If you spend any time reading Amazon book reviews you’ll notice that some have small labels like “Vine Voice” or “Top 10 Reviewer.” The last time I counted there were 17 different Amazon Badges. Some of these you can get or request, but most are earned. What does this mean to you?
- You can find potential reviewers for your books.
- A Badge can help you build credibility—your platform.
Finding reviewers
We all know how critical it is to get reviews for our new books. You can pay someone to write one, ask your friends, giveaway books, hope…or proactively solicit reviewers who enjoy writing reviews. The challenge with the latter is that it is hard to know who might like your book.
The way around that is to identify books in your genre and then begin reading reviews. Those with Badges are probably your best bet given they earned their Badge by writing lots of fair reviews that help people. Click on their name and you’ll be taken to their Amazon Public Profile page.
Not everyone includes contact information but if they do, reach out with an offer. I do not have a badge but I was contacted nonetheless by an author whose book I reviewed. She ended up sending me a copy of the new addition for a follow-up review. (Learn more about Public Profiles here.)
Building credibility
This can be tricky, but worth it. It’s tricky because authors writing reviews of other books, especially competitive books, need to take great care to be fair. In fact I’d go so far as to say that you should not write a review that has fewer than 3 stars.
If the book really is terrible, don’t publish the review. I’ve read that Amazon watches for authors that trash other authors. As always, imagine that a peer, or an expert in your subject matter were reviewing your book. What would you consider to be helpful feedback? What would you want your readers to know about your book? Modulate your comments accordingly.
Amazon Badges will help you filter potential reviewers, and build your own platform, if you want to invest the time. Is it fast, or easy? No way. But spending an hour or two a week on a book review strategy will be one of the best long-term investments you’ll make.
Related post I wrote for the Content Marketing Institutes: 5 Surprising Ways to Use Amazon to Further Your Content Marketing Goals
