Why 22 reviews on your book is not enough (And what is)

You may have heard me talk about your book’s Amazon profile.

About how your book cover, your title, the number of reviews of you have, and even your book popping up on “Customers Also Bought” pages, affects your prospect’s book buying decision.

Click here to see how your Amazon profile measures up to our standard.

(And how your book launch runway is designed to give you an Amazon profile that will influence your shoppers to click “Add to Cart.”)

Having only 22 reviews on a self-published book is slim pickin’s.

When was the last time you bought anything on Amazon with 22 reviews?

In fact, I just bought sunglasses for my husband on Amazon, and I wanted the easiest buying decision.

I searched “sunglasses men polarized” on Amazon, saw the first listing with more than 1,000 reviews, and clicked “Add to Cart” in less than 30 seconds.

eComerce on Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify work similarly. Your customers want the best, without having to second-guess.

That’s how fast your future customers want to move on with their life.

When it comes to self-published books, no less than 100 reviews will do.

Amazon reviews are social proof.

They separate the wheat from the chaff.

They separate the authorities from the experts.

And you want to be perceived as an authority, don’t you?

A book with over 100 reviews on Amazon will continue to sell without your active involvement. I keep getting checks every month without any extra work.

100 reviews is the difference between your business becoming an engine that provides for your family for decades to come vs. you working 15-20 hour days for the next 20 years (my dad).

100 reviews is the difference between your ideal customer shipping your book to their front door via Amazon Prime with anticipation vs. them balking at buying (and then clicking the back button anyway).

100 reviews is the difference between a Top 1% podcast host messaging you on Facebook Messenger at 10 pm on a Tuesday excitedly wanting you on their podcast (true story) vs. them scrolling by your book suspiciously.

100 reviews is the difference between a corporate partner reaching out to you for 1,000 copies of your book to give to their employees at their next conference in Orlando vs. another “I’ll think about it” email.

If you’ve published books in the past, only to sell a few hundred copies and stay under the 50-review ceiling and never feel the impact you want to make, this may be one of the reasons why.

So how do you get 100 reviews?

Without sleazy begging, grinding, or suspicious review websites?

It all starts with your advance reader team.

You may have heard of an advance reader team.

An advance reader team is also known as a street team, a book launch team, a book launch army, or a early reader team. These are all the same thing.

Your ARC team’s single purpose: commitment to reading, buying, and submitting a review of your book on Amazon within the first 30 days.

Communicating your expectation of that commitment is key.

You can be kind AND clear with your ARC team. This is how you convert your ARC readers into actual Amazon reviews.

If you’ve used ARC teams in the past, but never properly conveyed your expectation to your ARC team before your book’s release date, you may end up with too few reviews (and lose your shot at seeing ROI on your book).

This is where many authors and entrepreneurs get tripped up.

Authorship requires clear communication, leadership, organization, and time management.

You can’t be afraid of asking your ARC team to leave a review, or asking your network for a blurb, or following up when you get only silence the first few asks.

Silence never means no.

(Write that down.)

Converting your ARC team into 100 Amazon reviews is the difference between a launch that ends with the helium balloons on the ground and the photographers going home vs. your launch just getting started. 🔥

what if Your launch led to planting a shade tree that protects and provides for your business and family for many years to come? 🏡

Author teams get tripped up on converting their ARC readers to Amazon reviews.

Let’s talk about the value of conversion.

I just came back from one of the best vacations of my life. Me and my husband + his parents + my mom went to Greece for 17 days and enjoyed every single second of bathing in aquamarine waters, eating too much fish & feta cheese, and experiencing the mystery of the ancient sites.

Family memories we’ll cherish forever at The Temple of Poseidon.

In order to do that, we had to convert our money from USD to Euros, so that we could play in a new arena.

Through conversion, we were able to experience some of the best memories our family will ever have, stories we will be telling our children and children’s children.

Conversion allows you to experience some of life’s greatest treasures.

When you convert your ARC team into 100 Amazon reviews, you get to experience some of life’s greatest treasures.

You get to feel the impact of your words changing people’s brains in real time (when you get those personalized emails in your inbox from your readers).

You get to feel the relaxation of your asset selling for you while you sleep (Michael Jordan makes about $130 million in passive income every year as Nike sells Air Jordans while he enjoys time at home in New York).

That’s the difference between assets you create once and experience forever (Jen Sincero makes $3-$5 million per year from her You Are a Badass books she published a decade ago) vs. “assets” you constantly have to show up for (Meta ads, podcasts, writing this blog).

You get to feel the pride of providing & protecting your employees and your family for years (I think of my poor father, who only knew the lever of hard work, who grinded for 20 years without seeing satisfying returns on his business vs. the business owners I admire, who use leverage like books, trademarks, and distribution to continue getting paid without grinding).

Marie Kondo, Jack Canfield, and Katherine Woodward Thomas are authors I think of who have converted their IP from books into TV shows, consulting franchises, and media ecosystems that help them experience the pleasure of life.

The Smokin’ Hot Books® team specializes in converting your ARC readers into Amazon reviews.

Remember the value of conversion?

Give us your ARC reader list (if you don’t have one, we can work with you to convert your audience, whether it’s on Instagram, Substack, LinkedIn, or a combo of all of those, into ARC readers) and we’ll convert your ARC readers into Amazon reviews for you.

This is exactly what we did for our client Valérie Demont, who became a #1 Amazon New Release within 30 days of her launch period.

If a specialized team is what you’re looking for, get in touch with us here.

Rooting for you.

Renee & The Smokin’ Hot Books® team