How My Children's Book Got 100 Amazon Reviews in Just 5 Days

I've had a few people reach out to me asking about how I was able to get 100+ Amazon book reviews in just 5 days for my book, Scribbaloo and the Color Cruncher. So, I would like to share with everyone my journey and what I focused on, so that it may benefit others.

Please note that what worked for me may not necessarily work for you, and I'm a brand-new author who has a lot of room to grow! I will try my best to lay out what steps I took.

Here's how I got 100 Amazon Reviews:

1. I created a high quality book.

   
   

   FIRST, make sure you have a well-written, professionally edited, professionally illustrated, engaging book. Without this, it will be nigh impossible to get genuinely positive reviews.

   
   

   Okay, now on to the rest...

   
   

2. I built the excitement!

   
   

   About 2 months before I launched, I posted about my new book and the excitement of becoming an author on my personal social media pages. This received a good amount of likes and comments from my friends (which I will explain how this helped me later on in this post).

   
   

3. I built a launch team.

   
   

   Around this same time (2 months prior to launching), I started building my launch team. I started a mailing list and author website using Mailer Lite. I created a page with a sign-up form on my website, asking people to join the launch team and they would receive a free digital flipbook copy (I used the free version of heyzine.com) and also a free activity book that went along with the story. The form made it clear that I would greatly appreciate a review on Amazon when the book launches, but leaving review is completely optional and non-obligatory.

   
   
   
   
   
   

4. I found my audience.

   
   

   To find members of my launch team, I posted in author Facebook groups (like this one), ARC reader Facebook groups, Homeschooling Facebook Groups, Facebook groups that offered free stuff in my community, and I even got a few parent sign-ups from an author visit. The key is to find where your audience hangs out (in-person or online) and share as much as you can, according to the guidelines of these communities. It helps a lot to message the admins of a group before posting to get their permission. In some instances (ex: ARC reader groups), I posted again a couple of weeks later and got new people to join.

   
   

5. I told them to bring friends!

   
   

   In the launch team confirmation email, I included the link to the flipbook and the activity book, what date the book would be launching so they would know when they could leave a review, as well as a request for them to share the link to the launch team sign-up form with 3 other people the person knows who might be interested in joining the launch team (a small version of viral sharing). By the time it was launch week, my launch team was at 200 people.

   
   

6. I sent reminders.

   
   

   A couple of weeks before launch week, I sent a reminder email to all launch team members with easy to follow instructions for leaving an Amazon review. I also strongly encouraged them to set a reminder/calendar event so they wouldn't forget. Life gets busy and forgetting to leave a review is easy to do.

   
   

   On the day before the launch, the day of the launch, and two days after the launch, I sent a gentle reminder to my launch team to leave a review. Encourage your launch team to leave a review as early as they can that week so that other readers can find the book through Amazon.

   
   

7. I reached out directly.

   
   

   On day 3 of the launch, I was only at 45 reviews (of my 100 review goal) that I could visibly see (Amazon is notorious for their delay in reviews being posted, so it helps to let people know that their review may take over a week to post). Thankfully, another author had reached to me directly around this time and gave me the amazing advice of reaching out to others directly on Facebook, because it would help with commitment (as opposed to just posting a request and hope that people would see it).

   
   

   Here is where my "new book / new author announcement" post on my personal social media from 2 months ago came into play. I went back to that post and messaged all the people who "love" reacted or commented on the post. This helped save me a ton of time finding my biggest fans among my friends on social media.

   
   

   

   
   

   I directly messaged dozens of these people and asked them if they would be willing to share a link to the free e-book with their friends/neighbors who have young kids. If the person responded and said "Yes!" I sent them a template paragraph (with a link to the free e-book) that they could copy and paste to share with others. This template paragraph could say:

   
   

"One of my friends just published a new children's book. You can get the free e-book here (insert link to the free e-book) until (insert date here). If you enjoy it, please consider leaving an honest review to support their book launch this week, but it’s totally optional and not required to enjoy the free e-book."

This allows you to receive reviews from people that have no personal connection with you. Now, be sure to clarify to your friends that they shouldn't leave a review themselves because of Amazon's policies prohibiting reviews from others who have a close personal relationship with the author. Looking back now, I should have just reached out to my fans sooner and asked them to share the launch team sign-up with others to avoid this mad scramble to get reviews.

8. I kept it going!

   
   

   Thanks to all of these efforts, by day 5 of launch week, the book crossed the 100 review mark! To help the review number continue to grow, I've included an optional/non-obligatory request for a review in the confirmation email that people receive after downloading the free activity book from my website, which is my lead magnet at the moment.

   
   

The Bottom Line

That pretty much sums it up! I hope that sharing my journey was helpful to you. Remember, some succeed because they are destined to, most succeed because they are determined to.

About Ben:

Husband. Father. Cheese enthusiast.

While he enjoys all things cheese, Ben’s true joy comes from the blessing of his family. His two passionate and playful children remind him how tough it is to be in the “rough draft” stage of becoming an adult. His love for creativity and being a positive influence on others led him to a career in teaching and school leadership. Inspired by a need for stories that teach resilience and the value of learning from mistakes, Ben began writing children's books. Through his stories, he hopes to encourage kids and adults to remember that love and acceptance don't require perfection. When you are loved, there is no need to be perfect.

Ben is a member of our Profitable Picture Books Program - a course and community specifically designed for hopeful children's book authors. If you'd like to learn how to follow in Ben's footsteps and publish YOUR first children's book, come join us!