Here are 6 ways you can get those reviews. No more excuses for those blank Amazon pages:
1) Professional Reviews
These can be paid or not and have all kinds of prestige levels.
For example a Kirkus review is considered very prestigious but it will cost you between $425 and $575 and you’ll have to wait between 4 to 9 weeks.
Readers’ Favorite offers you a badge you can use if you get a 5 star review and they offer both free reviews and paid express packages. So it will cost you between $0 to $199 and it will take between a few days to a few months.
2) Review Swaps
Authors often swap reviews. I’ve done it a couple of times but there is always one problem: what if they give you 5 stars and you only want to give them 3? It could also be the other way around. These are a little bit tricky but if you want to try it out join any Facebook group for authors and try connecting with people one by one. I think it works best with authors writing in the same genre!
3) Blog Tours
These are very popular. You pay an administration fee to a company, which organizes a blog tour for you and your book and as a result you will get some reviews. I’ve done two with two different companies and my results varied. One of them delivered all the posts and reviews (but I paid $400!) whereas the other one (which seemed better organized and had a better website) did not. You have to organize these in advance, prepare guest posts and interviews, so it’s a lot of work but you will get some reviews (depending on how many blog stops you pay for!).
4) Connecting with Bloggers 1 by 1
If you want to bypass the administration fees you can try contacting bloggers by yourself. Google a competitor’s book “+review” or “+blog tour” and you will then get a list of bloggers who featured it. You can then try contacting them one by one. Many of them will ignore you but some will reply and post reviews. It’s a numbers game. The more people you contact, the more reviews you’ll get.
5) Amazon Top Reviewers
How cool is it to get reviewed by an Amazon top reviewer? Did you know that they actually compete with one another to review more books and get more likes for their reviews? Go to the Amazon top 100 reviewers page, look for the reviewers who review your genre and ask them to review your book. Mind your manners. Often once you’ve established a relationship with such a reviewer they will be there for you for all your future book launches.
6) Hacking Goodreads for Reviews (My Favorite)
This is the least utilized and the most effective method. I’ve spent countless hours on Goodreads trying to figure out how to use it to build my readership and I finally cracked the code. I now know exactly what to do on Goodreads to get a review avalanche and to build my list at the same time. It’s all here.
Click here to learn how to hack Goodreads and get lot of reviews for your book with just 15 minutes required of you every day.
