My book on Amazon is:
“Earn More Tips On Your Very Next Shift…Even If You\’re a Bad Waiter”

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Benigno/e/B007KDIWMI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Just thought I’d share that information with you.

You can also join Book Bump groups – you will need to Google it for an explanation

I don’t think I have your book Nicole – I think I have got so used to getting free ebooks and $0.99 ones in exchange for reviews that $5.18 is out of my comfort zone – sorry!!

At my last workshop presentation on my Kindle book’s topic Goal Success (EFT Tapping) I offered the delegates the opportunity to download the book FREE on April 1 (a date they would remember) and said in return for reviews I would be willing to give them a BONUS – free EFT-Matrix Reimprinting coaching session with me on SKYPE (worth £60) on achieving their most pressing goal. I followed up with an email – but you have reminded me to follow up again 3 weeks later.
Do you and others think this is too much like a bribe?

However, one thing holds for ALL books: you don’t want a lot of puffy 5-star reviews. You’ll actually lose credibility. Anita is absolutely correct on this score

I also absolutely don’t recommend paying for reviews.

And while you’ll hear that people love getting more reading material, I can tell you that I turn down free books almost every week. So do other reviewers.

There’s nothing wrong with asking people nicely if they’d like to review your ebook if you send a pdf. They *should* disclose that they got a review copy. You’ll notice those little notes about reviews “submitted through the Vine program?” We get those items free, we review a certain percentage to stay in the program, and there is absolutely no pressure to write any kind of review.

On the positive side, everybody should *want* to write reviews, especially if you have a niche outside Internet Marketing. I’ve gotten clients, buyers and subscribers from my reviews – http://www.BoostBusinessWithBookReviews.com –
Now that I’m playing bigger in the career change market, I’ll be writing lots more reviews because that’s what my prospects read.

However, it’s not ethical to ask for rave reviews. I tell people upfront that I’m an honest reviewer; I might ignore a book and not post a review but I’ll tell it like it is.

I just checked my 9 book reviews from the past year: 4 were books by friends, 3 were books I just happened to buy and like, and 2 were books by people in a Facebook group for Kindle writers, who asked for reviews on free days.

It takes a bit of time and care to write a meaningful review. In the internet marketing sphere, especially where you KNOW the author, one should be careful to talk about the book, and not the person, if possible. It is so easy to look at reviews and figure out that the author’s posse wrote all of them!

And PLEASE don’t name the price or that you got it on a “free day.” Some authors start out at 99 cents and raise their prices when sales increase, so you would be kind to remain silent on the pricing.

** Nicole, I was surprised to see that I never wrote a review for your “Playing Well with Others” book, because I have mentioned it in podcasts. Guess I’ll go correct that now (and not just because I like you and Kelly) 🙂

But when I promote my next Kindle book (I have 5 now) this discussion gave me the idea: ask my list subscribers to buy, read and review, in exchange for a gift.

The few comments I have on my Kindle blog, I asked for because I knew other bloggers who had subscribed.

Helpful topic.

I would agree that asking your “network” is a good way to go. I utilise Facebook for this. I also track down colleagues and other interested parties (lecturers, other authors, editors etc) on Linkedin and ask if they would like a free copy for a review on Amazon. It helps if you can send a hard copy out to these people. Use Lulu for hard copies.

The other way I have done this is to access an interested “group/s” on FB and tell them up front you have just published your book on (whatever) and you need to have it reviewed during the FREE period on kindle. I’ve been successful with that a couple of times.

I learned the hard way not to use forums for the above technique. I got crucified for asking for reviewers on a forum (it was a public forum). It might be better if you are on a private forum. i.e. A “paid for” membership forum but I’ve never tried it.

I’ve give reviews many times on Amazon but in particular I’ve given glowing reviews twice for printed books. Both times because I was a guest author contributing a chapter to the book 🙂 So maybe ask for a few guest chapters from other authors and then they’ll feel compelled to give a great review… maybe!

I definitely think the only 2 options are, 1. Ask and 2. Give away free copies. It’s very difficult to ask someone to buy and then review unless they are your “friend” already. It sound like “Hey! Buy my book. And Oh! By the way… After you’ve given me your money I would like you to give me a great review as well.”

And lastly, I agree that if you give less-than-favourable reviews then (most times) you’ll almost certainly get over the top vitriol in return. This happened to me both on eBay, and on eLance. I now never give poor reviews for anything.