Getting book reviews is critical for driving book sales. Reviews can lend books legitimacy and help readers decide whether they’re worth their money and time. According to a survey, 36% of BookBub members say book reviews from other readers can convince them whether or not to buy a book, and we found that including high review counts in our Featured Deals blurbs can increase clicks by an average of 14%.
This guide shares tried and tested strategies to generate more reader reviews for both new and backlist books. It will also help you learn what practices to avoid so retailer sites don’t remove them. If you don’t know how to get book reviews or simply need more, check these out!
Ask your mailing list to review books they’ve read
One of the best ways to get reviews is to ask your fans to review books they’ve already read, and an email newsletter is the most direct way to reach those fans. Simply mention why reviews help you as an author, and how much you appreciate them. To make it as easy as possible for the readers, include links to relevant retailer sites!
Silvia Moreno-Garcia opened her newsletter with an announcement of the release of The Seventh Veil of Salome, an early quote from a review magazine, and a request for fans who read the book to consider reviewing it or spreading the word.
After a few words about his experience launching Right Thing Right Now, nonfiction author Ryan Holiday asked readers to leave an Amazon review, linking directly to the book’s page on Amazon and explaining that it would “mean a lot.”
Collette Cameron includes an invitation at the end of every newsletter to join her VIP Reader group, “Collette’s Chéris.” A group like this, in which members get exclusive access to free early copies of the book, is a great way for authors to get more reviews as soon as the book is released.
If you’re a newer author, find tips for how to grow your audience and mailing list here.
Ask readers for a review in a book’s back matter
What better time to ask readers for reviews than right after they finish your book? Place requests in the book’s back matter — the pages after the narrative ends — to catch readers just after they finish. To reduce friction as much as possible, try linking directly to the review form on the retailer where you’re driving reviews.
Bestselling fantasy and sci-fi author Daniel Arenson includes at least three CTAs in the back matter of his novels: a link to the sequel, a link to join his mailing list, and a request for reviews. Here, you can see CTAs in the back of his novel Moth.
Mystery author D.W. Ulsterman also includes a CTA in the back matter asking readers to review his books.
I almost always include a reminder at the end of each of my books, which seems to generate a good amount of reviews over time — particularly after a promotion or targeted advertising for specific titles.
— D.W. Ulsterman, author of The Writer
Learn more about using your back matter to sell more books.
Ask your fans on social media
Social media pages are another great place to ask your biggest fans to leave reviews. Since the medium allows you and your fans to interact, you can thank them directly.
Anna Mocikat wrote on Facebook about how important ratings and reviews are for indie authors, and thanked any fans who commented on the post.
It doesn’t have to be your birthday to ask for a review, but we love Molly Ringle’s approach of reassuring readers that giving reviews doesn’t have to be a big effort. Tagging #bookstagram on Instagram can help expose your request to more book reviewers.
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Run a free deal or make a first-in-series book permafree
Offering a book for free is a great way to get your book in the hands of a large number of readers — and more readers means more potential reviewers! Promoting a free book and asking for reviews in the back matter can be an effective strategy for any author to boost reviews, even if you don’t yet have an established street team or large following.
Author Ada Bell gained hundreds of reviews after running a deal on her free first-in-series:
The sales are great. The income is useful. But it’s more than that. It’s seeing that Mystic Pieces now has over 1,000 ratings and reviews, mostly positive. It’s seeing over 100 reviews for [later-series books] The Scry’s the Limit and Sight Seering, which had only a handful before.
— Ada Bell, author of Mystic Pieces
You can also set up an automated email follow-up to readers who download a free book from your own website. Antoine Bandele offers his free first-in-series to anyone who signs up for his newsletter, and sends an email a couple of weeks later encouraging readers to leave a review.
Thank your fans for reviews
Thanking fans for reviews is a great way to reward them with recognition and heartfelt appreciation for their support. Plus, thanking fans for reviews is another way to stress the importance of reviews to your readers.
Glynnis Campbell highlights reader reviews in a special “reviewer of the week” feature in her newsletter. Here, she thanked one particular fan for their five-star review of her backlist title MacAdam’s Lass.
Social media is also a great place to share reader reviews — and swap reviews with other authors. Monique Edenwood posted this animated graphic of snippets of reader reviews, and also took the opportunity to support a fellow author by highlighting her review in the description.
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You can also look out for others’ posts to re-share. Jessica Cage retweeted the link to a reader review to make sure her own followers didn’t miss it.
This is awesome. Thank you! https://t.co/o9XczI1tkF
— Jessica Cage Author (@jcageauthor) May 30, 2024
Post a call for reviews from your street team
Street teams are groups of fans who help promote authors’ books. These could be beta readers, ARC (advance reader copy) team members, a special subset of your mailing list, or members of a private group online. As some of your most loyal fans, these readers will be most likely to answer a call for reviews.
J. Kenner regularly sends out ARCs, and finds them to be an effective strategy for getting more reviews. Plus, a giveaway can help attract and hook new readers.
While I know some authors hesitate to send out early review copies, I’ve had consistently good experiences. And I believe that the strategy of using ARCs to get advance reviews at retailer sites helped push the first Stark book, Release Me, into multi-week, multi-list status despite that book being in a new subgenre and the first book I wrote as “J. Kenner.”
— J. Kenner, author of Release Me
She has also found success getting reviews from her Facebook group.
I love my Facebook fan group (the J. Kenner Krew); it’s a great way for readers to gather and have interactions with me, talk about the books in my various worlds, and recommend books (by me and other authors) to each other. I’ve found that the readers who participate in groups like that are so giving and generous, and even a passing comment about how reviews at the retailer sites help authors will result in so many group members posting and encouraging others to do the same!
— J. Kenner, author of Release Me
Melissa Stevens often reminds her newsletter subscribers about preorders and opportunities to join her ARC team, emphasizing that reviews aren’t required. Obligating fans to review a book in exchange for a free copy can lead to retailer sites removing those reviews.
Lauren Blakely put out a call for ARC readers on Facebook, letting her fans know copies were limited and adding an exciting teaser.
Find new readers and pro reviewers through a paid review service
Many authors use paid services like Netgalley, Goodreads, Booksprout, or Booksirens to deliver their ARCs. These services provide extra exposure to readers, including some who have been vetted as professional book reviewers, so you can get high-quality feedback that may lend even more legitimacy to your book. These readers regularly post reviews to their social pages, blogs, or Goodreads, as well as on retailer sites once a book is released.
When comparing book review services, consider your budget and your genre — paid reviews make more sense for some categories than others, and some services specialize in certain genres. You should also confirm whether they meet retailers’ terms of service — not all services promising reviews in exchange for money are legitimate!
Keep up-to-date with retailer sites’ rules for reviews
It’s important to pay attention to individual retailers’ reviewer policies to avoid breaking retailer terms of service and having reviews removed. For example, authors should not pay or otherwise compensate readers for reviews, nor should they try to influence a review or make receiving free copies conditional on a reader actually reviewing the book. Encouraging is fine, compensating is not.
Find Amazon’s policies here, Google Play’s review policy for Google Books here, Barnes & Noble’s review guidelines here, and Goodreads’ guidelines here. Keep in mind that if you notice a review missing from one of your books, it may not be the result of something you did. A review may be pulled because the reviewer violated a retailer site’s policy, not you.
And don’t feel discouraged — getting more book reviews can take time! Keep requesting them, try different strategies on this list, and focus on getting the other things in place (a great cover, blurb, and marketing strategy for building buzz) that your book needs to sell well.
Which strategies have you found most effective for encouraging readers to review your books? Let us know — share and comment on your favorite social channel!
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This post was originally published on January 16, 2019, and has been updated with new examples.
