Recently I came across a post on a forum for authors: “We sent books to reviewers who promised to write reviews on Amazon. Nothing happened. Can we get the books back?”
As an Amazon “500″ reviewer and Vine reviewer, I get many requests from authors who want me to review their books. I used to say “yes” to everyone. Now I am very selective. I warn authors that I am a fussy reviewer. I explain that I write honestly or not at all. I even have a page on my website with my review policies.
I try to review all the books I get. But to be honest, most of the books are so awful, I’d be doing a disservice to the author if I wrote an honest review. I give my review copies to a public library. Once or twice these copies go into the main collection and occasionally a book I hated gets circulated, so it’s a win-win. But most of the time even the libraries don’t want those books. They end up being sold for pennies to benefit the library.
Many authors do not realize that Amazon is first and foremost a community. If you get a few glowing reviews for a bad book, readers will notice and will write scathing comments about those reviews.
Thinking of paying a book reviewer to write for you? Don’t bother. Readers recognize paid puff pieces, too. I am convinced they will backfire. I would never pay for a review.
If you have a great book, you’ll get tons of good reviews just by asking. If I like a book, I’ll blog about it and send notices to my ezine readers. Here’s just one example.
To learn more about book reviews, just go here.