Whether you’re selling physical products or digital ones, customer reviews will make or break your business over time. It’s so important to offer quality products and services at the right price and uphold amazing customer service standards so that your buyers are always happy and ready to leave you a fantastic review. When it comes to Amazon and Amazon KDP you want to be even more attentive to reviews because a few good reviews will bode well with the Amazon algorithm helping you climb the ranks and become a best seller!
Reviews on KDP. There are several strategies to ensure you get good customer reviews on KDP one of which is to give out your book for free to a few initial customers either through a promotion or by handing out author copies.
If you’re looking to get more reviews on your Kindle Direct Publishing book and grow your sales then you are in the right place! Read below to find out why reviews are key to growth and strategies you can implement today to increase your chances of getting solid customer reviews.
Are Reviews Really That Important?
We all know that keywords and SEO will help you rank better on Amazon search but there’s a lot more that goes into which published books get to make the front page of KDP.
One of the keys to success is social proof.
Social proof through sales and/or customer reviews is a sure-fire way to end up at the top of the search feed on Amazon KDP and even boost your conversion rate.
Don’t take our word for it, Amazon has publicly stated that products and listings with both quantity and quality reviews have a significantly higher conversion rate.
So while well-researched keywords that have high search volumes and low competition, which we can help you find, by the way, will help you rank better, customers may not be inclined to buy your published books if they don’t have good reviews.
Of course, this is easier said than done.
If customers won’t buy from you on KDP because your books don’t have any reviews then how are you actually going to get your first review?
Great question!
One strategy we recommend trying is giving out your books for free through a Free Book Promotion or by distributing Author Copies.
How Do I Make My Book Free on Amazon So I Can Get More Reviews?
Before you offer your book for free make sure that your product is set up in a way that encourages readers, or users if you’re selling notebooks and journals, actually to leave you a review.
Leave a note at the end of your book politely asking satisfied customers to leave a positive review. You can easily add a review request to your manuscript even if your book has been published on Kindle Direct Publishing.
Now comes the fun part.
You need to enroll in something called KDP Select which will allow you to run free promotions if you are selling any type of ebook (which is different than paperback books).
KDP Select is a special program with numerous benefits including KU or Kindle Unlimited which not only gets you paid per book sold but also per eBook pages read.
KDP Select will allow you to run up to 5 free book promotions as long as your content is exclusively sold on Amazon for 90 days after publishing.
You can schedule a Free Book Promotion through your KDP Dashboard where it says Run a Price Promotion.
Keep in mind that even if your book is “sold” for free, Amazon considers it a $0.00 purchase, so if customers leave a review, it will count as a real Verified Review. However, KU readers will not be registered as a Verified Purchase.
Still, your free book promo will attract around 50-60% verified purchases which will bode well for your review section.
I Got a Terrible Review! What Do I Do?
Bad reviews are a part of business and even the best books, products, or shops on the internet will get a bad review from the time to time.
The last thing you want to do is something rash like deleting your published books and reuploading new ones with no reviews or trying to contact the person who left the review.
Just take it on the chin and move on. Let the good reviews outshine the few bad ones.
If you get multiple bad reviews and they outweigh the good ones then it might mean your book has an issue that you need to address. So be attentive!
How Do I Buy Author Copies of My Paperback to Give Out for Reviews?
Your other option for giving out free books for customer feedback is by buying author copies of your paperbacks and handing them out to friends, family, and even strangers!
Keep in mind you can only place orders for books in “Live” or “Live with Unpublished Changes” mode.
Here’s how to do it in “Live” mode:
- Go to your Bookshelf and select the book you want to order.
- Click on Order Author Copies (this button may take up to 24 hours to appear if you just published your book).
- Choose your order quantity and your Amazon Marketplace/Shipping Destination.
- Finally, click Proceed to Checkout (this option will direct you to your cart and selected marketplace to complete your order).
For books in Live with Unpublished Changes, the steps are basically the same but before you can click on Order Author Copies you have to find the ellipses (“…”) next to the book you want to order.
Once you get your books you can give them out as you wish and personally request a review from readers.
You don’t only have to limit yourself to things like novels but you can also publish and give out, for free, stuff like notebooks, journals, diaries, logs, etc.
Making money on Amazon KDP has never been easier and the best part is you don’t have to write a single word! Hundreds of people on KDP are publishing things like journals and notebooks with niche-specific or creative designs. We will help you with the entire process from niche selection, to design, to product creation, and keyword selection for high converting listings.
