Make it easier for readers by giving them a direct Amazon review link they can use to write an honest reader review.

I’ve created a short video that shows how to send them directly to the review form for your book on Amazon.

Finding your direct Amazon review link

All it takes is a few clicks. Here’s how to do it:

Abbreviated transcript/instructions:

1. On your book’s sales page, go to the review stars at the top under the book title. (No reviews yet? I cover that later in the video.)
2. Hover your mouse over the stars. Click on “see all customer reviews.” That takes me down the page to my reviews.
3. Underneath the summary of reviews, you’ll see the option to “review this product.” Click on “write a customer review.” It takes your readers to the review template. This is where readers review your book.
4. To share that specific link, go to top of your screen and copy the URL. Use a URL shortener (I use bit.ly but there are others) to make a shorter version.
5. When you don’t have reviews already, from your sales page, scroll down to customer reviews. (You’ll still have the customer review section.) You’ll see the “write a customer review” link. Click on that.
6. Copy that URL and shorten it.
7. Share the link with readers. In particular, include it when you give them the Build Book Buzz Reader Book Review Form.
8. Add it to the end of your book so readers can click on it in the e-version or  type it into a browser for the print version.

Why this is important

Like it or not, reader reviews are the “social proof” readers look for when making a decision about buying a book.

Most authors struggle to get reviews, so the easier you make it for readers to write a short, honest, and meaningful review, the more likely they will be to support you with a review.

For help finding readers who write reviews, be sure to read “9 places to look for readers to write reviews” on this site.

What’s your best tip for getting reader reviews? Please tell us in a comment! 

How do you decide what to read next?

If you’re like most of us, you might hear about a good book from a friend or see people talking about it on Facebook.

But what makes you decide to hit the “buy” button online or look for the book in a store or library?

There’s a good chance it’s the reader reviews online.

In fact, according to one study, 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.

That gives readers like you a lot of clout, and it’s why it’s so important that those reader reviews are honest and factual.

Book lovers appreciate your short, honest reviews

But it also underscores why it’s so important that you write short, honest reviews of the books you read. Other readers count on you to help them decide if they should spend their time and money on specific books.

They don’t need, want, or expect you to write the kind of book review you wrote in high school or college (ugh!). But readers love it when other readers tell them what they liked about a book or why they’re glad they read it.

They want just a couple of sentences that reassure them that the novel tells a fascinating story or the nonfiction book was useful, helpful, or inspirational. (Or not!)

Please review the books you read

That’s why I’m asking you today to review the books you read on Amazon and Goodreads.

When you write reviews, you’re also helping your favorite authors.

If nobody likes an author’s most recent book, that writer might not get a chance to write another one. That’s not good news for you if you love that author’s books.

Reviews are a sign of popularity; authors with popular books can continue to write and publish more good books.

So please: Review the books you read.

Together, we can keep those books coming.

Thank you!

Sandra Beckwith, BuildBookBuzz.com owner

NOTE TO AUTHORS: You can help your fans review your books with the new Build Book Buzz Reader Book Review Form. There’s one for fiction and another for nonfiction. Each will help readers review any book in minutes by following the prompts on the form.

Make it easy for your fans to support your books with reviews. This is the missing piece you’ve been waiting for.

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month it’s “Libby,” the smartphone and tablet app that lets you download audio and e-books from your local library system.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that my new best friend Libby has changed my life. Thanks to this resource, I’ve significantly increased the number of books I’ve read. I listen to them while exercising, driving, and cooking.

Anything that makes it easier to read more books (even if it’s through your ears) is a good thing for all of us. As authors, reading helps us become better writers when we pay attention to details like format, flow, and dialogue.

Naturally, if your book is available in libraries, it helps you reach far more readers, too.

Libby is free to download at your favorite app store, but you need a library account to use it.

When my first book was published in the dark ages – the 1990s – I didn’t have to think about online reader reviews.

Amazon was only starting to sell books when WHY CAN’T A MAN BE MORE LIKE A WOMAN? was released in the spring of 1995; Barnes and Noble was still a strictly bricks and mortar business.

That meant that reader reviews came in the form of good, old-fashioned, word-of-mouth  recommendations among friends. If you liked a book, you told someone: “You will love this book.”

It was a pretty simple process.

Reader reviews have power

In today’s publishing environment where the Internet lets us recommend books to anyone, online reader reviews have become powerful and influential. In fact, most readers rely on them to make purchasing decisions.

Whether they should or shouldn’t doesn’t matter. The fact is that they do.

This can be frustrating. Unless you’re at the same level as authors who are household names — think John Grisham, Jodi Piccoult, Carl Bernstein — you probably struggle to get reviews.

No matter what you do, and no matter how popular your book seems to be, getting reviews from fans can be a real challenge.

Is that your fault?

Are you doing something wrong?

Maybe.

But maybe not.

2 main reasons readers don’t write reviews

There can be so many reasons why people don’t review the books they read.

I wanted to know what they are, especially because even award-winning authors struggle to get readers to write reviews. So I did a little digging.

I asked readers why they don’t review books.

Here’s what they said:

1. The process is intimidating. They don’t know how or where to start, or what they should even share in a review.
2. They think writing a review will take too much time.

Can you blame them?

The “missing link” for reader reviews

It’s up to you as an author to help them get over those two significant obstacles to reviewing your book.

And now you can.

The “missing link” for reader reviews is a resource that helps them write something meaningful in just minutes — something that removes those barriers.

I’ve created that resource — well, make that two resources — one for fiction, another for nonfiction. Both use a simple process for writing a short, meaningful, and honest book review in just minutes. 

I’ve reader-tested them, and readers love them! They told me that they will review more books now because they know how to do it quickly and easily.

Get more reader reviews

Now I’m bringing my solution to you.

My unique new Reader Book Review Form for Fiction and Reader Book Review Form for Nonfiction, available for the first time this week, have the potential to significantly increase the number of reader reviews you receive.

Each is a fill-in-the-blanks PDF form that asks readers key questions about the book they just read (the questions for fiction and nonfiction differ so there’s a form for each category). The forms follow the steps used by Amazon, starting with the rating and ending with the review title.

The questions help readers focus on precisely what other book lovers want to know about the book they’re reviewing. 

Whether readers type their answers into the form or print it and hand write their thoughts and opinions, the result is a short, pithy review they can post on any site that accepts reader reviews. And it all happens in just minutes.

Help readers discover great books

Help yourself and help readers. You owe it to yourself to purchase one of these forms.

And, as you might expect if you’ve been hanging out here with me for awhile, I’m giving you more than a form with your low purchase price of just $29. You also get:

• A list of ways to use and distribute your groundbreaking form
• A social media image that encourages readers to write reviews plus suggested text to post when you share the image on Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks
• A sample blog post outline that educates readers on how their reviews help other book lovers

I hope you’ll join me in giving this form to readers. Buy it once for just $29 — share it as many times as you want!

It could be the one thing that finally gets you the online reviews your book deserves. 

CLICK HERE to buy now! 

Once you purchase your form, come back here and tell us how you’re using it! 

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

In keeping with today’s post topic, reviews, this month’s tip is the Book Reviewers Yellow Pages.

Use the search box under the big blue image on the website to search 2,411 book bloggers by genre and category.

It definitely skews toward fiction — with the exception of memoir and biography — which makes sense. Nonfiction authors should be looking for bloggers that write about their topic.

As always, be sure to visit each site before requesting a review. You want to know as much as you can about the blogger you’re contacting.