For today’s post I want to talk about how to encourage reviewers to post their reviews or other sites as well. It’s often in the authors best interest to have reviews on many different sites. This includes everything from Goodreads, Bookbub to blogs, Instagram and social media pages to vendor sites like Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Google Play, Apple and more. Often reviewers won’t post on all those places, but there are ways to encourage reviewers to post on more sites than they currently do. And that’s what I am going to be talking about in this post.
Having reviewers post their review on multiple sites is often referred to as cross posting their review and that’s what I’ll call it in the rest of this post. You want potential readers to be able to read reviews for your books no matter where they shop or check out books, so having reviews on multiple sites is great.
Why do reviewers not review on other sites?
In my experience the explanation for why reviewers not post everywhere is often because they simply forget, don’t know that it helps the author and in some cases they can’t or it takes too much time/ effort. For example Amazon has some policies in place that you have to spend a minimum amount of money each year to be allowed to review products, Bookbub only allows those who set their country to US to review at the moment and Smashwords only allows you to reviews books you bought on their site. Then there is the fact that most sites require you to have an account on that site, which takes time and effort for the reviewer to set up and which might not be worth it if they never use that site. I think only Barnes & Noble is the exception and you can review without account there. So that’s something to keep in mind when asking reviewers to cross post. This is also why a lot of my tips focus on making things easier for reviewers, asking them to cross post and letting them know how much cross posting helps authors.
How to encourage reviewers to review on other sites
- Ask on social media. One of the easiest ways to encourage reviews on other sites is to simply ask your fans on social media. Let them know you would like some more reviews for your books (or ideally ask for reviews for a specific book) and include the link or links to where they can review. It’s a great way to get more reviews and get more reviews on multiple sites.
- Ask in your newsletter. Similar to my first tip you can also ask in your newsletter for people to review on other sites. Make sure to include the links to the sites where you want more reviews.
- Include all site links when possible. A way to make the first two tips more effective is by actually including all site links to where you would like reviews. This also works outside of asking for reviews, if you include the links to all sites where readers can find your books they might be more likely to review your book there as well. Having a link ready saves time and makes it easier for readers to find your books on the various sites as they won’t have to look it up first. For those times when you don’t want to include a long list of links, or when posting on social media like Instagram and Twitter where having one links is easier, consider setting up a Books2Read link for your books. This site creates one link for your book that then brings the reader to a page where all the vendor sites are listed for your book. If you set up an account on their site you can also rename your link to something easy to remember.
- Ask your ARC team and reviewers to cross post. When looking for more reviews on other sites, a great place to ask is your ARC team or the reviewers you contact for a book. It helps to include this ask and all book links whenever communicating with your ARC team or even afterwards if you want more reviews on other sites for older books. These are some great moments to ask them to cross post reviews: upfront when contacting them with the review request, when sending out the ARC, when your book releases and is ready for reviews and in any other communications about the review copy/ ARC. Make sure to include all the direct links for your book on the various sites to make it as easy as possible.
- Make it a requirement for your ARC team. If you want to go the more strict route you can even make it a requirement for your ARC team to review on multiple sites. I’ve seen everything from authors requiring reviewers to post on at least X different sites or to post on at least a specific site. This all depends on where your book is available and where you value reviews the most. If your book is wide this is a great way to get some reviews on the other storefronts by requesting reviewers review on at least 2 vendor sites.
- Ask for review links on multiple sites from your ARC team. Another way to encourage cross posting on other sites is to ask for multiple links when it’s time to review. Either provide all the links there and ask them to sent you multiple links or links for specific sites or set up a form where you have space for multiple site links or even ask for specific ones.
- Focus on one site at a time. Another method to encourage cross posting it to focus on one site at a time. This works best if you only have a few books. For example first focus on Bookbub, list how many reviews you have there or how many reviews you want there or even just state you would like more reviews there. Once you have more reviews on Bookbub, focus on the next site where you want more reviews. Focusing on one site at a time can help as it is less effort for reviewers to cross post on one site and they might be more likely to do so then if you ask them to post on multiple sites.
- Focus on one book at a time. If you have multiple books out already it can help to focus on one book at a time instead of one site at a time. In this case you mention the book you want more reviews for and then provide all the links to sites where you would like reviews.
- Emphasize the importance. And last but not least when asking people to cross post their review it can help to emphasize how important or helpful cross posting their review is for the author. Some reviewers don’t know this or are happy to help, so being kind and explanatory in your communications about this can be a big help.
Related Posts
