The quest for Amazon reviews can present a real catch-22: how do you get people to buy your book if it has no reviews and is low-ranked? How do you get people to review the book if they aren’t buying it?
Are there different kinds of Amazon book reviews?
Before we dive into the ways around this problem, the first thing you need to know about Amazon reviews is that there are two types: verified and unverified.
- When someone just leaves a review without purchasing the book, it’s called an unverified review. It can be difficult to explain an unverified review; after all, how can someone have a qualified opinion about a book they never even read?
- When someone purchases your Kindle book and leaves a review, it’s called a verified review. A verified review counts far more than an unverified review when it comes to Amazon calculating your book’s ranking.
Therefore, you should do everything you can to get people to download your book before they leave a review of it. Asking people to simply log in on Amazon and leave a review of your book will do almost nothing to get your book seen by more potential buyers. If you are going to bother putting any time into book promotion, do it right. Go after the verified reviews. Here’s how to get people to download your Kindle book, leave honest Amazon reviews for you, and boost your book’s ranking.
How can you get people to leave verified book reviews on Amazon?
The easiest, most common way all of these new authors get Amazon reviews is to sit back and wait for people to purchase their book and leave a review of it. As you may have guessed, this is also the least effective method of collecting reviews. With no existing reviews bolstering your new book’s ranking, the chances of people ever buying it, let alone leaving a review, are slim to none.
Instead of the “wait and see” method, I advise new Kindle authors to be proactive and try these three easy promotion methods. Following these steps will provide far better results in the way of ranking and sales numbers for your book – and that means more passive income flowing into your bank account.
Here's 3 easy strategies on how to get Amazon book reviews:
- Your friends and family probably know that you have been working on a new book, and would love to witness the fruits of your labors. So gift your Kindle book to the people who care about your success and ask them to leave Amazon reviews for you. It works a lot like starting any other business: start gathering customers (readers) from your immediate circle, and work your way out from there.
- Give away your book to other people who are likely to be interested in it. Of course, you will also ask them to leave Amazon reviews. With KDP Select, you have the option of doing periodic limited-time free giveaways. When someone searches for the topics and keywords included in your book’s description, your title will show up in the search results as a free download. Don’t be afraid to make your book a freebie for a few days, because it will only serve to increase your reviews and grow your sales in the long term.
- Ask everyone who downloads your book to leave Amazon reviews for you. This does not mean that you have to send an email to every individual person who buys your book. It can be as simple as putting a couple of sentences on the last page of your book, asking readers to leave a quick review on your book’s Amazon page. If you don’t ask, a lot of people won’t ever think of leaving a review. Not everyone who downloads your book will leave a review for you, but you’ll get more reviews if you bother to ask for them.
It’s important to be aggressive with your initial promotions, because getting people to leave Amazon reviews for your book right away will drive more sales. The quicker you can generate buzz about your book, the better chance you have of overtaking your competition and making more sales for weeks or months to come.
How long will it take to start getting Amazon book reviews and making money?
That depends on how much time you invest in promoting your book to the right people, via the right channels. Kindle publishing can be a great way to generate passive income and free up your time to pursue other projects and interests. But right off the bat, you’ll have to put in a good deal of time and effort to get your book off the ground.
The faster you build up those reviews and get people interested in your book, the faster you will start to earn a better royalty percentage and start earning real money. We all start out making pennies from each $.99 download, but the direct deposits get a lot bigger when you’re earning 70% on $10 book sales! The only way to get to that milestone is to sell a lot of books – the faster, the better.
What else can you do for successful Kindle publishing?
From writing a killer book (or having someone write a killer book for you) to designing a compelling Kindle cover (or having someone create a compelling Kindle cover for you), and running a powerful launch and promotion campaign, there are dozens of other steps that lead to big earnings with Kindle. I know firsthand what works and what doesn’t, because I’ve perfected the formula over the course of publishing several books of my own.
If you really want to know what it takes to create passive income, open up your schedule, and pursue the topics and activities that truly interest you, then my Mastering Book Publishing course is the place to start. It features 21 in-depth lessons about the Kindle publishing process from beginning to success.
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