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The Value of Amazon Reviews

Written by: Terry Whalin

Article Overview: Have you ever noticed that customers can add their reviews to Amazon books? Many books never have a single review. You can add them and increase your own visibility in the marketplace and have many other benefits--like the one mentioned in this article.

The Value of Amazon Reviews

When the phone rings, you never know who will be on the other end. Yes, you may have caller ID and be able to sneak a preview but someone has to make that initial step to call. To my surprise, Mahesh Grossman (http://www.authorsteam.com/), who has been called the ghostwriting guru, was on the other end of the line. Several years ago I learned about Mahesh through a tele-seminar on Annie Jennings PR (another great resource: http://www.anniejenningspr.com/). I was fascinated with his information about ghostwriting. Many writers are reluctant to become involved in this aspect of the work because they want their name to appear on the book or get “credit.” From my perspective, it is much more important to have the writing work than to receive the credit. If you do excellent work, the credit will come. Also many writers are reluctant to ghostwrite because of the difficulty of working with another person in the writing process—which admittedly is a challenge but I believe a good stretching challenge. Anyway, I want to return to the unexpected phone call.

Mahesh Grossman was calling to thank me for my Amazon review of his book, Write A Book Without Lifting a Finger. This book is targeted to people who have a book idea or a book manuscript and don’t know how to get it published. Mahesh teaches the reader how to find a ghostwriter and gives practical examples about book publishing. Why would a writer want to read this book? Because it contains statistics and information that I’ve not seen in any other place about books. Now this book has a 2004 copyright but here’s one interesting quote, “According to estimates by the Times of London, there are 120,000 new books published annually in the United States. That number is growing every year. Of these, roughly 102,000, or 85%, are non-fiction.” Now whether you agree with this statistic or not, nonfiction regularly outsells fiction—as I’ve pointed out in other entries (http://terrywhalin.blogspot.com/2006/04/truth-sells-books.html). There many types of resources and tips in this book which are excellent for writers.

If you notice the customer reviews of this book, there are only a few—and not many of them are very recent. Originally I wrote this review in mid-May. This morning, I adjusted something grammatical that I noticed so the date of my review changed on it. Yes, Amazon gives you the ability to adjust your review (or even delete it) on my profile page (http://snipurl.com/wtwamazon). Mahesh was calling to ask permission to use a quotation from my review. He tracked down my phone number (there are many ways to get this information online http://www.sree.net/stories/web.html). My simple review of his book on Amazon gave me an unusual connection and the beginnings of another relationship.

Over the last several weeks, I have been pulling books off my shelf which I have read and adding short reviews on Amazon. If you begin to look, you will be surprised how many times a bestselling book has no customer review. Or in some cases, it has negative customer feedback (maybe a single bad review). Your positive review can bring some sense of balance. It doesn’t take long to write a few sentences of review and help the book . I have written a number of these reviews over the last couple of months. I’m not spending days of time writing these reviews but only a matter of minutes. It’s like many other things related to writing—if you do it a bit at a time, after a while, you will end up with a lot of material. It is not rocket science but easy to accomplish. I’d encourage you to set a reasonable goal for yourself—such as one review a week, then fit it into your schedule.

If you’ve invested the time to read the book, then take a few more minutes and crank out a review. You never know what can come from one of these reviews but it will never happen if you haven’t written a review.

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Related Forum Posts
Reviews - There are definite flaws in the review system and Amazon is a big one. I like to read the reviews on Amazon, but when a review is overly good or overly bad, I click on the reviewer's name and look at their other reviews. That gives me an idea of whether they bash or praise everything or if there is merit to it. There are too many people paying for reviews and then picking the best to post. I prefer a review from a consumer who will give an honest review. I have no interest in getting the "top Amazon" reviewers to review my books. Actually, I don't push for Amazon reviews like I probably should, but I've seen far too much abuse on the reviews. Shri
Re: I'm Published On Kindle! - Thanks everybody! @Yinka: Go to Amazon.com, scroll down to the bottom and click "Self-publish with Us" then follow the instructions. I remember you wrote an ebook a while ago. That would be just fine. You will need a US dollar account to cash the cheques from Amazon.com and a UK pound stirling account if you opt to publish on Amazon.co.uk as well.
Some online business suggstions debunked - 2. Sell photos on stock photography sites --- I tried this, couldn't even get in the front door. But then, I'm apparently a lousy photographer... However, if you do get in, I think you only get something like 25 cents a download... 8. Build services atop Amazon Web Services ---I've been an Amazon associate for a loooong time, selling books, and business has been lousy since the beginning. Nobody reads anymore...I do get a few DVD sales every now and again... but frankly I make much more money though Google Ads on my site. It took several months for that to build up, but now as my website has more readers those ads are starting to pay off, whereas there's been no corresponding jump from Amazon ads on the same pages...
Re: Some online business suggstions debunked - [quote="OmnivoreInk":3vzbbcg5]8. Build services atop Amazon Web Services ---I've been an Amazon associate for a loooong time, selling books, and business has been lousy since the beginning. Nobody reads anymore...I do get a few DVD sales every now and again... but frankly I make much more money though Google Ads on my site.[/quote:3vzbbcg5] I agree that being an Amazon associate doesn't seem to generate revenue for anyone. However, I always thought books and DVDs were the best selling items on the web since they're relatively inexpensive and consumers know exactly what they're getting (unlike clothing and electronics that need to be "tested"). I think a lot of people still read books, but they just prefer to buy in-store or from Chapters.indigo.ca or Amazon.com/ca rather than from an associate. In fact, a lot of people I know still feel uncomfortable making purchases on the web.
The woes of writers and publishers - [quote:36p0mzru]I was looking at the reviews for Amazon's Kindle product a couple of weeks ago and couldn't believe the number of people who didn't like the product because it prevented them from giving away free copies of the book or reselling it to someone else. [/quote:36p0mzru] I think authors have a hard time with this. Go to Amazon and see all the books offered for sale new - and then just below that see the links offering the same book for sale used! And anyone in their right mind will probably save some money and buy the used book - which means that the author and publisher of that book are not getting any income from it. I really don't think Amazon should be allowed to do that... that's what used bookstores are for. Amazon really seems to be biting the hand that feeds them in that regard.


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