The recent trends for book reviews have shifted ever since the digital age began.  At one point, book reviews were done by respectable sources and editors, but customer reviews have somewhat tainted the nature of reviewing books.  Customer reviews have become popular due to online retailers like Amazon who pioneered the user generated review revolution.  User reviews have their place in the marketplace by giving people an insight on a purchase they may be unsure of.  Sometimes people put more weight on a customer reviews because it may come across as a more honest review.  Reviews can be the tipping point for purchases and there are trends that artificially inflate and deflate the value of a book.

While the right meta descriptions, book category, and meta tags help your book become visible, retailers like Amazon have some other systems in place where the amount of downloads, clicks, and positive reviews help boost the visibility their store. Due to this system, some authors that want to boost their rankings create fake 5-star reviews (a portion of the Amazon algorithm) with pseudonyms.  Fake reviews can help authors market their books on these platforms with minimal consequences, but the legitimacy of the author’s reputation becomes suspect making the process somewhat counterproductive.  On the opposite spectrum, spiteful people will give 1-star reviews to lower the book’s appeal.  These reviewers typically do this simply to annoy or upset authors.  User generated reviews are flooding these websites, and is not giving your books an accurate representation to your readers.  Book reviews from your customers are good, and we would not want to discount their importance.  Unfortunately, there are some cracks in the system that still needs fixing.

Book Reviews

Amazon is trying to rectify these issues, but at this point Amazon only removes reviews by “Intimates”.  Intimate reviews, are reviews done by family members, friends, and significant others that have a positive bias which may not give an accurate representation of your work.  Take a step back, and figure out if the reviews that you have for your book are legitimate because reviews are one of the building blocks for a successful book release.  If you believe you may need to polish up the reliability of your book, a respected reviewer will get you there.

Getting a Legitimate Review

                Finding yourself a reviewing company to review your book will be extremely beneficial for your book’s future.  Regardless if the reviewing company gives you a positive or negative review, you’ll be able to decide to publish the review since you’ll be paying for the reviewing service.  You can also choose to send your book for review to different reviewers free of charge, but in this case, the reviewer has the right to publish the review regardless if it shows your book in a negative light.  Consider the benefits and drawbacks of the two options as see which path is best for your book.  Another aspect to consider is to find a reviewer that has relevant insight on your book genre or topic.  In this case, you’ll be able to get the most accurate review from your reviewer.  A legitimate review is weighed more on the different distribution channels  because they will count as “Editorial Reviews” .

Some of the different Review companies are as follows (remember to pick a reviewer that relates to your book):

If you can’t afford to pay for a book review at this point in time, there are many things you can do, such as:

  • Look for book reviewers on social media platforms like LinkedIn, and get in contact with them.
  • Use Wattpadd
  • Give your books away to different people in your circle that would not be considered as an intimate for review
  • https://readersfavorite.com/book-reviews.htm

You may come across some time management hurdles.  Read our blog about Time Management to get some tips to help you manage your time more efficiently as a writer.