For any product on the dog-eat-dog marketplace of Amazon, positive and negative reviews can make or break your career. As ebooks proliferate across Amazon, this is especially important for authors to remember, as increasing your reviews, especially on Amazon, will help you climb the rankings, make sales and increase your audience for future books! Often, authors spend agonizing days waiting for reviews, and often fantastic literature sits ignored on Amazon because of unfortunate marketing strategies. Great writing is the first step, but in the hectic world of self-publishing, it isn’t enough to make the splash you need.
Luckily, there are loads of hard-hitting strategies for getting reviews for your books. Following these tips will start your netting reviews, getting the ball rolling for Amazon’s success.
1. Place A Call To Action After Your Conclusion
A call to action, or CTA, is the simplest way to turn readers into reviewers. Place it at the end of your book to encourage anyone to get there to log on and leave a review. An upbeat attitude works wonders, try something like “Thanks so much for reading! If you liked it, please think about leaving a review at your favourite location.”
Most avid readers are to some extent keen writers themselves, and people often want to share their thoughts about a book after they’ve finished it. By giving them a little nudge, you’re making sure that those thoughts translate into a valuable review.
If possible, embedding a link to a popular ebook store like OkadaBooks in your CTA will make it easier and faster for your readers to give you a review. It also gives your readers a chance to look at your other books and similar books to yours in one place.
2. Make Your Ebook Free
To be getting reviews, you need to be getting readers. The best way to encourage readers to pick up your title is to make your ebook free. Distribution of an ebook is often negligible in cost, so this doesn’t even have to be a loss leader. Consider offering your ebook free for a limited time to encourage readers. If you’ve written a series of books then offering the first one for free can be a great way to get readers hooked on your tales and will oftentimes lead to increased reviews across the series as a whole. Don’t forget to get your CTA set up before you do this, as those readers need to translate into reviewers!
3. Compile A Mailing List
An essential part of any marketing strategy is the compilation of a mailing list so you can keep your readers up to date. Sharon Smith, a writer at Australia2write and Write My X says “canvassing your mailing list for reviews is an effective way to increase your reviews and rankings as you already know these guys are interested in your work. Setting up automated emails takes some of the labour out of keeping your mailing list going.”
4. Leverage Advance Readers
Building a team of enthusiastic readers to preview your book is a great way to build a buzz before you publish to a wider audience. You can create a team of advance readers by reaching out to your mailing list – often previewing a book is incentive enough for people to be willing to leave a review. But remember, you can’t leverage this for a good review otherwise you’ll contravene Amazon’s Terms of Service – encourage readers to be honest and let your work speak for itself.
5. Reach Out To Book Bloggers
This takes a little more effort but can reap huge rewards. You’ll need to do the research to figure out which bloggers are interested in your genre – there’s no point in sending your hard-boiled thriller out to a reviewer of teen lit if you want a good review. Once you’ve ascertained who might be interested in your book, reach out to them – but remember to figure out the site’s review requirements first otherwise you’ll be shouting into the void.
6. Relaunch Your Book
If you notice sales are flagging, don’t be afraid to relaunch your book. “A relaunch can revitalise interest in your book and generate a whole new batch of reviews,” says Linda Alvares, a lifestyle blogger at Britstudent and NextCoursework. “To ensure your relaunched book has some value added, try adding a chapter to the book, this will help garner extra interest in your book.” It pays to be active, even when you think you’ve got the finished product.
The Amazon marketplace can seem like an inhospitable environment but by staying active you can readily generate reviews for your book that will help sales soar. Follow the tips on this list to build your readership, while you’re working on the best-selling sequel.
About the Author:
Michael Dehoyos is a content marketer and editor at PhdKingdom and Academicbrits. He contributes to numerous sites and publications and is a keen reader in his spare time. Michael’s further writing can be found at OriginWritings.
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