Getting Review that will Sell Books

Reviewss are the bread and butter of a successful marketing campaign.

Think back to 2020 during the pandemic. The Popeye’s chicken sandwich blew up. It was all anyone could talk about for weeks on it. Why is that?

Because of the power of word of mouth.

It doesn’t matter when or how you publish your book, getting reviews is what is going to sell your book. Let’s break down some strategies you can use to accomplish this  task.

1. Leveraging your Network

As an author and business owner, you have a wide network of people who support you. One of the most important things you should learn how to do is leverage those individuals.

Friends and family can make terrible clients. However, they can make great reviewers.Start off by choosing 3-5 family members who align with your target audience and are willing to support you in marketing.

Give these individuals a copy of your book. I do recommend providing physical copies, but you can also share digital copies. *Ensure that they receive a finalized copy and not one in progress.

Ask these family members to give you:

• A text review (send directly to you)

• A public review (Amazon, Goodreads, etc.)

• A website review (if you sell through your site)

• A social. Media review (picture and/or video)

Let your reviewer know that the same review can be used for all platforms. This will allow you to leverage your network to get more sales. You may need to offer incentives, but use this according to your discretion. You’ll find that your network is more than willing to help you by providing organic reviews.

Remember, these are humans who have their own lives. Reach out to them organically over a course of 3 weeks asking for the review. If after 3 weeks and/or 3 attempts (whichever comes first), count that review as a loss. Stay business minded and not emotionally saturated. Not every gamble is a win. That doesn’t make this a bad strategy or them a terrible person.

Go back to your list of potentials and choose another person.

2. ARC Reviews

An ARC reviewer is someone who recieves an Advanced Reader Copy of your book for the intent of providing a review. For this, depending on your method, you can send a digital file or a physical copy of your book. Remember to send a finalized copy.

Techianlly, your network can be considered an ARC reviewer. I wanted to separate these two because there are professional avenues in the industry for ARCs.

The main thing you should focus on when sourcing professional ARCs is email capture.

Emailing is going to be how you build a relationship with your ARC team and ensure the receipt of your review.

There are some amazing platforms that support authors in building that email list, sending secure book files, and collecting reviews. One of these platforms may cost your #10 a month, but will also take a lot of the hassle of finding people, collecting emails, distributing books, and collecting reviews off of your hand. Check out the blog post Beta Readers VS. ARC Readers to learn more about the programs we recommend.

If you don’t want to invest that money, leverage your social media pages by discussing your book and inviting people to join your ARC team. Make sure you have a way to easily and securely gather individual’s information (shipping addresses for physical books). You’ll need to  develop a way to securely send you book as well as have an email marketing system to keep up with your team as they read and review.

As always, keep a 3-3-3 rule. Three weeks to read, three weeks of contacting, and three attempts to receive reviews.

3. Social Media In\fluencers

There are social media accounts that are dedicated to discussing an dpromtong books. Many of these accounts accept requests to review a book.

Here’s the catch, you may have to pay for the review.

Booktok, Booktube, and Bookstagram are great places to have your book featured by content makers. You’ll notice that these creators have physical bookshelves, so you’ll need to be read to send them a physical copy of your book title.

Before accepting or sending a request to review a book, look into their audience. Here’s a few things you’ll want to consider.

• Do they have a following? (Check out the engagement on their posts. Likes, comments, and shares. Are those bots or real people?)

• Do their followers resemble your target audience? (Is their audience college students while your audience is mothers in their 30s?)

• Do they read and review your kind of book? (Do they only read romance while you’ve written a horror story?)

• Do they accept requests to review books? (Some may only be talking about books they’ve picked up.)

• Does their account do spam post that all look the same?

• Are the CTAs a call for their audience to purchase the book or just to boost their own engagement?

There are pages dedicated to book promotion that don’t ac tally help boost sales. A close examination of these things will help you to find influencers that are a good partner for you to connect with.

Make sure you put a social media kit together for them that includes:

• A 3D mockup of your book

• A graphic ad

• A short book blurb

• A link to purchase (release date if not yet out)

• Your social links

The influencer may not use everything, but support them in getting your book out by providing it. A relationship with a high quality influencer can be a great asset in your business. Don’t forget the 3-3-3 rule, especially for those influencers.

4. Notable Authors

Have you ever been to a concert?

All artists have an opening act. Some unknown performer is given room to gain notoriety by performing for a bigger name.

You can gain notoriety as an author by connecting with popular authors the share a target audience.

Now, this is by far one of the more difficult ways to get a review and the one I suggest doing the least. Why is that?

• You likely don’t know any best selling authors.

• The authors you do know are likely not doing well enough to help with sales.

There is a culture of authors helping authors in this community, which is so important. However, that doesn’t make getting a review from another author a game changers for your sales.

Now, a caveat. You’ll likely find authors who will trade a review for a review. You can leverage this as you would a review from your network.

5. Kirkus Review

This option is the most expensive of all, but can also be the most porifable.

Kirkus Reviews is a renown paid review service that will put your book in the hand of notable people. This could be an editor for the NYT, a movie producer, a university dean, a doctor of doctors, or a government official. The options are endless.

A Kirkus review has the potential to put your book in the sights of bigwigs who can skyrocket the credibility of your work. You can not control who sees your book. It will be 1 individual in the Kirkus database that aligns with your book’s content.

We recommend looking into a Kirkus Review for your golden piece. That book that you feel can change the industry and do well on a movie screen. A Kirkus Review is a huge investment, and likely not something you will/can invest in for every title.

However! A Kirkus review can help launch your book hot and heavy into the public eye.

It doesn’t matter how you go about gaining a review, what will matter is how you leverage the review. Paying for a review does not guarantee a positive review. Negative reviews can be just an impact for growing your sales and positive reviews.

You ever seen a car wreck? You ever seen people milling around the wreck just looking?

Exactly. The negative can draw attention even more than the positive. You just need to know how to leverage it. Turn every review into social media content that you use to draw more buyers. Every sentence can be a piece of content for the business owner determined to grow their revenue.