Being an Indie Author is really hard. Traditionally published authors have pre-built reviewer teams, a budget for big review sites like NetGalley, and have a reputation for higher quality books. Many reviewers will only accept ARC’s (Advanced Reader Copies) of traditionally published books which limits us even further.
However this year I decided to see if given enough time and effort, I could compete with the big guys. It turns out, I can. I hope I can save you some time with this list I’ve compiled. This list does not include any paid reviewers and all of them comply with Amazon’s policies. (Note: I am not sponsored by any of these companies and these are opinions I’ve formed through my own research.)These are in no specific order.
Free Review Companies
1. Reader’s Favorite
This company offers one free review per book. It’s quick and easy to submit your book on here too. Why not?
https://readersfavorite.com/
1. Reader’s Favorite
This company offers one free review per book. It’s quick and easy to submit your book on here too. Why not?
https://readersfavorite.com/
2. BookSprout
If you make a free account you can get up to 20 people to download your book. You can set preferences which tell the reviewers which website to post the reviews on. Booksprout will also send reminders to the people who downloaded your book so they remember to do the review.
Note: Only 5/20 downloaded my book but I know authors who have had more success with it. It’s free, give it a try.
https://booksprout.co/
If you make a free account you can get up to 20 people to download your book. You can set preferences which tell the reviewers which website to post the reviews on. Booksprout will also send reminders to the people who downloaded your book so they remember to do the review.
Note: Only 5/20 downloaded my book but I know authors who have had more success with it. It’s free, give it a try.
https://booksprout.co/
Paid Review Companies
This does NOT mean that you are paying the reviewer. You are paying the company to find reviewers. The reviewer gets nothing but a free book and leaves an honest review. Also, keep in mind that sending free paperback copies to reviewers costs between $8-$20 depending on where you ship them, so some of these pay-per-download websites are much cheaper than the alternative.
This does NOT mean that you are paying the reviewer. You are paying the company to find reviewers. The reviewer gets nothing but a free book and leaves an honest review. Also, keep in mind that sending free paperback copies to reviewers costs between $8-$20 depending on where you ship them, so some of these pay-per-download websites are much cheaper than the alternative.
1. BookSirens
This website got me about 6 reviews in less than a week. It’s another one of those websites where you upload your ebook and then the company does all the legwork. It looks like this company is a little new and has a database of around 500 bloggers that they use depending on your genre.
Price: It cost me about $10 as a setup fee and then $2 per download after that. I had 10 people download the book and so far, everyone has left a review although the company claims only 75% of their reviewers leave reviews, which is still very good.
https://booksirens.com/
This website got me about 6 reviews in less than a week. It’s another one of those websites where you upload your ebook and then the company does all the legwork. It looks like this company is a little new and has a database of around 500 bloggers that they use depending on your genre.
Price: It cost me about $10 as a setup fee and then $2 per download after that. I had 10 people download the book and so far, everyone has left a review although the company claims only 75% of their reviewers leave reviews, which is still very good.
https://booksirens.com/
2. Hidden Gems Books
I recently found out about this website that operates in a similar way as BookSirens. You upload your book, pay a flat fee and then pay per download. The difference is they have a HUGE database of reviewers and their service books up almost A YEAR IN ADVANCE. My advice? Jump on that list while you’re in editing. Depending on the genre, you can get about 40 reviews from this website and the turn around time is a WEEK. They don’t promote many ARC’s at once so that your book gets a lot of attention. They also follow-up with their reviewers. I’d say at least 80% of the people who downloaded it, reviewed it. (That’s a safe number.) It was probably closer to 95%. I picked one of the smaller genre’s for their list and got about 30 reviews.
Price: I believe the setup fee is $20 and you pay another $3 per download after that… yes… that’s quite expensive but who can argue with those results?
https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/
I recently found out about this website that operates in a similar way as BookSirens. You upload your book, pay a flat fee and then pay per download. The difference is they have a HUGE database of reviewers and their service books up almost A YEAR IN ADVANCE. My advice? Jump on that list while you’re in editing. Depending on the genre, you can get about 40 reviews from this website and the turn around time is a WEEK. They don’t promote many ARC’s at once so that your book gets a lot of attention. They also follow-up with their reviewers. I’d say at least 80% of the people who downloaded it, reviewed it. (That’s a safe number.) It was probably closer to 95%. I picked one of the smaller genre’s for their list and got about 30 reviews.
Price: I believe the setup fee is $20 and you pay another $3 per download after that… yes… that’s quite expensive but who can argue with those results?
https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/
Blogger Databases
Another way to get reviews is to send your pitch to bloggers ONE BY ONE. I’m not going to lie, this is painful. Many will never respond and a lot of the ones who do will ask for a paperback which, as I’ve discussed before, is very expensive.
It takes a long time because you have to read each person’s review policy and update your pitch to match. I sent about 2,000 pitches to bloggers in my genre. I got about 100 confirm that they’d review it and of those (so far) 40 ish have reviewed my book.
It was painful but after a while, bloggers started contacting ME asking for a review copy and recently I’m seeing more pictures of my book being posted on Instagram. Most of the pictures I’ve used on this blog are from bloggers and Instagrammers who I’ve found through these databases.
Although this part of the process is miserable, some of these databases make it easy to at least identify the genre of each blogger. The number in brackets indicates approximately how many bloggers are on each database.
Another way to get reviews is to send your pitch to bloggers ONE BY ONE. I’m not going to lie, this is painful. Many will never respond and a lot of the ones who do will ask for a paperback which, as I’ve discussed before, is very expensive.
It takes a long time because you have to read each person’s review policy and update your pitch to match. I sent about 2,000 pitches to bloggers in my genre. I got about 100 confirm that they’d review it and of those (so far) 40 ish have reviewed my book.
It was painful but after a while, bloggers started contacting ME asking for a review copy and recently I’m seeing more pictures of my book being posted on Instagram. Most of the pictures I’ve used on this blog are from bloggers and Instagrammers who I’ve found through these databases.
Although this part of the process is miserable, some of these databases make it easy to at least identify the genre of each blogger. The number in brackets indicates approximately how many bloggers are on each database.
Let’s talk about NetGalley
Netgalley is the website that the pros use to get reviews. Indie authors can use it too if they have the $275 ish to spend on it, but from what I’ve read most Indie authors aren’t happy with the results, mostly because when you put your book up there, you’re competing with the BIG NAMES in the industry. Why would they review yours when they can review their well-known favorite author? That’s why I can’t recommend NetGalley. (Unless you’re swimming in money) There are ways around this. The book promotion website Books Go Social, offers a free month on NetGally with your book promotion. I chose to use a different option (their giant email list.) but got curious about the NetGalley option. I emailed them and asked if they had some kind of additional add on. Due to their partnership with Netgalley, they offer one month on there for $79 and gave me a coupon for an additional 40% off. That seems much more worth it for me.
Netgalley is the website that the pros use to get reviews. Indie authors can use it too if they have the $275 ish to spend on it, but from what I’ve read most Indie authors aren’t happy with the results, mostly because when you put your book up there, you’re competing with the BIG NAMES in the industry. Why would they review yours when they can review their well-known favorite author? That’s why I can’t recommend NetGalley. (Unless you’re swimming in money) There are ways around this. The book promotion website Books Go Social, offers a free month on NetGally with your book promotion. I chose to use a different option (their giant email list.) but got curious about the NetGalley option. I emailed them and asked if they had some kind of additional add on. Due to their partnership with Netgalley, they offer one month on there for $79 and gave me a coupon for an additional 40% off. That seems much more worth it for me.
Other methods:
Some of the best advice I’ve gotten is to give your book away for free as much as possible at the beginning. Give away 500–1000 copies before your release. ESPECIALLY to friends and family. Those reviews are worth more than money, they ultimately will decide if you qualify for the big book promotion websites, if Amazon will organically market you, or if you will fade into obscurity along with my first novel.
I hope you found this list helpful. Feel free to share it around to indie authors who are looking for reviews.
What tactics are YOU using for gathering reviews? Leave a comment below and I’ll try them out (and then pass your idea off as my own) bahahahaha. ❤
What tactics are YOU using for gathering reviews? Leave a comment below and I’ll try them out (and then pass your idea off as my own) bahahahaha. ❤
If you’re curious how many reviews my novel Kingdom Cold has, the link below will take you to Amazon to check it out. Don’t forget to grab your copy while you’re there. ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cold-Brittni-Chenelle-ebook/dp/B07L87KQLJ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
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