How To Get Book Reviews Without Spending (Too Much) Money
By Joanna Penn*
I believe that book reviews are critical for sales. They are up there with writing a great book and using pro editors and cover designers.
If you can get great reviews, you will make sales and they definitely impact the Amazon algorithms. I also believe in writing reviews for books I like – a little review karma comes in handy! In today’s guest post, short story author Ken Brosky shares his tips for places to get reviews.
There’s no better way to generate buzz for your books than to get some positive reviews. Heck, even negative reviews can generate some buzz! But how do you go about getting those reviews, and what should you pay?
Is it worth paying for reviews?
That all depends on your goals. While there are some major book review services that provide reviews at a fee (Kirkus and Foreword are the most popular), that fee might be out of your price range. Are you willing to spend $400 to get a book review from one of the biggest and most respected book reviewers in the business? Keep in mind it’s not necessarily a good review, either. It’s an honest review of your work, and it’s coming from tough reviewers.
More importantly, there might not be any benefit to this. Book sales probably won’t magically increase after a review by Kirkus or Foreword is published. What you can do is show other people the review to convince them to buy your book, which can be important. “Here,” you can say, “look. Someone thinks the book is good! So buy a copy why don’t you?”
*Joanna Penn is an author, blogger, speaker and business consultant based in London, England. Visit her webpage to find out more.
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