LISTEN: Apple | Spotify | iHeart | YouTube | More Episodes!
You’ve heard us say it over and over again: DO NOT PAY FOR BOOK REVIEWS!
So, what is an author supposed to do? Wait around, hoping for readers who might decide to take the time to review their book? Beg people on social media for positive write-ups? Ask their family and friends to post reviews on Amazon? (DON’T DO THE LATTER! You could get banned from Amazon for doing that! We explain why in this episode.)
Getting real, legitimate reviews for your book doesn’t have to be a passive exercise. There are plenty of regular, prolific reviewers (even “professional” reviewers) out there who won’t charge you a penny to review your book, and who will do it fairly and honestly. Better yet, many of them have tens of thousands of followers! When they post a review for a book, their followers are notified!
But, how do you find them, and what should you say when you contact them?
In this episode, Angela and Brian explain, step-by-step, how you can find PROLIFIC and popular book reviewers with thousands of followers. And, we’ll teach you exactly how reach out to them, greatly increasing your chances of getting your book reviewed by them.
You might be asking why these book reviewers review books for free? How do they make money? It’s NOT on the backs of authors! Quite the opposite, in fact! We explain that in this episode as well.
Getting good book reviews from well-known reviewers can mean significantly more BOOK SALES! And, the entire process is FREE! Nothing we recommend in this episode costs any money at all.
You don’t want to miss this episode!
If you enjoy the original music featured at the beginning of each episode of our podcast, and if you’d like your OWN original music for your podcast, website, and/or videos, contact Mason’s Music!
Do you think you might be the victim of a publishing scam? CONTACT ANGELA AND BRIAN.
If you need legal assistance at a very affordable rate, contact JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ.Â
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- The easy-to-follow to-do list we promised in this episode!
- BookLocker’s Publishing Packages
- The Old Amazon Best Seller Scam is Still Happening! Don’t Be Sucked In!!
- Why My Books Get So Many Reviews! – by Gary Sturgis, Internationally Bestselling Author of: SURVIVING GRIEF – 365 Days A Year
- EPISODE 43: 16 Possible Reasons Why Amazon KDP Permanently Closed Your Account (But they won’t tell YOU why you were banned!!) – Approximately 90% of banned Amazon KDP accounts never get reinstated!
- Template emails to send to book reviewers from MyBookCave.com, ALiteraryEscape.com, and Cambridge.org.
- Unsolicited testimonials from BookLocker’s authors!
- Authors Are Moving to BookLocker After Amazon KDP Randomly Terminated Their Accounts
- WritersWeekly’s Quarterly 24-Hour Short Story Contest
- All Episodes of The WritersWeekly Podcast
HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.
ASK ANGELA!
![](https://writersweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BLTestimonial-shull.jpg")
![](https://writersweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BLTestimonial-muller.jpg")
![](https://writersweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BLTestimonial-novak.jpg")
![](https://writersweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BLTestimonial-wollard.jpg")
![](https://writersweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/BLTestimonial-snyder.jpg")
![](https://writersweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/BLTestimonial-james.jpg")
Angela, never listened to your podcast before. I don’t really hear much of a twang — LOL.
Great information in this podcast. I’ll check out Number 43. I probably should’ve paid more attention to what you have been doing of late.
I did experience an issue with a review on Amazon (actually seven reviews of my books) all posted on the same day, all malicious and intentional, all merely one or two sentences.
I’m almost positive it’s someone from my family. I know because of several clues provided by my nephew. He’s a huge Trump supported and I’ve posted quite a few angry posts about Trump on Facebook. He responded angrily to one and that was before I saw the nasty reviews. I have other clues, as well.
But Amazon refuses to take them down despite that it’s obvious that no one is going to post seven reviews of seven different books, all mean-spirited, on the same day.
Think about this, three of the books are 100K words published by established publishers. Do you think you could help? I could give them the name of my nephew and other personal information that they could use to check. But maybe it’s not worth it and I should just get more reviews because I don’t have many?
Problem is the moderators are from India and I can’t contact them directly.
Hi-doh Hi-dee Ha-Ha is one of that was books reviewed — Tom
P.S. How do I get 91,000 book reviews — damn, I know my book is definitely worth it. I do have my book listed on Goodreads too.
Unfortunately, Amazon will only discuss a book page (and reviews) with the company that published that book, or with the author. They won’t allow third parties to intervene unless it’s an attorney. And, even then, they still might ignore the correspondence.
We are interviewing BookLocker author Gary Sturgis on the podcast this week (Episode 45). It will be up on Thursday or Friday. He is the international bestselling author of SURVIVING GRIEF: 365 Days a Year. He earns thousands per month on book sales, and he has great advice on how to get reviews from your readers. 🙂
All episodes of the WritersWeekly Podcast are RIGHT HERE.
Angela
Great episode. Appreciate the info and process. You mentioned a printed link so the steps could be outlined on paper – I don’t see it?
We will be posting that next week. 🙂
Angela