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42
Steve Weber
of mouth. The initial readers who enjoy your book will recommend it to
friends, and those new readers will recommend it to more.
Don’t ask for reviews from people who haven’t actually read your
book, even your mother. The result will be an unconvincing review that
will detract from your book’s credibility rather than bolster it.
Amazon Top Reviewers
Stolen Child author Keith Donohue was lucky that Amazon Top
Reviewers helped make his book a bestseller; it wasn’t part of his plan.
But you don’t need to depend on luck. Seek out Top Reviewers yourself
and ask them to read and review your book. This takes some legwork,
but if your book is a good one, it will be well worth the trouble. Reviews
from some of Amazon’s Top Reviewers can seriously boost the credibility
of your book.
Amazon’s Top Reviewers are listed here:
top-reviewers.html
Top Reviewers have a special badge accompanying their pen names,
such as Top 1000 Reviewer, Top 500 Reviewer, Top 50 Reviewer, Top
10 Reviewer or #1 Reviewer. Having one of these badges displayed
among your book’s reviews isn’t the same thing as an endorsement by
Amazon—it’s better. It’s a vote by a recognized community leader—
someone who takes reviewing seriously, and has earned a reputation for
helpfulness.
Rankings of the Top Reviewers are determined by a point system
based on the number of reviews written and the number of positive votes
those reviews receive when people click Yes in response to “Was this
review helpful to you?”
Top Reviewers are regular Amazon customers who simply enjoy
reading and critiquing lots of books. Many of them review several books
per week—sometimes at the invitation of an author or publisher, but
usually by just following their personal interests. Despite receiving no
payment for their efforts, Amazon Top Reviewers compete furiously to
climb the rankings ladder. The No. 1 reviewer, Harriet Klausner, has
posted more than 12,000 reviews and, not surprisingly, says she’s a
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