Where do reviews come from?

Today, I came across a post by someone on the Createspace message boards and I want to share it here.

dcbrownlow asks:
"Okay newbee here. Who gives the reviews and when do they rate them?"

My response:
Generally, people who have purchased your book, read it and either really liked or really disliked your work will leave reviews.  Those that felt your book was so-so are less likely to leave a review, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't.  Keep in mind, of the total number who purchase your book, only a small number of them will leave a review, regardless of what they thought.

That being said, getting your book noticed and convincing people to buy your book are a challenge.  If no one's buying or reviewing, you may have to do a little extra to obtain reviews.  Try some of the following:

>Join a group on Goodreads and submit your book for their Read to Review, ARR, or R2R (same as first) programs.  Never offer reciprocal reviews in return for reviews of your book, sends a bad message.

>Start a blog and get people interested in you and your books.  Offer occasional freebees and see what turns up. 

>Contact book bloggers with requests to review your book and offer them a free ebook in exchange for a review.  You probably have to have a solid pitch or description of your book to convince one to read yours since many will have quite a wait list.  Also, you may consider the smaller bloggers because they may be more likely to fit yours in.

>Pay attention to frequent reviewers for books in your genre and ask some of them to review yours in exchange for a free ebook.  Look for those who provide balanced reviews saying both what they liked and didn't like, because those will have more credibility.

Good luck!

These are only a few things I've learned since late last year when my first book went live on Amazon.

If you would like to add to, correct, or enhance any of my suggestions, please add them to the comments. If we come up with some good ones I'll post them where dcbrownlow can find them. :-)