amazon com book review guidelines

• Free books: okay to giveaway
• Paid reviews: okay to pay
• $50 Amazon spend eligibility requirement
• How to disclose a relationship

Amazon Book Review Policy Demystified for Authors

Book reviews are important for all books, but they're especially so for self-published books, because most of their sales are online. And when it comes to selling books online, Amazon customer reviews can make or break shopper interest in a book.

Let's begin by defining the difference between customer reviews and editorial reviews, and by debunking myths.

• Customer Reviews: Written by a reader—ideally by someone who bought the book—who also assigns a number of stars (1-5). Most authors are referring to customer reviews when they reference “Amazon reviews.”
• Editorial Reviews: An editorial review is a formal evaluation of a book, usually written by a professional reviewer or expert within a genre. These are also often called blurbs, endorsements, and testimonials.

Editorial reviews are added by the author via Author Central. See our guide: Create and Manage the Perfect Amazon US and UK Author Central Page.

Myth 1: You cannot pay someone to write a review.

False . Amazon permits payment for editorial reviews.

Myth 2: You cannot give people your book and ask them to review it.

False . You can, as long as you are clear that you welcome all feedback, both positive and negative.

Before Amazon became the dominant book retailer—in fact, before the internet—publishers would haul cartons of advance reading copies of their forthcoming books to book-industry tradeshows. These would sit in piles, free for the taking, with no requirements that someone write a review, much less provide their contact information to receive a copy.

The $50 spending requirement

Sometime in 2017 (they do not date their policy changes), Amazon inserted a new requirement into their Community Guidelines under the heading Eligibility:

To contribute to Customer features (for example, Customer Reviews, Customer Answers, Idea Lists) or to follow other contributors, you must have spent at least $50 on Amazon.com using a valid credit or debit card in the past 12 months. Promotional discounts don't qualify towards the $50 minimum.

Some have complained that this is overreach and another way for Amazon to force people to buy from them. We don't see it this way. In fact, we consider it a positive.

Many shoppers rely on customer reviews to guide our consideration of a product. How can we make an informed choice if those reviews are polluted by paid reviewers who never bought the product? And that's what was going on. Anyone could write a review; in fact, reviews were being posted by fake accounts.

Here’s a look at what’s permitted, what can get reviews removed, and how reviewers should disclose their relationship to the author.

What’s permitted

• Amazon says this: “You may provide free or discounted copies of your books to readers. However, you may not demand a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review. Offering anything other than a free or discounted copy of the book—including gift cards—will invalidate a review, and we'll have to remove it.”
• Reviewers can remove or edit a review after it is posted.
• Amazon says that just because a review is written by a friend or a social media connection doesn’t necessarily result in that review being taken down.
• A reviewer can link to another product—such as their own—if it is relevant and available on Amazon.

Friends & family

A common question we hear is whether friends and family can review a book. Amazon says this:

We don't allow individuals who share a household with the author or close friends to write Customer Reviews for that author’s book.

It used to be that Amazon encouraged authors to have their friends use the customer discussions feature to promote their book. That feature has been discontinued, and readers are being referred to Goodreads Groups  (requires login).

TIP: One way Amazon can monitor who your close friends are is by comparing the reviewer's contact information with the contact information in your account's address book. For example, if you've used Amazon for Christmas shopping, you probably don't want to bother asking any of those people to write a review.

When reviews are removed, or Amazon never posts it

• Never invite (or allow) a family member or someone you have a close personal relationship with to review your book.
• If a reader says they wrote a review, but the review was taken down or they say it was never posted, tell them to send an email to [email protected] .

When you want to get a review taken down or modified

If you feel a review violates guidelines , you can click the “Report abuse” link or email [email protected] .

Examples of guideline abuse may include use of obscenities, a privacy violation, impersonating others, and the usual libelous, defamatory, harassing, threatening, or inflammatory statements.

NOTE: If someone makes a negative comment about your book, and you fix what they are referring to, neither they nor Amazon are required to change the review to reflect your correction. You may, however, consider replying to the comment with a thanks to the commenter and a note that the issue has been fixed.

How to disclose your relationship

If you give your book away for the purpose of getting a review, you must instruct your prospective reviewer to disclose how they received your book.

There are many ways for the reviewer to do this; it just must be conspicuous. They can put it at the end of the review (most common), the beginning, or in the subject line.

Here are some sample phrases you can suggest if asking others to write a review for your book.

• In the subject line: I received an ARC for an objective review.
• I received a copy of this book via [name of source, i.e., NetGalley, Edelweiss, the publisher, author] and I’m reviewing it voluntarily.
• I wrote this review based on an advance reading copy that the publisher sent me.
• This review was based on a complimentary pre-release copy.

Knowing that someone reading an “author-encouraged review” might discount its value, some people will add an additional comment (if true), such as one of these:

• I've since bought two more copies; one Kindle for myself and a paperback for [my mom/dad/friend]
• That said, I liked it so much that I bought . . .

Amazon resources for more details or help

NOTE: You might need to be logged in or have an account to see some of these pages.

• Community guidelines . There are several pages with this title, but with different URLs. From what we see, it’s the same content: find the guidelines here .
• KDP has a good resource in their help section. Login to KDP, in the top menu click Help . On the left, click Promote Your Book , then click Customer Reviews . There you will find several FAQs and answers.
• Amazon has guides devoted to Promotional Content and its relationship to reviews; find them here .
• Most of us sell books on Amazon using one of their book-specific selling tools: KDP, Advantage, or a third-party such as an IngramSpark. You can also sell books via Amazon Seller Central’s Marketplace, which has its own policies. Turns out, these policies are the same for books. Create and Manage the Perfect Amazon US and UK Author Central Page. .
• Email Amazon to report problems or issues with reviews: [email protected] .

About The Author

David Wogahn

30 thoughts on “amazon book review policy demystified for authors”.

Thanks for sharing this quick primer on Amazon’s book review policies.

Allow me to show my ignorance. How do you set up an advanced review copy? How do you send it to potential reviewers? Do you pay for each ebook sent? Do you offer some code in a newsletter or during a conference presentation? (So far, I have the best method of getting book reviews is giving away exam copies to fellow English teachers at teacher conferences or professional development workshops.) Giving away free ebooks sounds far less expensive. Or can you set up ARC for hard copies too? How do get the attention of potential book reviewers? Is there a service you recommend? Why?

Another question: can you use or set up an ARC for a book published last year? Or is that verboten?

I do offer free sample chapters on my website, and I encourage readers to share their positive experiences with the book online. So I do some things to generate reviews. Thanks!

Very helpful info, David. Unfortunately, Amazon is often totally unresponsive to questions about why they removed reviews. I’ve posted reviews since 2009, more than 100 of them, and about three months ago Amazon deleted EVERY SINGLE ONE of them. They will not tell me why, except to refer me to the guidelines. Yeah, many of the reviews I posted were for advance reader copies authors gave me to review, but many were verified Kindle purchases. All of the reviews were honest, very few of them 5-stars, and I always included a sentence saying I received a copy of the book without obligation to post a review. Now, Amazon will not let me post any new reviews. Go figure.

This article is FANTASTIC–thank you so much for researching and writing it!

I did note, on the Prohibited Seller Activities page (the “find them in a different place” link in #4 above), about 40% down the page, it read, “Additionally, you may not provide compensation (including free or discounted products) for a review.” Hopefully, this admonition is rendered null and void for books, based on your Amazon quote early in the article, “[These] changes will apply to product categories other than books. We will continue to allow the age-old practice of providing advance review copies of books.”

Eric, you can learn more about the how question by reading my post here: https://www.authorimprints.com/advance-reader-copy-arc-books-ingramspark/ . As to some of your other points, I have a short email course about pre-release marketing here (it’s free): https://www.davidwogahn.com/book-pre-launch-course/

The A in ARC stands for advance, so it wouldn’t be an ARC after the book is published. Nevertheless, you should always be looking for people to review the book and many won’t review ebooks. The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages is the best place to start to get connected to potential reviewers. https://bookrevieweryellowpages.com/

Sounds like you got caught up in a “dragnet.” So no books whatsoever? Not even a “NY Times Best Seller”?

That’s right, books are excluded. The crackdown last year was on all sorts of “review clubs.” Links to those sites are now dead, or have been sold for their traffic. (Yeah!)

Amazon Reviews can make or break a book. I am a veteran Indie author and tried various marketing techniques, but nothing beats a reviews. For authentic book reviews, I use: http://www.usabookreviewers.com I get a few reviews and also exposure for my book.

People bought my book through Amazon. I offered no deals. Only thing I asked was the review to be honest. Reviews were done and Amazon would not post them because they were friends of mine on my Facebook link. I got the reviews on my FB wall however– other people never saw them. So the reviews are not there. The positive nor the negative. All were positive on the actual book– the kindle version was really bad. I saw it was and took it down myself. Friends felt bad for me but it is what it is. A good book –I believe with all my heart will make it regardless of circumstances. It is being redone and it is a very good read.

I published Garage Band Theory 4 years ago, it’s a music education book has been doing OK on Amazon and elsewhere since day 1.

Currently I have 57 Amazon reviews, am trying to push to the 100 mark.

I played professionally for 30 years, met a lot of people and a big % of the people on my FaceBook friends list are musicians – most are what you’d call ‘casual acquaintances’ – played some gigs with some, met lots at a job, mine or theirs – more than a few are teachers, and I thought it was time to reach out to them, offer a free digital copy if they’d consider leaving a review, be sure to tell them to include “My remarks are based on complimentary copy of this book that I received from the author. ”

I have endorsements from a few well known ‘stars’ and a few of my good friends and family did leave comments early in the process – but none of the people I plan to contact are going to leave a positive remark unless they feel it’s deserved.

I recently had heard that Amazon was not allowing any FaceBook friends to review – I did a search, found this post, and suddenly it seems that it could be a very bad idea to go through with the plan.

Is this gonna do more harm than good if a few were to leave positive comments?

Hi Duke, good to to hear from you. This is a really tricky area with lots of variables. My advice is to try a sample size group and see how it goes. Execute your plan in stages or phases.

Thanks so much for the explanation – I think Amazon scares all of us who’ve self-published. I just found out that I can’t buy any advertising with AMS. It is only for people who published with them, on Kindle Direct, and my company, Mill City Press, will disown me if I try to go Kindle Unlimited, the only way I can buy a sponsored ad. Mill City said they’d never done an Amazon ad, which just chilled me. These are the pros in advising self-published authors?

But there is one thing you haven’t addressed, and that’s the ghetto reviews can find themselves in if they are not Verified Purchase. No one will answer this question. Apparently, no one really understands, and Amazon won’t take questions. A review may appear, or it may not. So, when you’re madly giving away expensive copies of your novel on Facebook, in the glimmer of a hope of a review, you need to be aware of this.

There are no easy answers. You just have to try and know some won’t make it through. I’ve heard some crazy stories about reviews blocked or taken down. I’ve been blocked, too. That’s very interesting about Mill City, surprising in fact.

Regarding the requirement to “have spent at least $50 on Amazon.com using a valid credit or debit card in the past 12 months.” I see this as a discriminatory policy if you bought a book at AMAZON. In my case I want to post a review and am not permitted due to I didn’t spent $50.

Unfortunately, there were businesses that specialized in writing bogus reviews of products they never bought and this policy helps to stop or limit that activity. It has as much to do with toothpaste as it does books.

I would like to “advertise” my book on Amazon but I did not have it published by Amazon. When you look up a book, at the bottom it will say, “If you like this you might also like…..” and it lists other books or it might even say “Customers who review this might also like….” or other types of advertising for books with comparable content. How do I go about getting my book in these space?

I’m new to KDP, and my question doesn’t specifically apply to reviews, but can’t seem to find an answer explicitly stated on Amazon’s policy info. I’m doing low content books, journals, coloring books, kids activity books… I wanted to get a couple for my nephew and ordered through my Prime account because paying full shipping cost for author copies was twice as much as the books! Is ordering a couple coloring books from my account an issue? I guess it adds to my sales rank, but how big a deal is something like that? I think my mom ordered some journals as well.

You are buying them as an customer would, at the retail price, so no problem.

Those places you reference are decided by Amazon based on what people are buying. It works like any retail store–the retailer decides these things.

Can an author, as of August 4, 2021, register with any of the book reviewing companies found on the internet and pay as much as $500 and have them provide book reviews and then post them on Amazon?

Don, the answer is a qualified yes. I cannot confirm “any,” but there are many reviewers and review businesses you can use, free or paid. Most of those reviews would be editorial reviews and they are posted using Author Central. Here is a list of fee-based editorial reviewers: https://www.authorimprints.com/paid-editorial-book-reviews/

I can never figure out how to ask an author question on amazon. My self-published book recently won a Bronze Award from READER VIEWS. I’m wondering if it can be displayed on my Amazon book page, not just the Amazon author page. Thanks for information.

Put it on the cover of the book.

A couple of professional contacts wrote books which I bought, and I wanted to leave reviews to support them. However, Amazon says there has been unusual review activity associated with my account and will not let me leave a review. I don’t think I’ve EVER left a review, so someone must have done so using my name. How do I remedy this? I really would like to leave a couple of reviews.

This is not uncommon and Amazon won’t explain. You can try emailing them to ask. If you bought the eBook, try leaving a review from the eBook. there should be a link at the end. You can also leave the review on Goodreads.

Hi, What about author’s swapping books and reviewing each other? Are there restrictions against this or is this permitted under all circumstances? Thanks!

Can a person leave a review if they only read a few pages of your book? I have a poor review from someone who said they only read a few pages. Is that even allowed? Don’t you have to read a certain percentage of a book in order to leave a verified review? The person actually said in the review that they only read a few pages.

There is nothing preventing authors reviewing other books as long as the reviews don’t violate policies. But what you describe has been tried many times and it works until Amazon figures out what’s going on. Lots of risk in this case.

No rules about that and it applies the other direction as well. You can always protest.

This is a great article. Very insightful. Thanks for the post.

I appreciate the emphasis on continuous learning and staying updated with the latest trends in Amazon selling. Your blog is a great resource for sellers like us who are looking to stay ahead of the competition. Thank you for sharing your expertise!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

How to Write a Book Review On Amazon: 10 Approved Steps

• February 20, 2024

Table of Contents:

How to write a book review on amazon, 1. choose a book you enjoyed, 2. understand the genre, 3. read attentively, 4. personal reflection is key, 5. structure your review, 6. be honest and balanced, 7. keep it concise and engaging, 8. edit your review, 9. post your review on amazon, 10. share your review, final words:.

Writing a book review can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience, especially if you love sharing your thoughts about books. This guide is here to help you learn how to write a book review on Amazon effectively. Whether you’re reviewing fiction vs nonfiction or any other genre, these steps will ensure your review is insightful and helpful to others. Remember, a great review doesn’t require you to be an experienced critic or to have the skills to write a book with no experience . Let’s Jump in!

The first step to writing a book review is picking a book you love. It might be a novel, a memoir, or an exciting non-fiction work. Think about a book that made you smile, kept you turning the pages, or even changed your thoughts. This could be from a range of top story writers  or twitter ghostwriter you admire. When you write about something you enjoy, your words come alive. Your readers can feel your joy and excitement. This makes your review not just informative but also a pleasure to read. Your enthusiasm can inspire others to pick up the book, too!

Knowing the genre you are reviewing is important. This knowledge shapes your review. Like fiction, look at how the story unfolds, who the characters are, and what happens in the plot. It’s about the journey, the twists and turns, and the emotional ride. In nonfiction, focus on how clear and strong the information and arguments are. Ask yourself: does this book teach, persuade, or inform effectively? Understanding the genre helps you highlight the right aspects of the book, making your review more useful and insightful for your readers. It’s like choosing the right tool for the job – it makes everything more effective and fitting.

To write a book review full of insights, reading with full attention is crucial. Go deep into the book’s themes, the writer’s unique style, and how the story moves. Notice how the book makes you feel or think. Are you excited, curious, or moved? Write down these feelings and thoughts. These notes are precious. They help you remember your initial reactions and impressions. When you start writing your review, these notes will guide you, helping you share a genuine and engaging perspective. Reading attentively is like being a detective, looking for clues to understand the story better.

Think deeply about how the book touched you. Did it open your eyes to new ideas or keep you entertained from start to finish? Sharing your personal experience is crucial. It adds a special, relatable quality to your review. Your reflections show how a book can impact a reader. They make your review a list of observations and a story of your encounter with the book. When readers see your journey with the book, it helps them connect more with your review. It’s like sharing a part of your reading adventure with them.

A good book review has a clear structure. Start with a brief book summary like Haunting Adeline , followed by your analysis and personal reflections. Finally, conclude with your overall thoughts and recommendations.

Being honest is vital when you write a book review. If certain parts didn’t catch your fancy or seemed off, it’s important to say so. But remember, balance is crucial. Even if the book wasn’t to your liking, try to spot the good bits. Maybe the writing style was excellent, or some chapters were engaging. Sharing both the ups and downs makes your review trustworthy. It shows you’ve looked at the book from all angles, which is helpful for other readers. They get a full picture, not just one side. So, while being honest, also be fair. It’s like giving a complete map, not just a part of it.

Make your review short and sweet. Long reviews might lose your reader’s interest. Aim for clear, straightforward points. Mix up your sentence lengths – some short, some a bit longer. This keeps your writing lively and easy to follow. Using simple, everyday words helps, too. It makes your review easy to read and understand. Everyone appreciates a review that gets to the heart of the matter without wandering off into too many words. It’s like giving a clear, quick snapshot rather than a long movie.

Before posting, spend some time editing your review. Look for any spelling mistakes or grammar slip-ups. Consider hiring a book editor if needed. Read it aloud to hear how it sounds. Does it flow nicely? Are your points clear? A well-edited review stands out for its clarity and smoothness. It’s like polishing a gem – the extra effort makes it shine. Remember, a few minutes of editing can greatly enhance your review’s impact and readability.

Once your review is polished and ready, it’s time to share it on Amazon. Browse through the page of the book you’ve reviewed. Look for the ‘Write a Customer Review’ button – it’s usually easy to find. Click it, and then paste your review into the box provided. Don’t forget to also give the book a star rating. This rating helps others get a quick sense of your overall opinion. It’s a simple yet important step, like putting the final stamp on your thoughts about the book.

Don’t keep your review to yourself – share it with friends and on your social media platforms. Your thoughts and insights on the book might be what someone else needs to find their next great read. It’s like spreading a bit of joy and knowledge. Your review could spark interest or start a lively book discussion. It’s a simple action, but your opinion can influence and guide others in their reading choices. Sharing is caring, especially when it comes to great books!

Writing a book review is not just about summarizing a book. It’s an opportunity to express your thoughts, feelings, and insights about your reading. Whether you’re discussing books from professional book writers , your review can be a valuable guide for other readers. So, next time you finish a book, take a moment to share your experience on Amazon. Your review could be the one that inspires someone to pick up their next great read!

limited Time offer

50% off on all services.

REDEEM YOUR COUPON: VHBA50

Recommended Blogs

How to write an autobiography: 11 simple steps, narrative voice | definition, properties & examples, what kind of primary sources do you think the writer of a biography uses, hire book authors & publishers at discounted rates looking for a book author or publisher contact us for a free consultation and get 30% off your first project..

Automated page speed optimizations for fast site performance

What Are Amazon Verified Purchase Reviews For Books?

When you check your books on Amazon, hopefully, you will see new book reviews for your titles. If you do, you may see a mix of verified purchase reviews and non-verified reviews.

For an author of a new book, any reviews you receive, good or even not-so-good, can all help to sell your book.

However, reviews are not easy to get, and there are restrictions for some readers.

But first, what are the basic differences between verified and non-verified Amazon reviews?

Article Contents

The two types of Amazon book reviews

Amazon’s guidelines for book reviews have changed many times over the years.

But for a brief outline of the current terms, here’s a quick look at both types of review.

Only customers who purchased a book on Amazon can write verified purchase reviews. These reviews are clearly labeled as verified purchases.

It helps other Amazon customers identify reviews by people who have purchased and (probably) read the book.

Non-verified.

Non-verified reviews can be written by anyone, regardless of whether they have purchased the book on Amazon.com.

These reviews may be written by people who have purchased the book on another website or in a physical store.

They may also be written by people who have received an advanced reader’s copy of the book.

Restrictions on Amazon book reviews

It can be a struggle for new authors to get book reviews on Amazon .

Yes, you can ask family and friends to help you. However, as you will see below, this is not always a good idea.

Amazon’s review policies are now quite strict, with several constraints on who can add a review to a book.

The most rigid restriction by Amazon is that only customers who have spent $50.00 on Amazon.com, using a credit or debit card, in the past 12 months can post reviews.

It’s a similar amount in local currencies on all other Amazon stores.

This limitation means only active Amazon customers can post a review.

Another problem area is real or perceived relationships.

Amazon does not allow reviews by friends, relatives, employers, business associates, or competitors.

For books, competitors, in this sense, refers to other self-publishing authors.

I have been caught by this many times, as Amazon seems to be able to track blog comments and social contacts to establish these connections.

If you think that paying for reviews will help, forget the idea.

Amazon states that it doesn’t allow or will remove reviews gained in exchange for monetary rewards .

Another clause says it doesn’t allow compensated reviews, including cash, discounts, free products, gift cards, or refunds.

Clearly, the best and only reliable way to gain reviews is to sell books.

Free and discounted books

You might think offering free Kindle ebooks using Amazon KDP Select will help get reviews.

It might help, but there’s a catch.

Even if a free book reader has crossed the $50.00 threshold, any review they post will not be verified.

If they have not spent $50.00, which is often the case with free ebook hunters, they cannot post a review.

While it applies more to products other than books, products bought at a discounted price are also not eligible for verified reviews.

Amazon doesn’t explain if this applies to $0.99 ebooks. But if your regular price is $2.99, and you drop it for a while, it could cause an issue.

Are verified reviews better than non-verified?

Sure, a review that bears the verified label probably carries a little more weight with book buyers.

But all reviews help, so I wouldn’t worry too much if you get non-verified ones as well.

The same applies to star ratings.

A lot of Amazon readers now only need to click a star scale to rate a book , with no need to post a review.

In the end, any recognition you can get for your books on Amazon helps.

How can you get more book reviews?

I was lucky because getting book reviews was easy when I started self-publishing.

All I had to do was go to my social media contacts and ask. Most authors did the same to get reviews back then.

But social media isn’t what it was, and Amazon has changed many of its review rules since that time.

The only way now is to sell more books and hope.

You can add a few lines at the end of your books asking for a review, which helps a little.

Book promotion can also improve your chances of receiving reviews, as can having a mailing list from your blog.

Free ebook giveaways might get you a handful of non-verified reviews, which is still fine if you can gain a few.

Yes, you see some new books, especially by big publishing houses, getting hundreds of reviews.

But self-publishing authors don’t have the teams of willing reviewers that major publishers have.

It’s not a level playing field, but that’s the way it is.

The advantages of stricter review policies

As I said, getting reviews in the early days of Kindle Direct Publishing was much easier.

There were very few restrictions on who could add a review on Amazon.

However, the downside was that because almost anyone could post a review, it was quite common to attract nasty and often personal attack reviews from some people.

It was in the bad old days of the infamous Goodreads trolls.

But their notoriety hasn’t stopped completely, as review bombing is a new problem.

On the whole, though, because of the actions taken by Amazon, very few self-publishing authors are now subjected to this kind of bad behavior and personally attacking reviews.

Sure, selling books and getting verified purchase reviews is the best result.

But non-verified reviews and star ratings also help your book’s ranking, so don’t be afraid to use any means at your disposal to promote your books.

Book marketing and promotion are always the most challenging parts of self-publishing.

It’s a catch-22. You need to sell books to get reviews, and you need reviews to sell books.

All you can do is promote your book as best you can and hope that some of those who buy it add a book review.

Related Reading: Why Did My Amazon Reviews Get Deleted From My Book?

About The Author

Derek Haines

More articles.

Amazon Self-Publishing Problems And Solutions For Authors

Can You Delete A Book After It Is Published On Amazon?

Why Amazon KDP Pays By Check For Author Royalties

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

To prevent spam, all comments are moderated and will be published upon approval. Submit your comment only once, please.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Privacy Overview

Amazon Book Review Guidelines

James A. Cox Editor-in-Chief Midwest Book Review 278 Orchard Drive Oregon, WI 53575-1129 phone: 1-608-835-7937 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] http://www.midwestbookreview.com

Site design by Williams Writing, Editing & Design

Kindlepreneur

Book Marketing for Self-Publishing Authors

Home / Book Publishing / Amazon Verified Reviews for Books: Everything You Need to Know

Amazon Verified Reviews for Books: Everything You Need to Know

Verified purchase reviews are the lifeblood of a high conversion rate. With a lot of reviews, people are more likely to buy your book. No reviews, and the opposite is likely to happen.

Amazon verified purchase reviews are especially important, because they prove that your book was purchased and reviewed by real people, not just potentially biased reviewers on your ARC team.

But how do you get a lot of verified book reviews? That is the question we are asking in this article.

• What verified reviews are
• Why they are important
• How to increase your verified reviews by yourself
• A service that can potentially help

Table of contents

• What Are Verified Reviews?
• Why Are Verified Reviews Important?
• 1. Encouraging Reviewers Yourself
• 2. Pay a Company to Encourage Verified Reviews
• Verified Review Service: Bookvertiser
• Final Thoughts

Disclaimer: some of the links in this article are affiliate links, but the cost you nothing extra, and every little bit goes to the Kindlepreneur coffee fund.

The short answer: an Amazon verified review is any review left by someone who actually purchased your book on Amazon.

It is a little bit more complicated than that, though.

Firstly, the review must come from someone who has spent at least $50 on Amazon products within a year. This is to weed out spambots and people who clearly aren't regularly active on Amazon.

Secondly, Amazon specifies that the reviewer can't have bought the book at a “big discount”. However, Amazon does not specify what this means. To be safe, we recommend keeping your book priced at $2.99 or higher. While I have seen verified reviews with $0.99 books, is not a guarantee. And free books are unlikely to lead to verified reviews.

Amazon then lists verified views with a “Verified Purchase” badge within the review.

As online shoppers got more tech savvy, they began to be wary of fake Amazon reviews. Amazon has done a lot to crack down on fake reviews, but it isn't always enough.

For example, Amazon allows authors to give out free copies of their books in exchange for a review. Naturally, this group is going to be slightly biased, because they got a free book.

Don't get me wrong, we absolutely encourage you to have ARC reviewers to get those first initial reviews. But understand that those reviews will not be verified.

By including the Verified Purchase badge, it becomes much more likely that that review is genuine. This leads to increased trust from the customer. The more verified reviews, the greater the likelihood that the reviews are accurate.

And the more a reader trusts that a high volume of reviews are genuine, the more likely they are to convert (aka buy your book).

How to Get Verified Amazon Reviews for Your Books

Since verified reviews require that the Amazon reviewer purchase your book, you cannot simply send your book out for free to an ARC team.

Instead, these reviews have to come from people who have genuinely bought your book.

There is a fine line to walk here, because you cannot pay someone to buy your book and leave a review. 

In other words, you can't encourage a friend to buy your book, then refund them.

So what can you do?

Well, you have two options.

• Encourage reviewers yourself
• Pay a company to do it for you

The first option is to encourage people to review your book. This is something you should do even if you pay a company to help you.

Warning: remember you cannot pay or refund someone to leave a verified purchase review. Doing so is against Amazon's terms of services and could get you banned.

Ultimately, the best way to get more reviews is to make more sales, because the higher the volume of sales, the more people you have that could leave a verified review.

However, there are ways that you can increase the percentage of buyers who leave a review, including:

• Include a review request in your book: make sure that every book has a request for a review at the back of your book, with a link (if it's an ebook) that goes directly to your review page. This should be one of the first things that a reader sees after finishing your book.
• Reach out to your email list: every once in a while, you should reach out to your email list and request that they leave a review. Do this frequently, so your list is used to hearing about it, especially when launching a book.
• Schedule book promotions: book promotions are still one of the best ways to get readers to buy your book. The more readers buy your book, the more likely you are to have reviews.
• Create a quality product: it goes without saying, but the better your book is, the more likely it is to be purchased and reviewed.

Additionally, you should use a tool like ReaderScout to track when reviews are left. This is especially important when requesting reviews from your email list, because you can then track the number of reviews that are left.

ReaderScout is a free Chrome plugin that will notify you every time you have a new review, and it tracks a few other things as well. Plus, it's free!

If you have already done all this, and you still want to get a few extra verified reviews, read on.

Your second option is to pay a company to get you verified reviews.

Important: these companies cannot pay or refund readers to leave verified reviews either. That is why you are not paying them to guarantee reviews. You are paying them to encourage readers to buy your book and leave a review.

It is difficult to find a good company that will stay within the boundaries Amazon has set and still get you quality verified reviews.

When looking for a company like this, we recommend you focus on two criteria:

• Companies that have lasted a while
• Companies with a public face (i.e. real people and not a faceless corporation)

One of the companies that we recommend is Bookvertiser.

Bookvertiser has an audience of highly engaged readers/reviewers in a variety of different genres.

What Bookvertiser does is reach out to this list to encourage them to buy your book and leave a verified review. They will continue to do this until you have reached the threshold of reviews that you select when you purchase.

Note that the costs are not always cheap. It takes a lot of work to guarantee a certain number of reviews, especially when you cannot pay a reviewer or refund them for leaving the review. 

They also can't guarantee that every review will be a positive review. While my experience tells me these reviewers are often kind, you might still get a negative review.

But using a service like Bookvertiser is one of the best ways to rapidly gain verified reviews without putting in a lot of the hard work yourself.

If you use this link and input the code KP5 , you’ll get 5% off your purchase order.

Reviews can be an uphill battle, but they are absolutely worth it.

If you can convince as many people in your audience to buy your book, then review it, you are well on your way to being easily discovered on Amazon.

Get enough sales, and a high enough conversion rate, and Amazon will begin marketing your book for you.

Jason Hamilton

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

Related Posts

How to choose a pen name in 2024 (+ a pen name generator), what is an isbn 11 facts for self-publishing authors, amazon book keyword rules explained (2024 update), sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

Learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks.

Join the community

Join 111,585 other authors who receive weekly emails from us to help them make more money selling books.

Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road

• About Janet Hulstrand
• Book Tour! A Long Way from Iowa
• Demystifying the French
• Praise for A Long Way from Iowa
• Praise for Demystifying the French
• Selected Reviews and Press

How to Write a Book Review on Amazon (or anywhere)

October 6, 2020 at 12:01 pm 4 comments

One of the most helpful things readers can do to help writers (and publishers, and everyone else who works with writers to create and produce books) is to write reviews of books on Amazon, GoodReads, and elsewhere.

Most readers are not aware of just how helpful this simple thing can be. (And it really is simple, as I’ll explain in this post.)

I really love the fact that thanks to the democratizing effect of the internet, readers no longer have to rely only on professional reviewers to tell them what they think about a book. I think it is absolutely wonderful that this information can be shared reader to reader.

How easy is it to write a brief review? It really is easy, and you don’t have to necessarily have bought your books on Amazon to write reviews there. (It depends. It seems that sometimes you do, and sometimes you don’t.) In any case, all you have to do is go to the Amazon page of the book you want to review, scroll down the page (past Product Details, past More About the Author), and click on the bar that says “Write a customer review.” A window will open up and invite you to choose from 1 to 5 stars and then write a headline and a brief review–and it really can be brief! Remember, all most readers want to know is did you like the book or not? And if so, why? This can be said in just a few simple words, no need to be fancy, though if you want to elaborate, that’s up to you, and that’s fine.

You don’t have to use your own name to review books if you don’t want to. You can make up a name. Some people prefer to do that, and that’s fine too.

I will say, I really don’t like the star rating system. The only thing I dislike about teaching literature in college classes is having to assign letter grades to my students. It doesn’t make any sense to me. To me letter grades are strictly (and narrowly) judgmental, and they don’t really provide my students with very useful information: it is my comments that hopefully will do that.

Likewise, I don’t think the star rating system is really very helpful to readers, and it can be quite harmful to writers if reviewers aren’t fair. But sometimes you have to work with the system that exists, not the one you wish existed. And the fact is that those stars can apparently be quite important for some people when they are trying to decide whether or not to buy a book.

In my honest opinion there are very few books that merit either five stars, or just one star. But I often award five stars even when I think a book is less than perfect. (I mean, how many perfect books are there in this world? NOT MANY!!! But there are SO MANY very good books, and they deserve to be bought, and read!)

Likewise, it’s hard for me to imagine ever assigning a one-star review. I would have to really hate a book and think that everyone should know how awful it is in order to do that. I personally would be much more inclined to just not review such a book.

So I would suggest, as you choose the number of stars to award, maybe try not to think so much about whether you loved, liked, kind of liked, kind of hated, or absolutely hated this book. Try to give at least a few seconds of thought to how much effort the author put into writing the book, and allow that to help you decide. It’s important to also remember that how you liked the book is not necessarily the most important thing about it: is it a book that someone who is very interested in this topic would love, even though you found that you were not all that interested in the topic? If so, then why would you give it only one or two stars?

In my opinion, the reason for writing a book review should really be just to help readers find books they will enjoy, and writers to gain new readers. And that’s a wonderful thing to be able to do! Janet Hulstrand  is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the U.S. and France. She is the author of  Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You,  and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France .

Share this:

Entry filed under: About Writers and their Work , Neither Here nor There... . Tags: Amazon reviews , book reviews , books , writing book reviews .

The Other Bonjour Effect… Demystifying the French, via Zoom!

4 Comments Add your own

[…] whether or not to buy (or read) a book we should be fair about it. Here is a post I wrote about how to be fair when writing a review. (Most people don’t know HOW MUCH these reviews help writers: they help […]

Definitely a great read, Janet! I really liked the tips you listed here. Truly, people need a post like this one, since trashy Amazon reviews really aren’t helpful. Thanks so much for sharing!

3. Got Salt? – The Writing Bug  |  September 2, 2021 at 7:28 pm

[…] Write a FAIR book review […]

4. Write a book review on Amazon in a simple, fair and easy way - Private Finanzen  |  September 2, 2021 at 10:22 pm

[…] How to Write a Fair (and Helpful) Book Review on Amazon (or anywhere) […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed

Twitter Updates

• A Long Way from Iowa
• About Essoyes
• About France
• About Hawaii
• About My Family
• About Our Earth
• About Paris
• About Quarantine 2020
• About Study Abroad
• About Sweden
• About the Midwest
• About the Pandemic…
• About Travel
• About World War II
• About Writers and their Work
• Featuring WFH "alums"
• Habits and Techniques of Writers
• Neither Here nor There…
• Uncategorized
• Version française inclus
• Why Words Matter
• Bonjour Paris
• Discover Paris
• Essoyes School
• France Revisited
• France Today
• France-Amerique
• French Word-a-Day
• Joie de Vivre
• Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog
• My French Life/Ma Vie Francaise
• My Part-Time Paris Life
• Out My Window
• ParlerParis Nouvellettre
• Polly-Vous Francais?
• Save the Paris Café
• UnderstandFrance.org
• August 2024
• January 2024
• December 2023
• November 2023
• October 2023
• September 2023
• August 2023
• February 2023
• January 2023
• December 2022
• November 2022
• October 2022
• September 2022
• August 2022
• February 2022
• December 2021
• September 2021
• August 2021
• February 2021
• January 2021
• December 2020
• November 2020
• October 2020
• September 2020
• August 2020
• January 2020
• December 2019
• November 2019
• October 2019
• September 2019
• August 2019
• January 2019
• November 2018
• October 2018
• September 2018
• August 2018
• February 2018
• January 2018
• December 2017
• November 2017
• October 2017
• September 2017
• August 2017
• January 2017
• December 2016
• November 2016
• October 2016
• September 2016
• August 2016
• February 2016
• January 2016
• December 2015
• November 2015
• October 2015
• September 2015
• August 2015
• January 2015
• December 2014
• November 2014
• August 2014
• November 2013
• October 2012
• September 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• November 2011
• October 2011
• January 2011
• October 2010
• September 2010
• August 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• October 2009
• August 2009

Recent Posts

• The Least Boring Summer EVER!
• What Is Going On In France?
• A Wonderful Story Unfolding, and You Can Be Part of It!
• Searching for Home
• We Owe Them All So Much...
• Places I Have Known...
• A Tribute to Flying Officer Charles E. Anderson: Pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force
• Remembering France Under Occupation

Follow this blog via e-mail

Want to follow this blog? Just enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Just click here!

Blog at WordPress.com.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

• GET YOUR BOOK REVIEWED
• GET AMAZON REVIEWS
• SPR BOOK AWARDS
• BETA READERS
• BOOK MARKETING SERVICES
• BOOK REVIEWS
• PRIVACY POLICY

All About Book Reviews and Amazon – A Quick Guide and Rules

What reviews are allowed on amazon.

There’s been some panic in the self-publishing streets about reviews being removed from Amazon and who is going to get sued for their reviews – and a lot of outrage blogging about Evil Amazon. Here’s a quick guide to why you should stop worrying too much and start understanding the different types of book reviews a little better.

There are three kinds of reviews on Amazon:

1. customer reviews.

These are the reviews that Amazon is exercising their right, as a private company remember, to investigate more closely. What Amazon is trying to achieve is a clear picture of product experience. This picture has been muddied somewhat by several factors:

1. “Fiverr” style purchasing of 4 and 5-star reviews by authors – Not allowed

When you see an individual advertising to write and post a favorable review of your book on Fiverr, Craigslist, or other online marketplaces, this is the sort of review Amazon is now suing for. Never buy a customer review from a blogger or individual in this manner nor from a company offering to get their team to directly write reviews for you and post them to Amazon. Aside from that, they will be badly written and possibly copied and pasted over and over from other books. These reviews are most Unverified, i.e. the reviewer does not buy the book, which flags it even further to Amazon. Look for copy that says “We will write reviews and post them to Amazon,” that charge a low amount of money per review and typically without buying the book.

Outcome: Your review will be deleted, and possibly the user will be too. Your book may be demoted in Amazon’s shop lists if you have many of these. If the reviewer is part of a company, it’s likely Amazon already hit them.

Amazon says:

Paid Reviews – We do not permit reviews or votes on the helpfulness of reviews that are posted in exchange for compensation of any kind, including payment (whether in the form of money or gift certificates), bonus content, entry to a contest or sweepstakes, discounts on future purchases, extra product, or other gifts.

2. Authors getting family and friends to write reviews – Not allowed

Amazon is crystal clear on the fact they frown on family and friends writing reviews. Why? Because these reviews are bound to be biased. If you have personal contact and interaction with that person in real life, on a forum, or on email, it’s likely Amazon will delete that review. This is because you could have told the person what to write, or because they will be overly polite about your book because they like you!

Outcome: Most likely the review will be deleted.

Amazon Says:

Promotional Reviews – In order to preserve the integrity of Customer Reviews, we do not permit artists, authors, developers, manufacturers, publishers, sellers or vendors to write Customer Reviews for their own products or services, to post negative reviews on competing products or services, or to vote on the helpfulness of reviews. For the same reason, family members or close friends of the person, group, or company selling on Amazon may not write Customer Reviews for those particular items.

3. Authors swapping with other authors to gain reviews – Not allowed

Again, Amazon is crystal clear. If you have swapped a book with another author, and you think that book is a one-star book, and they have given you a five-star review, be honest: would you then leave a one-star review? No, of course not. So Amazon does not want you to do this, and it is not a good way to gain reviews. I feel like I am talking to the wall with this one. However much you want this to be true, it is just not true I am afraid. Because it is clearly stated in Amazon’s TOS that compensation of ANY kind is not allowed, these reviews will be deleted if a connection can be seen between authors with reviews because it could be argued that compensation was gained in the form of a reciprocal review.

Outcome: The review will be deleted. You also run the risk of losing book visibility if you have multiple offenses of this method.

Paid Reviews – We do not permit reviews or votes on the helpfulness of reviews that are posted in exchange for compensation of any kind

4. Bloggers being paid directly to add a customer review to Amazon

If you pay money to a blog to leave a customer review, or you run a sweepstake in exchange for a review, and that person leaves a Customer Review themselves – let’s say “Honey Raven Book Blogs” (disclaimer: I don’t know if there is a user called this!) puts your review that you paid for, gave a gift card for, or gave any other kind of compensation for onto Amazon under her username “Honey Raven” it is exactly the same as if you bought a review on Fiverr. It is unequivocally not allowed.

Outcome: The review and the user account may be removed.

Paid Reviews – We do not permit reviews or votes on the helpfulness of reviews that are posted in exchange for compensation of any kind , including payment (whether in the form of money or gift certificates), bonus content, entry to a contest or sweepstakes, discounts on future purchases, extra product, or other gifts .

2. Editorial Reviews

These are reviews written by companies that write reviews for publicity, such as Self-Publishing Review , Kirkus Reviews, Clarion, Publisher’s Weekly, and The Independent Review of Books . These reviews are allowed by Amazon, and are posted by the author themselves in the section Amazon provides for these reviews (and sometimes self-populates in the case of Kirkus Reviews) called Editorial Reviews, found in the Book Details page. You can read about how Amazon supports these reviews here.

Outcome: Totally fine, and will help promote your book on Amazon. These are marketing for your book. These reviews will be staying on the site and are an integral part of the Amazon Book Page – built by Amazon themselves .

You can also add these to Goodreads and the back of your book.

3. Verified Customer Reviews Gained by Mailing Lists

SPR has several Amazon Promotions that include getting Verified Customer Reviews. The reason our reviews are allowed is simple: you are not paying us to write the Customer Reviews, and we don’t know the reviewers. We are using our mailing lists to get your book seen, bought, and reviewed by members of the public. We have hundreds of readers on our list who signed up to receive news about books, and when they see a book they like, they told us via a survey a long while ago that they will most likely buy it and review it on Amazon. We have no control over their reviews, and our communication is not interactive.

Therefore, these kinds of reviews are fine to acquire – because you are buying our marketing skills to get your book out there and a happy side effect of the advertising is that you get your Verified Reviews (guaranteed numbers because we have enough people to know the minimum amount of reviews you will get when we market your book). Other companies that have a method like this, such as BookBub. With this method, you may get unbiased Verified Customer Reviews.

Mailing lists are the most effective way to get genuine, verified customer reviews, and is the method favored by traditional publishers and bestselling authors everywhere.

Outcome: Totally fine , and will help promote your book on Amazon if a sale is made before the review is posted as a Verified Review.

The Ten Commandments of Reviews:

• Don’t ask anyone to review your book for free if you know them socially in any way including online forums and groups
• Don’t pay or promise gifts to an individual to review your book even if they promise an honest review
• Don’t swap your book with other authors for reviews even if you intend to give an honest review

Promotional Reviews – In order to preserve the integrity of Customer Reviews, we do not permit artists, authors , developers, manufacturers, publishers, sellers or vendors to write Customer Reviews for their own products or services

• Go to your Amazon book page without being logged in
• Click “Add A Customer Review”
• Copy the link given for this sign-in page
• Add this to your book page and your readers will go directly to the review page!
• Don’t confuse the types of review available to you – you can still buy Editorial Reviews within Amazon Guidelines to use on your book page, and you can even buy mailing list marketing services to garner Customer Reviews within Guidelines too
• Don’t get outraged – Amazon is a bookshop, with no public responsibility to you or anyone else lucky enough they started this revolution so we could all publish our books freely. Try to follow their very reasonable guidelines without too much kvetching and gain understanding of their very fair policy to sort the fakes from the real – it will be to your benefit as an author in the long run, and will mean Amazon is a healthier environment to sell books in
• Unverified Reviews (no sale made to the reviewer before the review is written) are far more likely to be flagged as fake than Verified Reviews. Verified Reviews (written after a sale to the reviewer) are the only reviews that help with sales and visibility in the Amazon algorithm. Encourage readers to buy your book under their Amazon username, not just review it
• Don’t get hung up on reviews. Many bestsellers have few reviews when they hit hot. Sales are always going to be more important than reviews to Amazon. Around ten to fifteen reasonable (3.5 – 4 star) reviews and a few strong editorial reviews will do nicely. You don’t need 300 reviews.
• Build your own mailing list to advertise your book to avid readers by adding a sign-up link to the back of your book and on your websites and pages. If you cannot do this yourself, use a respected service that has mailing lists to garner customer reviews within Amazon TOS such as Self-Publishing Review or BookBub .

 You may not like these Terms of Service, but them’s the rules.

Share This Story!

Related posts.

How To Choose An Author Name – Eight Easy Tips

Four Ways To Prevent Unwanted Comments on your Facebook Author Page

I was accused of using AI in my writing work. Here’s what I found.

Five Ways To Self-Publish Your Book in 2024

Is Amazon Censoring Customer Reviews? Seems Like It.

Twelve Must-Read Books on Self-Publishing for 2023

How To Rank in Amazon Kindle Categories

What’s Happening With Amazon’s Ranking Right Now?

Four Big Ways To Fail At Publishing Your Book

Five Ways I Hate Your Dinkus

Mythbusting – The Truth About Paid Book Reviews in 2021

2021 – How To Get Amazon Reviews Without Breaking The Rules

How To Write A Good Book Review – The Beta Report

How To Write A Good Book Review – The Amazon Review

How To Write A Good Book Review – The Editorial Review

SPR Awards 2020 Winners Announced!

Getting To Yes – A Book To Movie Success Story

A Lullaby in the Desert: One Woman’s Fight for Freedom

4 Tips To Focus on Writing in 2021

5 Tips For Promoting Your Book This Christmas

14 comments.

This rule stands out: “Don’t pay or promise gifts to an individual to review your book even if they promise an honest review”

That’s precisely what Amazon does with its Vine reviews, which include books and a host of other items, some costing $100 or more.

Yes, but Amazon owns the company. So they are allowed to do whatever they choose. They are under no obligations, as a private company, and this point is often forgotten by many authors using Amazon’s very convenient and free service to sell their books.

Amazon’s prerogative as a private business!

IMO, it’s about time Amazon did something about the purchased 5-star reviews (Item 1.1 above). Maybe integrity can be restored to their review system.

outstanding article

Most of this makes sense, but asking people not to have friends and family write reviews seems unnecessarily draconian. For a novice, self-published author, these may be the only reviews they’ll start out with. If there are only a few reviews up, I’d expect the first ones to be positively biased.

See Amazon Terms of Service. It’s not allowed. This is because these reviews are bound to be biased. Friends and family will say your book is great, which, although that’s nice for the author’s ego, that does not give a consumer any real idea about the product. Amazon aims to only give unbiased opinions on its customer review section, and rightly so.

Unfortunately Amazon is a private business and only wants unbiased customers to review products, including books. Therefore there’s a chance these friends and family reviews would be deleted or worse, their account could be removed.

I think the rules should be changed. Beginning and first time authors may have ONLY reviews from friends or family to start. Therefore, I think the rules should be appended to allow for them to get the psychological boost they need.

Consider having a time limit and a number limit for reviews by friends & family Alternatively, allow those friends and family to write whatever they want. Add a category tag to reviews: [ ] Friends & family [ ] Solicited review in exchange for free or discounted copy [ ] Unsolicited review.

This would allow customers to evaluate the reviews and still let a beginning author get support. Someone might LIKE a book that only a mother would love. 🙂

Yeah, but this is not the purpose of Amazon reviews. It’s not a hobby site. How would you even vet that? Who is your friend? Your colleague author on a forum? Your best friend of 30 years? It’s an impossible idea, and all of those reviews would be worthless to Amazon and any customer looking to buy the book. So it wouldn’t work. I think in that way the system is fair – it should be members of the public reviewing to keep it unbiased.

Agreed. It’s not a hobby. But a new author must start somewhere. Chances are that they will have very few people who are aware of their book to start. Perhaps imposing a number limit and require a Relationship to Author field would help. I would find some of these reviews at least marginally informative compared to some of the trashy and poorly written reviews I find on Amazon. I’ve found a large fan base for books that are written in amateurish style with atrocious grammar.and poorly constructed sentences. Reviews of these books written by “the public” can be grossly misleading and not representative, and they skew the ratings.

I expect that some reviews written by family and associates associates may be as good as or better indicators of content quality than these.

Does the public include only total strangers? Then how do they learn of the book in the first place? Again, a new author must start someplace, and databases are infinitely modifiable to include and expose the relationships of the reviewers such that they do not have to be excluded.

If that was true they would never have created their “Top Reviewer” program and pushed people like the late Harriet Klausner who reviewed ten books a day with worthless drivel and was gifted, for that, with a #1 reviewer rank that gained her tons of free books… They are trying to fix a problem they caused by being unwilling to police their reviews early on and then coming in with a hatchet later on to try and fix it.

While you are correct that they are merely using their rights to investigate customer reviews and regulate them, how is it a fair policy to do so – and cancel accounts, etc. without a warning that in any way shows that they DID said research. I run a company with 170 plus authors and 1500 titles. I am not familiar with every review… if a rule gets broken, all of us could be shut down, so the very least they could do if they actually cared about the authors they work with – who they have a contract with that only seems to matter if the user violates it – is a warning system that actually points out what they believe is wrong so it can be fixed, avoided, or deleted.

Yup, totally unfair, I know! For instance, what if a friend of yours through no volition of your own buys and reviews your book – then you know that person and it’s likely they may only have reviewed your book – does this mean their review will be deleted? There are a lot of problems with it. I would advise a spread of different streams of advertising and marketing to ensure a good cross-section of customer review sources.

Leave A Comment Cancel reply

Current ye ignore me @r *

Leave this field empty

Amazon Book Reviews: How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon for Free

When it comes to Amazon book reviews, they are necessary to proactively market your book.

There’s almost nothing as important as Amazon book reviews when it comes to generating consistent book sales month after month and creating an effective book marketing strategy.

It’s not enough to publish your book and hope reviewers will find you. They almost certainly won’t. You need to work hard to find them and convince them to review your book.

But even that isn’t enough!

If you go about getting Amazon book reviews the wrong way, you risk incurring the wrath of Amazon. Your book will sink before it ever stood a chance of succeeding.

Related: Amazon Self-Publishing

So how can you get the Amazon book reviews you need in an ethical and effective way?

We’ve gathered together everything you need to know.

This guide to Amazon book reviews covers:

Why are amazon book reviews important, how many book reviews do i need on amazon.

• How to get your book reviewed on Amazon

Can I review my own book on Amazon?

Book review services , can i contact the top reviewers on amazon.

• Does Amazon support editorial reviews

Guidelines for Amazon reviews

Why does amazon remove book reviews.

If you’re new to the world of self-publishing , it might be unclear why there is so much importance placed on getting Amazon book reviews.

After all, if you create a good book, produce an attractive cover, and write a catchy description, shouldn’t that be enough?

As much as we might see our book as special, Amazon won’t.

At least, not at first. And neither will the vast majority of book browsers.

While the benefits of self-publishing are well-known, there are also some challenges you need to overcome in order to experience success.

One such challenge is the abundance of books released on Amazon.

The vast majority of books are lost amidst the noise. New titles are added to Amazon every few minutes, and there are endless titles already available. 

What does this mean for you?

If you want to see your book reach the right readers, you need to do everything in your power to get it in front of them. 

One of the most powerful ways to do that is by ensuring your book has reviews.

A lack of Amazon book reviews harms your book’s prospects in two ways. 

First, a book without reviews is unlikely to even get noticed by the vast majority of book browsers.

Second, even if people do somehow stumble across your book, they are unlikely to borrow or buy it without a credible number of Amazon book reviews.

Here are the benefits to make your reviews worth it:

• Trust. Book reviews are especially important when you’re just starting out as an author on Amazon . Put yourself in the shoes of a customer. Why should they trust your book? They almost certainly haven’t heard of you. Reviews overcome this problem. When people see that others have been helped or entertained by a book, it gives them the confidence they will experience the same result.
• Algorithm. Amazon is famous for having one of the most powerful and effective algorithms out there. The company explores and experiments with every possible way to get customers to spend more. Reviews are a huge signal to Amazon that your book is worth promoting. Without a respectable number of Amazon book reviews close to the time of launch, your book will miss out on the immense power of Amazon’s promotional machinery.
• External promotion. There are plenty of promotional services out there willing to help introduce your book to readers who are likely to benefit from it. However, most of them require you to have a certain number of positive reviews before they will even consider your book. You can also promote this on your author platform .
• Feedback. Reviews are also a valuable source of feedback on your work. Yes, even the negative ones! You can get a sense of what readers did and did not like about your book and take this feedback on board for your future releases. 

When it comes to success on Amazon, it’s almost impossible to overstate just how important reviews are.

Now that you know the benefits of reviews for your book, let’s take a closer look at exactly how to get them.

Getting people to take the time to review your book isn’t always easy, especially when you’re new to the self-publishing scene.

Given the difficulty of getting reviews, it’s natural to wonder just how many you need. 

No matter what people might say, there is no magic number that you need. It varies from book to book.

However, there are some proven principles and guidelines you can use to inform the number of reviews you aim to get.

• Check competing books. Take the time to check out other books that your ideal reader might be interested in. For example, which books rank for your keywords? Which books are selling well in your intended categories ? Try and look for books of similar stature to your own. How many reviews do they have? How many would you need to seem respectable in the eyes of a buyer choosing between your book and a competing title?
• Aim for 10 minimum. 10 reviews seems to be the number that starts to move the needle for a lot of authors. When you’re putting together your initial strategy, make 10 book reviews the minimum number you aim for. 
• 20 is ideal. If you’re capable of proactively getting 10 people to leave an Amazon review of your book, you’re more than capable of getting 20! Just double down on what you’re doing. We’ll explore exactly how shortly. 
• Don’t go overboard. After a certain number of Amazon book reviews, you’re unlikely to experience much extra benefit. The effort needed to seek out reviews is not commensurate to the benefits you will experience. Also, after getting a large number of reviews, buyers are likely to review your book of their own accord. You won’t need to seek them out. 30-50 reviews is a good guideline here, but a lower number may suffice depending on the books you are competing against. 
• Your promo strategy. Many authors make book promotion sites or services an integral part of their Amazon book marketing strategy. If you have a particular promotional site you want to be featured on, you’re probably going to need a certain number of Amazon book reviews to be eligible.

Even though there isn’t a particular number of Amazon book reviews that’s right for every book, there’s definitely a number that’s right for yours.

Use the above ideas to find it and make this a target you strive to hit.

Sadly, no. Some authors might think it’s a good idea to review their own book to get some initial momentum going for their Amazon book reviews, but that’s against the rules specified in Amazon’s Guidelines .

How to get Amazon book reviews

So how should you go about getting the reviews you need for your book to succeed?

Seeking out Amazon book reviews in the right way isn’t just a matter of doing what’s likely to get results.

It’s also a matter of respecting Amazon’s rules and regulations. If you fail to do so, you run the risk of having your reviews removed.

If you’re unsure of how to get the reviews your book needs, here are some effective techniques.

• Set up a review plan prior to launch. A lot of authors learn the hard way that you can’t leave Amazon book reviews to chance. You need to have a clear plan in place way ahead of your book launch . This should involve a clear approach to hit your review target number as close to the time of your book going live as possible.
• Reach out to existing readers. Do you have an email list of readers? Have you written anything in the past? Even if you don’t have books out, do you have a blog with readers? Could you leverage your author network to promote your book to another writer’s fans? Existing readers, either your own or another author’s, are a great potential source of Amazon book reviews.
• Use social media. While social media is a valuable source of potential reviewers of your work, you should approach it with caution. If Amazon’s algorithm deems you to have a close connection with people on social media, their reviews of your book may be removed. In spite of that, it’s still worth utilizing options such as Facebook reading groups, relevant hashtags on Twitter or Instagram, visual platforms like Pinterest , and even Tik Tok if you have a younger audience, to seek out people who might be interested in your book. 
• Consider offline readers. Most authors will focus their review approach on the online world. By seeking out book clubs, library groups, and other interested communities offline, you open the door to a rich source of potential reviewers that many other authors aren’t aware of.  
• Create a launch team . One of the easiest ways to get reviews at launch is to have a big launch group on your side before your book ever drops on Amazon KDP. I recommend having a team of around 100 people who will reach an advanced reader copy in exchange for their authentic review. That way, when your book launches, you can have tons of Amazon book reviews straight away. If you aren’t sure how to build a launch group, there are companies that will help you put one together. At selfpublishing.com, our Elite Package guarantees your first 100 authentic Amazon book reviews.
• CTA in your book. There’s no harm of asking for Amazon book reviews within your book itself. You can also include a link in the ebook version to make it as straightforward as possible.

Be aware that by asking for Amazon book reviews in any of the ways mentioned, you are seeking something of value from them. To make them want to take the time to help you, you need to frame your request in the right way.

Related: Amazon Book Description HTML: Making Words Look Better

Instead of coming across as self-serving or even desperate, why not base your review request around:

• Feedback. If people respect your work they are likely to want to help you out as an author. If you make them feel like their feedback is valued, you are more likely to get a review.
• Helping other readers. Another angle to take is appealing to a sense of community among readers. Rather than making your request for Amazon book reviews about yourself, make it about informing fellow readers about a book that might benefit or entertain them.
• A promotional price point. It’s human nature to love a good deal. By emphasizing your book being offered at a low price point for a limited time, you tap into the psychological appeal of both value and scarcity, making it more likely that people will see it as worthwhile to review your book.

Combining the right sources of potential Amazon book reviews with the right type of request is the best way to get your book the review score it needs.

As well as seeking out relevant readers by yourself, a range of professional book review services exist.

While this can form a valuable part of your overall approach to Amazon book reviews, you need to be careful.

Amazon is known for being incredibly strict about people selling reviews. Many people on Fiverr have experienced this firsthand!

The Amazon review guidelines are elaborated on a little later in this guide, but as a general principle, always avoid paying for a review directly. That includes offering a gift of some type.

Instead of paying for a review on Fiverr, consider using one of these services:

• Goodreads book giveaways
• Rainbow Book Reviews

If you’re considering paying for a review service, make sure to check both of these two things before investing your money:

• Compliance. Ensure any review service you’re considering is compliant with Amazon’s rules and regulations. Otherwise, you risk losing your money, having the review removed, and possibly even worse consequences if Amazon feels you’re being particularly underhanded.
• Results. Check out what kind of results a review service promises, and what kind of success they’ve had in the past. Have they produced good results for books similar to yours? What kind of ROI can you expect?

Book review services can be a valuable way to help your book get the momentum it needs. Just make sure you’re dealing with a reputable and effective service provider.

No, the top Amazon reviewers are no longer available.

In the past, a popular way of seeking Amazon book reviews involved trying to find and contact the top reviewers on Amazon.

This may have worked well back in the day, but it’s not really something to pursue in the here and now. 

The top Amazon reviewers no longer have emails available to reach out to. Even when they did, the odds of having a top reviewer take the time to check out your work was pretty slim. 

Does Amazon support editorial reviews?

What exactly is an editorial review, and why does it matter for your book?

So far, we’ve talked about customer Amazon book reviews, which are exactly what they sound like. A customer reads your book and leaves their opinion. If they purchased it from Amazon, this would count as a verified review. 

The other type of review to utilize is the editorial review. This involves a trusted source such as a magazine or publication giving their take on your book.

While editorial reviews aren’t included in your book’s review score and don’t show up with the customer reviews, this is actually a good thing. 

Some of the main benefits of editorial reviews are:

• They won’t get lost in the middle of the (hopefully) large number of customer reviews your book has
• You can add them to your Amazon Author Central page
• You are allowed to leverage your connections as Amazon can’t remove these in the way that they can remove customer reviews
• A reputable publication or individual may carry more weight in the mind of a potential book buyer than an unknown customer reviewer

There’s no denying the value of editorial reviews, but think of them as icing on the cake. 

Make customer reviews your priority, at least initially, as they will move the needle in terms of the Amazon algorithm.

Spend some time around the indie author community and you’ll come across some fairly angry writers.

A common source of frustration is the seemingly ever-changing Amazon review rules.

In reality, the Amazon review guidelines aren’t as bad as you might have heard.

You can check out the full picture here , but some basic principles include:

• You can’t pay for Amazon book reviews. It’s absolutely prohibited to exchange money for a review of your book.]
• You can’t ask for conditional reviews. Although it’s completely fine to ask for someone to review your book, you cannot request they review it in a certain way. Asking for an honest review is the best approach.
• You can’t review a rival book. If Amazon feels someone is negatively reviewing a rival product of any type, they will remove that review.
• You can’t rely on friends and family. Amazon states that reviews from close personal connections are not allowed. This can involve being friends with people and interacting on social media.
• You can’t offer gifts. It’s not permissible to over an Amazon gift card or anything else whatsoever in exchange for a review. You can offer an ARC of your book but that’s all.

While it’s definitely worth respecting the Amazon review guidelines, try not to worry too much. As long as you’re operating from a place of good faith, the worst that will happen in the majority of cases is Amazon will remove some of your reviews.

Amazon can remove reviews for violations of any of the guidelines mentioned above. 

However, some of the most common reasons for a review to be removed are:

• You have reviewed your own book
• Someone with the same address as you has reviewed your book
• A reviewer has attempted to leave multiple reviews of your work
• The review is obscene, defamatory, or otherwise unacceptable
• The reviewer is a customer who has spent less than $50 on Amazon
• The reviewer appears to be a spammer who leaves too many reviews in a short space of time
• You have reported the review to [email protected] and Amazon agrees it is unacceptable

Having some Amazon book reviews removed is a fact of life for most authors. Although it might seem frustrating, try and see the system as being in place to preserve the integrity of the entire process. 

We hope you’ve found this guide to the dos and don’ts of Amazon book reviews useful. 

If you have any tips on getting Amazon book reviews ethically, or warnings about Amazon’s rules and regulations, feel free to leave a comment and help your fellow authors out. 

Join the Community

Join 100,000 other aspiring authors who receive weekly emails from us to help them reach their author dreams. Get the latest product updates, company news, and special offers delivered right to your inbox.

How To Write An Amazon Book Review

by Katie | Jun 19, 2017 | Book Reviews , Writing and Publishing

:: Your words are as important to an author as an author’s words are to you: Please leave a book review.

Authors depend on book reviews written by readers. If you read a lot of books, and you don’t know this yet, you can read about why here , and here , and other places too. It’s good information to have. Writers and readers have always had a close relationship, unless maybe if you’re Jonathan Franzen telling Oprah you’re too good for her book club but then in that case I don’t know what to do with you.

In any event, I recently had a conversation with good friend who happens to be very smart and also a radiologist (!!), and she told me she loved my novels but had no idea how to leave a review on Amazon. I thought that was hilarious and also worthy of a blog post.

So, dear friend (you know who you are), this blog post is for you. Here’s how you leave a book review on Amazon.

[Accessibility note: Images below are screenshots from Amazon.com that visually demonstrate the written instructions.]

Step 1. Navigate to the book’s page on Amazon.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You do not need to have purchased the book on Amazon to leave a review on Amazon. In fact, DON’T purchase the book on Amazon. Go buy it at your local indie bookstore, and then leave a review on Amazon. HAHAHAHA.

(For the purposes of this demonstration I’m using a great book I recently read that is probably way not literary enough for Jonathan Franzen. THE BOOK WAS AMAZING. Go buy it .)

2. Scroll down to the Customer Reviews section of the page, located just under the author’s bio. There is a button that says, “Write a customer review.” CLICK IT.

3. You will be taken to the “Your Reviews” page. Cool! The book you have selected to review will be at the top.

4. Click the answer to “How is the author’s writing?” and the review panel for that book will expand. Super!

5. Now you can answer the questions and click on the scale of 1-5 stars.

Obviously this AMAZING book gets 5 stars.

6. Click inside the box that says “Write your review here” and write. Provide a TITLE for your review. THEN, click the SUBMIT button!

What should you write? Start with 1-2 sentences (or more) that will help readers understand how you feel about the book. If you want to write more, great! But don’t make writing book reviews such a burden that you don’t want to do it.

7. You’ll be taken back to the “Your Reviews” page where you’ll get a confirmation message.

You will receive an email from Amazon when your review is posted. OMG wasn’t that super easy. Let’s do it again.

Share this:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

If you enjoyed my writing...

You will enjoy my books .

Book me to speak to your group .

You have Successfully Subscribed!

01. about me.

Award-winning author, speaker, and expert in mental health and neurodiversity.

02. Book Me

03. Letter from Me

Subscribe to my email letter, Life of the Mind Interrupted...

... on mental health, inspiration, and making the world a better place.

Sign up here: pryalnews.com .

Thank you. -Katie

How would you rate your experience using this page?

Visit our help center for resources to common issues, thank you for your feedback., help topics.

• KDP Help Center Home
• Create a KDP Account
• Manage Your KDP Account
• Account security and avoiding scams
• Two-Step Verification
• Accepted IDs for Identity Verification
• What if my account name changes or is different from my ID?
• Taking photos of your ID
• My identity verification failed
• CreateSpace Account
• Year End Tax Forms
• What is my tax account status?
• Complete the Tax Questionnaire
• Kindle Store: BR - BR Tax Withholding
• AU & IN Goods and Services Tax
• Applying for a U.S. EIN for Corporations and Non-Individual Entities
• Setting Prices for Amazon Japan
• Setting European Union Prices
• How EU Prices Affect List Price Requirements
• Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins
• Format Front Matter, Body Matter, and Back Matter
• Save Your Manuscript File
• Paperback and Hardcover Manuscript Templates
• Cover Creator
• Create a Paperback Cover
• Format Images in Your Book
• Paperback Fonts
• Fix Paperback and Hardcover Formatting Issues
• Paperback Submission Guidelines
• Create a Hardcover Cover
• What criteria does my eBook's cover image need to meet?
• Why is my cover image not updating on Amazon?
• What file formats are supported for eBook manuscripts?
• Create a Table of Contents
• KDP Tools and Resources
• Publishing Service Providers & Resources
• Getting Started with Kindle Create
• Kindle Create Tutorial
• Prepare Reflowable and Print Books with Kindle Create
• Prepare Comic eBooks with Kindle Create
• Prepare Print Replica Books with Kindle Create
• Previewing and Publishing Your Kindle Create Book
• Kindle Previewer
• Kindle Comic Creator
• Kindle Kids' Book Creator
• Quality Notifications Dashboard

Guide to Kindle Content Quality

• Enhanced Typesetting
• X-Ray for Authors: Tips and Tricks
• KDP Bookshelf
• Arabic (Beta)
• Chinese (Traditional) (Beta)
• Hebrew and Yiddish
• Indian-Language Publishing
• Books Titles & Editions
• Authors & Contributors
• Write a Book Description
• Make Your Book More Discoverable with Keywords
• Kindle eBook Pre-Order
• Primary Audience and Reading Age
• Publishing Public Domain Content
• Language & Reading direction
• Schedule a Release
• International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
• Print Options
• Color Ink Options
• Upload and Preview Book Content
• Convert a Paperback Word File to PDF
• Price Troubleshooting
• Paperback Printing Cost
• Hardcover Printing Cost
• Printing Cost & Royalty Calculator
• Book Status
• Low-Content Books
• Kindle Vella - Reader Experience
• Kindle Vella - Start a Story
• Kindle Vella - Publish an Episode
• Kindle Vella - Royalties, Reporting, and Payments
• Kindle Vella - Content Guidelines
• Hardcover Print Elements
• Edit your Series
• Delete a series
• Set the reading order for your series
• Where can I find my Amazon Series Page?
• How to create a series with multiple authors
• Can I offer discounts to books in my series?
• Series Collections on kdp.amazon.co.jp
• How do I order a proof or author copy?
• How much do proof or author copies cost?
• What is the cost to ship my proof or author copy?
• When will my proof or author copy arrive?
• I’m getting an error ordering my author copy
• I’m getting an error ordering my proof copy
• My proof or author copy came damaged
• My proof or author copy didn’t arrive on time
• My proof or author copy has printing errors
• KDP Categories
• Read Sample (Look Inside the Book)
• Customer Reviews
• Search Results
• Why are my books not linked on Amazon?
• Link Your Books on the KDP Bookshelf
• How do I unlink my books?
• Sales Ranking
• Book Trends Data
• Ways to Promote Your Book
• How to enroll in KDP Select
• How to cancel KDP Select
• KDP Select All Stars
• Kindle Countdown Deals
• Royalties in Kindle Unlimited
• Free Book Promotions
• Author Central
• Create A+ Content
• A+ Content Examples
• A+ Content Guidelines
• Advertising for KDP books
• eBook Distribution Rights
• Paperback and Hardcover Distribution Rights
• Buying and Gifting eBooks for Others
• Sample Chapters
• Audiobooks Through ACX
• Amazon Literary Contests
• Nominate Your eBook for a Promotion (Beta)
• Update Your Book Details
• Update Your Manuscript
• Modify Converted eBook Content
• How to Send Your Updated eBook to Customers or Yourself
• Update Your Cover
• Unpublishing and Deleting Books
• eBook Royalties
• Paperback Royalty
• Hardcover Royalty
• Orders Report
• Promotions Report
• Pre-Order Report
• Month-to-Date Report
• Prior Months' Royalties Report
• Royalties Estimator
• Payment Report
• Old Sales Dashboard
• Sales and Royalties Report
• Historical Report
• KDP Payment Options
• When will I get paid?
• How to add (or edit) my bank account?
• Troubleshoot Payment Issues
• Digital Book Pricing Page
• Print Book Pricing Page
• eBook List Price Requirements
• Content Guidelines
• Metadata Guidelines for Books
• Intellectual Property Rights Frequently Asked Questions
• Reporting Possible Violations of Our Guidelines
• Privacy Notice Information
• Bonus Content
• Featured Offer Eligibility for Third-Party Sellers
• Introduction
• Paths to Getting Your Content on Kindle
• Comparing Formats
• Cover Image Guidelines
• Navigation Guidelines
• HTML and CSS Guidelines
• Hyperlink Guidelines
• QA Standards
• Text Guidelines - Reflowable
• Image Guidelines - Reflowable
• Table Guidelines - Reflowable
• Creating Fixed-Layout Books with Text Pop-Ups
• Creating Fixed-Layout Books with Image Pop-Ups or Virtual Panels
• Creating Fixed-Layout Books Without Pop-Ups
• Creating Kindle Editions with Audio/Video Content
• Creating Dictionaries
• Enhanced Typesetting and Page Flip
• Attributes and Tags Supported by Enhanced Typesetting
• HTML and CSS Tags Supported in Kindle Format 8
• Media Queries
• Guidelines for Converting XMDF to KF8
• 1 – Set Up Your KDP Account
• 2 – Prepare Your Manuscript
• 3 – Prepare Your Cover
• 4 – Title Setup: Book Details, Content, & Pricing
• 5 – Publishing & Review
• 6 – Promoting Your Book & Getting Paid

Have feedback? Can't find your answer in our Help pages?

Content published through Kindle Direct Publishing is held to the high standards customers have come to expect from Amazon. If readers tell us about a problem they've found in your book, we'll make sure you know about it and point you in the right direction to get the problem fixed. The information listed here will help you understand the types of quality issues we see most frequently and will give you an idea of what you should be paying close attention to when building your eBook. For details on making books available for Kindle devices and apps, see Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines .

Identifying errors

Reviewing your ebook, metadata issues, unsupported characters, cover issues, image quality, formatting issues.

• Duplicated content

Missing content

Wrong content, content unsuited for reading on kindle, disappointing content, companion guides, multi-work books.

Preventing and fixing typos

• The title, series name, edition, subtitle, volume, or contributor in your file don't match the metadata you entered.
• The title, series name, edition, subtitle, or volume in the metadata contain a URL, keywords, genre descriptions, promotions, references to other books within the category, or spelling errors.
• The keywords and/or the categories do not match the nature of the book content.

Preventing and fixing unsupported characters

Critical issues.

• The cover either has extra space in the margins or is too large and doesn't fully display
• The cover image is blurry
• The cover is missing
• The cover image is inserted into the manuscript file, causing an error
• The cover includes references to advertisements or promotions (e.g., "free")

Creating and adding a cover

Manga, comics, children's picture books, etc. are excluded from this requirement. A small amount of scanned or image captured text is allowed as long as it is legible, and pertains to the overall content. For example, small excerpts such as image captions, complex mathematical formulas, and/or handwritten letters. 

To publish your book, you'll need to update your interior file to replace scanned or image-captured text with reflowable text, and resubmit the book for publishing.

Other quality issues include blurry images and images with illegible text.

Ensuring high-quality images

Ensuring correct formatting, critical issues.

• Body text rendered as bold, italicized, underlined or hyperlinked text
• Extra body text margin padding that is more than 1/4 of a screen wide
• Primary content is oriented in landscape mode without any detail page disclaimer
• Body text not set to default color
• Forced white text or forced black background that causes text to be unreadable. For example, forcing a code such as Font = white will cause text to be unreadable while reading on a white background mode or on an e-ink device.
• In-line page numbering is present
• Forced alignment of body text
• The size of the body text is forced, causing it to be larger or smaller than standard text sizes
• Body text incorrectly changes size
• Bullet points missing from a bulleted list
• A list has bullets which appear on a different line that the list contents
• Missing list formatting
• Incorrectly added line break
• Missing indication of paragraph separation (indentation or single line spacing between paragraphs)
• Missing line break that indicates a section or scene change
• A hard page break in the middle of a section or chapter
• Extract or block quote not differentiated from body text
• Sidebar text interrupts a sentence, paragraph, or section
• A footnote interrupts a sentence, paragraph, or section
• An image interrupts a sentence or paragraph.
• Extra body text margin padding that is less than 1/4 of a screen wide
• Double spacing between each paragraph
• Consistent incorrectly added line padding between section/chapter headings and first paragraphs
• Split monograms; the first letter of each chapter in your book should appear on the same line as the rest of the word.
• Individual paragraph incorrectly rendered as bold, italicized, underlined or hyperlinked text
• Forced black text or forced white background that causes text to be unreadable. For example, forcing a code such as Font = black will cause text to be unreadable while reading on a black background mode on color devices.

Preventing Linking Issues

• A Go To item link that does not work
• A link in the Table of Contents (TOC) that does not work
• A link at the beginning that takes readers to a TOC at the end of the book
• A link outside the TOC that takes readers to unrelated content at the end of the book
• A link in the TOC that does not follow the chronological order of content appearing in the book
• An unlinked footnote
• A prohibited external link
• An external link that does not work
• An internal link (TOC, Navigational Control File from XML (NCX), or other) that does not link to the correct location
• Reference to an unlinked page number
• Missing Logical Table of Contents (NCX)
• Links to pornography
• Links to commercial eBook store sites other than Amazon
• Links to web forms that request customer information (e.g., email address, physical address or similar)
• Links to illegal, harmful, infringing, or offensive content
• Links that are malicious in intent (e.g., virus, phishing, or similar)
• Table of Contents and NCX, please see Navigation Guidelines . 
• Internal and External link Guidelines, please see Hyperlink Guidelines . 

Duplicated text

• A repeated chapter that is also mislabeled
• A repeated chapter
• A portion of text that is repeated within a chapter or section, excluding single words
• More text is missing than just a short phrase
• Missing image section that the product description or the contents of the book indicate should be included
• Main book content that is only accessible through external links
• Product description indicates book includes CD, DVD or other ancillary content that is not accessible
• Missing or unplayable audio/video content in a Kindle Enhanced with Audio and Video

Other missing content issues include:

• A short missing phrase
• A missing image

Image formatting tip: Avoid pasting in images Images should be inserted in JPEG (or .jpg) format with center alignment (don't copy and paste from another source).

• Click "Insert" at the top of the screen in Word
• Click "Picture", which brings up a dialogue screen to locate the picture that will be inserted in the document
• In the dialogue screen, locate and select the file
• Puzzle books
• Blank Journals
• Pattern books
• Coloring books
• Facing page translations (left page in one language, right page is same content in another language)
• Content that is either marketed as a subscription or redirects readers to an external source to obtain the full content
• Content that is freely available on the web (unless you are the copyright owner of that content or the content is in the public domain). For more information, you can refer to the sections titled "Illegal and Infringing Content" and "Public Domain and Other Non-Exclusive Content" in the Content Guidelines .
• Content whose primary purpose is to solicit or advertise
• Content that is not significantly different from content in another book available in the Kindle Store
• Note: If you’re publishing a romance novel, you can publish the book with two covers, the original cover and a discreet or alternate version. The content of the book can be the same as long as the covers are different. Ensure that the versions are differentiated by adding an indicator to the title or subtitle such as "Discreet Version" or "Alternate Version."
• Content that is too short
• Content that is poorly translated
• Content that does not provide an enjoyable reading experience
• Bonus content that appears before a book's primary content
• Content that is excessively reused, recycled, or repeated within or across books
• Content that is rebranded or re-released with significant changes to the metadata, resulting in a confusing reader experience

Make more money and reach more readers through Kindle Unlimited. Learn More

Total KDP Select Author Earnings

July 2024

 • 

$58.9 Million

Please sign in to continue

• Canada (EN)
• Canada (FR)
• Mexico (ES)

LABOR DAY WEEKEND SAVINGS EVENT: SAVE 25% OFF*

Prices as shown; no code needed.

*25% off MSRP discount automatically applied, as shown on product pages of applicable models; no code needed. Exclusions: New Arrivals, Limited Editions, Attesa Collection, Eco-Drive One Collection, Series8 Collection, The Citizen Collection, CZ Smart Smartwatches and Accessories, preorder, and products not in stock. Valid on Citizenwatch.com only, now through 9/3/24 11:59pm PDT. Not valid at department, specialty, or company-owned stores, where products and promotions may vary/differ. Cannot be combined with other offers or discounts, or applied to previous purchases. We reserve the right to cancel this promotion at any time.

Pricing and product assortment on Citizenwatch.com may vary from retail, department, or specialty stores.

FREE DISNEY100 LIMITED EDITION PRINT BY JEFF SHELLY WITH ANY DISNEY NEW ARRIVAL PURCHASE*

While supplies last; no code needed.

*Free gift automatically applied to qualifying carts. Retail value $25. One free gift per order, not applicable to pre-order, cannot be applied to previous purchases. Offer valid on Citizenwatch.com only through 9/29/24, 11:59PM PDT. Subject to change or cancellation without notice. Not replaceable if lost or stolen.

FREE CUSTOM MARVEL | CITIZEN THE POWER OF LIGHT COMIC BOOK WITH ANY MARVEL PURCHASE*

*Free gift automatically applied to qualifying carts. Retail value $9. One free gift per order, cannot be applied to previous purchases. Offer valid on Citizenwatch.com only through 9/29/24, 11:59PM PDT. Subject to change or cancellation without notice. Not replaceable if lost or stolen.

FREE SHIPPING & RETURNS

Enjoy free UPS shipping within the U.S. and free returns. Please allow up to two business days for order processing. Orders over $850 will ship signature required.

We stand by the quality and craftsmanship of our products with our 30-day money-back guarantee, and a 5-year limited warranty.

COMPLIMENTARY WATCH SIZING

We are also pleased to offer complimentary watch bracelet sizing services with your Citizenwatch.com purchase; please allow an extra 1-2 business days for order processing, prior to shipping, as sizing occurs on demand by one of our expert technicians.

• Create Account

Write a review

Drag files here or browse (Supported files: jpg, png) Add more Files Please select only JPEG or PNG files

How we use your information: By submitting your review you agree to our Privacy Policy & Terms and Conditions

There was an error submiting your review. Please try again later.

Your review has been submitted. We appreciate your feedback.

Writing guidelines

We want to publish your review, so please:

• Keep your review focused on the product.
• Avoid writing about customer service, contact us instead if you have issues requiring immediate attention.
• Refrain from mentioning competitors or the specific price you paid for the product.
• Do not include any personally identifiable information, such as full names.

Product Description

Avengers fans, assemble! It’s time to refresh your protecting-the-world wardrobe with a stunning new watch that pays tribute to the elite team of Marvel Super Heroes who come together to defeat evil-doers. The black dial strikingly showcases the iconic “A” crossed with an arrow logo in silver-tone stainless steel that produces a three-dimensional effect, enhanced by surrounding concentric circles that appear to be in motion along with luminous hands and markers. The faceted brushed 42mm case and brown leather strap with contrast stitching elevate the look. Heroes deserve a watch that’s sustainably sustainably powered by any light with Eco-Drive technology and never needs a battery. © 2024 MARVEL

Bracelet sizing adds additional processing time.

• Bracelet sizing requires an extra 1-2 business days for processing, prior to shipping, as sizing is handled on demand by one of our expert technicians.
• Orders placed after 2pm on Friday or on weekends will ship from our facility on Monday (excluding holidays).
• Overnight shipping is available for an additional fee.

5 Year limited warranty

Free Shipping on all orders

Download Setting Instruction   (PDF)

Available At Our Citizen Flagship Store New York

(no purchase required to reserve; an associate will reach out to confirm availability.), preferred method of contact.

One of our associates will be in touch with you soon.

Visit Our CITIZEN Flagship Store New York

605 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY

(212) 658-1518

STORE HOURS

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 10AM to 7PM

Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10AM to 8PM

Sunday: 11AM to 7PM

You may also like

Product details, movement technology.

• Eco-Drive Ring
• Powered by any light source, continuously and sustainably, eliminating the need to replace watch batteries.

Case Width (mm)

Case material.

• Silver-Tone
• Stainless Steel
• Sapphire Crystal
• Superior scratch resistance and hardness

Water-Resistance

• WR100/10Bar/333ft [Swimming, Showering & Snorkeling]

Additional Functions

Review this product.

Adding a review will require a valid email for verification

Building a purposeful, powerful, and sustainable future.

From the birth of its Eco-Drive light technology to today, Citizen looks for ways to support and celebrate the planet.

Remove Product?

Privacy and cookies.

We value your privacy. We use cookies on our website to enhance your experience, serve personalized content, and analyze our traffic, in accordance with our privacy policy. By continuing, you consent to our use of cookies.

• Business & Money
• Management & Leadership

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime.

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you grow your business. Learn more about the program.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present (The Path to Calm) Paperback – March 1, 2021

Overcome negative thought patterns, reduce stress, and live a worry-free life., break free of your self-imposed mental prison., stop agonizing over the past and trying to predict the future., powerful ways to stop ruminating and dwelling on negative thoughts., unleash your unlimited potential and start living., live a stress-free life and conquer overthinking -- buy now..

• Book 1 of 20 The Path to Calm
• Print length 200 pages
• Language English
• Publication date March 1, 2021
• Dimensions 5 x 0.46 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 B08XLLF3PG
• ISBN-13 979-8715048394
• See all details

Customers who bought this item also bought

From the Publisher

How to Feel Better About Yourself

Feeling better about oneself - such a simple goal, yet not easy at all.

Acclaimed author Nick Trenton will walk you through all of your inner obstacles with detailed and proven techniques to help you rewire your brain, control your thoughts, and change your mental habits.

No more self-deprecating talk. No more sleepless nights with racing thoughts. Free your mind from overthinking and achieve more, feel better, and unleash your potential. Finally be able to live in the present moment.

Unconventional Methods for Happiness and Self-Fulfillment

Nick Trenton grew up in rural Illinois and is quite literally a farm boy. His best friend growing up was his trusty companion Leonard the dachshund. RIP Leonard.

Eventually, he made it off the farm and obtained a BS in Economics, followed by an MA in Behavioral Psychology. He likes to say that he has become a professional expert at one of his favorite hobbies: people-watching. Writing, well, that remains to be seen.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (March 1, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 200 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ B08XLLF3PG
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8715048394
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.46 x 8 inches
• #2 in Emotional Mental Health
• #3 in Emotional Self Help
• #8 in Leadership & Motivation

Videos for this product

Click to play video

My Honest Review - Stop Overthinking Book

Daniel’s Favorites

How is this book Stop Overthinking

Abby McMaster

Does This Actually Help With Stress & Overthinking?

Teressa & Corey

Stop Overthinking Review

Homesteading Mama

Customer Review: Excited great condition

Can this book really help? Watch my review to find out.

My Favorite Technique in "Stop Overthinking"

Family Hughs Reviews

This book helped me not to overthinkg that much

Marcus Stone

#stress #negativethoughts #declutter #focus #mindset #life

Stop Overthinking: Must watch before buying! (Honest Review)

The Total Coverage Review

About the author

Nick trenton.

NICKTRENTON.COM -- FOR A FREE MINIBOOK ON THE 4 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS.

He is an accomplished skiier and dreams of traveling the world and hosting a food show like Anthony Bourdain. However, most of the time, he’s in Chicago.

Related books

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 71% 16% 8% 2% 3% 71%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 71% 16% 8% 2% 3% 16%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 71% 16% 8% 2% 3% 8%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 71% 16% 8% 2% 3% 2%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 71% 16% 8% 2% 3% 3%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the book useful and well-designed. They also say it provides effective tools to overcome overthinking. However, some find the comprehensibility frustrating and repetitive. Opinions are mixed on readability, with some finding it simple and good, while others say it's hard to read and not direct.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book provides effective tools to overcome overthinking and anxiety. They also say it provides realistic and easy techniques for addressing anxiety and overthink. Readers also say the book has been life-changing and improves their overall mental health.

"...way to provide TLC to myself on a daily basis & it improves my overall mental health at the sane time as well as so many other amazing benefits...." Read more

" Helped alot . Great quality. Love this book!" Read more

"The content of this book offers valuable insights into its subject matter, providing readers with a wealth of information...." Read more

"...Happy that I purchased. I never got bored reading it and it has some valuable information ." Read more

Customers like the book layout. They say it's well-designed and not inherently distracting. However, some readers feel adjustments are needed to ease the eye while reading.

"...While the layouts are not inherently distracting , adjustments are needed to ease the eye while reading." Read more

"...I marked a couple of pages that I will go back to. The title is exactly what I needed and the book helped with it…overthinking!" Read more

"...The layout is left me flabbergasted as I struggled to read past the very long and obvious first chapter...." Read more

"...The title was good so it caught my attention. However, the content did not catch my attention...." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the readability of the book. Some find it very simple, but thought provoking, with easy to follow steps. Others find it hard to read, with formatting, punctuation, and grammatical errors throughout. They also say the layout is not direct and to the point, and the book is boring and confusing.

"...writes a hard to approach topic(s) & breaks them down so it’s so easy to understand . This writing continued throughout the entire book...." Read more

"...However, the editorial design falls short in optimizing readability ...." Read more

"I really enjoyed this book it was easy to follow with so many relatable examples." Read more

"This book is very basic and simplistic. I was not a fan of the writing style and how the book is set up in general...." Read more

Customers find the book frustrating, repetitive, and useless. They also mention that the first chapter is wonky and the editing work is sloppy.

"...The layout of it though, is not direct and to the point. It was too hard to follow and keep me intrigued." Read more

"One thing I didn't like and a whole lot that I did. The first chapter is pretty wonky , listing the sources of anxiety, the effects of anxiety, and..." Read more

"Not bad but very repetitive . Anyways it gives a lot of techniques that might help you. 4 out of five." Read more

"...I don't even know if I want to read it. Considering the sloppy editing work , I really doubt the professionalism of the content." Read more

Reviews with images

This will help you get through tough times

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• About Amazon
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell products on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon and COVID-19
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices