So, your book has been published and your readers are (virtually) lined up for their coveted copies! Yea!! And, you are asking (begging!) your readers to leave reviews for your book because, as we all know, more sales and positive reviews mean better exposure on Amazon!
However, did you know that some people aren’t allowed to leave reviews on Amazon? Who are those people? Are they scammers? No. Do they owe Amazon money? No. Are they simply lower-class online citizens? Of course not.
The answer is: They are people who simply haven’t given Amazon enough money yet!
That’s right!! Amazon’s rules for allowing someone to post a review are now this:
1. You must have spent $50 at Amazon in the past 12 months
or
2. You must be an Amazon Prime member, which currently costs $119/year
Don’t believe me? Their rules are RIGHT HERE.
It doesn’t matter that your reader PURCHASED your book DIRECTLY FROM AMAZON (making it a verified purchase). No, it’s just that Amazon hasn’t scalped enough money from that person’s wallet yet.
Just another reason to DETEST doing business with Amazon…
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Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.
About The Author
Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).
Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.
WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.
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Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.
PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!
Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.
Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)
See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.
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Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE
90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy
Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.
We know what you're thinking. You're an author, not a marketer. Not to worry! We have more than a decade of successful online book selling experience under our belts and we're going to teach you how to promote your book effectively online...and almost all of our techniques are FREE!
Online book promotion is not only simple but, if you have a step-by-step, day-to-day marketing plan (this book!), it can also be a very artistic endeavor, which makes it fun for creative folks like you!
Yes, online book promoting can be EASY and FUN! Let us show you how, from Day 1 through Day 90...and beyond!
The Art and Craft of Writing and Editing
Writing is a constant dialogue between author and reader.
The craft of writing involves an interchange of emotions between an author and a reader. An author creates a story line, conflict, and characters, gives his characters words to speak, and then hands off these materials to a reader. This process results in a constant dialogue between the mental imagery produced by a reader and that proposed by the author.
Read more here:
https://writersweekly.com/books/6712.html
Here’s a PS to my previous comment…
Out of curiosity, I checked Amazon to see if a review I posted a few days ago showed up, and it did, including showing me as a Verified Purchaser. I use the Amazon gift card option, reloading it directly on the site. Perhaps because I use a card to load the card (rather than using a gift card purchased someplace like a grocery store) the review went through.
Boy… these companies sure know where the thin line between “incentives” to use their credit cards and “extortion” lies, don’t they?!?
Oh… this is disturbing on so many levels. I’ve been wondering why the number of reviews has been so low for my books, despite the number of sales I’ve made…. Somebody needs to raise a red flag in a major outlet to let people know their reviews aren’t posted, their voices not being heard (despite the first few lines of those guidelines Amazon posted), all because they didn’t spend enough $$ *using the preferred payment method*! IKES!
Wow! Just wow.
Isn’t Amazon shooting itself in the foot with this requirement? If there exists a direct correlation between the number of book reviews and book sales, then limiting reviews, even to this perhaps small degree, will reduce their income from book sales (as well as the authors’ income).
No matter, it sucks because I struggle to get reviews anywhere. Maybe that’s why I’ve had reviews trickle in at Goodreads in 2020 but haven’t had a new Amazon review in many months.
Guess what? You also can’t write product reviews if you use an Amazon gift card balance for a purchase. The eligibility criterion states “you must have spent at least $50 on Amazon.com *using a valid credit or debit card* in the past 12 months.” I avoid (like the plague) using my credit card online, so I limit my Amazon spending to my gift card balance. Thus, I cannot write reviews because I only use Amazon’s own legal tender, LOL!
I saw that on their site, too, Kathleen! 🙁
Angela
Like it or not, Amazon is the workhorse of the market for writers. So only if your book is there, and only from those reviews, will anyone find you of interest. Most of us do not have the wherewithal to run/pay for ads in many publications/magazines that might have some interest, whether large or small, concerning your labored-over baby… seeking or promoting the attention it needs. If they say jump, we don’t have much choice.
But the world today, nasty as it is… Amazon a big chunk of it, think of how the majority of all the major news media and formats has tried to poison the country with their pro-liberal, Democratic stance, as if Trump were the devil’s own spawn. And why: well, for those of you who don’t know, Trump was/is God’s choice for president — so every demon in hell has been going nuts since he gained the White House. Our cities burning, being looted, pillaged, making martyrs out of flat-out evil criminals… mayors and governors as pure idiots — Amazon is among our least concerns. Though they are a major player, unfortunately. And we have to muck their stable. (But not for the Demon-crats in Congress and elsewhere.)
I starting experiencing Amazon’s biast when it comes to reviews a couple of years ago. I tried leaving a few very civil, positive-yet-I-disagree reviews or honest bad customer service experiences, and they said I wasn’t abiding by their rules and wouldn’t post them. I only use them when there are no other realistic options (mostly for text books for school). They are unfair. I didn’t realize that they’re also thieves!
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