Have you recently received a bizarre request from a friend to review their book or a book of a common friend on Amazon Kindle? Well this might not be the only request you will receive! Amazon is no newbie as far as online publishing industry goes; in fact it is one of the pioneers of the field. Keeping up the tradition, Amazon has launched a new project called KDP or Kindle Direct Publishing that allows self-publishing authors and amateurs to publish their books on Amazon’s Kindle platform and inturn get paid for it. It is not as simple as it sounds but one thing is for sure that you would be receiving many more requests for book reviews soon.

 

Why so much attention?

 

You might be wondering why all this uproar, over a simple program, and Why all Amazon authors hope you will do a review of their book! The answer is simple, to get noticed. Amazon’s Kindle is one of the most popular eBook reading platforms across the globe, in other words it offers great audience for authors; be it established or new ones alike. And if you are a new author planning to market your book among the likes of the greats, then you need something extra that might work for you. In case of KDP program, it turns out that distinguishing factor is book review.

 

How does it work?

 

KDP works on simple idea of providing a platform to new authors to publish their books and make them available to larger audience than the authors can get on their own. So an author submits the book to KDP with exclusive publishing rights for a period of 90 days. Now out of these 90 days the author can pick any 5 days to give away the book for free, thereby getting a chance to actually spread their work to readers.

 

This is where the catch is, book reviews become important because during these 5 free giveaway days, some readers pick and give the book a try, if they like it they give it a positive review. This review works as a testimony for the author’s book for the other 85 days during which readers have to pay for the book.

 

Another advantage of reviews is that once the reader has identified the author through a peer group, they might try and pick another book by the same author. A secondary, or say a long shot benefit of book review is increase in the number of downloads.The download of a particular book even on free days account for the popularity which in turn affect paid ranking system. And therefore the more reviews your book gets, the better the chance of getting more downloads, which increases the popularity of your book.

 

In short, book reviews work as a marketing tool for the author and therefore are very important, especially for those working through KDP program. So next time you get a request for a book review by an Amazon author, do give it a try. You might just help someone get a step closer of their dream of being an established author.