Contact Amazon reviewers that don't have email address

[Shir]

Hi,

How can I contact Amazon reviewers that didn't write their email address?

[Emma]

You don't, because they don't want people to contacting them.
If you are thinking about contacting someone about a low star review they have written, my advice is, don't. Much poop from a great many places will likely fall on your head.

[Shir]

I just wonder how authors contacted them in order to get a review...

[Emma]

I don't think they do, the reviewers without email addresses simply review what they chose to buy. There are several places on goodreads to get genuine honest reviews.

[Shir]

Okay, thanks.

I will look for those GR groups.

[Misfit]

E. wrote: "You don't, because they don't want people to contacting them.
If you are thinking about contacting someone about a low star review they have written, my advice is, don't. Much poop from a great man..."

This is good advice and I recommend taking it. I tried putting up a throw-away email address on my Amazon page. It didn't stay up long, I got very tired of emails from authors asking me to review their book, including telling me where I could buy it.

No, I am not kidding.

[Shir]

"This is good advice and I recommend taking it."
I already took it :)

"I tried putting up a throw-away email address on my Amazon page. It didn't stay up long, I got very tired of emails from authors asking me to review their book, including telling me where I could buy it."
No idea what kind of authors contact you...

I asked because I've seen Amazon's top reviewers that review my genre but didn't have contact info. That's frustrating...

[Misfit]

Shir wrote: ""This is good advice and I recommend taking it."
I already took it :)

"I tried putting up a throw-away email address on my Amazon page. It didn't stay up long, I got very tired of emails from auth..."

Sorry, I had noticed you had taken the advice, I was kind of speaking in general terms :)

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Many top reviewers also have personal blogs. Another piece of advice: check for submission guidelines before contacting them there. Some have become either overwhelmed with submissions or no longer accept from indie authors due to past issues.

Never count on anyone reviewing your book in time for a promotion or launch just because you contacted them or sent it to them. A top reviewer on goodreads, amazon or other sites is very unlikely to promise your book priority out of all the submissions they do get. Or even that they will read/review it. There are more than 100K new authors weekly, most of which see the exact same "top reviewer" things you see.

Never pay someone (other than with a free for honest, unrestricted review book which they need to disclose in their review) to put a review on goodreads (goodreads does not allow commercial use including paid reviews; exception the free for honest, unrestricted review... ). If paying for any review to be posted in with reader/consumer reviews, make sure that site's TOS/policies allow (and even then — if on U.S. sites like amazon.com — that payment, including if a review exchange, and any review conditions legally has to be disclosed if in with consumer reviews versus the "editorial descriptions").

Seeing payment disclosed on sites that do allow paid reviews can cause readers to assume all reviews of your book were paid for; not seeing the disclosure can get a paid review flagged for removal (or a complaint filed with FTC which realistically for a small potatoes book review would currently probably not get priority compared to potentially more harmful complaints and the FTCs first step would likely be a communication to disclose or remove).

What gets even rumored on the internet seldom dies down. Even a false accusation of annoying a reviewer by email, responding to a negative review, paid reviews or undisclosed review exchanges can destroy your chances with some reviewers, including top ones.

On the other hand, some of the top reviewers on amazon have paid reviewer options on sites like fivver.com. That may be the easiest way to contact them even if not paying for reviews. (The legalities don't seem to phase them and amazon is sluggish at best to removed flagged reviews that were book promotional but lightning quick when one author competing for ranking in the same category as another pays someone to write negative reviews of their "enemy"...)

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Sometimes newer members to a group with fewer books on their shelves may be more eager for a free-for-review book than a "top" reviewer. Even then, I'd checkout the books they have shelved to make sure yours might be of interest before contacting. And don't offend the group moderator or group members by posting book promotions on threads not specifically for book promotions (if in doubt, message a moderator).

There are many groups on goodreads that specifically are for authors to promote books and to facilitate the free-for-review transactions. Just don't assume every group welcomes it or welcomes it in all ( versus dedicated) topics. Some groups even welcome you recommending your own book for their group reads; some adamantly do not. Getting a book selected as book of the month or another group read can really boost sales and reviews; vandalizing the voting by sockpuppet accounts or driving new members to that group to just vote on your book versus participate will alienate almost everyone and moderator will remove your book quicker than a librarian can remove it from a spammed, inappropriate listopia...

[Shir]

I was looking for emails of Amazon's top reviewers that didn't put *any* contact info on their profiles and review my genre.

I understand they don't put contact details because they may buy the products themselves (which is a bit weird).

You mentioned some of them get paid for reviews ("some of the top reviewers on amazon have paid reviewer options"). Weird. Isn't it against Amazon's policy?

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Shir wrote: "I was looking for emails of Amazon's top reviewers that didn't put *any* contact info on their profiles and review my genre.

I understand they don't put contact details because they may buy the pr..."

Yes, against stated amazon policy and for U.S. sites having (or appearing to general public to have) consumer/reader reviews illegal when payment is not disclosed. How amazon and other sites enforce versus what they say the policy is varies.

Doesn't seem to stop anyone. I wasn't suggesting at all to pay anyone for a review, just that you could contact them via their participation on paid reviewer sites. Unlike their profiles on amazon, on those sites they are contact-able. And often much more receptive to author contact.

There are also a lot of top reviewer profiles on amazon that aren't even an actual consumer/reader but rather business entities or groups of people (it's much easier if you have a blog site with 20 or 30 contributing reviewers all using the same amazon profile for that profile to become a top reviewer than it is for a profile that is an actual person producing their own reviews—well unless you are Harriet review-by-copying-blurb). If you can track down their website/blog, you can contact them. Those are generally more interested in author contact because they are determined to do the volume needed to keep up "top reviewer" status even though clearly not a single reviewer/consumer. I'll edit to link an example.

ETA: here's a blog site: http://www.mybookaddictionandmore.com/ behind amazon profile http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/... ; because they have several reviewers all reviewing under that profile they may be less overwhelmed with books to review. And even if not contact-able through amazon you can contact them on their website. They do tend to do 4 and 5 star amazon reviews so are likely rather popular with their authors.

[Misfit]

I know this will come across as an unpopular opinion, but as a reader who has spent a lot of time in the trenches at Amazon, reviewers like Klausner, Midwest Book Review, any publisher-friendly reviewer, including the profile D.A. linked to above are completely worthless to me. When shopping for book ideas, if I see any of those reviewers that I recognize as four and five star gushies that never have a critical word to say, I ignore those reviews.

I mostly look at what my friends at GR have to say, plus a few Amazon reviewers that I come across from time to time in my two go-to genres, historical fiction and historical romance.

I know it's rough finding reviewers, but speaking as on - life is busy and I have a lot of owned books to read. There is a small handful of favorite authors I would jump at the chance for an ARC, the rest I can wait for the library to get them and read them without the pressure of hurry up and review, and the ease of closing it after a few chapters and moving on if I hate it.

FYI, since Amazon Vine imposed a 100% review rule for all Vine items, I've noticed less Vine reviewers are requesting books to review. The grief involved with 1) the possible drama that could ensure from a DNF review or 2) putting oneself through finishing a book one loathes makes that book (and subsequent review) even more painful.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

So far, unless just disguising it on their amazon profiles, I at least haven't run across VINE reviewer profiles that belong to groups of people or business entities. So they at least do seem to be an indvidual reviewer. Of course, I also have gone through each and every profile looking...

But many VINE reviewers are also on the paid review sites.

This post mentions how bad the fivver type of things have become and no doubt why some readers are leery of the review system: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Misfit]

D.A.-bully victims suffer more than a ★ on their commercial product wrote: "So far, unless just disguising it on their amazon profiles, I at least haven't run across VINE reviewer profiles that belong to groups of people or business entities. So they at least do seem to b..."

:p

Last time I looked even the infamous Harriet Klausner has a Vine voice badge. I have never seen concrete evidence, but there's been chat that some Vine members take the free stuff, review it like they used it and then sell it on Ebay as new out of the box.

There are bad eggs in every basket, but the Fiverr stuff is really outrageous.

[Shir]

Thank for the tip, guys!

I didn't know reviewers may cause a damage :-0

Is there a blacklist of reviewers? (seriously)

How can an author know that?