Amazon Reader Reviews - Linden Gross

Three words best describe the importance of Amazon reader reviews. You need them. Actually, make that seven words: You need them–more than you know.

For starters, people who are thinking of buying your book, possibly because of the ads you’re running, will check the Amazon reader reviews. Lots of positive reviews equal lots of sales. Few to no reviews equals the opposite.

Even more importantly, the more positive Amazon reader reviews you have, the more people will see your sales page in the first place. Amazon uses an algorithm to help its customers find what they’re searching for and to recommend relevant products (in this case, books) they might like. Along with keywords, categories, and sales rank, book reviews significantly factor into that algorithm.

While you clearly want as many positive reader reviews as you can get, certain benchmarks will goose Amazon’s algorithm. You need a minimum of 15 reviews to start the ball rolling. If you want to consider a price-drop promotion campaign, you need at least 25 book reviews.

That’s why in the long run getting customer reviews as quickly and as early as possible is more important than your immediate sales. Ideally, since verified reviews carry more weight, you’ll want the people leaving reviews to have purchased your book. Since they can buy either the digital or the paperback, cost shouldn’t be an issue, especially if you wind up running a price promotion. On the other hand, you can absolutely give friends, family and associates a copy of your book in return for an honest review.

To drum up Amazon reader reviews:

Email members of your friends and family.
Reach out to colleagues and coworkers.
Talk about your book to connections from any other groups (hobby, sports, volunteering, networking) you’re involved with.

If possible, the emails you send should be—or appear to be—personalized since that will decrease the recipients’ likelihood of ignoring you. Specify that you want reviews from people who read books like yours. It can work against you to have someone who buys totally different books purchase yours since that will confuse Amazon and its artificial intelligence when it comes to marketing your book.

You also will want to make people aware that, contrary to popular opinion, to leave Amazon reader reviews they don’t have to have bought the book on Amazon, but they do have to have spent $50 on Amazon over the prior twelve months.

While the above information is critical, it also doesn’t mean much if you can’t convince those close to you to take action. As it turns out, however, getting your friends and family, let alone your associates, to write reader reviews is way more difficult than it sounds. “It only needs to be a sentence or two,” you tell them encouragingly. Maybe you even provide some ideas for what they could say in the review. And still, they don’t write the reviews. Even those friends or associates who have promised don’t follow through. I’m telling you, I know this from personal experience.

Author and book marketing coach Jonathan Gunson has a suggestion I wish I had known about when I launched my last book Busting the Brass Ceiling. Instead of giving potential reviewers writing prompts to help get them started, write the reviews for them based on what they tell you. “Over 90% of your readers will be perfectly happy to talk about your book,” he says. “So let them do exactly that; let them talk about it while you record or take notes, and then transcribe it for them – as a review…Once typed, send it back to them with an exact link to your book’s Amazon review page so they can upload it. Remind them to check the review to be sure it genuinely portrays their opinion, and edit it for ‘personality’ if they’d like to.”

That’s as easy as it is brilliant! If the person you’re talking to needs help getting started, you can ask them about: