The impact of Amazon on E-Commerce is undeniable. You might be a seller of products or you might be an author self-publishing your book but you need Amazon beside you.

You need an influence in Amazon and you need Amazon reviews. Reviews are extremely important if you want to publish your book on Amazon because book reviews are legitimacy.

Unlike a physical bookstore where buyers can see which book is popular and which book people are getting, there is no way to know that on Amazon and that is why Amazon reviews matter.

Amazon reviews are so important that even if you have the best Amazon book promotion with a lot of capital investment, you will not see Amazon book sales without any reviews.

Today we are going to find out the importance of book reviews so that you can understand how to utilise those reviews and have a better understanding of how book publishing works on Amazon.

Here Is Why Amazon Book Reviews Are Important

Best Kind of Legitimacy

If you want to know the importance of reviews for book promotion and selling your book on Amazon then all you need to do is to listen to this line.

Reviews provide legitimacy.

Reviews are among the very few ways by which readers can genuinely understand if something is good or not.

This is not just the case when it comes to books but for everything on Amazon. Reviews help people understand that people are actually buying something because reader feedback is just like talking to another customer in a physical Store.

People have inherent doubts when they see any product with no reviews or pictures and just ratings. That is why reviews in the form of written reader feedback are important.

Reviews are not just going to be perfect and you will hardly get 5 stars and if your book is really good then you are mostly going to get 4 stars. But that will be even better for consumer trust.

One of the best ways in which you can gain legitimacy is if the reviews have attached pictures or videos. And there is going to be a tag of verified purchase which will further improve their confidence.

Foundation For Book Promotion

Book promotions actually work on Amazon because people actually click on sponsored products if they are searching for something similar.

But Amazon book reviews are important for promotion because when people click on promoted items and find no reviews then that is not good for trust.

But if you combine both of them then they work amazingly together. This is because if people find something sponsored with good ratings and click on it and find actual reviews by actual humans then nothing can be better than that.

That is why you must always try and get genuine reviews to back the book promotion and generating book reviews should be part of your book marketing strategy.

No Shortcuts on Amazon

The thing about Amazon is that if you try to finesse fake reviews on Amazon then you can say goodbye to your author reputation on Amazon.

This is because Amazon spends millions and billions on trying to counter fake reviews so that people cannot just get reviews artificially planted on the product page.

That means it is nearly impossible to get reviews for money and even if you do, the algorithm is going to spot it and it can even ban the book and the listing.

That is why reviews are so legitimate because they cannot be manipulated and that is why if you want author success then you can only do that by legitimate means.

Now that we know the importance of Amazon book reviews in the publishing industry, let us understand how you can actually get reviews in a legitimate way.

The techniques that are about to be mentioned might be applicable for other forms of online shopping and products in a limited way but they are mostly relevant for books on Amazon.

Tips To Get Legitimate Book Reviews on Amazon

The Easiest Way Is to Ask

If you want to know how to get book reviews then the first and the easiest way to do it is to just ask your readers for reviews.

If you are a new author and you just want to become successful on Amazon then the most direct way would be to simply mention that in the book. This is applicable for paperbacks as well as e-books.

You can dedicate a single page at the end of your book to leave a review if the reader has liked the book. You can even mention the fact that they can leave a review even if they do not like the book.

The thing about reviews is that it is like publicity because negative publicity is also publicity. That is why it is always better to get a few 3-star reviews rather than getting no reviews.

Tap Into Your Fan Network

One of the other things you can do is utilise your fan network because it is going to be one of the most effective ways of getting reviews.

This is in fact so effective that every other no matter how big or small the author is, they utilise their fan network to get legitimate reviews on their product listings.

If you do not have a fan network then all you need to do is create your fan network before you publish your book on Amazon.

Creating a fan network is straightforward because you need to be active on social media and you need to put out regular content relating to the book and your book-writing journey.

In fact, If you want to create a fan network then you literally need to become an influencer if you do not have a fan network already.

You can then ask your fans for reviews. But you must make sure to not ask anyone to give good reviews or anything like that.

You must always play by the books when it comes to Amazon and you must simply ask them to provide reviews and explain to them why it is important.

Book Influencers Are a Good Option

If you want to be successful online then there are two ways of doing so and one is to become an influencer and the other is to take the help of an influencer.

This is true for everything whether it is tech products or whether it is a book because there are influences for everything.

That is why you must create a list of influential book influences that deal with the kind of genre your work is about.

Then you must contact them but there is something important you must keep in mind. You must stay away from influencers who ask for money as compensation.

You must only approach genuine influences that are honest about their work and you can of course send them every copy of your book and even your merchandise.

You can even send them a few copies if they want to do a giveaway. But you must never send them money because that is not a genuine way of getting reviews.

Then you must request them to tell their subscribers to leave a review on Amazon if they like the book.  You will get visibility and also genuine reviews.

Personal Network Is Always Reliable

If you find the difficult to cultivate any kind of network and if you are feeling lost on how you should get proper book reviews then there is something very reliable.

We are talking about your personal network and when we say personal network we mean your network of family and friends.

It can also be your network of colleagues and fellow writers whom you have met online or through the publishing process.

It can even be asking the people you met at any walk of life and you have a good connection with.

You should ask these kinds of reliable people to get your book and perhaps you can even refund them the money once they buy the book from Amazon as a gift.

You can then ask them to put in an honest review of the book and you should tell them to be honest. This is very important.

It is because if you tell them to put in good reviews then it will get flagged by the algorithm as dishonest and that is why it is important to always ask people for genuine reviews whenever they are posting reviews.

Create A Concrete Marketing Strategy

You must understand that getting more reviews is an outcome of an action and not the action itself because the more people are going to see your work the more people are going to buy it and leave reviews.

Those reviews will then generate more interest in your book leading to more people buying it and it is going to be an upward cycle of success.

That is why in order to continue the cycle of success you need to start it in the first place and the first place that you should focus on is a solid marketing strategy.

That marketing strategy should include any and everywhere by which you draw attention to your book.

You can do a lot of things but one of the simplest things you can do this to introduce deals and cut prices.

That will help the algorithm promote the listing and it will definitely help your book get noticed more.

However, your marketing strategy should not only consist of deals and promotions but ads as well. You should create a strategy and divide your marketing strategy into parts.

These should be divided into different platforms based on priority levels so that you can promote the book on all platforms possible.

Blogging Is Never Out Of Fashion

Blogging is just as effective today as it was a couple of years back and that is why you should never discount the idea of promoting your book through blogging.

You can do that by two approaches and one would be to simply create your own blogging website and do the blogging yourself on relevant topics and create a reader base big enough to promote your book.

But if you have already published the book and you are reading this blog then it is no use doing it because it will take months to establish a proper reader base.

That is why the second thing you can do would simply be to do guest posting and request admins of different blogging websites so that they can publish your blog.

There are several blogging websites that promote authors of new books and you should try out those blogging websites.

You can also hire content writers to create promotional material for you because you might not have the time to do it yourself.

Your ultimate aim should be to reach as many blogging websites as possible so that the name of your book is synonymous with the genre online.

Editorial Reviews Help A lot

Editorial reviews are one of the most prominent kinds of reviews and are not written by regular customers because they are written by Amazon editors.

They have a different kind of certification and their reviews hold much more weight than the average kind of reviews.

This is because these reviews stay on top of every other review and can be seen highlighted among all the other types of reviews.

Sometimes editorial reviewers are part of established publications. Build connections with these reviews if you can, it would be the best-case scenario.

However, it is easier said than done because getting editorial reviews is one of the hardest things to do.

But if you manage to do it then your book is certainly going to be ahead of the competition when it comes to a particular genre.

We hope this blog has been helpful for you to understand why Amazon reviews are so important and why you should definitely spend time and resources in order to get reviews.

Amazon reviews might seem difficult for you because they actually are but you do not need to worry about that with us because we are here to help you.

We are Orange Publishers and we are the fastest-growing and most popular book publishers in India and we do everything in-house. That includes the printing to the publishing as well as the promotion and the marketing strategy.

We even do the copyright for our authors. We welcome you to visit our website to check out everything that we do.