If you want to increase your book sales, book reviews are one of the best ways to market your book. Readers will look to see how many reviews a book has. This number is important because it will make a quick impression on them.
How many reviews should your book have?
Tucker Max with Scribe Media suggests authors should strive for 20 reviews within the first two months of publication. And he says that “around 50 reviews, you are probably good to go.”
Where can you find reviewers for your book?
Of course you can start by soliciting reviews from your friends, family and social media connections. Once you’ve exhausted those resources, another place you can find reviewers for your book is Reedsy: Reedsy Book Review Blogs.
On this site you can search by genre to find reviewers who read and review your specific genre. You can also filter by reviewers who accept indie published books (if that applies to you). In the search results you can see how much website traffic each reviewer has and you can click the link to go directly to their site where you can reach out to the reviewer and ask them if they’d be interested in your book. A lot of book reviewers will post their reviews on their own blog, Amazon, Goodreads, and other book review sites.
How do you request a review for your book?
Look to see if the reviewer prefers any certain format (physical copy, digital copy or audiobook), and then reach out to them. When sending a request to a reviewer, include your name, the title of the book, and a little about your book. Don’t go into too much detail. Just tell them why they would like it.
And take a few minutes to make your request personal if you can. The review requests that stand out the most to me are the ones who show they have done their research. They’ve looked at my book reviews. They know what types of books I like, and they compare their book to similar ones I’ve reviewed so I know what to expect.
Final Tip
Don’t make the reviewer work for it (i.e. including so little information that they have to go to Amazon to find out what your book is about). Put the information in front of them and let them decide if it’s a good fit for them. If it’s not, the reviewer wasn’t the right one for your book anyway. Don’t get worked up about it, just move on to finding the readers who are best suited for your genre.
Bonus Tip: Here’s a post I wrote about 5 Fun Things to Include When Sending Your Book to a Reviewer.