REVIEWERS WANTED: to break chicken and egg conundrum

So at last I’m nearly ready to upload my book to Amazon and hit that magic publish button.

But what happens then? There are 8 million+ books on Amazon. How do I stop my almost-a-decade’s worth of work dropping like a stone to the bottom of the Great Amazon Book Ocean and never being heard of again?

The trick is to get the almighty Amazon Marketing Engine (let’s call it the AME) to work in your favour. Received wisdom is that publishing on Amazon works something like this:

Clearly the key is to generate that sales surge, right after launch.

But how do you buy books on Amazon? You look at the cover. If it appeals, you click to find out more. You read the blurb. If that appeals too, you check out what other people said about it. Oh. Wait. Nobody’s said anything. Not a single review.

Or worse – there’s a one star review from someone who was actually looking for a guide to keeping their expensive new space station spotlessly clean and mouse-free and who felt sorely let down by the lack of answers provided by this book. (Spoiler alert: unfortunately, cleaning and pest control don't feature in The Cleaner, the Cat and the Space Station.)

Tricky, eh? A brand-new book has no reviews, massively decreasing the likelihood of it being sold. If people do take a chance on it and make the effort to write a review, that will probably only happen after the mystical 30-day Window of Amazon Opportunity has closed.

 What to do?

• You hand out free copies of your ebook to volunteer readers ahead of the launch date and ask them for an honest review.
• The volunteers read the book and prepare a review, including the statement, “Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.”
• Then, when the book is published, they post their reviews so that potential buyers have the social proof they need to make a purchase decision.

 An invitation

Would you like to review The Cleaner, the Cat and the Space Station?

I’m giving away 99 ebook copies to volunteer reviewers. If you think this might be the sort of book you’d enjoy and you’re willing to write a short review (in any language you feel comfortable writing in) and post it on the Amazon page once the book’s been launched, then sign up here. In the unlikely event that the link doesn’t work, sent me a DM and I’ll sort it out.

Offer ends June 23, 2021

p.s. If you don’t normally read ebooks and you don’t have an ebook reader, fear not. I use a brilliant service called BookFunnel to deliver the novel to a device of your choice. If you like, you can then read it directly in the BookFunnel app (you’ll need to install the app first). For ebook afficionados: BookFunnel will help you load the novel into your preferred ebook reading app. Easy peasy: just follow the step-by-step instructions.

p.p.s. A note to all the copywriters and proof-readers in my network: I’m not looking for a free proof-read here! That work has all been done. In fact, I’m so confident in my text, I’ll give a signed paperback copy to the first person to find a genuine error that needs correcting.

p.p.p.s. To post a review on Amazon, you need to already have an active Amazon account which you’ve spent at least $50 on in the last year. I’m assuming that won’t be a problem for most people, but it’s still better to know about in advance, right? 

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