The Importance of Amazon Customer Reviews
Book reviews, in particular Amazon Reviews, have a tremendous impact on how your book is perceived. A study last year revealed over 88% of online shoppers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations. Any online item with numerous positive reviews conveys an impactful message of the legitimacy of the item. Conversely, books, or any other online item, without reviews puts potential prospects in a state of distrust. Quite simply, more reviews look more convincing.
At Publisher Services we are enormous proponents of legitimate unbiased book reviews. In fact we started YourFirstReview.com 5 years ago com to help self-publishers obtain an authentic book reviews and also provide basic editorial direction. It is common for self-publishers to discount the role of an editor and the YourFirstReview.com service helps enlighten areas which can be improved. Ultimately, in order for you book to garnish positive reviews it needs to be ready for prime time.
Once ready for the Amazon marketplace, you should make an effort to reach out to Amazon’s top reviewers. There are individuals, who are rock star reviewers and whose positive review can be a game changer for a new book. Please visit https://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers to see the complete listing of Top Reviewers. As you will notice, this list is massive and also has a tab for the “Hall of Fame Reviewers. Some of these individuals make a living providing reviews and write as many as 80 a month. Many new authors spend time researching top reviewers within their genre and reach out to those whom those they would like to submit. This can be a very time consuming process, but the return of receiving five star reviews from a top reviewers might be worth it.
Look to Your Readers
Successful self-publishers look to build their communities and have connection with their readers. One extremely simple tactic is adding your contact information at the end of your book. Let readers know how important their feedback is to you and the value of their positive reviews. Goodreads did a study and found that 90% of all readers want to engage with an author at the end of a book. This is the PERFECT opportunity to ask for their assistance.
