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Is your seatbelt on? If it�s not, then put it on because your about to in for a wild
wild ride. In today�s video, I�m going to discuss getting reviews for your self-published
book. What are they? Why are they important? And how to get them.
All of this coming up next.
(Intro Music)
Hi I�m Nigel author, self-publisher, and founder of The Simple Publishing University.
The place where we make self-publishing your books simple. For weekly tips and tricks on
how to write and self-publish your book, make sure to smash that subscribe button right
now down that way you don�t miss out on any of my future videos. Also make sure to
smash that bell icon that way you�ll get notified each and every single time one of
our new videos releases.
One common topic amongst the self-publishing community is getting reviews for your book,
particularly on Amazon. Well what exactly is a review? A review is simply a report or
evaluation by other people of your product, and in this case we�re talking about your
self-published book.
Now why are they so important?
The two main reasons are: That they provide Social Proof and that they
can help to assist your book in the Amazon algorithm.
What is social proof and why is it so important?
Social Proof is what I like to call the monkey see, monkey do phenomenon. That�s quite
literally what it is.
See Our human nature is to assume that when other people have shown approval for something
that it�s automatically good. And vice versa.
So therefore, when a book has a ton of positive reviews listed underneath it. Most people
will automatically assume and think to themselves: �Hmm if all those people think that this
book is good it must be good�
And this in a nutshell is exactly why we need reviews for our self-published books. It gives
your book a stamp of approval in the eyes of the readers that are on the fence about
purchasing your eBook.
The more positive reviews you have the better. Let me also point out that the same holds
true the other way around. Negative reviews can deter potential buyers. But this can all
be avoided by creating a dynamite product that is undeniably phenomenal. But for those
of you that watch this channel or invest in my course, you won�t have worry about that,
right?.
Moving on, let�s get into the second reason why reviews are so important and then I�ll
get into the real juicy stuff. The second reason why getting reviews for your self-published
book is so important is because of the Amazon boost your book will get. Now before I get
too heavily in to this topic let me point out that nobody knows the Amazon algorithm
100 percent.
Reviews may or may not impact whether or not your book ranks on the first page of Amazon,
but one things for sure getting reviews for your eBook certainly does not hurt. And one
thing that I�ve noticed is that a majority of the books that are on the first page of
Amazon tend to have reviews.
Now Notice that I said, HAVE reviews. I didn�t say thousands, I said HAVE them. One thing
that I�ve learned through experience, is that getting reviews for your book does not
mean everything. You don�t need a lot. You just need some. Good ones of course. But reviews
certainly matter to Amazon.
The fact that they dropped 150 million dollars on purchasing GoodReads shows that they at
least care.
So do yourself a favor and follow the tips that I give you later in this video to get
some reviews for your self-published book. Let me show you what the two different types
of reviews are. Before I dive in to how to get reviews for your book, this is something
that�s going to be very relevant with the topics I am going to share with you later
in this video.
There are two kinds of reviews. Verified Reviews and Unverified Reviews
The differentiation is showed on Amazon as you can see here. See where it says verified
purchases. Well these are your verified reviews. Reviews that don�t have this stamp are called
unverified reviews. Now what�s the difference?
A verified review aka a verified purchase is simply a someone that purchased your book
and that downloaded the book. An unverified review is simply a review that has been left
by someone that did not actually purchase or download the book. Well from Amazon at
least.
You may be asking, why does Amazon do this? The reason is because Amazon wants to give
people who you have gifted your book to for free the opportunity to leave a review for
your book. Maybe you sent someone a paperback copy of your book for free. Well, this let�s
that person leave a review for your book.
This is important for the information that I am going to cover later in the video. Nonetheless,
this sums up the two different types of reviews in a nutshell. Let�s get into the fun part.
How to get reviews for your self-published book on Amazon.
Before we get started it�s worth mentioning that this video covers strategies that show
you how to get reviews for your book that comply with the Amazon Terms of Service. Many
people try to take shortcuts unfortunately and try to do things such as paying or incentivizing
someone to leave a review for their book which is 100% illegal on the Amazon�s platform.
As I am currently recording this video here is Amazon�s review policy.
As you can see hiring someone to leave a review for a book or to exchange reviews with other
authors is prohibited. It is also prohibited to ask for biased feedback. You are allowed
however to ask for feedback within your book, just as long as you are not saying: �hey
can you please leave me a positive review?!�
Many new self-publishers want a ton of reviews from the outset. But I can�t emphasize enough
how important it is to have a long term mindset when it comes to your self-publishing business.
Although, you may not get a ton of book reviews on day one. I am going to show you a system
that is going to consistently drop new reviews in to your arsenal on a regular basis. You
want your self-published book to continue gathering reviews for years to come, not just
for one day.
I don�t want you to get your account banned for life and I know you certainly don�t
want that either. With that being said how do you get reviews for your self-published
Amazon book?
NUMBER ONE
Include a Call to Action.
This is perfectly legal to do and it is a great way to get reviews. You see, as people,
leaving reviews for products is not something that we naturally do. In fact, what you will
eventually come to realize is that the only people that take time out their busy days
to leave a review for a product is somebody that really wants to leave a negative review.
The funny thing is, most people who have a postive experience with a product tend to
just move on with their lives.
But It�s the people who have intense negative emotions that usually want to leave a negative
review for your book. This is why it�s your job to remind the reader to leave an HONEST
review. Keyword reminder.
Give your readers that kick in the butt that makes them think: �oh wow, yeah I really
did enjoy that book let me leave a review real quick.� Here�s a real life example
of this.
I recently went to Bali, Indonesia for vacation with my wife. I went to a beautiful beautiful
resort in the middle of the jungle and my experience was immaculate. The service was
awesome, the food delicious, and the staff made us feel right at home. Needless to say,
they knew that we were having a positive experience and weren�t shy to ask us to leave a review
about that experience on trip adviser.
And boy were they persistent, it worked! I probably would have never left a review otherwise,
although I loved the place to bits. Good thing they reminded me, right?
Here�s another good story. I�m a member at LA Fitness, which is a popular gym here
in the states. I have a premium membership that allows me to go to any LA Fitness in
the country and one time me and my wife went to one of their gyms and it was unbelievable
dirty.
The paper towels were all gone in the bathrooms, it smelled mortifying, and the place was poorly
kept. Me and my wife were so disgusted that we wanted to share our negative experience
in the form of a review. We didn�t end up doing it, because I just genuinely always
try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
But boy was I ready to leave a negative review once we got inside the car. The moral of these
stories is that people don�t naturally leave positive reviews, you have to give them that
push. Simply thanking your reader and asking them to leave their honest feedback at the
end of your book along with giving them a link to make it easy to leave that review
should suffice.
NUMBER 2:
Sell Your Book For Free.
Who doesn�t like free stuff? Speaking for myself, I love free stuff. Especially high
quality free stuff. That�s why if you want to know one of the fastest ways to get reviews
for your book, it�s to sell it for free. Doing this is simple. If your enrolled in
KDP Select you can sell your book for up to 5 days for free through their notorious free
promotion program. However, if you don�t enroll in KDP Select, you can publish your
books on other retailers such as Kobo or Draft to Digital for free and in most cases Amazon
will price match your book.
This is a great strategy because free books offer a great opportunity to grow your reach,
drive traffic and grow your following quickly, because of the low barrier to entry. Free
books tend to drive a lot of traffic especially if they are good. As most things in life,
if you have more traffic, you increase the likelihood of getting more reviews. It�s
a numbers game.
NUMBER 3:
Have a link to sign up for your email list in the back of your book. This is for more
of a long term approach but it is by far the most powerful tool when it gets going. Why
does this work? Because it allows you to grow and develop a relationship with your readers.
It allows you to follow up with them and ask them for an honest review for your book. And
it allows you to build a list of loyal followers that will buy your future books and leave
reviews for your newer books later. As your list grows this is called a launch team. A
launch team is a long email list of fans that you can send an email to anytime you want
them to buy or leave a review for any of your products. Many of the biggest self-publishers
and authors in the entire world have mammoth launch teams and that�s how they get thousands
and thousands of reviews for their books right when the release.
These are all things that I cover in massive massive detail within The Simple Publishing
Course.
In Summary, getting reviews for your book as a self-published author is definitely an
important skill to master. Although getting reviews does not make or break your self-publishing
career. It certainly doesn�t hurt it. What are your thoughts? Do you have any questions
or comments? Then let�s connect in the comment section down below.
Leave a comment and I�ll answer any question or comment that you have. I love getting to
know my subscribers and hearing your feedback! Also have you subscribed to my channel yet?
Then Make sure to press the subscribe button right now along with the bell icon that way
you don�t miss out on any of my self-publishing tips and tricks videos that will be coming
out in the future. I look forward to getting to know you and helping you write, self-publish,
and launch your book.
I�m Nigel with The Simple Publishing University, and I�ll see you in the next video.
(Outro Music)