you’re trying to get reviews on Amazon, it’s important that you understand the difference between legal methods and black hat tactics (which can get your business suspended from Amazon).

Here are some essential Amazon product review rules you should know — and follow:

1. You can’t incentivize reviews

As recently as 2016, you could offer products at a low price — or even for free — in exchange for a product review. It was a strategy that helped countless sellers build up their reviews and gain popularity.

However, Amazon discovered that, more often than not, this led to over-inflated reviews. So, because far more products were receiving a 4-5 star rating than were warranted, Amazon banned this practice in 2016. Offering back-end discounts for positive reviews will likely lead to suspension.

2. You can’t cherry-pick reviews

Another thing Amazon has put a stop to within the last couple of years is “cherry-picking” reviews. In other words, sellers cannot ask for reviews from customers they know had a good experience while ignoring those who’ve had neutral or negative experiences.

3. How to buy Amazon reviews

You can’t! Buying Amazon reviews, whether real or fake, is a big no-no with Amazon. If Amazon finds out you used a service to pay for reviews, your account will be suspended.

The only way to “buy” Amazon reviews is through the Amazon Vine Program, which we discussed above. Do not purchase reviews from any other third service that promises to give you real reviews on Amazon.

How to get Amazon reviews in 2024

Hopefully, the information in this article has given you good ideas for how to get Amazon product reviews in 2024.At the minimum, use Amazon’s methods, as they are 100% free of any “gray areas”. And always make sure to play by Amazon’s rules. Remember: A few extra sales garnered by using a black hat tactic isn’t worth putting your entire seller account in jeopardy.

To learn more about Amazon’s terms of service, be sure to read our breakdown of Amazon’s product review terms of service .

You can also read about what happens to sellers who incorporate “black hat” tactics in their selling strategies.

Start automating Amazon reviews today.

Click the button below to learn more about Jungle Scout, including how you can get Review Automation to get more product reviews for your business!

Ecommerce Expert & Writer at Jungle Scout

Brian Connolly is an Amazon seller, ecommerce expert, and writer for Jungle Scout. He lives in the New Jersey Shore area with his wife and cat. When he isn’t writing advice online for aspiring and experienced Amazon sellers for Jungle Scout, he spends his free time boating, fishing, and selling boating-themed items on his Amazon business.

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Mini Guide: How to Get Legitimate Amazon Reviews for Your Books

April 2, 2020 in Book Marketing , Mini Guides

Most of us have been there. Acquiring reviews is the bane of the fledgling indie author’s existence. I struggled with it for years ; hell, I only cracked the code in 2016, after heading down the review rabbit hole hard.

That’s when I learned a surprising truth.

If your book isn’t selling, reviews are usually not the culprit .

That being said, if you have no reviews, or are staring at two reviews with a 3.5 Amazon rating, you likely don’t believe me. Only the ice-water of harsh experience convinced me otherwise.

But although they’re hardly the skeleton key to success, reviews are still important for a few reasons we’ll discuss below. Thus, I’ve assembled a comprehensive mini guide outlining the four primary methods that you can use to get legitimate, unbiased Amazon reviews (no black hat stuff here):

Review services which distribute review copies of your book to their readers
Asking your newsletter subscribers
Creating your own ARC (advance review copy) team
Setting your book to free and putting a review request with a direct link to the review form in your book’s back matter.

But before we get into the how-to, we first need to answer an oft-overlooked question.

Why the hell should we bother to get Amazon reviews at all?

Note: this guide was last updated in August 2020.

Why You SHOULD Bother

Let me be clear: Reviews don’t impact sales nearly as much as many authors think .

Reviews do not:

Directly generate sales . Reviews are largely a product of a book selling well; not the other way around. It’s easy to get this causality reversed, which leads to some trying to hoard reviews like Gollum hoards the precious. This obsession is not productive.
Trigger Amazon’s famed algorithms . While the official documentation for Amazon’s A9 algorithm suggests that verified reviews might be a factor, in reality, this impact is minor or nonexistent. There’s also an old myth still making the rounds that Amazon will only promote books with 50+ reviews. This is 100% false. Your book does not need to cross a minimum review threshold for Amazon to start recommending it via also boughts, emails, and other automated mechanisms. A book with 10 reviews (or zero) can easily outsell one with 70, or even 700.
Have any other career-making mythical effect you may have heard about.

Why bother getting reviews at all, then?

Two marketing reasons:

Qualifying for promo sites . This is the main reason—many advertisers require either 5 – 10 reviews (with a 3.5 – 4-star average).
Social proof is important . All other elements being equal—blurb, cover, writing quality—a book with 15 reviews will be purchased over a title with none. Despite this tendency, reviews are far less important for books than, say, socks or a new television. That’s because fiction quality is subjective and all other elements are never equal. A book with twenty reviews and a genre-relevant cover will likely trounce one with a terrible, off-genre cover and a hundred glowing reviews.

I want to be clear: There aren’t many good reasons to acquire reviews besides the those outlined above. A la Facebook likes, Amazon reviews quickly become a vanity metric. After you get past 50 for a given title, there are diminishing returns. That being said, is having 250 or 500 reviews better than 50? Of course — but remember, when a book has hundreds of reviews, it’s almost always a byproduct of it selling well. Spending hundreds of hours or thousands of dollars accumulating this many reviews is a poor use of resources.

50 is an arbitrary threshold, but chosen for the following reasons:

Criticisms tend to repeat themselves at this point. You’re generally not learning new things about your craft from review #156 that you didn’t learn at #45.
You qualify for all promo sites . Yes, that includes the mighty BookBub (which contrary to myth, does not have a minimum review requirement).

And about that criticism: a good critical review can improve your craft.

This point is important enough to warrant its own section.

Qualitative Feedback: Using Reviews to Improve Your Craft

Feedback is at a premium when you’re a writer. Most of your day is spent alone, at a keyboard, typing into what is essentially a void. It is not until someone else reads your work that you receive feedback — often weeks or months after a passage has been written.

This can make it difficult to improve, since feedback is key to building skill in any discipline.

Reviews can be a critical source of quality feedback.

You’ll no doubt get lots of unhelpful, vague reviews (“terrible” or “deleted it from my kindle”) if you pursue writing as a full-time career. But don’t ignore genuinely helpful feedback because of this. I’ve learned a number of things (both positive and negative) from a small handful of reviews—points like my overuse of expletives, poor endings, confusing tendency to mash-up disparate genres/tones, and (on the plus side) that readers found my work funny . This unbiased feedback is invaluable, as it is what paying customers (re: not your mom, writing group or dog) genuinely think about your work. I wasn’t aware of these problems (or positives) until I read my Amazon reviews.

Some authors never read their reviews and advocate ignoring them. I believe this is a borderline career killing mistake. As already mentioned, unbiased feedback is the rarest of commodities for a writer; editors, proofreaders, beta readers, and so forth are inclined to say positive things about your work since they have a financial or personal relationship with you. This is human nature.

Paying readers — who are the arbiter of your success in this game — have no such biases, and will give you the straight truth. Sometimes that’s brutal; sometimes it’s unhelpful; on rare occasions, however, it’s gold. If you feel like downing a bottle of bourbon after browsing Amazon, however, then don’t read the reviews . Personally, I would work on building a thicker skin, because criticism is inescapable in this business . But that decision is up to you.

Quantitative Feedback

I’ve already touched on how reviews can qualitatively be used to improve your work.

But they can also be used in a more quantitative fashion. Most people look at the review score to assess whether readers liked their book. This seems like a good idea; in practice, however, not all 4 star ratings are equal. That’s because the true measure of a book’s quality is whether the reader got to the end — and, after that, whether they go on to purchase the next book.

Nothing else really matters when you’re trying to make a living.

Enter expected reviews versus actual reviews.

Using these two numbers, we can compare our expected review numbers (using a rule of thumb) to the actual number of reviews our book has.

On average, you can expect 1 Amazon review for every 1,000 free downloads and 1 review for every 100 sales. This is just a very general rule of thumb; the review rate will fluctuate from book to book. However, if lots of people are picking up your book, but no one is reviewing it, this indicates they’re not reaching the end. This is a problem, since your career is built on sellthrough (that is, people finishing a book and then purchasing another one of your books).

Thus, if your review rate is dramatically below the rules of thumb stated above, there may be a craft problem lurking in the pages.

Take these numbers from actual titles:

More people are reviewing Books A and B than expected; by contrast, Book C has fewer reviews than expected. Again, this is a very rough estimate; making any decisions based on this exercise alone would be ill-advised. But a low review rate is cause for further examination.

When I looked at the sellthrough numbers (the % of people who go on to purchase Book 2): Book B’s sellthrough is the highest, while Book C’s is anemic. This suggests readers aren’t resonating with Book C.

In conjunction with the actual qualitative content of the reviews, you can use your review rate to troubleshoot craft problems. If it’s much lower than expected, dive into what people are saying to find out why.

But enough about feedback and improving craft. Let’s jump into getting reviews.

Common Practices to Avoid

We only want legitimate reviews. To that end, you should avoid anything that might get you into hot water with Amazon. In recent years, Amazon has cracked down on many review gathering techniques—from the obvious black hat ones to grayer areas. To keep on the right side of their TOS, it’s vital to abide by a few rules:

Do not ask friends, family and other acquaintances for reviews. This is not allowed under the TOS. Some of these folks will leave reviews anyway, without asking. Don’t be concerned about this (Amazon won’t punish you)—just know that these reviews can disappear.
Do not offer to exchange reviews with other authors (known as a review swap) — e.g. you review their book and they review yours in return.
You can’t compensate reviewers in any way, beyond the actual product (the book, in this case). This means entering contests, paying them, swapping reviews and other tactics aren’t allowed.

On a semi-related note, if you interact with someone on social media, Amazon’s bots might pick this up and remove reviews of your work by this person. This is largely unavoidable and not something to be worried about; if the review count on a book suddenly drops by one or two, however, this might be the culprit.

Method #1: Use a Review Service

In theory, if funds were unlimited, you could book all of the sites below. Getting loads of reviews, however, is not the best use of marketing funds. Instead, focus on getting 10 reviews , as this is the threshold where most paid promo sites allow you to advertise. Then invest the leftover money into paid advertising.

If you’ve been struggling with reviews for a long time, rest assured that you can use all of these services & options for any book, old or new. I’ve used them for brand new releases (e.g. during launch week) and for books over a year and a half old. Anecdotally, I haven’t seen any difference in reader demand for new titles as opposed to old titles; even pre-order books (e.g. where the reader is receiving a true advance review copy) don’t seem to generate more interest. Demand is mostly dictated by your genre, cover, and blurb.

Important: You aren’t purchasing reviews via these services. Instead, these sites play matchmaker between authors and prospective reviewers—matching your book with interested, unbiased reviewers who request a review copy of your title based on its cover, blurb, and genre. These reviewers are not compensated, beyond the free copy of the book. If a site claims to compensate reviewers—either via monetary payment, contest entries or other incentives—run the other way immediately . Due diligence is a must .

I’ve used the sites below without issue, but the song does not remain the same—so look into their current policies and make sure they’re on the up and up.

The Best Option

# expected reviews: 20+ (50+ in some genres)
Setup time: 5 minutes
About: The most effective review service in the business by a large margin (think of them as the Bookbub of review services). Not only do they generate a ton of quality reviews — the reviewers clearly have read the books, and often post multiple paragraph reviews — they even send you a follow-up email with selected additional comments from their ARC list. The only knock against Hidden Gems is the booking time, which extends out half a year or longer for most genres.

Personally Untested, But Good For Others

I don’t generally include things that I haven’t personally used, especially not this high. But in this case, I’ve worked with a client who has used BookSprout to generate a considerable number of reviews, which gels with the general overall author consensus.

BookSprout (free trial, $10 – $20/mo)
About: BookSprout is a subscription service that offers a combination of ARC list management and discovery features that connect you with potential reviewers.

I’ve used Story Origin before for cross promos, but not specifically for reviews. I found that part of the service useful, and have seen some promising results from the review section. So this is worth testing, especially since it’s totally free.

StoryOrigin (free)

Unfortunately, much like with promo sites, where Bookbub reigns king, there’s a precipitous drop off in results from Hidden Gems to the rest of the pack. If you can’t snag a Hidden Gems spot, I’d start with these.

# expected reviews: 1 – 2
Setup time: 2 – 3 hours (have to send winners files yourself)
About: Library Thing allows you to run free eBook giveaways that help you get reviews. Set the giveaway to 100 eBooks (make sure you do eBooks and not paper copies) and you’ll usually get 30 – 50 people claiming it.

If you’re in a pinch, and need some reviews, you can look to these services. Their prices and results make them less appealing, however.

# expected reviews: 3 – 5
Setup time: 1 – 2 hours
About: this is different than the other services, in that you provide a link to your ARC (advance review copy) mailing list sign-up. Then they send out an email blast telling their list that they can join your ARC team and get a free review book. You’ll want to set up a separate form/segment for these ARC reviewers. Don’t mix them in immediately with your regular ARC reviewers, as some of them won’t review or won’t like your work.
Setup time: don’t remember
About: There are a number of co-ops that allow you to book a Net Galley slot for your title. I’ve linked to the one from Xpresso Book Tours; to be 100% clear, I’ve never used their services, but they’ve been around for a long time (the co-op I used is no longer offered). You can search for alternatives on Google or ask around in author groups. You can also book directly from Net Galley, but that’s far more expensive. Reviews from Net Galley are fair, but tend to be harsher and with lower overall scores.
About: this was good when I tried it in January 2016 (got 10 reviews), but less effective when I tried it in January 2017 (got 2 reviews). They provide you with updates via email on how many reviews your book has received from the program.
About: Process took about 7 – 10 days from submission to when it was sent out to readers. They distribute all the book files. Setup is super painless and the easiest of all the options. Book Review 22 sends an update about two months after you order with links to the reviews procured by their service. I received two Goodreads reviews and an Amazon review for an urban fantasy book when the price was $60. It has since increased to $250.
# expected reviews: 0
About: for years, Goodreads allowed you to give away paperbacks for free (although the shipping and printing costs associated with actually delivering said paperbacks were fairly pricey). This was useless, but cheap; I never traced a single direct review back to such a giveaway. The new Goodreads Giveaways, alas, are still useless but have the added bonus of being expensive. You can use them for both eBooks and paperbacks, now, although I would simply skip this option and use them for neither. I ran one, gave away 20 copies, got zero directly attributable reviews, and called it a day.

Additional Options I Haven’t Personally Tested

Blog tours (cost depends): haven’t tried a blog tour; from the research I’ve done, tours used to be much better for generating buzz and reviews (e.g. in 2012/2013) than they are now.
Contacting bloggers (free): I sent out one email to one blogger, never heard a response, and decided screw that . Other authors have gotten reviews, but I’m skeptical of the required time investment required to get said reviews. This was a popular strategy four or five years ago, before bloggers got bombed with review requests as a result.

You may see these recommended by other posts or guides; they’re mentioned here so you don’t wonder what happened to them.

Story Cartel
Contacting Amazon reviewers (free): Amazon used to publicly display the email addresses of reviewers who ticked a box to show their email on their profile. You could then email this person to offer them an ARC copy for review. Amazon no longer displays any reviewer emails publicly, so this method is no longer viable.
Book Razor : a number of review services sprung up that gathered the emails from Amazon profiles and sold them to authors. These were all shut down by the aforementioned change; Book Razor was the best known of these services.

Method #2: Ask Your List

If you have a mailing list (which you do have, right?), all that you need to do is send out a regular broadcast email to your subscribers asking for reviews. Explain the importance and include the direct link to the review form. Don’t incentivize people in any way; this is against the Amazon TOS. Just ask nicely.

Maybe you don’t want to send out a newsletter that solely ask for reviews. You could include the request as a “PS” at the bottom of one of your emails instead.

I like (and have used) the subject line “Can You Do Me a Favor?”

You can even automate this process by adding such a request to your autoresponder. The same principles apply: ask nicely and include a direct link to the review form.

Method 3: Cross Promo to Autoresponder

You can use sites like BookFunnel and StoryOrigin , or giveaways to build your list of newsletter subscribers rapidly. The idea is simple with cross promotions: you join forces with multiple other authors, share the cross promo to your list, and essentially share your subscribers with one another. You need a book that you can offer as bait for people to sign up, which is usually a free novella, story, or novel.

While this is a good way to start building your list, what you’ll often find is that the volume of subscribers is high…but engagement (and buy rates) are low. That does not, however, mean that these subscribers are necessarily useless, or that they’re not interested in reading your stuff.

Instead, these people might be interested in becoming ARC Readers (method outlined below) or to review your book.

How to set this up:

Join a cross promo on BookFunnel or StoryOrigin. Or join an author giveaway.
Make sure these subscribers are on a separate list or have a specific tag so you can clearly identify their source.
Set up an autoresponder that all new subscribers from these sources receive. An autoresponder (also referred to as an “automation sequence” or “drip sequence”) automatically sends emails to these new subscribers on a set schedule. You write the emails in advance, set things up, and then it runs in the background forever (or until you turn it off).
Within this autoresponder, have an email that requests a review for one of your books. It can be the one you gave away for free when they joined the list (especially if that’s a novel available for sale on Amazon) or it can be the book related to what they got free for joining the list (i.e., the full-length novel related to the free prequel novella). Link them directly to the Amazon review form.
Or, you can ask if they want to join your ARC Team, which we’ll outline below.

By the way, this autoresponder process works with your organic subscribers (those coming from the front/back matter of your book) as well. The reason I highlight cross promotions and giveaways specifically? If you’re struggling to get reviews, your current organic list is likely small. This is a quick way to dramatically increase the number of people you can either add to your ARC team or ask for reviews from.

Method #4: Create Your Own ARC Team

Why keep paying for review services with each book — essentially shotgunning your book out to readers who may or may not like it — when you can instead build a team of mega fans who will review your latest release on launch day? Like the previous two methods, this technique requires a mailing list — but after you finish setting up your mailing list, one of the next steps should be to start building your ARC (advance review copy) team.

Luckily, building an ARC team is super-easy. And it works with organic and non-organic subscribers.

Way #1 : create an automated email inviting subscribers to join your ARC team as part of your autoresponder.

Aside from a welcome email that delivers your reader magnet (the free novella, story, or novel mentioned in the previous section) and says what’s up to your new peeps, you can also have an email—further down the line—that invites subscribers to join your ARC team. A simple message—like hey, if you want free review copies of my books before they come out, reply and I’ll add you to the list —is really all you need.

Way #2 : if you don’t know a drip sequence from a dripping faucet—or haven’t set up your autoresponder—then simply sending a regular message to your existing list works fine. Same format as above: hey, I have cool pre-release copies of my latest book—you want in? Reply if you do.

That’s it. You can do this for a specific release (e.g. respond if you want an ARC copy of my new book Magic, Vamps & Potions), or just as a general invitation to receive all future books. Add the people who respond to your ARC list (or segment/tag them, depending on how fancy you wanna get).

It is extremely important to follow up with your ARC reviewers. Here’s a basic schedule:

10 – 14 DAYS BEFORE LAUNCH : Send out the ARC copies. Deliver these via BookFunnel to increase the # of people who actually download the ARC. If you do the special trick outlined in the section below, you can include the review link to the paperback.
LAUNCH DAY : Send out a link to the Amazon review form on launch day reminding people to review. Including the link is important — it makes things easier for reviewers, and will increase the number of reviews.
7 – 10 DAYS AFTER LAUNCH : Send a final message thanking all those who have left a review while reminding anyone who didn’t to review the book. Explain that reviews are critical to the book’s success. Most people are happy to do you a favor, particularly when you’ve already done them one by giving ’em a free ARC copy.

On a closing note, never request positive reviews; I always emphasize that reviewers should leave honest reviews. If someone signed up to your ARC team, they are almost always a big fan of your work, which makes them extremely unlikely to leave a review lower than four stars, anyway. On a related note, I do not remove non-reviewers or people who leave me low ratings; this demands a lot of time that can be better spent elsewhere. And finally, always remind ARC team members to disclose that they received a free book with language a la “I received a free review copy of this book from the author.”

Method #5: Ask in the Back Matter and Then Set Your Book to Free

I don’t do this any more, but I’ll explain the technique first, then explain my reasoning for no longer employing it.

In the back matter, right after “THE END” or “END OF BOOK 1,” on the same page , I used to have three things: a link to my mailing list; a link to book #2 with a brief, one-sentence description; and a request that goes a little something like this: If you enjoyed this book, please leave a brief review on Amazon by tapping here. Thanks.

This will increase the number of reviews you’ll receive. Make sure “please leave a brief review on Amazon by tapping here” links directly to the book’s review form. This increases the number of reviews you’ll receive.

A note: if you’re wide, use “please leave a brief review on your online bookseller of choice” and omit the direct link. Other retailers take umbrage to directly linking to competitors. It’s not worth generating a different EPUB for each retailer, in my opinion, hence the more general language. If you’re Amazon exclusive, just say Amazon (or Amazon/Goodreads, since Goodreads is owned by ‘zon).

Finally, an important note: the more cluttered your back matter, the less likely a buyer will take any action at all. If you have a million requests back there—follow me on Twitter! Here’s this thing I’m doing on Wattpadd! Oh yeah, I do dope Kabuki theater with this awesome troupe!—readers will take no action at all .

This is the reason I no longer include a review request in my back matter. While such a request increases the number of reviews you get, it decreases sellthrough. Instead of purchasing the next book in the series, readers leave a review. This gives them additional time to be distracted by a different book, and purchase it instead. Additionally, an automatic pop-up now appears at the end of books read on Kindle devices asking you to leave a review. This makes the review request semi-redundant. Here are the comparative stats for the back matter (back matter with the review ask on the left):

Ultimately, the goal is to sell more books and make more money — not collect dozens of reviews.

These days, I limit the number of CTAs (call-to-action) to one or two: a brief teaser with a link to the next book, and – depending on the series – a link to join my mailing list. Each additional link or request you add decreases the chance of the reader taking the desired action. That will almost always be purchasing the next book, so we want to make that link/teaser the focus.

However, if you are struggling to get reviews, you can use the review CTA + a free run on your book to generate some. I’d only do this if you have less than ten reviews. Otherwise, as outlined above, the review request will cut into your sellthrough too much to be worthwhile.

The technique: Give your book away free for 5 days and have a review request in the back matter . Book some paid promo so that you generate at least 3,000 – 5,000 downloads during your run. As mentioned earlier, you can generally expect one review for every 1,000 books you give away. For paid copies, you can expect around one review for every 100 books sold. However, those numbers can be much higher if your book has high sellthrough (e.g. people are finishing the book).

Understand that review averages for free books generally skew anywhere from a half-star to a full star lower than reviews for paid books. People tend to judge free products harshly. You’ll also get people trying your book who don’t like the genre and wouldn’t normally pick it up. This is normal.

Special Trick: Get Pre-Release Reviews

Unlike trad-pub authors, indie authors can’t receive reviews for their pre-order titles. There’s a clever way around this, though: setting up your KDP Print paperback ahead of time and “releasing it,” then directing your reviewers to the review link for the print copy listing.

Here’s how:

Make sure your eBook is available for pre-order and that you have the final draft of your manuscript available . This is critical because by publishing the paperback you will be making the actual book available for sale (at least for a couple hours), and thus you don’t want readers accidentally purchasing a placeholder full of blank pages.
Publish your paperback via KDP Print.
Once it’s live, request for KDP support to link the paperback and pre-order eBook editions together, if they aren’t already.
Send your reviewers the review link from the paperback edition’s Amazon page.
Once the two editions are linked, unpublish the paperback (if you want – or just leave it as is). If you do this, the review link will remain, but the paperback will no longer be available for purchase. You can “re-release” the print edition on the actual launch day by simply going into KDP Print and making it available again.

Wrapping Up

Using this guide, you should be able to get ten Amazon reviews over the next month without much trouble.

The ultimate goal, however, should be building your own team of ARC reviewers . This is a slow process, but one worth starting now. That way, you don’t have to pay for any services or hope that readers will leave reviews. Better still, fans of your work tend to write in-depth, quality reviews (and, as a bonus, their ratings skew higher, too). And if you get something egregiously wrong in your latest release, they’ll likely email you in private instead of publicly eviscerating your book—possibly in time for you to fix your error, as well.

That’s it. Go and get some reviews. And remember, always be building your author career; not just a shiny stable of gold stars on a platform (Amazon) that you don’t own.

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14 Ways to Get Reviews on Amazon: Do’s, Don’ts and Maybes

Explanation: We fact-check all of our content to ensure you have reliable and up-to-date information for your eCommerce business decisions. Learn about our fact-checking process .

For private label sellers and brand owners, getting positive product reviews on Amazon is crucial. Not only does it give shoppers confidence in the quality of your products, it plays a part in many of Amazon’s algorithms including the ranking of search results and the Amazon’s Choice badge. Reviews are hugely important to the success of Amazon sellers.

But Amazon has fought back against practices which undermine trust in the review system. Its most notable actions include the banning of incentivized reviews, the introduction of Verified Purchase reviews, and drawing up extensive policies on everything sellers can and can’t do. Amazon are being tougher than ever on what’s allowed, and will take harsh action on rule-breakers.

Here are all the different ways you can get Amazon product reviews. Only a few are completely safe, but also rather limited or expensive to access. Others are completely prohibited, but are still being used by sellers who are dishonest, desperate or naive. And many are in a grey area – if you stay within Amazon’s rules you should be safe, but it’s very easy to step over the line.

Do’s: Zero risk ways to get reviews 😊

There are very few ways to get reviews on Amazon which are always risk-free. With these methods, there’s virtually no way to slip into territory where your actions could get you into trouble with Amazon.

1. Amazon Vine

Amazon Vine is an Amazon-run program, launched back in 2007. It helps brands secure reviews for their products, from a selection of the “most trusted” Amazon reviewers. The logistics of Vine are handled by Amazon. Brands send their products to Amazon, then Amazon offers them to reviewers and sends them out for free.

Vine used to be expensive, ranging between $2500-$7500 per ASIN plus the cost of the products themselves. In the past Vine was only open to companies selling to Amazon as Vendors , but a recent pilot program opened it up to brand registered sellers for free.

For reviewers, Vine is an invitation-only program, and customers who contribute reviews are known as Vine Voices. They are selected based on several criteria, but primarily on the helpfulness of their reviews as judged by other customers, and by their demonstrated interest in the relevant product categories.

Vine aims to generate authentic reviews, so they may be positive or negative. Vine reviews include a badge saying “Vine Customer Review of Free Product”. As the product was free they do not have the “Verified Purchase” label.

However, as this is Amazon’s own program we expect that Vine reviews are treated favorably when calculating the product’s overall star rating (which is algorithmic rather than a simple average). From our own observations, Vine reviews often have a high ranking within a product’s overall reviews.

To maintain their Vine Voice status, reviewers must consistently receive “helpful” feedback on their product reviews. If they do not submit reviews within 30 days, they also risk losing their Vine Voice status.

Once again, this is effectively an incentivized scheme but it is operated by Amazon and the quality is controlled by them. Brands have no contact with reviewers so they can’t directly influence the reviews.

For those who qualify and can afford to give products away, Vine is zero risk. The resulting reviews will not be removed or lead to warnings or account suspensions.

Amazon’s Early Reviewer Program, which provided up to 5 reviews for $60, was closed in April 2021, but the Vine scheme is similar. The major difference is that the Early Reviewer Program did not require sellers to give products away.

2. Improving your products

This isn’t really a way to ask for reviews like the other methods here, but it can help a great deal in preventing negative reviews, and increasing the likelihood of positive reviews. That applies whether you are hoping to get completely organic reviews, or are using any legitimate method of soliciting reviews.

If you are using prohibited, illegitimate methods to generate reviews, those will work even if your product is terrible! Far better to have a good product, and use safer and more ethical methods to get reviews.

So, how can you find aspects of your product to improve?

One method is to scour existing product reviews, seller feedback, and buyer messages, for any complaints or shortcomings about your product. Even though seller feedback should be about the seller’s performance rather than the product, buyers often don’t understand the difference and valuable product feedback can often be found there.

Are customers happy with the quality of the product? There may be manufacturing faults or aspects of your products’ design, from the materials used to its packaging, which are causing customers to respond negatively. These can have a huge impact.

Are customers buying the right product? Look carefully at your product listing, and make sure the images and description accurately represent the product you are selling. You want to present the product in its best light, of course, but you don’t want to oversell it. Negative reviews are often due to not meeting expectations, such as the product being of a lower standard than expected, or being suitable for a purpose that it doesn’t actually fulfill.

Look at your competitors’ products as well. What can you learn from their images and descriptions? Are they more compelling than yours? Are they more detailed or creative in communicating what the product is for? Don’t just look for ideas to improve sales, look for ways to improve the accuracy and helpfulness of the description. You might lose a few sales, but only to people who needed a different product!

Overall, improving your product and listing might make only a small improvement to the volume of organic reviews you receive, but it’s strongly recommended if you are going to solicit reviews proactively. Asking customers for reviews is a dangerous strategy for a flawed product.

Don’ts: Prohibited methods that can get you banned 😡

There are a lot of ways to get reviews that are prohibited by Amazon, and could result in a ban from selling on the marketplace. Not only that, they could even lead to prosecution by Amazon, or consumer protection agencies like the FTC.

Even something that may be done quite innocently, like asking a family member to write a review is not only a breach of Amazon’s policy but also the FTC’s endorsement guidelines (if the relationship isn’t disclosed). That might sound unreasonably strict, but consider what is happening: someone who hasn’t bought your product writes a biased review (or even outright lies) to help convince genuine shoppers to spend real money. It’s deceptive.

So, why are these methods here? Unfortunately they all do happen, and are commonplace in some product categories. Sometimes the sellers using them know they are in the wrong, but other times they think they’re justified or it’s simply “the way business is done”.

For example, maybe you have a great product, and just want to help things along by buying a few reviews. Or you think your competitors are doing it, so you need to level the playing field. Those explanations might help ease your conscience, but they definitely don’t make it ethical, or compliant with Amazon’s policies, and they definitely won’t convince Amazon to go easy on you!

3. Paying for reviews

Giving any kind of compensation for a review is always prohibited, regardless of how you do it. So, for example, you aren’t allowed to:

Buy reviews outright
Send gift cards
Give refunds
Give free products
Provide discounts

A lot of the activity going on now, however, is sellers buying reviews outright. There are many freelancers offering this service through unsolicited emails, discussion forums, Facebook groups, private messages and more.

They could also be found readily on freelancing sites like Fiverr, before Amazon sued more than 1,000 Fiverr users in 2015. Earlier that year, Amazon also took legal action against four websites selling reviews in the open. It’s still possible to buy reviews today, but sellers have to dig a little deeper.

On Facebook groups, sellers typically pay $3-5 for a five-star review. The process will often start with the “reviewer” buying the product from Amazon, to ensure the review gets the “Verified Purchase” label. The seller will reimburse them by PayPal or send an Amazon gift card in advance (bought from a local store, not Amazon directly).

As well as the review fee, they might include an additional amount so the reviewer can mail the item back to them. Alternatively, the reviewer might have the package sent to a genuine address in the US (for Amazon.com) as they don’t want to use their own address with Amazon, for obvious reasons. This is known as “brushing” and is a form of identity theft.

These reviewers will often have a whole menu of dirty tricks they provide, including “helpful” upvotes of positive reviews, adding products to wish lists or shopping carts to make the Amazon search algorithm think a product is popular, posting negative reviews or seller feedback to damage a competitor’s business, and much more. Their business is gaming Amazon, and they will do just about anything that can tilt the odds in the seller’s favour.

If you are considering paying for reviews, or doing any of the other prohibited activities, thinking you can’t be caught, remember that Amazon is more than anything else a technology company. They may not be able to stop this problem altogether, but they do have sophisticated technology and procedures in place to detect suspicious patterns of activity. A sudden spike of verified reviews, as a proportion of total sales, would be a clear red flag.

If Amazon starts to investigate “brushing”, it could easily trace packages back to specific products and sellers, and see who is buying fake reviews. It wouldn’t take a lot to bring the whole scheme crashing down.

4. Giving heavy discounts or free products

Deal sites that asked for reviews were widespread and popular before Amazon’s ban on incentivized reviews. The process was quite simple:

The seller offers a product for free or at a very high discount
Reviewers take up the deal, agreeing to leave a review in return
The reviewer receives the product and posts a review

Many of these sites were quite reputable, and insisted on objective reviews and written disclaimers. But when the ban came into force, they had only two options:

Carry on, but don’t ask for reviews

Many did close down, and the few that continued became much less attractive to both shoppers and sellers. For shoppers, the discounts became much slimmer (it had been usual to get products for free) and for sellers, the likelihood of receiving a review became much lower. Before, 90%+ of orders would result in a review. The shopper wouldn’t be given any more deals (free products) if they didn’t submit a review, so they were strongly motivated to do it.

Today, giving any incentive for a review is absolutely, unequivocally, banned . Deal sites or “review clubs” even get a special mention in Amazon’s examples of prohibited activities. There’s no gray area with this at all.

But, like buying reviews directly, this scheme has gone underground. Facebook groups acting as review clubs now exist, and the principle is the same as the deal sites of old – offer a heavy discount or free product in return for a review.

Using this route is similar to buying reviews as above, although you may be dealing with an individual buyer rather than a freelancer. This may seem safer, and perhaps more ethical, but it is probably riskier. An individual using their own Amazon account is more likely to create suspicious reviewing patterns, and flag themselves up to Amazon, than a skilled freelancer.

You could, however, use one of the reformed deal sites , but their value is now limited as a route to get Amazon reviews. The sales might give your product’s sales rank a boost, and you might get reviews on social media or blogs instead, so they are still useful in those regards.

But deal sites or review clubs that actually require Amazon reviews? Those are high risk strategies and should be avoided.

5. Reviewing your own products

This is something of a no-brainer: of course you can’t sit at your computer and review your own products!

But it can also be something of a “gateway drug”. Imagine a naive seller decides one day to review their own product, with a separate Amazon account they use as a buyer, just to see what happens. The review gets published and… nothing happens. The review stays up, there’s no message from Amazon, and no knock at the door, so all seems well.

Then they review a different product that they sell. Maybe they set up another buying account, and review the same products again. Maybe they get a little more sophisticated and submit reviews from different locations and at different times. Maybe they even rope other people into their scheme.

But Amazon are good at linking multiple accounts , using a whole range of data to connect logins even when you’ve taken great pains to keep them separate. Just because they didn’t take action immediately doesn’t mean they’ll never pick it up. Sometimes enforcement happens in waves, not as an instant response.

Once those accounts have been connected, there’s no excuse or explanation that can put it right again – everything will be plain to see and you can expect to lose all selling privileges.

6. Asking family and employees

Those who ask family members to help kickstart their business by writing reviews on Amazon might think it’s good “hustling” – they deserve praise for using their connections and working hard as an entrepreneur.

But Amazon clearly prohibit family members (and employees) from writing product reviews. It’s no better than writing the reviews yourself. Clearly, they will be far from objective and you would only ask them because you want a positive review. Effectively, you are the one writing the review – you’re just using someone else’s Amazon account.

How could Amazon know that a family member or employee has reviewed your product? As mentioned above, they have sophisticated systems to detect connections between accounts. Perhaps the family member once used Amazon to buy a gift for you and had it sent directly to your address (or vice versa), or one time you logged into your Amazon account from their house. It wouldn’t take much to make a connection, and it would be very difficult to explain away.

Interestingly, while family members and employees are specifically mentioned, Amazon don’t say “friends” are prohibited from writing reviews. That’s why you’ll find that one in the “maybes” section.

7. Asking buyers outside Amazon’s system

When someone buys from your bricks-and-mortar shop or online store, they become “your” customer. You are responsible for the shipping and customer support, and you can contact them in the future by phone, physical mail and email with order updates and marketing messages (if they agree to it).

When someone buys from you via Amazon, they don’t become your customer. They are Amazon’s alone. The policies are nailed down so tightly there is almost nothing you are allowed to do that you can when someone buys from you directly.

This isn’t just about having their contact information in your possession. You may have their phone number, for example, but that doesn’t mean you can use it. The phone number is only provided for delivery purposes, and Amazon specifically say you must never contact a customer using their phone number.

What about email? Amazon do not provide real customer email addresses, only an encrypted version to enable email replies to be routed through the Buyer-Seller Messaging service. You can ask for reviews via that service, as long as you stay within the rules, which are covered in the “maybes” section below.

You could potentially get your hands on real email addresses using an email appending service, which use customer data that you do have to append (add on) their email address. But Amazon says you can’t pass along customer information of any kind outside of Buyer-Seller Messaging, so you would be breaking the rules just by uploading customer data to one of these services. Incidentally, this also seems to prohibit using Amazon buyer data to create a custom audience for Facebook advertising.

Amazon’s rules don’t seem to prohibit contact by physical mail, but it’s an expensive route and an awkward way to send people to a website URL. Not only that, you would have to avoid the impression of directing the buyer to your own website, which could look like an attempt to divert future purchases, and also do not provide any incentive for a review such as a discount. Both are specifically prohibited.

Finally, don’t forget that the customer belongs to Amazon not only because Amazon’s rules make it that way, but also because it’s the way the customer sees it themselves. They bought from Amazon, and may not even be aware that a third-party company was involved. They can be confused and concerned to hear directly from a seller by any means outside Amazon’s own messaging system. After all, they didn’t even know you existed.

Maybes: Techniques to tread carefully with 🤔

Most of the do’s and don’ts above stand to reason, and are easy to stay on the right side of (once you know what they are, in any case).

But the do’s are unlikely to set your reviews alight, and the don’ts are high-risk and unethical. For most sellers, the maybes are where the biggest opportunities lie.

But they are also something of a minefield. You can use these methods, but you must make every effort to stay within Amazon’s terms of use , policies , and code of conduct .

The terms and policies are the “letter of the law”, and the code of conduct is the “spirit of the law” which provides a general catch-all for below-par behavior. Vague demands like “act fairly” and “ensure a trustworthy experience” make it easy to slip up.

No wonder there are lawyers who specialize in working with Amazon sellers ! You can certainly get suspended for failing to live up to the code of conduct, as well as more explicit violations of the terms.

8. Optimizing your customer service

Sometimes customers will come directly to you for support, such as help with how to use the product correctly (sellers who only use FBA will need to turn this option on ).

You should, of course, provide the best service possible when customers contact you. Ensure that you are punctual in your replies and remain courteous throughout, however unreasonable the customer may be. Be apologetic for any complaints and attempt to resolve any issues to make for a better customer experience overall.

And then what? Ask the satisfied customers for reviews, right? Well, no. You aren’t allowed to:

Ask for a positive review
Only target buyers who had a positive experience
Ask customers to change or remove their review
Attempt to influence a review, for example, by offering any kind of incentive

Maintaining high levels of customer service should reduce the chance of negative reviews and increase the possibility of receiving positive reviews, but it’s asking for reviews that can really make a difference.

You just have to be consistent and neutral to stay within the rules. Don’t make it the sole purpose of your message, and don’t ask more than once, to avoid irritating the buyer. For example, it would cross the line to say, “if you were happy with your purchase, please leave a review”. The wording is all-important.

9. Using your own website

In addition to selling on Amazon, you might sell through your own online store, or maybe have an informational website providing more detailed data and support for your products. You can ask for Amazon reviews on your own website, or in emails with your own customers.

It might seem strange to direct customers from your own website, where there are no sales commissions or competitors, to the free-for-all that is Amazon. But if Amazon is your primary sales channel it could make more sense to support it, rather than jealously guard every potential customer who comes your way. There’s a good chance they found you on Amazon first anyway, and if your own website is informational rather than transactional there’s nothing to lose at all.

As people who visit or buy from your website are not Amazon buyers, the rules about incentives in the seller policies appear not to apply. But crucially, Amazon also has Community Guidelines for anyone posting reviews or other content, and those do prohibit posting in exchange for compensation, including free or discounted products. It’s an odd mismatch between seller and buyer policies.

You are also still bound by Amazon’s seller code of conduct, which is much more general in its wording. If a buyer states in their review that they received an incentive, as was the proper practice with the deal sites of old, you could both get into trouble.

Probably the biggest shortcoming of using your own website to ask for reviews, however, is that your traffic might be too low to make much of an impact. Also, the reviews received will not be Verified Purchase reviews. Non-verified reviews are still valuable, but they have less weight in the product’s overall rating, and perhaps also with buyers.

10. Asking friends

For family members and employees, there’s no gray area – they are definitely not allowed to review your products or those of your competitors. Friends, however, are not explicitly mentioned in the seller policies.

But as above, in “Using your own website”, there is a mismatch between seller and buyer policies. The Community Guidelines do prohibit reviews of “close friend’s” products as well as those of relatives, business associates, and employers. They also, not surprisingly, prohibit review manipulation by contributing “false, misleading, or inauthentic content”.

So you can ask your casual friends, but not your close friends! And they can’t give a false opinion, or stretch the truth about the product’s quality or features.

So, should you go ahead and ask friends to post a review? Well, maybe. Like asking family or employees (in the don’ts section above), there’s an ethical question to consider. Can they really be objective? It’s something you’ll have to discuss, and brief them on what’s allowed.

There is another challenge. Because they haven’t bought the product independently, you’ll have to think carefully about how you provide it to them so they can review it. You could:

Give them the product for free, but then you can’t ask for a review in exchange – it’s “compensation”.
Ask them to buy the product from Amazon themselves, and then review it. You can’t give them a discount or refund, so this might be asking too much.
Lend them the product so they can use it, then take it back again. This isn’t really “compensation” (unless the product is consumable) so you can be more upfront about asking for a review.

As above, the reviews received will not be Verified Purchase reviews, unless they actually buy the product from Amazon themselves. Perhaps you could offer to reimburse them if they don’t want to keep it (and actually take the product back from them), but that smacks of a trick to stay within the letter, but not the spirit, of the “law”. Remember the code of conduct!

11. Working with local or online groups

There are clubs, teams and groups for just about every hobby, pastime, sport and interest you can imagine. Maybe there’s one that’s a good match for your products?

If you sell sports equipment, for example, you could approach a local team and ask them to test and review your products. This is similar to “Asking friends” above, but you should be on safer ground in terms of their objectivity and, therefore, staying within the Community Guidelines.

On the other hand, they might have more expectation of getting some sort of compensation in return, which of course you cannot give. You will have to rely on building a strong relationship with the group, using your winning personality alone!

Groups can also be a very good source of feedback when you initially develop your product. If they feel involved in the development from an early stage, they might feel more inclined to leave a review without expecting anything in return.

This is often the approach when crowdfunding product development through sites like Kickstarter. It’s not just about getting investment, it’s about building a base of enthusiastic followers who want to be involved throughout the process. They pay for the product, so there’s no compensation involved when you ask for a genuine, objective review on Amazon.

As before, the reviews received will not be Verified Purchase reviews, unless they buy the product on Amazon themselves.

12. Sending follow-up emails

Asking for reviews in follow-up emails to buyers is probably the best-known legitimate method of generating reviews. There are many feedback solicitation tools available, which automate the process.

But this method is not without risk, and its popularity has lead Amazon to provide buyers with the ability to opt-out of non-essential seller messages. A growing proportion of buyers have chosen that option.

Follow-up emails are always sent through Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging system, so everything you write in your messages can be seen by Amazon. If you are tempted to bend the rules, this is probably the worst place to do it!

To stay within Amazon’s policies, make sure you:

Use neutral language when you ask for a review – don’t just ask for positive reviews.
Don’t only ask satisfied customers for reviews, or ask differently depending on whether they had a positive or negative experience.
Don’t offer any incentive or compensation.
Don’t email customers only to ask for a review.

Look out for a separate article coming soon on the best techniques and practices for follow-up messages.

In the meantime, some general advice is to send only one or two messages to each buyer, and to have a genuine reason for contacting them besides asking for a review. One example is to provide them with a PDF manual or usage advice for the product.

13. Putting fliers in packages

If you do your own fulfillment, you have complete control over what goes in the packages you send out.

If you use FBA, you can only control what goes in the product box itself, and only before it is sent into Amazon’s warehouse. Once your inventory is in the system, you can’t make changes without paying for your inventory to be removed and returned to you.

Either way, there is an opportunity to ask for reviews by including an insert in the packaging or product box itself. Like all the other methods, you must stay within Amazon’s rules. The most relevant policies are not asking only for positive reviews, not offering an incentive, and not redirecting the buyer to your own website for future purchases.

How would Amazon ever know if you do break the rules with a box insert, particularly if you do your own fulfillment? Here are the most common ways they could find out:

In a well-meaning attempt at “full disclosure”, the buyer might mention the incentive in their review.
A competitor could buy your product to try and copy it, or find fault with it, or see if there’s some way in which you are breaking the rules, so they can rat you out to Amazon.

It’s the latter that is perhaps the most likely, and the most dangerous. Competitors can play dirty anyway, and submit fake reviews or seller feedback to damage your performance metrics and trigger warnings. If you actually are doing something wrong, they can make a completely honest report of the abuse.

It’s up to you if you want to bend the rules, but don’t imagine you could never get caught.

14. Addressing negative reviews

This is about trying to turn negative reviews into positives. Not only does this get you one more positive review, but it also gets rid of a negative. Turning around one negative review could have as much impact as getting a dozen or more positives, if the review is particularly prominent and damaging.

There are two major catches:

It’s prohibited to ask a customer to change or remove their review.
You can’t always match a posted review to an actual buyer, so might be unable to contact the reviewer privately.

So the first hurdle is actually getting in touch with the buyer. You might get lucky, and find they have used their real name to post the review rather than the ubiquitous “Amazon Customer” label. Or you might be able to connect the text of their review with messages they sent you through Buyer-Seller Messaging.

Failing that, there are tools that claim to be able to match reviews with orders, although many of them stopped working in October 2017 when Amazon changed the HTML code behind reviews. AMZFinder is one tool still claiming to have this review-to-order matching feature.

If you cannot find any way to match a review to an order, to contact the buyer privately through Buyer-Seller Messaging, you can still leave a public comment on their review.

When you contact a buyer about their review, whichever way you do it, remember that you cannot directly ask them to change their review. Instead, try to resolve the problem they experienced. That might range from simple product advice, to offering an exchange or refund for a faulty item. As with all customer service, remain punctual and courteous throughout.

If you do resolve the problem, you must still resist the temptation to ask them to change their review. You could mention it in passing instead, such as by saying, “I’m glad we noticed your review so we could fix this problem for you”, then there’s a good chance they will take the hint and change it without needing to be asked.

If the review is fake, or breaks Amazon’s Community Guidelines by being obscene, racist or including personal information (for example) you can instead report it to Amazon and they might decide to remove it.

In an ideal world, reviews would flow in naturally from a cross-section of buyers, and accurately reflect the quality of your product. In reality, shoppers are more strongly motivated to leave reviews when their experience is negative, and often don’t even consider leaving a review if they were happy with the product. That’s just human nature.

What’s a seller to do? Positive reviews don’t just flood in as a natural side effect of running your business, yet your competitors seem to have hundreds of them. So sellers will often do whatever they can to make reviews happen, using (and abusing) every technique we’ve listed here.

But Amazon have really clamped down, tackling incentivized and paid reviews by changing their policies and by taking sellers, service providers and review sites to court. Today, there are only a few safe ways to get reviews, but several ways which are completely banned, and many ways which must be used carefully. There are no silver bullets.

We hope this article has given you some new ideas, and set the record straight on what can and cannot be done according to Amazon’s labyrinthine policies, terms, codes and guidelines. If you know any other ways to get reviews, or have any other feedback, we would love to hear it in the comments below.

A content writer in the SaaS, FinTech, and eCommerce spaces, Jake Pool has written hundreds of articles and reviews for dozens of corporate blogs and online publications. With four years under his wing, readers can expect many more informative articles in the future.

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How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon For Free

Most authors think that writing a book is the hard part.

As an independent author, getting reviews for your book is probably one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do.

Where do you start? Who do you ask? How does it even work?

This is a complete step by step systematic process to give you a near unlimited amount of reviews for your book.

They're right — it's a herculean task to get a book out of your head, onto the page, and in a format that other people can use.

But it's not the hard est part of being an author. In today's world, where self publishing is so accessible to authors at any level and in any genre, the real problem is getting attention for your book.

After all, the best-written, most valuable book on Earth isn't worth anything if nobody cracks it open and starts to read it.

While there are a number of strategies out there to get attention for your book, one of the best is to leverage the way that Amazon works when you launch a book on their platform.

Amazon determines where your book ranks in its category on a few key factors. Honest, in-depth reviews of your book are one of those key factors (alongside book sales).

If you're a first-time author, or an experienced writer without a large platform, this might discourage you . It can feel like a chicken and egg situation. No one will see your book if you can't get reviews, but you can't get book reviews because people aren't seeing your book.

How do you break the cycle?

In this article, we'll go over simple, practical, and (most importantly) ethical ways on how to get reviews for your book on Amazon.

Be warned : this will take effort. But if you put in the work and follow the steps, you will get genuine reviews for your book, catapulting up the rankings and in front of the readers you want to reach.

Don't have the time? Check out our service tailored for independent authors. This is ALL we do!

If you value your time at more than $4.00/hour, then using BookRazor is proven to be the more efficient choice

potential reviewers

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reviewer name
book reviewed
email address
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6-9 days to complete

(we need ~8,000 total book reviews to research)

The Many Ways to Get Reviews

Later in this article, we'll cover a step-by-step process to get free book reviews. But first, let's cover the many ways that authors try to get reviews for their books.

1. Friends, Family, and Acquaintances

Almost all authors start out here, and for good reason. Without much of a platform to market their work, they go to their trusted circle of family, friends, and acquaintances.

This is effective, because these people have a personal connection to you and are willing to help you out even if they may not be one of your target readers.

Note: It is frowned upon to ask your close connections to review your book if they haven't read it. Just because they're likely to leave a review no matter what doesn't mean that you should allow it.

2. Book Blogging Communities

Over the past 5-7 years, the number of people who make a living writing books and selling them on Amazon has risen drastically. Naturally, so has a support network aimed at helping these authors scale their success. Book blogging communities can take many forms, from outright self-promotion bordering on shady tactics, to large, reputable book mailing lists like BookBub . As a general rule, these should be approached with caution unless you have a proven book that you know will work well with a specific site or book marketing list.

3. Amazon Top Reviewers

Most articles teaching you how to get a book reviewed will recommend Amazon Top Reviewers as a core part of the strategy. It's not a bad idea, but it becomes less and less effective the more people use it. Think about it — there are a finite number of top reviewers, and an ever-increasing list of authors who want reviews for their books. At some point this model breaks. Your pitches offering free books in exchange for an honest review will start falling on deaf ears because there are simply too many other authors looking for the same thing. However, an intelligent approach to Top Reviewers should still be considered.

4. Book Review Services

Book review services take two forms:

Services that offer positive reviews for a fee
Services that expedite the review-getting process for a fee

Hopefully we don't have to explain why purchasing #1 is a bad idea. Not only does it go directly against Amazon's promotional content and customer review policies, it's not very effective. You're buying reviews from people who have never read the book, so it's likely to be a very generic and obviously fake review. Amazon's good enough to detect those, even on an IP-level for some of the more popular services. Just don't use them.

However, services that offer to speed up the review process can be worth their weight in gold, like BookRazor (shameless plug). The tactics we'll get into in the next section are very time consuming, so anything that can speed up the process without sacrificing quality is a good use of money. These can take the form of services that find reviewers for you, provide templates for emailing, etc — they're quite diverse.

Dispelling A Few Myths

Having worked with many authors on book launches and obtaining reviews, there are a few common misconceptions and beliefs that prevent authors from getting the most they can out of their books. Give these a quick read and see if you have any of them within you:

You're Allowed to Ask People to Help You

This is a common struggle for many creative types. Often, they feel it's unethical or sleazy to ask their friends, family, or acquaintances for help with their project. They have so much trouble with even those groups that the thought of asking "random strangers" for help is completely out of the question. If this is something you struggle with, remember that other people ask you for help all of the time. It's in our nature to respond favorably to requests for help, especially when you're offering something in return.

Your Book Sales Won't Take a Hit

The most common objection we get when sharing our book review techniques is, "Won't this hurt my book sales? I want to sell as many copies as possible!" While the logic isn't false , it is a bit twisted. When an author is starting out, eyeballs and visibility are often far more important than raw book sales. Would you rather get 100% of book sales to an audience of 100 people, or 50% of an audience of 2,000?

How to Get Book Reviews: A Step-By-Step Framework

Phew! Now that we've gotten all of the introductory information out of the way, let's get to work, shall we? This framework will work for any authors that puts in the time and effort required to make it a success. Before we get into each step, here is a rough outline:

Start this entire process at least two months before you launch your book
Compile a list of people you want to review your book
Email them and offer them a copy of your book
Compile a list of people who you sent a copy of your book
Email them three times:
7 days before your book launches
Day your book launches
Personalized email 2-3 days after book launches

Looks simple? It is. But the little details in each step are what separates a successful review campaign from a failure. Let's get into it.

1. When Should I Start My Book Promotions?

Because we're dealing with a complex ask (reading and reviewing a book), it makes sense to give people as much as possible to get this task done. A good rule of thumb is to start the review process at least two months beforehand. This gives you enough time to get your list of people together, make your pitches, and follow up 2-3 times. Then you need to allow time for them to read and digest your book. Only then can they review it. If you try to rush the process, your results will be drastically worse.

2. Have You Already Launched Your Book?

While this guide is written for authors who have yet to launch their book, the principles work equally well if your book is already out and you're looking for more reviews. Just follow steps 2-5 and modify your email templates to the following:

Introduction and initial pitch
Check-in email three weeks after email #1
Final check-in and link to review page one week after email #2

3. Come Up With Your List of Reviewers

The goal here is to start with as big a list of people as you can come up with. Not everyone will respond to your first pitch, not everyone will want a copy of your book, and there will even be some people who don't review your book after receiving a copy. This is unavoidable, but by coming up with a large list of initial people you can mitigate these problems a bit.

There are a few sources you should look to to build this list:

3.1 Family, Friends, and Acquaintances

The people on this list are your "tier one" reviewers. It's highly likely that they will not only respond to your pitch, but will enthusiastically help you by reviewing your book and sharing it with their networks as well. Add as many people to this list as you can think of, but be sure not to head over to Gmail and add all of your contacts while thinking, "If I've emailed them, they must be 'acquaintances', right?" Wrong!

3.2 Reviewers of Similar Books in Your Genre

Where this system really shines is in this step right here. Go to Amazon and browse through your book categories for popular books that are similar to your own. Here's what you're looking for:

Related books with a high number of related reviews
Positive reviews
Reviews that have been voted "Most Helpful"

These criteria ensure that the reviewers you find are relevant and interested , making them exceptional candidates to review your book. When you find these reviewers, look for:

Their email address (usually found on their profile page)
Reviewers that have written a review in the last few months, to ensure they're still active on the platform

After you've exhausted the reviews on one book, move to another book until you run out of similar books that have reviews. This is by far the most time consuming part of the process, but doing good work here will pay dividends for the rest of the process.

4. Email Your List and Offer a Copy of Your Book

Once you've completed the arduous process of compiling a review pitch list, it's time to communicate with them! Your first email will introduce yourself, your book, and offer a copy of the book. It will NOT talk about how much you love your book, how badly you need reviews, or anything else that you want from them . It's designed to offer value to your list — that's it.

IMPORTANT: The below email templates are merely suggestions. I strongly encourage you to compose your own. The below may have been copied and re-used to death.

Think of the credibility and authenticity you lose when a potential reviewer has already received the same email outreach from hundreds of different authors.

Subject: My New Book Hi [First Name] , Hope you're well! [Add a personal intro sentence here] . Over the past [time period] , I've been working on a book called [title of book] , about [one sentence description of book topic] . It's going to launch in [number of weeks] on Amazon. The way publishing a book works these days, one of the most valuable things I can do is launch the book with reader reviews on Amazon. That's why I'm writing you. Would you like to receive a free copy of my book? I would be happy to send you either a digital copy or a physical copy — whichever you prefer. If so, I'd also sincerely appreciate it if you considered leaving an honest review once it launches on [Date] . It's by no means necessary, but would be much appreciated. If you want a physical copy, just reply with your address and I'll ship it out to you ASAP. If you'd prefer a digital copy, just reply and let me know and I'll send it right out to you. Thanks so much for your time! [your name]

The key to this email is the suggestion that they be receptive to leaving a review for your book once they're done reading it. While it's frowned upon to outright agree to trade a book for a review (even if it's unbiased), it's completely fine to suggest that a review would be appreciated.

Don't send this as a mass email. It reeks of non-personalization and your success rate will go way down. The opening line in this email should be as personal as possible. That's easy to accomplish if you're writing to family or friends, but gets more time consuming when you are emailing reviewers you found on Amazon. It helps to do a little Googling and figure out what these people are about. Is there a commonality that you share? Something they enjoy? That little bit of personalization is a signal that you didn't email the same script to 500 people, and drastically increases your response rate.

Keep your list in a spreadsheet and track the following:

First email send date
1 week before send date
Launch send date
Review secured?

5 . Send Them a Copy

Prepare to get a lot of responses. People are usually receptive to a custom email pitch like the one above. Once people start saying "Yes," make sure you send them the book as soon as possible.

If you're sending digitally, send them a zipped file of the three popular digital formats (.pdf, .epub, and .mobi) so you don't have to go back and forth with them over file types. It would be helpful to include quick instructions on how to use each filetype, just in case they don't know.

Remember — you're asking them to read your book and leave a review . These are NOT small asks. Do everything in your power to make the process as painless as possible for them.

6. Create a List of Reviewers

The first round of emails was all personal outreach. One on one. Now that you have a subsection of that original list that has accepted a book in exchange for an honest review, it's safe to add them to an email list and mail them all at once.

A free and easy to manage option is MailChimp. Just copy and paste all of the names and emails that accepted your offer into your Mailchimp list and name it "[Book title] Reviewer List."

7. Remind Your Reviewers a Week Before Launch

Like everyone else, your reviewers are busy people. If you ship out a copy and hope they'll remember to leave a review the day your book launches, your results will be poor. It's best to send a few gentle reminders, prodding them to fulfill their end of the bargain — leaving a review of your book once it launches.

Subject: [First name], [Book Title] Launches in a Week! Hey [First name] , I wanted to say thanks for agreeing to read [Book Title] . I can't tell you how much it means to me to get this book out in the world on [Date] . I'm writing you to see if you had any questions or feedback before the book launches. If you are open to leaving a review but are not sure what to say about the book or in a review in general, it's totally fine to just leave your general thoughts. One last thing : if you decide to leave a review, it's important to mention that you received a review copy of the book. Take care, [Your name]

There are two main points to hit in this email:

It's a gentle nudge to anyone on your list that hasn't read the book yet.
It primes them for launch day and reminds them that they agreed to read and potentially review your book.

You'd be surprised how forgetful people can be, even when it comes to things that they really want to do. Giving them a gentle reminder helps prime them to take action.

8. Announce the Book on Launch Day

The day your book launches, you want to email your list and let them know one final time that your book is out and they have committed to leaving a review. It's best to schedule this the night before for 6 or 7am EST so your email is staring them in the face first thing in the morning. This way they can leave their review and be on with their day.

Subject: It's Launch Day For [Book Title] Hey [First name] , Morning! I wanted to send a quick and easy reminder that [Book Title] has launched and is available on Amazon! Thank you again for giving it a look before launch. It means a lot. If you'd like to leave your thoughts on the book in a review, you can do so here (it would be greatly appreciated): Click here to leave a review for [Book Title] . Again, I can't tell you how much it means that you've taken the time to help out with the book launch. If there's anything that I can do for you, please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you, [Your name]

This email should be short and to the point. All you want them to do is read it, give them a gentle nudge to review your book, have them click the link, and review your book. Simple.

9. Follow Up With Each Reviewer After Your Launch

If you've done your job, reviews should start coming in over the course of the next day or two. It's time to thank your list. At this point, it's best to go back to a personal email instead of a mass-email. This way you can connect more with your reviewers, who by now may be genuine fans of your work.

If you want to take it even further, you can send everyone on your list an email, even if they didn't end up reviewing your book. This personal touch often spurs another segment of the list to leave a review. Even though it might be late, it still helps your book rank higher in your Amazon category.

A Note on Effort

As you can see, this isn't a quick and easy process. But that's what makes it valuable. Simply put, most authors launching books on Amazon don't go through even half of this effort to get their book out there, and consequently end up with a lackluster book launch. They get discouraged and may stop writing altogether, or decide that it's just "impossible" to be an author these days.

With self-publishing bringing the barriers to entry to book publishing way down, there are many more authors these days than there ever were in the past. You can choose to see that as a problem, lamenting how hard it is to get noticed these days, or you can do the work that other authors won't — and reap all of the rewards.

If you want to streamline this process a bit without sacrificing the essence of what makes it work, you can use a service like ours which does the reviewer sourcing for you. You'll still have to do the rest of the pitching yourself, but we've become experts at finding Amazon reviewers that are interested in your book category and topic, and have a history of leaving honest reviews for new authors.

Once again, if you don't have the time, we specialize in providing a cheap, done for you version of this.

If you value your time at more than $4.00/hour, then our service is the better bang for the buck.

Amazon restricts reviews on Kristi Noem’s controversial book citing ‘unusual activity’

Amazon is preventing its users from writing reviews for South Dakota governor Kristi Noem’ s new book due to “unusual reviewing activity” as the Republican faces massive backlash for writing about killing her dog .

When a user tries to write a review for Ms Noem’s book No Going Back , a notice pops up: “Amazon has noticed unusual reviewing activity on this product. Due to this activity, we have limited this product to verified purchase reviews.”

The book, released on Tuesday, also only has one star on Amazon, as of Wednesday morning.

“We want Amazon customers to shop with confidence knowing that the reviews they see are authentic and trustworthy,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Independent in a statement.

“If we notice unusual reviewing activity, we will occasionally limit reviews to verified purchases only.”

The Independent has contacted Ms Noem for comment.

The “unusual reviewing activity” warning came after Ms Noem received considerable flack after excerpts from her book were released about when she killed her 14-month-old wire-haired pointer Cricket two decades ago.

“I hated that dog,” she wrote in her memoir, detailing that Cricket was “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.

“At that moment,” Ms Noem continued, “I realized I had to put her down.” She admitted that “it was not a pleasant job... it had to be done”.

Seemingly everyone , from X users to comedians to Fox News to Hillary Clinton , has slammed her decision to slay her dog.

Regardless of the barrage of scrutiny , the South Dakota governor has repeatedly defended her decision.

In the immediate backlash, she posted on X, defensively: “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

In another post, she wrote: “I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book.”

When a Fox News anchor pressed the Republican governor about shooting her dog, Ms Noem in turn accused the host of “not hearing from real Americans that live on farms and ranches” before once again defending the slaying.

“I made a decision as a mom, and I’m a grandma, that the safety of my children and safety of people was what I needed to decide, protecting them from a very dangerous animal,” she said.

Ms Noem’s controversial book has arrived as former president Donald Trump eyes potential running mates. Although Ms Noem has been considered to be on his veep shortlist , she seems to have killed her chances – long before the dog-killing story surfaced.

Six sources told Politico that she had been “cast aside” as Mr Trump’s potential running mate long before the dog scandal came out.

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

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Pathfinders: Extraordinary Stories of People Like You on the Quest for Financial Independence―And How to Join Them Hardcover – October 31, 2023

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From “The Godfather of Financial Independence (FI)”, a follow-up to his international bestselling personal finance sensation The Simple Path to Wealth! Pathfinders brings together scores of amazing and insightful real-life stories from real people on the journey to financial independence―providing practical encouragement and inspiration for anyone who wants to join them. Lighting the way in the real world to The Simple Path to Wealth, these are fascinating, heartfelt, often surprising tales: - of struggles overcome and the rewards that followed - of enterprising solutions to unexpected problems - of sacrifices made and the kindness of strangers - of surprisingly simple steps―and the amazing places they can take you ...and much, much more. Author JL Collins accompanies these readers’ stories with reflections on his “rules for the road”―as well as a candid conversation about the journey to financial freedom with his daughter, the inspiration for his original international bestseller. Pathfinders is the ultimate companion for your own journey to financial freedom―and the true and lasting wealth that lies at the end.

Print length 320 pages
Language English
Publisher Harriman House
Publication date October 31, 2023
Dimensions 5.9 x 1.1 x 8.9 inches
ISBN-10 180409000X
ISBN-13 978-1804090008
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Editorial Reviews

“Few people have bridged the gap between spreadsheet and the real world like JL Collins―this book is full of real stories from real people seeking the greatest gift money can provide: independence.” ―Morgan Housel, Author of Same as Ever and the #1 international bestseller The Psychology of Money “Most people believe that achieving FIRE is impossible. JL Collins’ brilliant new book proves otherwise. It’s packed with stories of ordinary people who mastered their finances and now live extraordinary lives, and proves that reaching FIRE is achievable no matter your current circumstances. It’s also filled with the wit and wisdom JL has become famous for. Highly recommended.” ―Brian Feroldi, Author of Why Does the Stock Market Go Up? “Pathfinders proves that the path to financial independence is simple, achievable, and doesn’t require a degree in finance ... These stories will make you feel less alone in your struggles and find solace in knowing that no matter how bad your situation is, there is a way out.” ―Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung, Authors of Quit Like a Millionaire “Prepared to be inspired, motivated, and humbled by the array of successes discussed in this must-read.” ―Scott Trench, CEO + President, BiggerPockets “JL Collins has emerged as a leading light in the financial independence movement thanks to his special blend of hard-won wisdom, fabulous storytelling abilities, and good old-fashioned common sense. Pathfinders, which places JL’s own stories and insights alongside the stories of fellow travelers on the road to financial freedom, is an engaging and inspiring read from start to finish.” ―Christine Benz, Director of personal finance and retirement planning, Morningstar, Inc “JL Collins does it again! He shows that money doesn’t need to be complicated. Success with money comes down to a few basic principles that anyone―under any circumstances―can accomplish.” ―Jon Luskin, CFP®, Advice-only financial planner “JL Collins has created something spectacular with Pathfinders: it’s the perfect companion to The Simple Path to Wealth, and a true must-read for anyone pursuing Financial Independence ... a book unlike anything I’ve seen in the personal finance world. I think it’s another instant classic.” ―Brad Barrett, Co-founder and host of the ChooseFI Podcast

About the Author

JL Collins is the international bestselling author of The Simple Path to Wealth : Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life. He has been called “The Godfather of FI” in the financial independence community. He launched his eponymous blog, jlcollinsnh.com, in June 2011 and is the founder of the legendary Chautauqua financial independence retreats. His Talk at Google has received over 1.4 million views, and he has appeared on dozens of popular finance shows and podcasts. His first job was selling flyswatters door to door and picking up empty pop bottles from the side of the road for the 2-cent deposit (at the age of eight). His last was working as talk show host and magazine publisher. His work has taken him to most U.S. states as well as Canada, Germany and England. He has also travelled widely in his own time. He has been married to his wife, Jane, for 41 years. Pathfinders is his third book.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harriman House; English edition (October 31, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 180409000X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1804090008
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 1.1 x 8.9 inches
#34 in Retirement Planning (Books)
#99 in Budgeting & Money Management (Books)
#110 in Introduction to Investing

About the author

J l collins.

These days, I'm a book author and financial blogger on jlcollinsnh.com, but it wasn’t always so.

I started selling flyswatters door-to-door and picking up empty pop bottles from the side of the road for the 2-cent deposit. Gimme a break. I was eight.

My first real job was scrubbing out big metal ice cream cans. I was 13. It paid $1.25 per hour.

From there: Busboy, dishwasher, order-puller, grocery bagger, stock clerk, produce clerk and gas station pump jockey back in the day when someone pumped your gas, washed your windows and checked your oil (ask your grandparents).

Mail clerk, tree-trimmer, landscaper, ad agency founder, account executive, ad space salesman, investment officer, entrepreneur, consultant, sales trainer, speaker, writer, radio talk show host and magazine publisher. Pretty much in that order although I’ve done some more than once. And I may have forgotten one or two.

My work has taken me to most U.S. states as well as Canada, Germany and England. One of my few regrets is that I’ve never had an international posting.

But I’ve had the good fortune to see a bit of the planet on my own: Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Wales, England, Greece, Crete, Puerto Rico, Tahiti, Venezuela, Curacao, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Paris, India, Kashmir, Goa, Nepal, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Eleuthera, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Barbados, Antigua, Martinique, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Chile, Prague, Guatemala, Galápagos. Pretty much in that order although I’ve visited some more than once. And I may have forgotten one or two.

I’ve traveled by plane, train, bus, boat, subway, taxi, hired car, motorcycle, bicycle, rickshaw, hitch-hiking, foot, horse, donkey and elephant. Not only traveled by elephant, but herded rhinoceroses by elephant back in Nepal.

My degree in English Literature is from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. They still send me alumni letters mostly, I think, hoping I’ve become rich and famous. I’m working on it.

Here’s my favorite cartoon:

The visual is two guys in a corn field, up on racks dressed in shabby clothes. Straw coming out from their shirt cuffs and pant legs. They are serving as scarecrows. One is looking over at the other and saying…

“English Major. How about you?”

A pal of mine once said I had won the family lottery. He is right. My wife Jane and I have been married for 41 years. Our daughter Jessica graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Rhode Island and is well on her own Simple Path to Wealth.

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Ryan's World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure

Ryan is back for his most epic adventure yet. When his twin sisters, Emma and Kate, get sucked into a mystical comic book, Ryan has no choice but to rise up as the great big brother he is an... Read all Ryan is back for his most epic adventure yet. When his twin sisters, Emma and Kate, get sucked into a mystical comic book, Ryan has no choice but to rise up as the great big brother he is and jump in after them. Adventures, battles, and hilarious debacles ensue, as Ryan and his f... Read all Ryan is back for his most epic adventure yet. When his twin sisters, Emma and Kate, get sucked into a mystical comic book, Ryan has no choice but to rise up as the great big brother he is and jump in after them. Adventures, battles, and hilarious debacles ensue, as Ryan and his friends navigate the Titan Universe and bring everyone back home safely before his parents ... Read all

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Ryan Kaji, Dan Rhodes, and Evangeline Lomelino in Ryan's World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure (2024)

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August 16, 2024 (United States)
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Runtime 1 hour 23 minutes