Book Marketing Tip #12. Encourage your Fans to Purchase and Review Your Book

NOTE:  In January 2018, an updated and expanded edition of The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide was released, offering 65 book marketing ideas and new "Deep Dives" sections exploring social media strategy, how to work with beta readers, and how to earn free press coverage. 

To download the new Smashwords Book Marketing Guide for free, here are the coordinates:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Kobo
Smashwords

The new 2018 edition of The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide is also available as a serialized podcast on the SMART AUTHOR podcast, starting with Episode 10.

Click here to access all SMART AUTHOR podcast episodes.






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The information that follows on this page is from the 2013 edition of the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, which will remain here for historical purposes only.



Book Marketing Tip #12.  Encourage your Fans to Purchase and Review Your Book 

Your prospective readers will feel more comfortable purchasing your book if they see that their fellow readers have already read and enjoyed it.  Encourage your fans to write honest reviews at Smashwords and the other retailers that carry your book.  If you find shills (like your mother, grandmother, husband/wife, best friend) to write artificially glowing or embellished reviews, your book buyers will feel suckered and you can bet they’ll react with their own review that is perhaps more negative and mean-spirited than if they didn’t feel suckered in the first place.  So encourage your fans to write intelligent, thoughtful and balanced reviews.  Encourage them to state what they liked and what they didn’t like.  Your prospective readers will appreciate the honesty.