The Indie Author's Guide to Paid Reviews

By Daniel Lefferts and Alex Daniel |

For indie authors who have some room in their marketing budgets, paid book review services can be an appealing option.

Reviews are a crucial part of a book's marketing strategy. Whether they appear on the book’s jacket or on bookselling sites, reviews make a book seem more professional while giving potential buyers an idea of what it’s about (and whether or not they’ll like it). But, even as self-published books continue to grow in popularity and prestige, it can be difficult for indie authors to get noticed by reviewers at traditional publications and book blogs. So, for indie authors with a budget, paid review services can be appealing.

PROS AND CONS

The biggest benefit of purchasing a book review through a service is that indie authors know exactly what they're getting. Review word counts, turnaround time, and any additional features—links on the review site, options for posting the review to bookselling sites, etc.—are all built into the package. Paying for reviews, in other words, removes a lot of the guesswork that comes with pitching book bloggers.

On the other hand, most review services don’t guarantee positive reviews. It’s a factor worth considering before shelling out the hundreds of dollars that some review services charge.

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