I’ve found getting reviews for my books difficult. I was bemoaning this when I realized something: I’ve got a desk piled with books I’ve promised to review and I haven’t. It’s not that I didn’t read the books. In most cases I did, and I really liked them. (I don’t finish books that I don’t like.)

Why don’t I review them? Because it’s a friggin’ lot of work. You have to read the book, synthesize its content, evaluate its worth, put words to all this, compose the sucker, and then stick it on a website such as Amazon, Goodreads, Author’s Den, all the sites for the iBooks, Nooks, Sony Readers, and all the rest (if you’re doing a top rate job as a reviewer.) All of those sites require separate log-ins, passwords, and secret rituals to get on.

Once you’re on one of the big sites,  you may be blown out of the water if you look at the book’s other reviews. Some people’s book reviews look like they took two weeks to compose. They’re masterpieces. You can’t post the one you took five minutes to write and look dumb, can you?

The truth is, going from reading a book and saying, “I really liked it!” to a written review is daunting. It sure has daunted me.

With this realization I’ve come to forgive my friends, relatives, and church prayer group members who have accepted review copies from me and not reviewed my books.

I remain nonplussed, but I see the barrier to reviewing. I’ve done the same.

I need to enlighten those who say, “I don’t believe the Amazon ratings. They’re all fixed. People get their friends and relatives to review their books.” Hah! Not my friends and relatives. The only relative/friend who’s read all my books is my husband. He hasn’t reviewed any of them. Getting reviews is hard work. Maybe a minor miracle.

How to get around this? I have a friend whose dad is a wonderful and hard-working man. He sat in front of Starbucks with his laptop every morning for months, looking up highly rated books in the same genre as his daughter’s book. He went through the reviews of those books, finding good ones whose reviewers also left a website or email address and maybe said, “You can contact me if you want a review.”

My friend’s dad contacted all those people, sent them a letter about the book that his daughter had written, tabulated responses, and sent books to the reviewers who responded positively.

Voila! In no time at all, my friend had more than 100 reviews on Amazon. (Her father is still alive, too.) Amazon itself noticed her sales activities and picked up her book, giving it vast publicity. She’s now under contract, on her third or so book, and doing great, with her books sold around the world, including in major retailers of all kinds.

How can we achieve these results? The obvious answer is to kidnap my friend’s dad and chain him in front of a Starbuck’s to do the same for us.

Of course, that’s a federal crime.

We can enlist our own relatives or do it ourselves, giving up any hope of actually  writing more books while we’re doing it. I’ve tried this and gotten nowhere. It’s time consuming and frustrating, but does offer a way of getting positive reviews by people who are interested in your book’s content, assuming you’ve written a good book. On the other hand, I hate it when I get emails like:

“I read your review of The Upside Down Kangaroo and thought you’d really like my new sci-fi/romance/adventure/erotica book, The Rightside Up Kangaroo. I can send you an eBook copy [or manuscript in Word or just my notes on 3 X 5 cards] if you’d review it. I’d be so grateful and include you in my fan club.”

That really doesn’t cut it with me. My review policy is here. The review policy page gives you a some places to look for reviews. Here are a few more:

MidwestBook Review  The Midwest Book Review is a very well thought of review site in business long before Amazon.com appeared. They currently do charge $50 for reviews of eBooks, manuscripts and proofs. The charge is to pay the reviewer for his/her time, since they don’t get a book to sell after the review. If you’ve got a finished book to submit, reviews are free. Because of the charge for reviewing unfinished and eBooks, Amazon won’t let them post on the customer review portion of their site. You can put the review on your books’ Editorial Reviews of the sale page.

Book Review.com Looks like they charge for this one, too. $185 for an Express Review. Not clear if they charge for “stand in line and wait” reviews. The charge probably means Amazon won’t let them post on the customer review portion of their site. As with Midwest Book Review, you can put the review on your books’ Editorial Reviews of the sale page.

World Literary Cafe This is a huge site offering many benefits to authors. Doesn’t look like they offer reviews, but you can find all sorts of support services.

Remember my friend’s dad and his quest outside Starbuck’s. It worked.

All the best,

Sandy Nathan

Sandy Nathan is a #1 Amazon Bestselling Author in Metaphysical Fantasy and the winner of thirty national awards.
Sandy’s  books can be found on her Amazon Author’s Page.
Here’s her Facebook Author Page.