The Big Cinch, by Kathy L. Brown, is a supernatural noir mystery brought to you by Montag Press. Pre-Order today. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions. . .
Click here to Pre-ORDER The Big Cinch
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m promoting a new book these days. Click here to Pre-ORDER The Big Cinch. A big part of that job is trolling for Amazon book reviews. Many people have all sorts of issues with Amazon book reviews. Since my readers’ barriers to writing reviews become my book’s barriers to success, I thought I put together some information to make reviews less painful for everyone. This blog will focus on Amazon reader reviews. (I’ve written elsewhere about non-Amazon ways to support your favorite indie authors.)
Why is a Reader Review so Important to Indie Authors and Publishers?
We are, indeed, insecure and needy souls, but the actual reason all the authors you follow on Twitter incessantly beg for reviews is that reviews are free book promotion. Reader reviews are the word-of-mouth buzz in our virtual town square. At around twenty-five posted Amazon reviews, the website’s algorithm swings into promotion mode and features those “popular” books more prominently to its millions of book shoppers. Interestingly, these need not be long, glowing, or five-star reviews. I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say Amazon is the largest book vendor in the world and most everyone with a book to sells feels the need to get in the game.
Who Can Write an Amazon Reader Review?
Amazon has many rules for reviews, and not just for books. The reviews are powerful market influencers, and the company continues the losing battle to protect their integrity. (Unfortunately, we hear all-to-many stories of tiny vendors getting stomped in the process.)
Only Amazon customers can review products. This blog is about book reviews, but the rule applies to any product. “Customer” means a person: 1) with an Amazon account, 2) who has spent at least $50 at Amazon in the past year. You don’t have to purchase the reviewed item from Amazon, but if you do, your review gets extra love in the form of a “Verified Purchase” checkmark. This may or may not affect various behind-the-scenes calculations.
Of course, the book author and publisher can’t leave reviews on Amazon. And the Amazon account that was used to put the book up for sale cannot be used to leave reviews.
What Can Be in the Amazon Reader Review?
Your reader review should be on topic and respectful. Remember, it is there for the book shopper’s benefit (not the author’s or publisher’s). Thus, provide genuine feedback. No swear words or inappropriate content for a general audience of Amazon online shoppers. No links to some other website.
My own bias is that book reviews are a different animal than product reviews for frying pans or soap. I assumed books should be evaluated and rated as a piece of literature and part of the universe of all stories every told and all books ever published. This is not true, at least on Amazon. The book is a product, and the system is set up for it to be evaluated as a product. The most important question is, “Did it met your expectation?” So, compare the book to the blurbs and story summary. And bear that potential buyer in mind. Who do you think would like the book? Who would hate it? Why?
Giving away copies of books is a time-honored publishing practice. These are called Advanced Reader (or Review) Copies. (ARCs). If they aren’t given in a transactional manner (a review as required payment to receive the free book), this practice doesn’t violate Amazon standards. Many reviewers of ARCs make a statement in their review about the free copy. Amazon standards request an author’s relatives to disclose that relationship in the review.
How Do I Post a Review?
If you read an e-book on Kindle, it will take you automatically to the review feature and urge you to rate the book and write a review. Posting from the Amazon website is trickier.
Finding The Review Form
To post a review from the Amazon website, you must be logged into your Amazon account and find the book you want to write about. (You’ll need to search via the author’s name and/or the book title if you don’t have a link.) At the top of the book’s product page, under the title of the book, will be its current star rating. Clicking on this hyperlink text will take you to the Customer Review section, where you will find all previously posted reviews and the star ratings chart. You will see a Review This Product section and a button labeled, “Write A Customer Review.”
Clicking on the review button opens a form on which to write a review. If your account isn’t eligible to post reviews, you’ll get a message “We apologize but Amazon is not accepting reviews on this product from this account.”
Writing Your Review
Your review need only be a few sentences. Make sure you’ve looked over the page carefully and hit the submit button. You’ll see a dialogue box thanking you for the review. If you don’t see this message, you haven’t finalized the review form.
It will not post immediately, but after a day or two, you’ll get an email message saying it was approved and posted. Sometimes the review is not approved and posted. In my own experience that has been due to my error—not completing the form and submitting correctly. Or some random glitch happened, and the submission worked fine when I redid it. But there are other ways for the process to go wrong, and the process isn’t nearly as transparent as the Community Guidelines would suggest. You’re a true fan if you double check that your review was posted (and stayed posted).
I’d love to hear about your own experience, good or bad, with the Amazon review process. Click the blog title and a dialogue box will open at the end of the post for your comments.
If you’re stoked to review my new novel or another indie/small press book, you might like to also read about the importance of reviews and my protocol for giving online reviews.
Click here to Pre-ORDER The Big Cinch
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And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
Reviews, even a line or two, put the books you enjoyed in a more prominent position on Amazon and are vital for independent and small-press books to find their audience. Remember your most recent read? Leave a review for it on Amazon or Goodreads today.
Subscribe to the monthly newsletter for exclusive content. And, of course, I’m selling books. Check out all my stories at Amazon.com or visit my Shop off the landing page menu to buy from Barnes & Noble. Wolfhearted is also available as an Audible audiobook, here.
If you’ve enjoyed one of my books, tell the world! Consider leaving a short review at Audible, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads. The direct link to review Wolfhearted on Amazon is here, The Resurrectionist, here , and Water of Life, here. Thanks in advance.
St. Louis Writers Guild published Love Letters to St. Louis last winter. This adorable letter-shaped volume of short stories, poems, essays, and illustrations included my first science fiction story, “Welcome to Earthport Prime: A Self-Guided Tour.” A perfect gift and profits benefit the guild’s young writers’ program.