Are You Wondering How To Post A Review on Amazon?

If you’re a writer you may know how hard it is to get reviews for your books. But it’s not necessarily that readers won’t leave reviews—sometimes it’s simply that they don’t know how to do them. This blog article should be of help to those readers. I thought it might be a good idea to actually share how to post a review. It’s simple when you know how.

Before you can post a review, you need to have an Amazon account that has successfully been charged for the purchase of a physical or digital item. You don’t need to have purchased the product you’re reviewing though.

Now to submit a review you just have to do the following:

Go to the product detail page for the item on Amazon.

Click ‘write a customer review’ in the Customer Reviews section.

Rate the item and write your review.

Click submit.

That’s it. That’s how you post a review. But what if you want to post a video review? Video reviews are becoming more popular, after all.

To upload a video review you just have to do the following:

Click the link beside ‘uploading a video?’

In ‘share your opinion,’ select whether you wish to submit a video or written review.

Write or upload your review.

Click preview your review to make sure your review appears as intended.

Click publish review to submit.

That’s it. You should be able to review any book, or product, you’d like to share your opinion on. Just give it a try.

Secrets of the Amazon System

New authors are always asking questions about Amazon, and the way Amazon works. It can be confusing to try and navigate all the intricate details of Amazon—but with this blog article I’ve tried to answer a few of the more commonly asked questions as simply as possible. Let’s learn some of the secrets of the Amazon sales machine.

Customer Power At Work

Publishers do not have any control over “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” feature, but you, the customer, can. This feature is another of Amazon’s logarithms, and it’s all about the shopping cart. You can encourage your readers to buy a book you want to be associated along with yours, and that can get you linked up with a heavier-hitting author. There are workarounds to a lot of Amazon’s formulas. Use them to your advantage. It can help sales.

Working With Cost Control

Amazon is effectively cost-controlling your book. If you’re a KDP author (self-published through Amazon), then you know that you get a much nicer cut (70 percent as opposed to 30 percent) of your sale price if you price your book between $2.99 and $9.99. I’ve said in previous posts that I think this is akin to price fixing. And even though countless people have made compelling cases to me about why they will never buy an e-book for over $9.99 (and I get it), it’s important to note the power of Amazon’s conditioning. We do not believe an e-book is worth more than $9.99 because Amazon has trained us to believe it’s not worth more than $9.99. Nothing to be done about it; I just feel compelled to bring this up again.

How Author Central Works…

You need to claim your book via Author Central. Many authors know this and somehow forget to do it. When you publish a new book, you must claim it. Claim books you’ve contributed to as well, if you can. Claiming books on Amazon is like collecting chips; you’re building your little empire and making your bio page more robust. Amazon Central is an extension of your author platform and should be tended to as such. Update your photo, bio, and other information as regularly as you would your website.

Sales and Information

The sales information tab inside Author Central is not an accurate measure of sales. When you go into Author Central, they give you access to Nielsen Bookscan ratings, a helpful tool. However, Bookscan is not a measure of Amazon sales, nor is it a measure of overall sales. It accounts for approximately 70 percent of through-the-register sales. It’s not something authors can or should use to compare their sales against, though it can be a good general gauge for how well your book is performing.

Spotlight Review: Street Wise By Robin Rance

A fascinating tale that will take you in its arms and drive you on a journey that will keep you up all night, and ready for more books by Robin Rance!

“Street Wise” is one of those novels that I’m still puzzling over, sometime after finishing it. The author makes some interesting choices in terms of technique. So, this review is really my reflections.

It seems convoluted to start a review with the ending of a book, but this novel is actually a rather long tale, nearly 200 pages, so before I get into the journey, allow me this one break with decorum. The ending. Oh, this ending. Whenever anyone asks me which book ending I love the most, I usually have to think before I answer, because some of the greatest books in the world I have ever read have such amazing endings—it’s hard to choose. And until now no other novel has come close to changing my answer and becoming the ultimate choice. But “Street Wise”, has won this distinction because it has such a satisfying finale, and I’ll say no more than that for fear of ruining the experience for anyone else.

A young reporter with a secret, and a deep-seated hate for men after a failed marriage, her intrepid photographer and a publisher with his own secrets. An assignment of a lifetime.

Find a homeless bum and basically make him over to look like he just walked out of the pages of GQ, is the assignment.

What starts out as just a simple make-over story ends up with many plot twists and has a serious dark side to it, as well as quite an unexpected romantic angle. I can easily say that this is 5 stars read because it is full of suspense, questions, chemistry, and heart wrenching moments. What more could I possible want? Robin Rance… you have become one of my favorite authors.

Street Wise

Robin Rance

 

 

Tragedy has left her alone in the world.

Angela Howard has one more chance to find that newspaper story that will put her on top of her game again. Orphaned and working for the Seattle Sun, she’s sworn off men for life because of her ex-fiance’s betrayal. She stumbles across a story that will change the life of the homeless man she finds living under the streets of Seattle. She agrees to help him find the criminals that put him there in exchange for his story…

Betrayed and left for dead.

John Smith was betrayed by those that he trusted. He’s lied to and deceived into giving up his fortune to save his family from heartache. He’s left living in the alleys and under the highways of Seattle, after becoming ill and penniless. His last chance for survival has brought him closer to many other street people. He’s hell-bent on finding the ones responsible for ruining his life. A beautiful newspaper reporter, Angela Howard, and her photographer, Peter, offer him a chance to share his story and find those that have betrayed him…

What they all discover while working together brings them closer to finding the truth, but will it be too late to save them all, once the truth is revealed?

Follow them all as they leave the harsh world of the homeless and plunge feetfirst into the world of high finance, crime, and human trafficking. Why don’t you pick up a copy today?

 

 

2017 Book Review Winner

The next winner chosen for the 2017 Book Review is R. L. Seago! Congratulations and I can’t wait to begin reading your book.
M. L.

Spotlight Review: The Titans of Ardana By J.S. Frankel

Science-Fiction from a writer who really understands how to get the most from his work. Captivating, fascinating and absolutely worth getting for your Kindle—you won’t regret it!

You must ask yourself a few questions when you buy a book. Just a couple. The first is—have you read anything else by this author? The second is—do you think this book is worth reading?

I have a couple of problems. I hadn’t read anything by J.S. Frankel before. That made me uneasy. I also didn’t know what to expect from the book. That made me wonder.

That’s also my problem because “The Titans of Adana” is an excellent book—and the author should be better know.

Why?

Well… imagine that show you enjoy watching. The lead star? You find him, or her, quite interesting. You’d love to meet them. You make the effort and you discover that they are nothing at all like the people they represent. Imagine your surprise, horror, and shock.

That’s this book.

Surprise, horror and shock. The blurb on Amazon gives nothing away, and I wondered why before I read the book.

Now I understand why.

But I’m not going to tell you.

Martin Calder, a fan, is obsessed with a show called “The Meta’s.” He heads out to get an autograph from the star of the show—Dana. But when he discovers… something…. Well… you’ll have to read it.

I don’t like to give away spoilers in my reviews. However, I’ll say this, the story of Martin and Dana is one that absolutely kept me entertained. I don’t often find myself so drawn into a book that time passes without my knowledge.  This is a wonderful story. It made me very thankful that I decided to read it.

The author, J.S. Frankel did an excellent job weaving his tale. The description and story are both enthralling. The ending was wonderful. Miracles do happen every day—and sometimes they come in book form.

I’m going to recommend this to anyone who needs a reminder about good books being out there for everyone who wants them.

I’m not going to say a lot more about this book other than read it for yourself.

You won’t have any regrets. I promise.

If you do—I’ll eat my hat.

 

The Titans of Ardana

J.S. Frankel

 

“Hold nothing back. Give everything.” That’s the catchphrase of Martin Calder, a teenager obsessed with the hit television show, The Metas. On a mission to get an autograph from the star of the show, Dana—no last name given—he comes face to face with reality. Dana and her twin brother, Van, the co-star of the show, aren’t exactly from around here. Why don’t you pick up a copy today?

Why Are Reviews So Important?

Since I’ve been writing reviews of other authors books—I thought it might be a good idea to share why I started doing it. Once you’ve read my reasons… you may want to start reviewing books too!

Friends don’t let friends read bad books.

Writing and sharing book reviews is a community service to all of your reading buddies. Everyone wants to know about the next best book and NO ONE wants to waste their time with a terrible one. Help a book brother and sister out and write that review!

Try To Write Reviews

Reading is important.  But let’s take a step further, lets read critically, and figure out what makes the book great or terrible and write thoughtful reviews.  Your writing will benefit from this process and so will author. Win. Win.

Don’t Be Negative

If the book isn’t good enough to give it a 3-star rating stop reading it. The responsible thing to do is to tell the author that you did not finish the book and give an explanation. Negative reviews are important and they should be written especially if it the book was poorly edited. But most bad reads just come down to personal preference, not bad books. Writing unfounded nasty reviews hurts the author’s livelihood and makes the reviewer look like a tool.

Helping Others

Writing and sharing a book review is a benefit for the writing and reading community.  You help like-minded readers discover a great book and you help the author by providing valuable feedback.

Over 85% of all Amazon Kindle readers rely heavily on book reviews before making an online order to have the copy of the book. A good book review helps other readers determine if the book is for them.

The Algorithm

Positive ranking plays into the Amazon algorithm.  More sales, more reviews, equal higher ranking and exposure to more book buyers.

Read the book, wrote the review, but have you “liked” similar reviews to yours?  You should.  Clicking that like button gives like-minded reviewers more influence on the books they review and boosts that review up the list of reviews.

Also, part of the algorithm is the “If you liked this, then you might like that” book recommendation.  This is particularly helpful for the debut novel or authors with a smaller following

Exposure, Exposure, Exposure

More reviews get authors exposure to other book review sites, blogging communities, and book clubs. More reviews equal more sales for authors and more informed readers. It doesn’t take much to write a few lines about a book you read and even less time to “like” a review.

Book Review Winner 2017

The next winner chosen for the 2017 Book Review is J. S. Frankel!

Congratulations and I can’t wait to begin reading your book.
❤ M. L.