If you bought a book on Amazon, the author probably asked you to post a review of the book. While you may not put much thought into the application, the author is focused on getting good reviews.
There are a variety of reasons why book reviews are important on Amazon, but here are the eight most important from an author’s perspective.
1. A book review helps other readers determine if the book is for them or not. There’s nothing worse than someone who already knows a lot about a subject buying a book and then finding out it’s for beginners. Or vice versa.
While authors generally try to explain who the book is for, a good review can more effectively reinforce that point.
2. A well-written review points out things to look for in the book. Since you often highlight your favorite parts of the book in your review, you make it easy for other readers to look forward to that section. It also helps highlight the content that is most relevant to readers, and that provides the author with valuable feedback for his next book.
3. One review encourages the next. Not everyone wants to be first in line, so you’re doing yourself a great service by being the first person to write a book review. Once you’ve got the ball rolling, one review leads to another, and readers often take advantage of comments and respond to others’ comments.
Also note that you do not have to write a review to comment on a review. You can join the conversation about a book at any time.
4. The more positive reviews a book receives, the higher it will rank. The better it ranks, the more people see it. The more they see it, the more likely they are to buy it. So by posting a positive book review, you are helping the book rank up for more exposure.
And a note about star rating: anything below 4 stars is considered “not recommended”, so it helps to be generous with your stars.
5. Simply liking a review helps boost that review up the review list. As a result, book reviews appear in order of the most helpful first. So, whether or not you write a review, please take the time to read and rate the reviews already posted.
6. Once a book has 10 reviews, it is eligible to be included in the “also bought” list, as well as in the “you might like” recommendations. These listings, in turn, add to the number of sales the book is likely to receive.
7. After an unspecified number of positive reviews, a book may be included in “Recommended for You” emails sent to individual Amazon readers. As with any other step in the review process, this significantly increases the number of sales a book can receive.
8. Many book review sites will not consider a book for review unless it has multiple reviews on Amazon’s book page.
With these eight items in mind, you’ll understand why book reviews are important and why an Amazon author asks you to write a review on the books you buy.
