How to build an advance reader team and get honest early reviews

The rules, in plain words

Two sets of rules apply: Amazon's, because that is where most of your reviews will appear, and the US Federal Trade Commission's, because reviews are a form of endorsement.

Amazon

• Free advance copies are allowed. Amazon's community guidelines let customers review free books (advance reader copies) from authors or publishers, provided the author does not require a review in exchange or try to influence the reader's opinion. KDP's customer reviews page says the same from the author's side.
• Nothing else in exchange. The guidelines forbid reviews in exchange for compensation: payments, refunds, discounts, products or gift cards. KDP says offering anything other than a free or discounted copy of the book, including gift cards, will invalidate a review.
• No close relationships. Amazon's customer review rules do not allow reviews from someone perceived to have a close personal relationship with the author, and the guidelines list friends, relatives, employers and business associates among the relationships that create a conflict.
• No swaps. The same page gives the example of a positive review on a peer's work in exchange for a positive review back. Review-for-review arrangements between authors are out.
• No reviews before delivery. The guidelines do not allow posting a review for a product before it has been delivered. Reviews start once the book is live.

The FTC

• Disclose the free copy. The FTC's Endorsement Guides FAQ says reviewers who received a product free should disclose that, and that the need to disclose is not limited to cases where money changes hands. It specifically addresses authors who agree to review each other's books: that arrangement needs disclosing too.
• Never tie anything to sentiment. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, in effect since October 21, 2024, bans incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, along with fake reviews and undisclosed reviews by insiders. Giving a free copy for an honest review is allowed; asking for a positive one is not.

Who to invite

Scribe Media's guide to Amazon book reviews suggests aiming for a launch team of 30 to 50 people, and at least 20 reviews within the first two months after release. That is a reasonable target for a first-time nonfiction author. The people who make good advance readers:

• People your book is for. Clients, former clients, readers of your newsletter, members of groups you belong to. A reader who recognizes their own problem writes a useful review.
• People in your field. Colleagues, peers you respect, people who have heard you speak. Their review adds credibility, and some will share the book.
• People who have replied to you. Anyone who has written back to an email or post is more likely to read.

Leave out relatives and close friends as reviewers; ask them to help in other ways (buying, sharing, coming to the event). Business associates fall in a grey area under Amazon's rules, so think about how the relationship would look to a stranger reading the review.

Invite people one by one, with a personal note. A public "who wants a free book?" post fills a list with names that never read. Ask each person to reply with a simple yes, and keep a spreadsheet: name, email, format they prefer, date sent, date they said they finished.

Expect drop-off. Not everyone who says yes reads in time, which is why you invite more people than the number of reviews you hope for.

Getting the book to them

Use the proofread interior, and mark it clearly as an advance copy. Most readers want an ebook; some want print. Options:

Send copies six to eight weeks before launch if you can. Scribe's guide treats one month as the minimum. Busy professionals read in the gaps, and a book that arrives in launch week is rarely read in launch week.

What to say, and what never to say

Three short messages carry the whole team:

1. With the copy: thanks, the launch date, the format link, and the honest-review request in the wording above. Say how much you would value hearing what they think, even privately.
2. Halfway (about four weeks before launch): a personal check-in. How is it going? Any questions? Here is the launch date again.
3. Launch day: the book is live, here is the link to its page, and if they would like to leave an honest review and mention their advance copy, now is the time.

And one follow-up a few weeks after launch to anyone who has not posted, then stop. People owe you nothing for a free book.

Never say: "Please leave a five-star review." "Only post if you liked it." "Leave a review and I will send you a bonus." "I will review yours if you review mine." Each of these breaks Amazon's rules, the FTC's rule, or both.

Reviews from outside your network

Your team will mostly be people who already know your work. If you want reviews from strangers, librarians or the trade, these are the established routes:

• NetGalley. Reviewers, librarians and booksellers request digital advance copies. A 6-month listing bought directly costs $575; IBPA members can buy co-op listings from $179 for one month to $499 for six months through IBPA.
• Goodreads giveaways. A Standard giveaway costs $119 and Premium $599 in the US. A giveaway puts the book on entrants' want-to-read shelves; it does not guarantee reviews.
• Trade and editorial reviews. Publishers Weekly asks for galleys three, preferably four, months before the first day of the month of publication, and Library Journal six months ahead. Self-published authors can submit to Publishers Weekly through BookLife for $25. Paid reviews from Kirkus Indie start at $450 and from Foreword Clarion cost $579. These are editorial reviews you can quote, not Amazon customer reviews.

The launch budget guide compares these and other paid services.

What most authors get wrong

• Sending copies too late. A team that gets the book two weeks out produces reviews two months later.
• Asking for stars. Even in a friendly tone, it conditions the request on sentiment.
• Using relatives as reviewers. Amazon's rules do not allow them, and readers can often tell.
• Buying reviews or "review packages." Any service that promises a number of Amazon reviews for a fee is offering exactly what Amazon and the FTC forbid.
• Forgetting to thank people. Your advance readers are your first fans. Thank every one of them, whether they reviewed or not.

Scribe author Nashater Deu's book The Leadership PIN Code was a #1 Bestseller, Amazon, on launch day. That is one author's result, not a typical one, but launches like it start with people who have read the book before it goes on sale.

The launch planner dates each of these steps for your launch and warns you if your date leaves your readers too little time. Scribe Media, which makes this site, sells book marketing services to authors it has published; for anyone, the next step can be a free consult.