Positive book reviews are endorsements of your books. If you visit Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other online book sellers, you will see reviews for many of the book listings there. These valuable endorsements are often read by potential buyers to help them determine if a book is worth reading or the investment to buy it. Personally, I will often forego or be hesitant to buy a book that has no reviews. I will certainly pause when there are negative comments about the content.
You can encourage people who buy your book to write a review, but I suggest that you avoid trying to bribe or pay someone to do so. There was a popular author of over a million eBook sales on Amazon who suffered a severe drop in credibility when it was discovered that he had paid to get people to write positive reviews for him. This type of approach to get notoriety and make money is viewed poorly by many people and is likely to come across as a sleazy attempt to sell your book.
Send out advance copies of your books to potential reviewers listed in newspapers and other sources in order to get valued feedback.
Another strategy, often used by authors publishing Kindle books, is to give free copies of a book for a given number of days once it is listed. This potentially generates readers who will later post a review on the Amazon site.
Some sites for asking for legitimate reviews include:
- http://www.authormarketingclub.com
- http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewer
- http://www.book-review-circle.com/
For more ideas on ways to promote yourself and your book(s), get a copy of Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors.