{"id":6379,"date":"2026-05-20T14:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6379"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:15:12","slug":"book-review-resources-how-to-make-getting-reviews-easier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6379","title":{"rendered":"Book Review Resources: How to Make Getting Reviews Easier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting book reviews ain\u2019t easy.<\/h2>\n

It takes\u00a0time. Preparation. Organization. Money (probably). Skill. Patience.\u00a0It takes success to make more of it.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also deeply rewarding in more ways than one. Reviews are powerful marketing tools.\u00a0They help you find readers and learn how you are satisfying them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love it if you published your book in July and all you had to do was watch the reviews come in. But unless you\u2019re Sarah J. Maas or Freida McFadden,\u00a0you\u2019re probably going to have to do some work behind the scenes to make it happen. (Heck, even they\u2019re going to try behind the scenes too.)<\/p>\n

In publishing and marketing, you can either do the work yourself or you can pay for it.<\/p>\n

But you cannot just pay for customer reviews.\u00a0(And if someone is asking you to in your inbox,\u00a0RUN).<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, you can use resources that will save you time to do other marketing and publishing tasks. And you could use that time.<\/p>\n

Here are some options for getting your time back.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Subscribe to Write Indie<\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get the easiest one out of the way first.<\/p>\n

Write Indie is my baby.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a book marketing guy. I worked for indie presses, I pitched thousands of reviewers, wrote descriptions, designed press releases\u2013you name it, I tried it. Now I run a website that reviews small press and self-published books, receiving hundreds of pitches each month.<\/p>\n

Every two weeks, I write about what\u2019s new and useful in the world of book marketing. And since I\u2019m a guy who wrote a book on how to get book reviews<\/a>, I put a whole lot of attention on that facet of marketing. Come hang out if you like in-depth, laid-back emails on all things indie publishing.<\/p>\n

But in addition to emails every couple weeks, I\u2019ve got three freebies that you can benefit from right now: an ebook on how to use book reviews to market your book, an essential book review targeting spreadsheet to help you catalog your review journey, and twenty platforms who are accepting books for review right now. <\/p>\n

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\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>Sign up for Write Indie<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Email marketing platforms<\/h3>\n

You might already have this! Mailchimp<\/a>, Mailerlite<\/a>, Kit<\/a>; the list of email services for authors goes on. If you want to grow your readership over time,\u00a0you\u2019re going to want to keep them engaged and\u00a0updated. Social media is good for that. But it is not as good as email (for most people).<\/p>\n

Did you notice that when you post a review request on social media, it feels a little desperate? It\u2019s not. You can definitely do it. But probably only once a year. You\u2019ll want to spruce it up with a graphic, a story, or jokes, but it can still come with mixed (if not bad) results.<\/p>\n

But with an email marketing service, you can ask every single person who signs up for your newsletter in their private inbox, without having to hit the send button.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The way to do this is with something called an\u00a0Email<\/strong>\u00a0Automation<\/strong>. If you sign up for Write Indie, you receive five emails from me in five days, ones I am not writing fresh for each new subscriber. Those first five emails are my Automation. A sequence that goes out to everybody who signs up.\u00a0I wrote them once, and then they work their magic all on their own. In an Automation, you introduce yourself, offer a freebie, provide a few things of value, and pitch your book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since you can schedule these things out ahead of time, you can set up a review request thirty or so days after set-up that asks them for a review with a clickable link. They\u2019re still in the window of time when they\u2019re most interested in you, and they\u2019ve been given enough time to read the book if they signed up for your newsletter right around the time they started reading.<\/p>\n

Google Forms<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s another resource that takes no time after you set it up. And this one\u2019s free!<\/strong><\/p>\n

On your website, I\u2019d recommend having a sign-up form for people to request review copies from you. These can come from media members or customer reviewers as long as you communicate correctly.<\/p>\n

You might not see a lot of requests early on, but don\u2019t count this tip out yet. Give it time. If you have people visiting your website, you\u2019ll have people wanting to review you. And if you don\u2019t have to pitch them, they\u2019re already very interested in you.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example of mine:\u00a0https:\/\/forms.gle\/itojYRBnNWuSnEKR8<\/a>. As you see, it can be very simple.\u00a0(And fill it out if you dare!)<\/p>\n

Book review sharing websites<\/h3>\n

Remember how I said I like to save time?<\/p>\n

Well, forget about that for a second!<\/p>\n

Instead, give your time to other hard-working authors, read some cool indie books,\u00a0and watch it pay off in the long run with customer reviews.<\/p>\n

Pubby.co<\/a> and BookBounty<\/a> are websites where you pay a small-ish fee\u00a0every month to read indie books, get a \u201csnap\u201d or \u201cpoint\u201d for reviewing it online, and then use that point to request reviewers to review your book. It\u2019s a clever little work-around.\u00a0Amazon doesn\u2019t let you review authors\u2019 books who have reviewed your book (\u201creview swapping\u201d), but you can\u00a0totally review other authors\u2019 books and ask other authors to review yours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, this only works if you have the time to read fellow authors\u2019 books. I like it because it helps everybody. Other authors need reviews too. (Oh, and reading indie books<\/a> is cool. Did I mention that?)<\/p>\n

Bookfunnel or StoryOrigin<\/h3>\n

Think of Bookfunnel <\/a>as a better Google Form. Instead of going to a form, readers are sent to a customizable landing page where they can request your book for review and download the ebook in real time without signing up for anything.\u00a0So you won\u2019t have to pop in after the Google Form to send the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not why I like it so much. I like it because Bookfunnel sends those downloaders timed\u00a0review requests<\/strong>. It can even connect with your website if you\u2019re selling on something like WooCommerce and request reviews from the people who bought your book off your website.\u00a0You can give them the option to sign up for your newsletter as well and deliver your freebies.<\/a><\/p>\n

Storyorigin<\/a>\u00a0is a similar option.<\/p>\n

Editorial review platforms<\/h3>\n

You can\u2019t buy customer reviews, but you can buy editorial reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to get media and trade reviews as an indie author. You\u2019re battling the giants for media space. (In most cases.) And if you don\u2019t have many personal connections to high- or low-profile authors to write blurbs for you, you can try getting reviews from media platforms for free, but you can\u2019t guarantee that you walk away with (m)any. And if you\u2019re trying to have multiple editorial reviews on your Amazon page and Amazon A+ graphics before publication, you can\u2019t guarantee the timeline in which you get them.<\/p>\n

Unless you pay for them.<\/p>\n

Remember: You aren\u2019t paying for good reviews. You are just paying for a spot at the top of their reviewers\u2019 TBR pile. If you need quotes to use on your marketing material, paying for editorial reviews is your fastest, surest way to do it.<\/p>\n

Here are some platforms that you can pay for reviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Independent Book Review<\/a> (my personal, biased favorite)<\/p>\n

Indie Reader<\/a><\/p>\n

Booklife<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirkus Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n

Goodreads Giveaways<\/h3>\n

You can give away about 100 ebooks to interested readers on Goodreads for $119<\/a>. After those 100 readers read the ebook for a while, Goodreads sends them a review request. Since they have to be Goodreads members in order to request books, they might already be reviewing books.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Goodreads ratings are starting to show up on Amazon product pages!<\/strong> So if you have 20 reviews on Amazon, you might have 40 on Goodreads. It looks like different people are reading your book. That\u2019s the social proof you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

I ran a Goodreads Giveaway for my book back in November 2025. It was up for two weeks, and 544 people entered to receive a free copy. 501 of those people added it to their Want to Read list, which might show up on their Amazon pages when they\u2019re buying books.\u00a0My book is in a less-popular category on Goodreads than, say, a mystery thriller, so other genres could get even more people who entered.\u00a0I ended up with three Goodreads reviews as a result. It\u2019s not groundbreaking numbers, but it\u2019s something.<\/p>\n

Free & discounted promo sites<\/h3>\n

If you put a review request at the back of your book, every single reader who reaches the end will be a potential reviewer. If you put a clickable link or a dynamic QR code, you make it easier on them.<\/p>\n

So when you discount your book and advertise that discount on a popular newsletter, you are putting yourself in a good position to get downloads.<\/p>\n

If you or your publisher enrolls in KDP Select, you can offer the ebook for free for 5 days out of every 90. You might not think it\u2019s beneficial to make $0 on a sale and pay for people to see it, but if you get 800 downloads, you\u2019re crossing your fingers that\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0of them are reaching the end of your book and your review request page.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obviously not guaranteed that you walk away with reviews after this, but I\u2019ve received multiple almost every time I ran an advertisement on a promotion site.<\/p>\n

You might want to check out\u00a0Bookbub<\/a>,\u00a0Written Word Media<\/a>, or\u00a0Fussy Librarian<\/a>\u00a0as options for this.<\/p>\n

Google Sheets<\/h3>\n

If signed up for Write Indie, you probably already know about this. Hence: the end of the post!<\/p>\n

You should be researching and pitching reviewers in order to get book reviews. The only way to make sure you don\u2019t get lost in the process is by organizing yourself. Google Sheets is a free way to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just separate the review pitches by category (like blurbs, media reviews, launch team members, and customer reviews), add the person\u2019s name, email, the angle from which you\u2019ll be pitching, and the date you pitched them. That way, you don\u2019t duplicate pitches or lose track of who said they\u2019ll leave a review but haven\u2019t come around to it yet.<\/p>\n

And of course, The Truth<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

About me<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Joe Walters<\/strong>\u00a0is the founder of\u00a0Independent Book Review<\/a>. After falling in love with reading and writing at Kutztown University, he did the only thing he could think of: quit his teaching job, become a server, and write as much as possible.<\/p>\n

When a local job in publishing popped up on a job board, he traded in his PF Chang\u2019s apron for a bookish t-shirt and has been promoting indie press and self-published books ever since. He\u2019s also the author of\u00a0The Truth About Book Reviews<\/a><\/em>. When he\u2019s not writing or doing editorial or promotion work, he\u2019s playing with his kids or reading indie books by Kindle light.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Book Review Resources: How to Make Getting Reviews Easier<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting book reviews ain\u2019t easy. It takes\u00a0time. Preparation. Organization. Money (probably). Skill. Patience.\u00a0It takes success to make more of it. But it\u2019s also deeply rewarding in more ways than one. Reviews are powerful marketing tools.\u00a0They help you find readers and learn how you are satisfying them. I\u2019d love it if you published your book in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}