In today’s world, the total reviews count of a title on the various Online Platforms acts as a measure to determine that wheatear the book is being loved by the readers or not. In this world of digitalization, the count of book reviews on the online marketplaces acts a social proof of the author’s popularity. Moreover, whenever an average reader decides to buy a book then one of the things that the reader considers is the reviews of that book. Therefore, a lack of reviews can cause potential readers to move onto another book. Well, it is obvious that the book reviews are highly important, but it can be tough to get those reviews, especially for the new releases in most of the cases!
Now, let us focus over all those vital steps that the authors needs to take in order to get more book reviews –
Ask your Readers in the Back of the Book
The space at the back of your book is valuable. If someone makes it to the back of your book, chances are they liked the book. If people do not like the book, they often quit partway through the book. Therefore, you might as well take advantage of this opportunity to reach out to people who probably liked your book. Let those who finished your book know that reviews are hard to get. Let them know that you would greatly appreciate it if they took just a little bit more of their time to leave you a review. Some readers just do not know how important a review is, or they really are not thinking about reviews at that time. By bringing it up to them at the back of your book, you can increase the chances of getting a review from those who make it to the end.
Ask your Readers via your Mailing List & Social Media profiles
If you have any readers at all on your mailing list or connected to you via social media, then use these avenues to make an appeal to your readers. Let them know that you are struggling to get reviews, and if anyone has read your books, then to please take a moment to review your book. If they follow you on Twitter, if they like you on Facebook, and if they have given their email to you, chances are they like you and like what they have read, so you can get positive reviews!
Ask at least once every couple of weeks via social media. People might not see every post you make, so a simple message asking for a review every so often is not intrusive, but it can really help you to get more reviews for your book. Be sure to celebrate any great reviews on social media and on your mailing list. This will entice other people to want to leave a review in hopes of being recognized by you in such a celebratory manner.
See who has Reviewed Books similar to yours & Approach them
While the first step is a very passive way to ask for reviews, and the second step required only some amount of minimal work on your part, the rest will take a bit of legwork on your part. Well, there is nothing to worry about in this case as you shall be able to get good results, but it does take some effort. If you are struggling to get more reviews, the first thing you should do is go to Amazon and find books that are similar to your book. Open each book in a new tab. Then, scroll to the reviews for those books!
Start opening each reviewers’ profile in a new tab in your browser. Then, one-by-one, look at each profile to see if they have an email or website listed. If they do, add them to a spreadsheet with their name, and whichever contact method they provided. Some may not have any details listed, so just skip them. Go through each reviewer and all of the reviews from as many similar books as you can. Then comes the fun part. One by one, start reaching out to them. Say that you saw they reviewed books in the similar genre, and that you would love to send a copy of your book. Say that you would like to receive a review on Amazon and anywhere else, they publish reviews. Be sure to address them directly (remember, you listed their name in the spreadsheet).
Yes, this takes some hard work, but your success rate will definitely be higher since you are identifying people who want to be contacted (they listed their contact info), and who have read and liked books similar to yours!
Search for Book Reviewers on Twitter
Twitter is a great place to find people with similar interests, in fact, any interests. A great way to find them is to use the Twitter search function. Do a search for “book reviewer”, “review books”, “reviews books”. After you do a search, the Twitter results will show some tweets with those phrases, but if you scroll down a little bit, you will see a “People” section. Click “View All”… then just browse through the list of users, looking for reviewers that review books in your genre. Some have their website listed so you can browse to their website and possibly submit your book there for review. At the very least, you can find contact information so you can reach out to them.
Be creative with the search phrase you use. Try including a high-level genre (nothing too specific) and other words to differentiate your search phrases so that you can find reviewers that others may not be searching for. Twitter can be a valuable resource to find people, so use it to find people who can review your books!
Find Book Review Blogs via the Search Engines
There are countless number of blogs out there that are dedicated to reviewing books. The benefit of such sites is that you not only get the review, but you are also able to expose your book to the blog’s audience as well. To get started, use a search engine such as Google or Bing, and phrase such as “book review blog”, “book reviewer”, “romance book reviews” and other similar phrases.
There are a few things to watch out for and they require some amount of presence of mind from your side. If it seems like they only review mainstream books, then skip them. If they have not posted in a month, then simply skip them. If they do not review books in your genre, then again skip them. If they make it difficult to contact them, or they charge money, then skip them for sure, as you can find plenty that will do it for free. Also, try to find blogs that will cross-post their reviews to Amazon, Goodreads, and other sites to maximize your exposure!
Find Blogs based on the Topics in your Book
Lastly, and probably the best way, to get reviews for your book is to reach out to blogs based on the topics and themes in your books. If your book is nonfiction, then this is definitely much easier to do, but fiction books can do it as well. Fiction Authors can think about the topics and themes discussed in your book. Is your book about an adopted kid? Does your main character love her cat? Think of stuff like this to identify the topics and themes in your story. Then, using the search engines, do some searches for blogs and forums on those topics and themes. You should be able to find quite a few that you can reach out to. You can offer your book for free so they can read it.
This is a win for everyone involved. The blogger gets a free book with a theme they are obviously interested in and so they will blog about the topic. They also get something to write about on their blog, something that his/her readers will love. The readers learn about a book that covers the same topic/theme that they read blogs about. You get a review and probably more sales from it as well. Yes, this method takes the most effort, but it also pays off the best as well. If you were looking to not only get more reviews but to boost the exposure and sales of your book, then I would definitely take the time to do this!