Site Procedures

Important Procedures for Reviewing on This Site

Welcome to our site! We are excited to have you join our community of authors and reviewers. Before you start reviewing, we want to ensure that you understand the procedures and guidelines, as they are crucial to maintaining a safe and effective reviewing environment, remembering that as authors, we are here to help one another achieve our goals with ranking, status, and credibility which is a byproduct of getting high-quality reviews for our books.

The Importance of Reading and Understanding This Document

Please set aside a few minutes to read this document in its entirety. It contains vital information about our site’s operation and Amazon’s review policies. We want to make sure you have a successful experience while avoiding any negative consequences for your Amazon account.

Overview of Amazon’s Community Guidelines

Amazon has specific community guidelines that each member must follow to ensure their Amazon account remains in good standing. You can find all of Amazon’s Community Guidelines on their website. For convenience, here is a rundown of the most important guidelines for book review clubs:

• You must have spent at least $50 in the last 12 months on each version of Amazon on which you wish to leave a review.
• Amazon’s goal is to capture all the energy, enthusiasm, and feedback (both favorable and critical) that customers have about a book while avoiding the use of reviews to advertise, promote, or mislead.
  • If you only give reviews to get tokens on our network, please cancel your subscription immediately. It’s only a matter of time before either Amazon or our support team realizes this is the case (GBR and Amazon both have ways of detecting this). As a reader, your honest reviews based on reading the book help others discover excellent books on Amazon. Learn more about acceptable reviews here.
• Amazon does not allow “Review Swapping” or reviews from people closely associated with your book.
  • Our system has an anti-review swap algorithm that prevents you from leaving a review for another GBR member who has already reviewed one of your books. If you are a member of any other book review club, our algorithm cannot protect you. We know from first-hand experience that using more than one book review club at a time can put your Amazon account in jeopardy.
  • You should not allow anyone financially connected to your book or your close associates, friends, and family to review your book as Amazon can detect this and penalize your account.
  • You should not review books that would be considered direct competitors to your book.
• Amazon does not allow a review to be posted if the customer is a member of a review club where they are asked to register their Amazon public profile so that sellers or brands may monitor their reviews of products offered through the club.
• Amazon has specific policies on what you can write in a review:
  • Do not include seller, order, or shipping feedback in your review. Amazon only wants information about the book itself in your review.
  • Do not make comments about pricing or availability.
  • Do not use repetitive text, spam, or pictures created with symbols.
  • Do not private information about you or the author of the book.
  • Do not use hate speech, profanity, or harassment in your review.
  • Do not include any statements or claims related to preventing or curing serious medical conditions or severe symptoms.

Please see our blog post “Decoding Amazon’s Review Guidelines for Book Review Clubs” which covers every statement in Amazon’s Community Guidelines as they relate to our service.

Potential Consequences for Violating Amazon Guidelines

If Amazon finds you in violation of any of their guidelines they may:

• Remove your content
• Limit your ability to use community features
• Remove related books
• Suspend or terminate your account
• Withhold payments

Protecting Your Account

Avoid being overly aggressive with reviews. Giving or receiving too many reviews too fast may raise suspicion with Amazon and potentially result in account restrictions. Slow and steady reviews are more natural and effective. This is an important warning. Please take this seriously. Amazon is using specialized algorithms and AI to help them find what they consider “suspicious activity” on an account. You don’t want to be flagged for that. While penalties from Amazon can potentially be reversed, they cause a lot of angst and work. If reviews have been removed from your book or if reviews you left for others get removed, they may or may not be restored. Per our terms of use, “If Amazon removes your books or reviews for violating any of their community guidelines or policies, it is cause for automatic and permanent suspension from our Service.” If you are giving more than eight book reviews in a 7-day period to your Amazon account, you are in serious jeopardy of getting your account penalized on Amazon and having all of your reviews removed. We’ve seen this happen many times when members are not following our polices and procedures. With our system, this is not a concern, but some members in the past have used other platforms or questionable review capturing techniques alongside our platform, and their accounts were penalized by Amazon. Please take a slow and steady long-term approach to earn reviews safely.

Understanding Our Site Procedures

We’ve compiled some helpful information to ensure your best possible experience.

A Short Overview of The Whole Process From Start to Finish for New Members

1. To get started, select at least one book from the Review Library to review.
   • When you find a book you’d like to review, be sure to check it out for review on our website before you start reading the book.
   • Once you’ve read the book, you must complete the two-step process of submitting the review on our website from the Books I’m Reviewing area of the Account page and then copying and pasting your review to Amazon. You must post every review to your Amazon account, and it must appear publicly in the book’s review area on Amazon. If, for any reason, your reviews are not posted publicly, then this site is not a good fit for you, and we may suspend your membership.
   • Amazon will email you a link to your public review URL, which you need to take and paste into the form for that book at the bottom of your “Books I’m Reviewing” page. Amazon typically posts your review in 1-3 days, but it can take up to 10 days in some cases. To review even more books and get your tokens right after submitting your review, sign up for a paid subscription to get full access.
   • Learn the full details of the review process below.
2. After at least one of your given reviews has been confirmed, add your book(s) to the My Books section of the Account page.
   • Our support team will review your book(s) to ensure they match the information on Amazon and meet our terms of use. Then, we will approve them to be added to the library. This normally takes 1-2 business days.
   • The first book you add will automatically be listed in the Review Library one time for free as part of the trial.
3. Continue to review books; you’ll earn more tokens, and you can list any of your books in the library to get more reviews.
   • Think of the Review Library as a single display stand to showcase your books at a bookstore. You can only put one book on the stand at a time. When someone takes that book to review it, you get notified via email and can then put the book back on display so the next person can find it and review it. In other words, you can only have one copy of your book in the library at a time, but multiple people can have a copy of your book in the review process at one time.

If you have any questions, please submit a support ticket or find instant answers in our AI-powered Help Center.

For International Authors

Amazon has several regional versions of its platform, such as Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.in, and many more. Every book in our library indicates which versions of Amazon it accepts reviews from. You will only receive tokens for reviews posted on a version of Amazon from which the book accepts reviews.

80% of our members are US-based, so you may want to open up a separate Amazon.com account if you are not finding enough books that accept reviews from your regional version of Amazon. Remember that you’ll need to have at least $50 spent in the last 12 months for any version of Amazon you wish to leave reviews on.

Different Ways to Offer Your Books

There are multiple review options you can choose for your book. The biggest difference is the Purchase book options which give you a verified purchase review vs. the other options that give you a review on Amazon but it is not labeled as a verified purchase:

Free Download PDF

The author can upload a PDF that is accessible to the reviewer to read once they begin their review. Free Download PDF reviews show up on Amazon but are not classified as a verified purchase.

Free Download EPUB

EPUB (short for electronic publication) is a popular open-standard file format for digital books that can be read on many popular e-readers.

The author can upload an EPUB file that the reviewer can read once they begin their review. Free Download EPUB reviews show up on Amazon but are not classified as a verified purchase.

PermaFree (This is rare)

“Permafree” on Amazon is a way to make an e-book available for free on other bookseller websites and then have Amazon price match it. This can’t be done directly on Amazon, but authors can try these steps to make their book permafree:

1. Make the book free on other bookseller websites, such as Apple or Kobo
2. Notify Amazon of the price difference by submitting the price match form in the Help section of your KDP
3. Amazon will likely price match the book toward the end of the next month 

Some say that the system isn’t perfect, and it can take a few days or weeks for a book to become permafree.

Kindle Unlimited

Kindle Unlimited (KU) is a subscription service offered by Amazon that allows users to access a vast library of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and comics for a monthly fee.

The reviews given after reading a KU book are not verified in the same way that reviews for purchased books might be, but if you read until the end of the KU book, you can leave a review there. Reviews left at the end of the Kindle Reader/APP or left from “My Digital Orders” are much more likely to show as a verified purchase on Amazon.

Purchase on Amazon Kindle (As a Verified Purchase Review)

When you offer your book as Purchase on Amazon Kindle you are requesting reviews from authors who have purchased your book. Reviewers must have the “Verified Purchase” shown on their reviews in order to qualify for this type of review. 

If you select a book as Purchase on Amazon Kindle you must post your reviews on the last page of the Kindle Book or from the digital orders page to ensure they are verified purchase reviews. Even if Amazon offers a book as Kindle Unlimited you still must purchase the book without using any coupons or discounts to qualify for this type of review.

Purchase Paper Book on Amazon (As a Verified Purchase Review)

When you offer your book as Paper Book Purchase on Amazon, you are requesting reviews from authors who have purchased your paperback or hardback book. Reviewers mush have the “Verified Purchase” show on their reviews in order to qualify for this type of review. If you have both paperback and hardback please choose the cheaper price as the price you enter into the GBR website.

Because there will be shipping delays with this option reviewers have an extra 3 days to submit this review.

If you select a book as Purchase on Amazon Paper Book you must purchase the paper/hardback book without using any coupons or discounts on the same Amazon account that you leave the review. You will also be required to submit either a picture of the book cover with a verification code on the cover, or you may be required to submit a secret word found only on a certain page of the paper book. Please note that anyone who selects the purchase paper book option after canceling a review for the same book will have to upload a picture of the book with the verification code, as any secret words could have been found in the PDF or EPUB version of the canceled review. 

Tokens and Verified Purchase Reviews

For books offered as purchases, we provide 250 extra tokens for every dollar spent, in addition to the base token value. These tokens come from the author’s account each time their book is published in our library. If your Kindle or Paper book is costly, consider offering it as Kindle Unlimited (if so enrolled) or add a PDF/EPUB version to ensure getting reviews without deterring readers with a high price. Another option would be to lower the price of your book during the duration of time on this site.

Proper Review Process

When you finish reading a book and are ready to post your review, please post the review on this site first and then copy and paste it into Amazon’s site. This way, you’ll have a backup of your review on our site if anything goes wrong during posting on Amazon.

Importance of Posting Correctly:

• When it comes time to choose a book for review, there will be radio buttons where you have to select how you want to review this book. There may be only one choice, but you still have to click that radio button. If you choose to buy a book then you’re expected to buy the book and post a verified purchase review for that book.
• For books offered on our site for purchase, always post your reviews from the digital orders page to ensure they are shown as verified purchase reviews on Amazon. Remember, even if Amazon offers a book with multiple purchase options you can only review it based on the review options offered on our site. For “Purchase Paper Book on Amazon” and “Purchase on Amazon Kindle” it is necessary to purchase the book (even if you have Amazon Unlimited). Although you would think they would, Amazon will not know you’ve purchased the book just because you are logged in and you post your review on the public book page in Amazon. They will not connect the purchase with the review unless you post your review on the digital orders page where you made your purchase.

• If you have chosen a Kindle Unlimited book to review you must have a KU subscription on Amazon. Also, please be sure to scroll through to the end of the book. Amazon and the author will know how far you’ve gotten in that book, and it could raise red flags if you’ve only accessed a few pages. This will also give the author royalties on pages read, and if you get through to the end, you’ll have an opportunity to post the review there, which will give the author a verified review. We have learned that there are occasional exceptions but most of the time this is the case.
• As soon as you’ve decided on a book that you want to review, you need to go to our library and click the “Check Out Book and Start Reviewing” button to take it out of the library and reserve it on your dashboard until you’re ready to submit your review. If you don’t do this, someone may pre-empt you and take the book out of the library, and then it will not be available when you’re ready to post your review.
• After reading your selected book, you must submit your review of the book on our website and on Amazon directly after submitting on our site. In 2-4 days, you will receive an email from Amazon with a link to the public URL of your review. You need to copy that link and paste it into the form for the book you are reviewing, found at the bottom of the “Books I’m Reviewing” page. This will complete your review.
  • If it is taking a while for Amazon to email you about the live URL of your book review (normally it takes 2-3 days, but it can take up to 10 days), please do not submit it again. Submitting a review multiple times on Amazon can cause long delays. You should only resubmit a review if you submitted it incorrectly the first time.

Acceptable Reviews

This site has a reputation for, and we value, thoughtful, descriptive reviews that discuss the book’s content.

If you cannot in good conscience leave a positive review after you have started a book, there is no obligation to leave the review. The author would much rather you cancel the review and pick up another book than receive a negative review. However, you’re free to leave any star rating and review content you feel is appropriate.

Review Length and Content

We encourage thoughtful reviews with at least 2-3 sentences. Do not use generic phrases that could apply to any book. Reviews should provide insights and help potential readers make an informed decision as to whether they want to read this book themselves. You can learn how to write an impactful review here. Constructive feedback is best reserved for the private review area on your review submission form. You will see this area (labeled “for the author’s eyes only”) when you submit your review.

Do Not Use AI to Write Your Reviews

These are pretty obvious and easy to detect because they are so eloquent – much more so than what the average reviewer would post. If Amazon suspects you are using AI to write your reviews, there is a good chance they will restrict your reviewing privileges altogether and possibly even remove all your reviews which means a total loss of all your time and effort as well as your ability to review, and everyone loses.

You may use AI to generate ideas about what to write for the review based on your notes, but please rewrite the review in your writing style and use everyday vocabulary to make it completely original.

Important Notice

Users who consistently leave reviews deemed undescriptive, unthoughtful, or not in good faith may have their account terminated without a refund at our sole discretion. Taking “shortcuts” by not reading a book and then proceeding to leave a review for that book is unethical. It is also considered a promotional content review, as you only left the review to get tokens for your book and not because you wanted to share your honest thoughts about the book. Per our Terms of Use:

“Reviews must be based on reading the book and cannot be copied from or very similar to existing reviews left for a book, cannot be written solely based on publicly available descriptions of the book, must refer to content found in the book, and cannot be from a review previously left on other book review club membership sites.”

Please Accept and Respond to Our Emails

To ensure you receive crucial updates and support regarding your book and reviews, please provide us with an active email address you frequently monitor. Add support@getbooksreviewed.com to your whitelist to guarantee our emails reach your inbox.

We send automated emails about your book’s status and reviews, and our support team may occasionally need to contact you for additional information. Prompt communication is vital for a smooth review process and to avoid potential delays or token deductions.

If you signed up with an email that is not frequently monitored, please update it in your Account area.

Conclusion

We appreciate your trust in our site and our commitment to providing a smooth reviewing experience. Remember, Amazon may take 1-10 days to post submitted reviews, and in rare cases, it might take longer. Rest assured that we’ll assist you in case of any issues with reviews not posting. If support has to contact you about an issue with a review, please respond expeditiously so that it can be resolved quickly. We are an advocate for each of you to try to get you all what you are expecting and have earned.

If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are here to support you and make this a rewarding journey for everyone involved.

Wishing you much success with your books,

GBR Support Team