Can Reader Reviews Be Posted on Amazon Prior to Pub Date
We all know that reviews sell stuff. After all, when'due south the last time you took a chance on buying something online, sight unseen, without checking the reviews? You want to know what other people who've already bought it think so that you tin exist sure yous're making the correct choice.
That'due south chosen social proof—when seeing that other people similar something encourages you to try it yourself. And social proof isn't just useful when buying a phone or a new pair of shoes. Information technology sells books, too!
Just reviews can feel like a chicken-and-egg state of affairs sometimes. You need reviews to sell books…just you demand people to purchase your book in order to read and review it!
What'due south a new author to do?
Go reviews before the volume fifty-fifty comes out, of course!
You can get reviews even before your book launches—and doing and then can assist you lot launch your volume higher, faster, because that social proof helps to snowball your exposure and your sales.
Let's have a look at a few means to start getting reviews to flood in earlier your volume launches!
Pre-Launch Groundwork
Before attempting any of the post-obit strategies, yous demand to lay a little groundwork. After all, it's hard for people to review your book publicly if you don't take a public profile for it! While volume bloggers can review your book without leaving a formal review on Amazon or Goodreads, not having a presence on those sites seriously limits your pre-launch potential.
So the commencement thing you lot need to do when planning your pre-launch strategy is to make sure your volume is visible on Goodreads and Amazon. You can easily add a book on Goodreads by searching for the book, then clicking the "Manually Add Volume" link and inbound the appropriate data on that folio .
You can also get your book listed on Amazon before its launch by setting it as available for preorder when you lot upload it to KDP. By doing this, people will be able to review your book even earlier it'due south technically available for sale—and yous can encourage people to preorder, upping your sales for the starting time week (which tin heave you to bestseller status!).
Email Giveaways
The fastest and easiest manner to start getting reviews before you launch is to brand employ of your existing network. One of the all-time marketing strategies anyone tin apply is building an email list—a network of interested, engaged people who want to hear from you is priceless!
Running a pre-launch email giveaway for your book is a simple style to become feedback and early reviews. In one case your book is listed on Amazon and Goodreads, ship out an email to let your followers know that you're set to launch your latest title and offering them a free download of the volume in exchange for an honest review.
Many will have you upward on the offer, and since these folks already know, follow, and probably really similar y'all, this first round of reviews is pretty much guaranteed to be positive, laying a great foundation for getting the social proof rolling.
Goodreads Giveaways
To build on your electronic mail review success, head on over to Goodreads and set up a giveaway in that location.
Print giveaways on Goodreads are free, except for the cost of the print books. And those can be ordered earlier you really launch for a reasonably low cost—most print-on-demand services similar Ingram Spark and CreateSpace allow you to club "proof copies" before you actually click "publish," which you tin use as early giveaway copies. Alternatively, you can upload your book to Lulu and marker it as "individual" so that it doesn't get on auction in the Lulu shop, then lodge copies for giveaways.
One time y'all have your print books, creating a giveaway on Goodreads is super-simple. On the main page, become to Browse > Giveaways, then click on "Listing a Giveaway" in the actions column at right. On the Giveaway page, enter your book'southward information, including a description, genre categories, and the number of copies you plan to give away and where yous'll ship them to (be sure to check aircraft costs before determining this, as mailing a book can be expensive).
In a day or 2, Goodreads staff volition send yous an email letting you know your giveaway is live!
From there, a lot of the work is off your plate. Goodreads users can stumble upon your giveaway from the main giveaways folio or by searching for a detail genre, then click to enter (and add your volume to their shelf, giving you plenty of exposure to their audience if they've connected their social networks to the site!).
When the giveaway period ends, Goodreads automatically chooses the winner(s) and sends you a spreadsheet of the winners and their addresses. All you need to exercise is ship out the books, forth with a note requesting an honest review on Goodreads and/or Amazon.
(Of course, this is besides a great opportunity to promote any other books you've written and encourage the winners to join your email list…never pass upwards a cross-promotion moment!)
If yous don't take a print copy, you can all the same use Goodreads to become pre-launch reviews, but it'll cost more the free print book giveaways. Using the Kindle Giveaway Programme for $119, you tin offer up to 100 free Kindle copies for readers. It's a lilliputian more expensive than just sending out print copies, but information technology'southward a keen investment to build fizz before your launch!
Advance Distribution Sites
If you have a little money to invest, using an advance distribution site tin besides assistance you lot build pre-launch fizz through reviews. These sites assistance authors send out copies of their books earlier they're available for purchase while building a larger following and reaching readers who aren't already role of their network.
Story Cartel lets authors create individual launch pages for their books, which you tin upload as a PDF and/or ePub. Interested readers tin can download the book for free and are automatically reminded a few times to get out a review after they've read information technology. The site promotes acme books in its e-mail blasts to registered users, meaning that you'll likely exist discovered by readers who have never heard of you before! You'll also get access to the list of readers who downloaded the book, and so you can follow upwardly and hopefully add them to your list for futurity releases.
It's inexpensive to list a book on Story Cartel—simply $25 per launch.
Instafreebie is another good selection for accelerate distribution and review requests. If you're simply looking for a way to distribute early copies of your book and reach new potential fans, it'southward gratuitous! Simply create an writer page and upload your volume and Instafreebie will aid yous with distribution to go pre-launch reviews.
Merely for $20–50 per month, y'all tin get an array of upgraded services, like the ability to add readers to your email listing, customize giveaways, and add additional pen names or writer pages for other books.
Professional Review Outlets
If you're planning your launch several months in accelerate, an astonishing mode to build pre-launch fizz is to submit to professional review outlets. These are major trade journals, like Publishers Weekly or Kirkus Volume Reviews, that volition read your book and potentially publish an unbiased review of it.
These reviews are automatically distributed to major sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and they appear at the very summit of your book'southward folio.
Talk about social proof! Having a positive review from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal, etc. is a major sign of a adept volume—they review less than 25% of the books submitted, on average, and don't guarantee skilful reviews. And so it'southward a gamble, merely if you "win," y'all get the postage of approval from a major professional person outlet that besides reviews for the Big 5!
It'south non too hard to submit to these sites. You'll need to do and so nearly four months before your book's launch date, considering it takes then long for reviews to get through the process. Once your book is ready, y'all'll need to gear up a cost and check the page count, and then transport that information, the ISBN, and some other fundamental data to the professional reviewer of your pick.
Publishers Weekly offers free review opportunities for both small press and self-published books, besides as exclusive cocky-pub reviews through its Booklife service (which is also complimentary).
Kirkus offers free review opportunities for small press authors, but if you're self-published, you'll take to go through their paid Kirkus Indie platform, which costs $425 and upwardly.
Foreword Reviews but accepts books that take a print version, but they will take digital copies for review, so this is a bang-up option for authors who will be releasing both versions. Just create a cover letter that includes fundamental information about your volume, like the category, title, author, ISBN, price, page count, format, publication date, clarification, and any publicity information like author bio, etc. Then email that encompass letter and your ePub to ebooks@forewordreviews.com . Make certain to send it four months before your launch!
By covering all these bases—your own email listing, professional review outlets, avid Goodreads readers, and new readers—you can commencement getting reviews even earlier you launch your book, helping you build your social proof for a stronger, higher launch!
Well-nigh the Author
Kate Sullivan is a professional book designer, editor, and the content manager of TCK Publishing , an independent press dedicated to helping writers brand the virtually out of their writer careers through partnership publishing deals, podcasts, educational resources, and more.
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