Pimping-Out Book Reviews–DON’T

When an independent author releases a book or e-book, reviews on Amazon and other places matter. The truth is, reviews are hard to come by. For an author who has yet to make a mark, good reviews are gold.

There are services out there who will provide good reviews of your book for a price. Here’s an example of one on Fiverr, identities hidden to protect the guilty.

Notice that, at the time of this screenshot, 22 orders are in the queue, and 1178 others have bought this service.  “ORDER NOW ($5).” 

This is one example, and there are hundreds of other book review whores like this out there.  For an extra charge, they will even download your e-book so it is a verified sale when they comment, i.e., they swallow. 

I can understand why up-and-coming independent authors would consider hiring review services to seed sales, but isn’t it remarkable how inexpensive book review services are?  All it costs is $5 and all of your credibility.

If you are an author, struggling for recognition – I encourage you to avoid this low-life, cheap-thrill, short-cut to respect.  Don’t feed the parasites.

And you – the readers.  If you do read a book, please… take a few minutes and leave a review, be it one of mine or anyone else’s.  You’ve no idea the value it has – so much more than $5.