Are there ways to line up verified buyers prior to your book launch that can write reviews on Amazon?

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Tyrika Williams answered

Yes; if you do a presale, those buyers will get the book immediately upon release. Include a message in either the front or back matter that encourages them to leave a review once they finish the book. You should also encounter them to join your mailing list, that way you can continue to build a relationship with them.

C.J. Anaya answered

Absolutely. The key is to build a a book review team or a launch team, and one of the best ways to go about doing that is through your email list. If you don't have a newsletter set up yet or a way to get people on your newsletter you'll have to start with that first. I'm hoping the folks who read this are a little more advanced than that and already have their newsletter, reader magnet, leadpage, and autoresponder all ready to go. If you are a newbie and you don't have any of these things, never fear. I have several articles that discuss how you can build your own mailing list of fabulous subscribers at the links below.

When you have people subscribe to your mailing list and they receive that first email with their free book, you'll let them know that the next email will give them an opportunity to grab more free books and jump on your review team.

I send this email about a week after people join my mailing list and download their freebie from me.

Essentially, I invite them to join my review team by giving them a starter library of some of my books to read and review. If they decide to join the team, they are entitled to advanced reader copies of any future books and agree to read and review them.

When I launch a book I give this team notice of the game plan. They get that advanced reader copy about a month before I launch my book. Then I let them know that I will have the book available for free for them to download on Amazon a day before the real launch starts. So my reviewers can download the book for free that first day, which makes any review they post come up as a verified purchase.

Now if your book is enrolled in Kindle Select then you can make your book free for up to five days during the launch. Just depends on how many days you want it to be free. I usually just have it free that first day it is up, and then it goes back to full price or a discounted price after that. I just need it free long enough for my review team to go download it. Then they can post their reviews as soon as possible.

If you don't have your book enrolled in KDP Select then you just need to make sure you have the book priced as free on sites like Kobo, B&N, and iTunes so Amazon will price match and make your book free. You will need to let Amazon know the book is free on these retail sites, and you need them to price your book as free for a short promotional period.

That's pretty much it.

Below are some links to articles I've written and YouTube tutorials I've created to teach you about building your mailing list and creating your own review team. I even have a link to a book on Amazon that goes over the steps needed to create your review team with templates included. Hope these free resources help you out.

Autoresponders
https://bit.ly/2FUvdh5

Review Team
https://bit.ly/2IqEZN8
https://amzn.to/2FTEplH

Reader Magnets or Lead magnets
https://bit.ly/2jHmwiF

Video Tutorials
https://youtu.be/ZTwlYzOUpAA
https://youtu.be/ONjBBK0Qs5w

Mark Barnes answered

This is an important question. Here’s what works well for us. We release the Kindle version at a low price, prior to the paperback, and encourage our audience to grab it before the special launch price ends. Then we ask them to leave an honest review. We get 10-20 verified reviews with this strategy. There are variations on this that can be employed with email lists and Facebook groups.