Amazon reviews from free review copies

[Eliza]

I want to run a promotion giving free copies in exchange for honest reviews on Amazon, but before I do I would like some advice.

If a person receives a free review copy, it will obviously not show as a "verified purchase" on Amazon.

Is there a certain rule or process that should be followed to ensure Amazon actually accepts these reviews, and also it won't look dodgy to readers who can see it's not a verified purchase?

I don't want to start handing out free copies for nothing.

Thanks.

[Amanda]

They can also be posted on blogs and here on Goodreads, if they don't stay up there (some get pulled at random)if they don't stay up there. Another method authors use, when they can afford to do it, is giving the reviewer a copy of the book as a gift, thus making it a verified copy.

[S.]

Through Select?

[Eliza]

Does it cost the author to "gift" a book through Amazon?

[K.J.]

Eliza wrote: "I want to run a promotion giving free copies in exchange for honest reviews on Amazon, but before I do I would like some advice.

If a person receives a free review copy, it will obviously not sho..."

Hi Eliza. When readers receive a book in exchange for a review, they are supposed to disclose this information. Amazon shouldn't reject the review unless they think the reviewer is somehow connected to you personally. (There's a thread here about rejected reviews you might find interesting.)

When you gift a copy of your ebook, you do have to pay for it. The person you gift a book to receives notification of the "gift" and then they need to redeem it. When it has been redeemed, it will show up as a sale on your KDP report, and you'll receive a royalty. And as Amanda mentioned, it will be listed as a verified purchase when it is reviewed.

[Eliza]

Thank you, that's helpful.

What if you made your title free, without running an official KDP free promo, just for the time you want to gift it, would that annoy Amazon and would it count as a verified sale?

Just trying to think through options right now. Trying to plan my promotion properly and not just dive in.

[K.J.]

I don't think you can offer a book for free without doing a KDP promo. But you could price it at .99 and then gift the read-for-review copies at that price. Repricing your book won't annoy Amazon, and free copies do count as verified sales.

[Eliza]

Ok so did I do the maths right?

At .99c and 30% royalty, it would cost me $0.70 (rounded) to gift a book for a review?

Thanks.

[K.J.]

The royalty would be 35%, so yes, you'd spend close to $0.70.

Check out Lola's Blog Tours. She can help you find bloggers to read and review your book. I just found her service a couple of weeks ago. So far, 12 people have signed up to review my book.

Lola's Blog Tours

[Martyn]

K.J. wrote: "I don't think you can offer a book for free without doing a KDP promo."

Yes, you can.

The way to do that is to also publish the book through Kobo, where you offer it for free. Then, go to the page of your book, where you can send a notice to Amazon about a lower price. You fill in the URL to your book on Kobo and the price of 0.00. If Amazon receives enough notices that the book is free on another retailer site, they will change the price to free.

I did it with these two short stories, that serve as 'loss leaders' to attract readers to my books:
http://www.amazon.com/Locked-Room-Kil...
http://www.amazon.com/Microchip-Murde...

Good luck with your promo.