I want to put your name in my books.
I know what you’re thinking…
“what’s the catch?”
Well, of course there’s a catch…but it’s not like you have to donate a kidney or something.
In fact, if you’ve read my books, you’re already halfway there.
Lemmee ‘splain…
One of the biggest challenges facing authors these days is getting readers to post reviews on Amazon.
My personal opinion is that the vast majority of readers don’t realize how important reviews are, or they feel that they aren’t qualified to write one.
Let me tell you…reviews are extremely important.
I don’t know the specifics of Amazon’s algorithms, but I do know that there is a direct correlation between the number of reviews on a book and the way Amazon promotes said book. In other words, the more reviews a book has the more likely Amazon will be to recommend that book to other shoppers.
As for being qualified to write a review – if you have read the book and can sum up your thoughts about it in two or three sentences – you are qualified (read more on that here). Writing a review can be as simple as this…
…or even simpler if you prefer to make a long story short.
Independent authors everywhere spend quite a bit of time asking (pleading, begging) readers to post reviews…often to no avail.
For the record…there are plenty of places we could get reviews of our books for a fee…I for one refuse to pay for a review. Potential readers are skeptical of paid reviews, for good reason…most paid reviewers are disinclined to be completely honest. It’s like an unwritten rule – if they are being paid for a review they feel obligated to be as favorable as possible.
With all that being said I think I have a win-win proposal – the Ike Fan Club (IFC for short).
Henceforth – in the back of every book I write I will include a list of the members of the IFC with my sincere thanks for their support. I will also (eventually) have the list added to the books already in print.
How does one become a member of the IFC?
That’s where the win-win part comes in…
The only membership requirement is to write and post reviews of at least five of my books on Amazon.
Easy-peazy.
Once you post five reviews – or if you’ve already posted five – just send me an email (blindoggbooks@gmail.com) and tell me which books you reviewed – remember to include the user name under which the review is posted.
If you’ve posed reviews but don’t want to be on the list – that’s fine too. I will only include the people who email me.
But WAIT! There’s more…
In every novel I am always looking for names for characters…so I will be selecting some random names from the IFC for my characters too!
If the need arises I may even create a Top Tier Level of the IFC for those who review ten books – and I’ll come up with a cool perk for those folks too.
That’s my proposal…
If you’d like to have your name listed in my books and be immortalized in print…all you have to do is review five books on Amazon.
Win-Win.
As always – thank you for reading
blindoggbooks 
Well, I’m pretty sure I’ve done at least five reviews for you on Amazon and you have my email address so I’ll expect to be named in your next book. 😉
You got it!
On it!
Awesome!
Reblogged this on Reading Recommendations and commented:
Here’s Reading Recommendations-promoted Author, Tim Baker, with an interesting idea for a Fan Club – and a way readers can be immortalized in his future books!
Reblogged this on firefly465 and commented:
great idea
Clever idea. As somebody who writes regular reviews on amazon, I always receive an item, including books for free to review. I feel very uncomfortable with people who take money for reviews, although I do know it happens.
As for your idea, it’s a clever one and you are right, amazon does seem to have something in place that ranks higher reviewed items/ books better than others. Also, reviews just help ordinary customers to know whether they’d be interested in a book. Worth getting some longer reviews though as a few that just state ‘I loved this!’ wouldn’t sway me to buy a book. Hope you don’t mind me adding my thoughts to your post.
I don’t mind at all – all thoughts are welcome! Thank you for the input! I don’t ever mind giving a reviewer a free book – I don’t consider that “compensation” – it’s the “I’ll review your book for X dollars that I think are sometimes suspect. Not always…but enough to cast a shadow of doubt.
Even if the reviewer states that they wont guarantee a positive review, I personally don’t think anybody should settle for paying for reviews. There are enough people who, like me, are willing to review for a free copy of a book :). Now if I received money by getting a job reviewing books for a magazine or paper or something then that’s different, or if I got general revenue from my blog. But taking money from the person who wrote the book just doesn’t feel morally right to me.
I have found already two blogs/sites that ask for around $40-$50 per book review. As an amazon reviewer I can tell you that there are enough reviewers out there who will do it for free so just keep searching for them and you can find them. 🙂
I hope that my input on that is okay. am I too moral here? Until a few weeks ago I didn’t know people actually took money for book reviews!
Fantastic idea. I’d think that people would post reviews for books they like simply because that’s how the writer prospers. Want more good quality books? Write a review.
Right you are, Matt…too bad the book reading public doesn’t see thing so clearly.