5 Proven Ways to Get Book Reviews

Getting a book published is a lot easier, and simpler, than in years past. From idea to publication it can be a matter of weeks, even days.
As in the past, publishing is the easy part. Sure, in the eyes of the author, that may seem far-fetched. Yet, ask any author who has made money from their books and they will likely say the marketing takes more effort.
You see, once the book is written, it’s done. With marketing, it’s an ongoing process. One that must be attended to on a daily basis, if you want to get the best results possible.
The main thing you have to do is generate interest in your book. There are countless ways to generate interest including media releases, email broadcast messages, blog posts and paid advertising. One of the best, and often overlooked by an author, is reader reviews.
Reviews give readers a sense of what the book is about thus increasing sales. Reviews are also excellent social proof that the book is worth reading. Granted, some authors get bogus reviews, but ethical authors do what they can to get “real” reviews.
To give your reviews a lot of weight, avoid paying for them. Actually, your book can be banned from some sites if it is found the reviews have been paid for.
Additionally, avoid the, “I’ll review your book if you review my book” temptation. This is a hard road to travel and Amazon frowns upon this practice.
The surest way to get great reviews is write a quality book.
Although you definitely should not pay for reviews, you can be proactive in your approach. The following will get you moving in the right direction.
1. Your immediate circle of influence including family, friends and business colleagues who would be willing to review your book.
2. Influencers in your industry whose review would make a difference to a potential buyer.
3. Connections, friends and followers on your social networks.
4. Other reviewers. Check out reviews of other books in your genre and contact the reviewers to see if they would be interested in reviewing your book.
5. Members of book clubs. There are lots of book clubs with members eager to review books.
The key is to be proactive about asking people. Once you have a few reviews, other readers will likely leave reviews. One way to encourage readers to review you Kindle book is to add a page at the end of the book requesting their feedback.
Something like, “I appreciate reader feedback and would appreciate a review left on Amazon.” You can add a live link to make the process of them going back to the book page as simple as possible.