How To Get Reviews For Your Book

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Introduction

How many times have you read through the reviews of a product before buying it? I know I do it all the time, especially if it’s from a brand I am not familiar with. It’s the same with books. Before buying a book from an author I have not read before, I go through the book description and to the reviews. I read what people had said about it and look at the overall grade. All of it helps me to decide if that book is for me or not, and consequently if I should buy it or not.

And that happens with everyone and everything! People do not want to waste their time and money buying something that is not for them, so having reviews on your book is very important. If they are good reviews, even better!

People want to know what others thought about it, even if they end up thinking differently. As a rule of thumb, if something has a lot of good reviews, the likelihood of it generating more conversions is pretty high.

Ask For It

A great way to get reviews is to promote your pre-release book on Goodreads (check their Author Program) or on a similar platform, like Library Thing or BookBub, and ask people for their takes on it. Readers are eager to share their opinions about the book, and most Goodreads reviews tend to be very detailed and helpful.

You can also use Amazon’s Top Customer Reviews List to find customers who would be willing to review your book. The best way to do that is to approach them and offer a free copy (or free excerpt) of your book and politely ask for their review. Most people are eager to share their opinion, you just have to ask for it.

If you can, try to find reviewers who are more familiarized with the genre you write. A great resource for this is Book Reviewer Yellow Pages, The Indie Review, The Book Bag, and The Book Blogger List.

Contact Other Authors or Go Offline

Ask other authors to review your book. Most of them are willing to share their opinion and help a fellow writer, and they add the credibility of being a professional in the field.

In addition, go offline. Reach out to newspapers and magazines, organizations, local bookstores, and more. Promoting your book online is very important but a lot of time we take for granted that there is still a whole world outside the virtual one.

Going offline can be especially important if your niche audience is from a specific demographic group. Not everyone is tech-savvy, has access to the Internet on a daily basis, or is interested in going online, so if this is the case for your target readers, your offline promotion plan is even more important than your online one.

Sign Up For As Many Platforms As Possible

Start by signing up to the major book platforms, such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Both have a “special section” for professional reviewers, so you can take advantage of that plus get readers’ reviews.

Join all the platforms mentioned in the first part of this blog, plus do research on how other platforms can help you get reviews. A not-so-obvious platform that you could be using is Reddit. Inside it, you can join various conversations, share your work and opinions, and direct people to places where they can leave a review. Some nice starting points in Reddit are this community for writers and this discussion board.

Of course, take advantage of social media to drive people to a place where they can leave reviews. Go outside the box and find LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups for book reviews. Join them and start networking with people. Comment on other people’s posts, leave reviews of your own, and politely ask for feedback.

Note: when you are asking for reviews, give people more than one platform as an option, but be careful with spreading out your reviews between too many different places.

A good way to concentrate your reviews in one place is to link them to your website or blog. You can have the reviews in there with their original link, so when someone clicks on it, it will redirect him or her to the original place where the person left the review. Don’t forget that you can also encourage people to leave a comment or review directly on your website or blog.

List of Free Resources

• Goodreads Author Program

• BookBub

• Amazon’s Top Customer Reviews

• Barnes and Noble

• Reddit

• Social Media

• Facebook and LinkedIn Groups

• Indie Reader

• Self-Publishing Review

• Midwest Book Review

• Book Reviewer Yellow Pages

• LibraryThing

• Compulsive Reader

• Rain Taxi

• Book Life

• American Book Review

• Some blogs

• The Rumpus

• The New York Review

• The Los Angeles Review of Books

• Reader’s Favorite

• The Indie Review

• The Book Bag

• The Book Blogger List