The Importance Of Reviews

One of the keys to selling a lot of books on the Kindle is to have decent reviews. I’m feeling pretty good today because in the last twenty-four hours my book The Basement has just received another three five-star reviews in the UK. Actually I believe that four-star reviews can be more helpful than five stars. Why? Because if a book has only a few reviews and they are all five-stars most readers will assume that they have been posted by friends and relatives. And it has to be said that is often the case! The thing is though that reviews like that can backfire. Readers aren’t stupid and they will often look to see what other books the reviewer has reviewed. And if the reviewer has only ever reviewed the one book they will draw their own conclusions!

Once you get above ten reviews, ‘fake’ reviews become less of an issue. So they key is to get as many reviews as possible early on. One way of doing that is to give away free copies in exchange for reviews, either by sending PDFs or if you have an Amazon.com account you can ‘gift’ Kindle copies. I recently gave away 200 Kindle copies of my vampire story Once Bitten to readers in the US – though I’m still waiting for the reviews! If you want to offer review copies blogs and forums are the places to go to announce what you’re dong.

So far The Basement has received 78 reviews in the UK, 40 five-star and 24 four-star. I should also say that it has been given six one-star reviews but they are clearly a minority (and a couple are downright malicious!). It’s worth knowing that if your book receives a bad review and you can show that review was posted out of malice or spite, Amazon will remove it. Just email Customer Services with details of the review and why you believe it to be malicious. If they agree they will remove the review.

I was really pleased with the three latest reviews because they came right out of the blue! And because it’s clear from the reviews that they really enjoyed the book. Here they are:


5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting, intriguing, read it in 1 day!, 19 Jan 2011
By
Tracey Priest (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)


This review is from: the basement (Kindle Edition)
I don’t have a kindle and was gutted when I realised this book was only available on the kindle as a friend had read it suggesting it was really good! I borrowed her kindle and subsequently read it in one day! It is a riveting intriguing book with a very clever ending. One that I did not expect! It was easy to read and enjoyable. A thoroughly good book that I would recommend to others.



5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant read, 18 Jan 2011
By
Mrs Horn (Sussex, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: the basement (Kindle Edition)
Wow, what a story. I was gripped from beginning to end and the ending really was a surprise. Definitely worth a read.



5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Brilliant, 18 Jan 2011
By
Adam - See all my reviews

This review is from: the basement (Kindle Edition)
I'm a student who has never been a big fan of reading, being bored in classrooms and failing assignments because of the lack of interest in book related assignments, but this book opened my eyes to how hooked you can get with the right author. I have not been able to get the storyline out of my head bringing me straight back to my laptop screen everyday just to see what happens next. Completely worth less than a pound and is totally underpriced.