Write a Review AND Promote Your Book

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Through the years I've been in publishing, I've met many different writers and they share at least one common characteristic: writers are readers. Yes we are people who love books, buy books, tell others about books and read books.

Often in these entries, I have talked about Amazon reviews (click this link to see some of those entries). I have a long-standing practice where any book that I read or listen to (audiobook), I take a few minutes a write a review then post it on Amazon and Goodreads. I have written over 500 reviews on Goodreads where I have 5,000 friends and my reviews get a lot of attention. On Amazon I have written almost 1,000 reviews. It only takes me a few minutes after reading the book (where the time is involved) to write and post my review. In the past, I've shared the details about how I promote one of my own books with my reviews on Amazon (follow this link to read that post).

Writing reviews is one of the ways I support other authors. No one pays me for these reviews and I do not review every book that comes into my home because it would be impossible. Publishers, authors, and PR people send me books almost every day. I read these books for fun and often late at night and in my off work hours.

Amazon (like much of the rest of the world) continues to evolve and change. In recent months, they have made it even harder for people to get reviews (or so I read online). In the midst of these changes, I continue to write and post reviews. My reviews sometimes take a day or two to post—and I have no idea why it takes so long or what review process is in place behind the scenes. Eventually the reviews do post on Amazon and when that happens I get an email notification about my review.

In the past, Amazon made it easy to link within your reviews to other products. This feature disappeared months ago on the review page—yet I'm still linking to my most recent book in the final lines of my review. How am I able to add this information? First, I create a little plain text file in Notepad which contains my bio information which I add to the bottom of each review. I use this little file to promote my latest book as a part of my review. My current file says: W. Terry Whalin is an editor and the author of more than 60 books including his latest [[ASIN:164279452X 10 Publishing Myths: Insights Every Author Needs to Succeed]].

Notice several things about this little file. It is short (one sentence) and when it is posted includes an active Amazon link to the product. Here's the formula which you can use with your books:

[[ASIN:THE DIGITS ARE THE TEN DIGIT ISBN ENDING WITH X TITLE OF YOUR BOOK]]

The beauty of using this formula is it gives an active link inside your review. An active link means the reader can click and instantly go to the page with your Amazon product. This process is all about adding to the discoverability of your book. Someone needs to know about your book eight to twelve times before they will purchase the book. Each of us as authors need to continually work so others discover our work.

What Is The Book You Are Promoting?

If you haven't heard of the book I'm promoting (10 Publishing Myths), it's because this book will release on December 17th. You can check out the book, watch the one-minute trailer and pre-order the book (four different ways). Also you can see the 18 endorsements for this book from bestselling authors, editors, publishers and publicity experts. I hope you will get the book, read it and apply it to your life--and please write a review for my book.


Writing reviews and including a one sentence bio along with a clickable link to your product is one more step for readers to find and discover (and buy) your book.

Do you read books and write reviews and promote your book? Let me know in the comments below.

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