Book reviews are critical as a social buy-in for your book and to market your book through higher placement online, for getting ad copy quotes, and for boosting your author brand. It can be daunting starting out as an author and trying to get reviews. These are 8 different ways to market your book and get good reviews.

1. Use a Call to Action (CTA) in your book.

This is a simple, easy, and effective way to get some reviews because you just need to include it once and then move on. On the last page of your book once published, include a short CTA requesting that if they liked the book, readers leave an honest review on their favourite online reading site or store.

2. Have a free ebook online.

The best way to get a lot of reviews is obviously to have more people read it. If you have a free copy of the ebook online, you’re more likely to get downloads and therefore reviews. If you publish it with certain companies, you can make ebooks free for only certain days of the month as a promotion. You can also make it permanently free on Kobo or iBook sites and Amazon will eventually price match it.

3. Email your mailing list.

You should have a mailing list with all of your readers’ email addresses. As Penelope Ludlum, a marketer at Writinity and Last Minute Writingexplains, “once you have it set up, you can email them and ask for honest reviews of your book. You can set this up so they go out automatically, even when a new person joins your mailing list.”

4. Have a street team read in advance.

Once you have a big enough group of readers and followers, you can ask your readers if any want to be a part of your advance reader team. These people would receive the book early, read it, then review once published. For this option, you have to be clear that you want their own opinion without anything offered in exchange or you’ll be violating some online platforms’ terms of service.

To set this up, send out regular emails asking for volunteers, perhaps as one of your automated messages. You can name the team with a special name to create a sense of camaraderie and community. This team is also great at doing a final review of the book for anything that the editors may have missed.

5. Reach out to book bloggers in your genre.

This strategy is free to follow but it can be time consuming. Many book blogs have reviews of books in a specific genre, so you can research to find the right bloggers for your genre and who accept books for review. Once accepted, book bloggers will review your book on their own platform in addition to Goodreads and Amazon. Be sure to review the site’s submission requirements so you’re not wasting your time submitting somewhere that won’t accept your novel.

6. Research Amazon reviewers.

Similar to the previous point, you can research book reviewers on Amazon and reach out to them and ask them to review your book. To do this, find books that are similar to yours and then read through the review section and each reviewer’s profile to see if they’ve provided their contact info or website. Then, send a polite and personalized email asking if they would be interested in reviewing your book and explain how you found out about them.

7. Use social media.

Pick a couple of social media platforms and become familiar with them, without trying to use them all. Then, Robert Woods, a blogger at Draft Beyond and Research Papers UK, says to “engage in conversations with followers, asking them what they’re up to, or asking their opinion on something unrelated. As part of these posts, you can ask for reviews with a link to your book’s page, but you certainly don’t want to be only posting about that.”

8. Join a Goodreads group.

Some Goodreads groups allow for contributions from authors whereas others are for readers only. Look for one that meets your criteria and your genre, and get used to the culture before diving in and asking for reviews.

Ashley Halsey, a professional writer at Lucky Assignments  and Gumessays.com, is involved in many marketing and professional projects. She enjoys helping entrepreneurs and small businesses develop their customer base and increase customer loyalty. She attends business training classes and travels in her spare time.