Last week we talked about different types of Amazon reviews. This week, let’s discuss more ideas for getting reviews on Amazon!

Use Free: Giving away your book can be a great way to drive both sales and reviews. The caveat, though, is that you need to have a letter (like the one I just shared with you) in the back of your book. You need a call to action (CTA) in order to get people to do something – like drop a review on Amazon. And yes this does work.

Goodreads: Another great place to network and get more reviews is Goodreads. And while a lot of authors like to complicate this process, Goodreads does not take a ton of effort. In fact, if you’re just on there a couple of times a week, that’s enough. Do book giveaways pre-publication, post-publication, and then any time after it’s on Amazon.

Blogger Prize Packs: Often the best way to drive interest to a book is to get a big blogger review. As I mentioned earlier, bloggers are busy, but a way to stand out is to offer a nice prize pack for them to give to their readers. By prize pack I don’t mean your book, though that’s great, too, but instead, think about gift cards, a Kindle device, or some other really cool item. For one giveaway, we did a spa gift basket which got a ton of buzz. Bloggers love to share great stuff with their readers and prize packs could go a long way to getting their attention.

Start a Club: When the first round of reviews started to appear for The Publicist (the book I mentioned before) we created an “Exclusive Reader Club,” which essentially meant that to thank them for the review, they’d get an early copy of the next book for free. Yes, I said free. Then we let them invite their friends into the “club” – and again, the price to gain entry was a review – good or bad. It didn’t matter (well it does, but it’s unethical to say that the entry price is a 5-star review). Not all reviews were great, that’s what happens when you put this out to the masses, but we did get a lot of reviews for the author.

Incentivize: After we created the Exclusive Reader Club, we then offered a free tote bag to anyone who reviewed the new book. The first fifty reviewers (again, good or bad) got a tote as a “thank you” for taking the time to review.

Reviews, and the process of getting them, has gotten more challenging and time intensive as new books continue to flood the market. Reviewers have a lot of choices. But if you’re smart about your efforts, and if you leverage Amazon’s features wisely, you can really boost your book’s exposure, and your sales. One final note on Amazon reviews: Sometimes, in order to get reviews, you need to become a reviewer. I’m not suggesting you compete for their top review spot, but instead help other writers in your market by reviewing their books. It’s not only a great way to pay it forward, but they may offer you a review, too.

Don’t miss How to Get 100+ Reviews on Amazon: Different Types of Reviewers – Do They All Matter? Part 1 !!