Getting Amazon Reviews

This has to be one of the hardest things to do.

The Ebook and Indie publishing market is absolutely saturated with titles, and Amazon is bursting at the seams with new books being squeezed into the published sausage like so much mincemeat every day. Newly published books sink like stones. Forget the "I published a book and got drowned in a truckload of money as a desperate publisher recognised my unique snowflake talent and hit me up for a contract" stories. I literally think that winning the lottery is both easier and less arduous.

One of the few things that one can do to try to stand out is to have a book with some (hopefully) positive reviews. That in itself is a very difficult thing to achieve. Amazon (understandably) cracked down big time on the paid review scene, because there's an inherent bias involved in reviewing a book that somebody just paid you for. Amazon wants reviews to grow "organically".

Sounds good.

But what does that mean? It means that people buy your book, and the subject matter within moves their soul and they just have to write a review for you on Amazon. Except for that people won't buy a book with no reviews if there's an equal title next to it with a bunch of 5 star reviews. They'll buy that one instead. So would I.

So, what can one do?

Free KDP giveaways are touted as one of the best ways to get people to read your work and to slowly accumulate those little golden nuggets. That's right. That book you just wrote? Ya gotta give it away for free if you want to be read. But wait! You didn't just think you could give it away and thousands of people would download it, did you?

No. Everybody is doing that, so you have to advertise your free book. Once you get over the fact that you have to pay folks to give your book away to an audience, you come to the next realisation that they don't want your stinkin' book with no reviews, you have to have at least ten or so good ones before you get the honour.

I had a bit of a laugh at the chicken - and - the - egg situation, but its a situation a shedload of authors find themselves in with no easy solutions.