How to Get Reviews for Your Self-Published Book

Nudge readers to talk up your book with these tried and true tactics

By Susan Self - September 12, 2011

A major hurdle for self-published authors is the difficulty of getting reviews in the mainstream media. Few, if any newspapers, magazines or trade publications will review a self-published book without an up-front payment, and even then the finished review is usually banished to a dreary back section of the magazine or sequestered in a cheesy "special supplement" that's easily overlooked.

But the phenomenal success of the self-published eBook, promoted solely through social media and online communities, has radically changed the definition of a "valuable review," lessening the power of the traditional gatekeepers. Unknown but talented self-published writers have been selling an extraordinary number of books by simply promoting themselves on Facebook and message boards, where they can introduce and talk up their work to armies of potential readers with no middleman to screen.

While online promotion can certainly lure people to your book's Amazon page or website, you need to be ready for them. Seeing few or no reviews or endorsements, a potential buyer might understandably hesitate to "proceed to checkout."

So, which reviews and endorsements actually matter to potential readers? And, more importantly, how can you get them?...