Question About Book Reviews

[Bill]

If my book is enrolled in KDP Select, am I allowed--legally-- to send a free Mobi file to a reader in exchange for a review? Or am I only allowed to send it as a gift through Amazon? And how is it even possible to submit an Amazon review with the Mobi file, since they never actually purchased it?

[Doug]

That's a good question, Bill. I don't have an answer, primarily because I've tried to find out the same thing about free e-book downloads with BOOKSTUB.
I have several BOOKSTUB cards left over from my initial contract with my publisher that offer a free download of my books. I'd love to send them out to readers and hope for a review, but I've not been able to find a location where I can make that offer. I would think that these BOOKSTUB downloads are okay for reviews, since they were purchased with my publishing agreement.
If anyone can offer advice, please do.
Thanks, Doug Oudin, author of 'Between Two Harbors, Reflections of a Catalina Island Harbormaster' (a memoir), and 'Five Weeks to Jamaica' (an adventure/romance novel).

[G.G.]

I don't know about the first since I've never been with KDP select, but one doesn't need to have bought a book on Amazon to write a review. The book could be a file given to the reader, or the customer could have bought it from Smashwords, iTunes, B&N etc. The difference is that it doesn't show 'Verified Purchase' when received elsewhere than from Amazon.

[Gisela]

@Bill,

Anybody, who is a customer at Amazon, can review any product. To become a customer you have to buy ANY product with your credit card. Once Amazon has your cc on file and knows that you are a real person, you can review any product you like. When you review a product which you have actually purchased there (you can also review books you lent at the library) it'll say "Verified purchase" next to your review.

You can always send a free copy (paperback copy, Kindle gift copy, or any other type of file) to any reviewer BUT (!!!) the reviewer has to write "I received a free copy of this book in return for an objective and unbiased review" at the beginning or end of his review. And, this needs to be true. Amazon has an algorithm that filters for "fakies". The system also deletes "fakies".

For more information about getting reviews please check out my book NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews

Hope this helped.

[Bill]

Yes, it did. Thanks, everyone.

[Doug]

Cool. Thanks for the insight, Gisela.

[Michael]

This is what I read on the KDP Select FAQ before I enrolled:

"When you choose to enroll your book in KDP Select, you're committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital."

At the time, I was willing to give up some of the rights for the perks of the program, but since then, I have opted out in order to make my first novel permanently free on all platforms.