OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
In the last few weeks, there have been scandals about so-called sock puppet reviews, when authors have paid for fake reviews or even created them under false identities. Whatever your thoughts on this type of thing, there's no doubt that having great reviews can help your book sell.
Personally I give away books and ask for reviews if people enjoy them, and I consider reviews to be critical in the sales process online, so I will continue to seek them out (ethically) for my own books. Today, guest blogger Laura Pepper Wu provides a handy guide to getting Amazon's top reviewers to review your book.
We all want more book reviews but until you have a huge readership waiting for organic reviews can be… well, a long wait!
One way to get more high quality, (usually) well-written and highly regarded reviews is to ask the ‘Amazon Top Customer Reviewers' to take a look at your book.
Why target the top Amazon reviewers?
While I've seen some reviewers with 7,000+ reviews, the Top Customer Reviewer award is not only about the number of reviews one person has churned out. At the time of writing, the #1 top customer reviewer on Amazon has only (!) 671 reviews under his belt.
As always, Amazon uses a complex algorithm to determine this ranking – this top spot is also determined by the number of “helpful” votes the reviews have received (our #1 guy has 39,414) and “percentage helpful” (97%).
Since that #1 spot is highly coveted, and quite the achievement, you can be sure that the Amazon top customer reviewers put a lot of thought and energy into their reviews. That’s good news – these are the best and most compelling kind of reviews!
As a result, aiming at the Top Customer Reviewers is a good strategy to curating well-written, meaningful and thorough reviews for your book. Here are some more pros for putting in the time and energy to solicit these:
1. These reviewers have proven themselves to be fast, consistent reviewers who read fast (often a few books a week) and will therefore most likely have a quick turn around
2. They understand what makes a good, helpful review
3. They may also have a book blog/ large social media following or other online presence that can bring you additional exposure
4. An endorsement by one of these guys looks GREAT on your Amazon page. Remember the whole third party validation/ social proof thing from your Economics class? Well this is it exactly! Validation from someone who takes reviewing seriously and is therefore 100% objective. Here's how the review listing will look on your Amazon page:
In fact, according to the results of the recent self publishing survey by Taleist.com, Authors who submitted to popular reviewers on Amazon received 25% more reviews than average and earned 32% more revenue for their latest release. Not necessarily a case of cause and effect but a good sign nonetheless.
With the positive there are some potential downsides, and it's only fair to mention those as well:
– Doing this research, and doing it well, DOES take time and energy. You’ll be led down some dead ends, and some reviewers explicitly state that they don’t like to be pitched.
(But if it was easy, everyone would be doing it right? This is the kind of stuff that gets you ahead of the game!)
and…
– They may well be more critical/ harsh. That's why it's super important to really do the research and only target those who would be interested in your book. Otherwise you're asking for trouble!
How to contact Amazon's Top Reviewers
Here are some step by step instructions on how to contact Amazon's Top Customer Reviewers to offer your book for review:
1. Head over to http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers
2. Click on any name or reviewer profile that takes your fancy!
3. Look at the books she/ he has reviewed in the past (be aware that some of these reviewers will not be book reviewers at all, some may focus solely on electronics, clothes etc)
4. Look at his/her interests for relevant info (if this section is filled out):
5. Look under their profile picture to see if their contact information is public (I have blacked it out for privacy reasons here). Also look to see if there are any common interests or a location that you can mention when contacting them.
6. Send them a short, brief pitch stating:
– How you found them
– Why you think they'll enjoy your book (mention other books they loved or genre preference)
– Offer a free copy of your book
– Thank them for their time, whether they decide to take up your offer or not.
Don't forget these people are busy (as everyone is these days!), and most likely receive hundreds of requests. Keep your pitch short and sweet to make sure it’s read.
7. Aim to contact at least 3-4 times more reviewers than the actual number of reviews you are looking for since some will pass or you won’t hear back from them.
8. Wait for your replies 🙂
High quality and plentiful reviews can go a long way to driving book sales.
It does take time and effort though but the payoff is big.
Have you tried contacting Amazon’s Top Customer Reviewers? Why not share your experience by leaving a comment below.
*** UPDATE: Comments are now closed – Jan 2015 **
Laura Pepper Wu is a writer and the co-founder of 30 Day Books: a book studio and Ladies Who Critique, a critique-partner finding site. She has successfully marketed several books to become Kindle and print best-sellers.
Laura has recently released Authorlicious, a premium WordPress theme for authors including tutorials, so if you want to maximize your blog success, check it out here! (affiliate)
Laura’s latest offering is ‘Fire up Amazon & Leave it on Autopilot!’, a video tutorial course on how to tweak Amazon to it’s full potential. When she's not glued to her laptop you can find her walking her dog, practicing yoga or “testing” out coffee shops in Seattle. Connect with her on http://twitter.com/LauraPepWu and say hi!
Images: Top Bigstock Customer Survey or Review, the rest provided by Laura Pepper Wu
Rachelle Ayala (@AyalaRachelle) says
I’m a top 1000 reviewer under my real name, but removed my website and contact information from my reviewer profile after I got pitched because I feel bad turning people down. I’m more likely to read and review books that catch my interest after being featured on my blog. I think it all has to do with familiarity. If you send an unsolicited manuscript and don’t get to know me, it’s unlikely I’ll remember to pick it up when I look for new reading material.
I used to be a Vine reviewer. Amazon selects them. I actually asked to be removed when I realized the big time sucking hole it had become. It is used by traditional publishers and other vendors of physical items, electronics, health products in addition to books. I could not keep up and each month they’d have a surplus of books that weren’t requested where they’d allow you to pick more. I was overwhelmed.
These days I review mostly indie and self-published books because there’s so many deserving to be read. But I hate “promising” a review and not finding the time to get to it. So I rather pile up free and 99c books that I buy on my own. So many books, so little time!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks so much for commenting Rachelle – it’s great to get a perspective from one of the top reviewers! I can see how you would get pitched a lot and it would get overwhelmed. I get hundreds of pitches to me every week and I am not even an official reviewer! Thanks, Joanna
nicole dunlap says
Great, insightful information. I’m subscribing! Now if I can only find the button on my phone
Ellen M. Gregg says
I went through this process a couple weeks ago on behalf of an author for whom I work. It took several days to sift through the top 1,000 reviewers and find those who 1) read the genre I was seeking reviews for and 2) had contact information. Out of 1,000, I sent 78 requests. Several have responded in the affirmative. I believe it’s worth the time and effort.
Beth Dolgner says
What a great idea! I recently published a new book, and I’ll definitely be trying this method. Thank you!
Elyse Salpeter says
Great article, so I went though to the site, and the first bunch of book reviewers have no contact information on the profile page – is there a different way to contact them? – Elyse
janette says
I am not a top 500 reviewer but I am slowly going up the list. If you want your book reviewed send me an email at the above gmail address and I will explain the process. If I review your book there is no charge, I am totally independent, and it will be published on my site and anywhere else you like, to get you the best exposure. I am trying this month to concentrate on inde writers. have a look at my site and my reviews on Amazon.
janette says
with reference to the last comment, not sure if my email is visible on the comment, anyway it is janettebookreviews@gmail.com and the website is best-book-review.co.uk
Cher'ley says
My problem with giving away books for reviews is that to get enough reviews to really make a difference you have to give away a lot of books and I don’t know that, that’s much better than buying reviews, you are buying them with a free book. This makes it hard for real people, getting real reviews.
Joanna Penn says
Giving away books for review is one of traditional publishing’s biggest marketing tactics so it is nothing new. Reviewers are not going to buy your books after all 🙂 Ideally you want a mix of reviews from people who have given books to as well as people who have found them and reviewed them – but you often won’t get the latter without the former 🙂
janette says
I feel you are never going to get an impartial review if you pay for it. The industry is so full of dishonest reviews that they are becoming devalued, even the new York times reviews seem to be solely for selling books not for helping readers in their choices.
One example of this was last year ‘The Slap’ by Christos Tsiolkas was published with great fanfare and very aggressive marketing, and won literary awards. If you have read the book you will know how badly written and edited it was, but if you have not read it, look at the Amazon reviewers opinions, some of whom thought the board who gave the awards did not even read the book. In my opinion most writers would prefer to have an honest review.
Joanna Penn says
Interesting you say that Janette – as I absolutely loved The Slap and recommend it to so many people as a fantastically brave book tackling difficult themes with some amazing POV characters – here’s my post on it http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2011/01/17/honesty-bravery-writing/
I also left 5 star reviews – so I guess we all just have to understand that not everyone likes the same books 🙂 (for which I am grateful!)
janette says
You are absolutely right we don’t all like the same books, which is a very good thing. I don’t need to like a book or the subject matter to write a review, as I feel confident commenting on the way the book is written, the style, and the appeal it may have to readers. It’s a very interesting subject.
septemberlynngray says
I don’t really think there is anything wrong with it. Traditional publishers do it all the time and always have. Paying for reviews is different because you are buying a positive review. I ask for reviews all the time in exchange for a free copy, but I always tell them I’m looking for an unbiased review. Believe me, an Amazon top reviewer is going to be honest even if the book was free. They take their reputations very seriously.Of course, this is just my opinion and everyone has to promote their own way.
Allen Shadow says
Great advice, but you’re so right about the work — including dead ends — involved. I’ve been doing this for weeks (my novel, “Hell City,” just went live on Kindle), and have received several positive replies on reviews which have yet to be posted.
Phil Bolsta says
This is an excellent strategy, and one I used for my last book, “Sixty Seconds.” I also intend to use it for my new book, “Through God’s Eyes: Finding Peace and Purpose in a Troubled World.” It’s important to note that the most common reason for a bad review is that your book fell short on one or both of two critical elements. If that’s the case, you probably self-published because traditional publishers probably wouldn’t have accepted your manuscript. I wrote a blog post to help other writers. It’s called “Here’s Why Your Book Is Unpublished”: http://bolstablog.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/unpublished/
Phil Bolsta
GodsEyesBook.com
Indie Kindle Blitz says
Joanna, thanks for a great post with great tips. Just wanted to let your readers know that we at Indie Kindle Blitz offer free and honest reviews to indie authors with books for the Kindle. Our review policy is at http://bit.ly/O9jnCY .
Robert of Prague says
Hi Joanna;
Thanks a 10^6th power for the overwhelming amount of info on your URL not to mention many of the commenters. When do you eat/sleep my gracious lady?
I notice that you’re using Smashwords. I looked into them but have 2 main objections. Ad 1) It seems that the conversion process & catalog inclusion are very cumbersome. Ad 2) They have 100s K of authors; I don’t want to be a tiny fish in a huge, crowded pond. On the other hand, I looked into Lulu & Booktango and wasn’t convinced either. On top of it, BT seems like a very small player. I ‘czeched’ out the publisher behind the scenes & they make money by offering quite expensive ‘author services.’ Maybe that’s why BT offers 100 % royalty on e-books.
Could you share why you chose SW and/or any input on Lulu, BT, etc.,?
Tnx also for a German link somewhere on your blog, I looked it up.
Regards,
Robert (at the Foothills of the Rockies)
Joanna Penn says
Hi Robert – thanks for your thanks 🙂 I do sleep! but I don’t have a TV – something’s gotta give right!
I use Smashwords for some books and BookBaby.com for others – when you say you are a tiny fish in a big pond – we all are at Amazon.com which is where we all make sales, so it doesn’t really matter how you get there. Most people don’t make much money directly from Smashwords or BookBaby – they just distribute to the big vendors like B&N, iBookstore etc.
But basically I go direct to Amazon KDP and Kobo Writing Life – you can also go direct to Nook PubIt (B&N – only for US citizens) and then you need Smashwords or BookBaby (or one of the other sites) for the rest.
Smashwords is free but yes, you need a Word doc formatted according to the (easy) specifications and BookBaby takes a number of formats but does charge an upfront amount.
Lulu is often used for print books, but I would recommend Amazon’s own Createspace.
Lots more on independent publishing here: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/selfpublish/
Thanks, Joanna
Robert of Prague says
Hi Joanna;
Thank you for the quick reply & more tips. If you live in the UK, you’re an early riser. 😉
I’ve read the ‘meatgrinder’ ( I shudder by the title) tips & it seemed hard. I’ve been around PCs (mainframes) since 1980 & on-line since 1991. My book is properly formatted in Word. We shall see.
I’m going to try to upload to Amazon today.
I’ve been doing my homework re: file conversion sw btw various formats. I hope this will help you or other readers here. To convert an html file into e-pub or mobi, Calibre is good. Free sw (freeware) btw Word doc & epub is http://www.2epub.com/ A great reader sw w/ tons of features is Azardi: http://azardi.infogridpacific.com/azardi-feature-map.html
Anyone wants to edit an e-book, try Sigil: http://code.google.com/p/sigil/
If you don’t know html code, try Atlantis (free trial for 30 days; 35$) for doc to e-book conversion w/ full features. Sigil & Atlantis will do a great formatting/style job that many of the auto-converters (like the meatgrinder) won’t do. Hope this helps.
Robert of Prague says
I forgot the link to Atlantis; this mountain goat is getting old. Oh well, it’s 3 PM & I didn’t have lunch yet… http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/
Robert of Prague says
Hi Joanna;
You’re happily sleeping while I’m crunching for hours on the Kindle forum current tips how to avoid the html code screw ups by the Kindle converter; I was afraid of that. Lots of smart & cool guys there who wrote pages of tips how to get a great looking book uploaded. I used the sw mentioned on my previous post & looked at my book on Mobi reader, Kindle for PC & Adobe Digital Editions. It looked a bit different in each format. Not too bad but not pro-Q. The cover image & illustrations were small although the originals are in page size. Some headings & line spaces were messed up.
Did you do the html format of your books yourself or used a pro-converting service or a programmer? I am talking especially re: toc & NCX files.
I’m bombed out because I wanted to upload my book today (years in the making) & don’t want to deal w/ Kindle bugs.
Regards,
Robert under the Rockies
Joanna Penn says
Robert, I use Scrivener to format for the Kindle and ePub http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/02/04/scrivener/
It works a treat and I have never had any problems. It’s well worth the switch 🙂
Robert of Prague says
Hi Joanna;
Thanks for the tip. I’ve heard of this sw & ‘czech’ it out. Still tweaking the manuscript.
Good luck in all your endeavors.
Robert in the shadow of the Rockies