Fun Size! 🦥

Do you have a new book out?

Here is how Book DNA can help you (free for authors forever). I am not Oprah, but we are slow and steady exposure to the most likely readers for your book. I like to tell authors that Book DNA is 1 of the 100 things they should do to market their book. I hope to be 5 of the 100 things they do within a few years.

What is Book DNA building for authors?

Reminder: We’re building a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations based on your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations, like Pandora or Spotify for books.

I am now using the app to track all my 2026 reading (smooth so far)! I’ve also loaded my brother and two early users into it.

Over the last week, I’ve done four 1-hour Zoom sessions with some awesome readers. They have been incredibly helpful! They’ve spotted some weak spots in the UX, caught some bugs, and given feedback to help hone in on the features we want to add next.

I have another 5 Zoom sessions planned over the next 7 days. As we add more features, we will open it up to more and more early testers.

Let me show you how the app is taking shape 😀

Direct link here: https://youtu.be/lHaUBb9pENA

What are we building next?

And some smaller fixes: improved support for audiobooks, adding a genre filter to TBR and your reading log, adding a log type filter to the reading log, fix some missing UX features.

After that, we will likely build:

And I’ll share more as we finish those 😃

Authors ask me the following often:

How do you get reader reviews on Amazon and Goodreads?

How do you get an editorial review for Amazon’s special area, your website, etc?

Usually, I tell authors to do the frustrating grunt work and directly message fans (or potential fans) to get to 100+ reviews. Reviews are important because the more you have, the better your book page converts (and the better chance of showing up in Amazon organic searches).

So far… any service I’ve seen that sells the chance of a reader review is ethically worrisome, and I haven’t recommended using them (especially as Amazon often removes reviews that violate guidelines).

But today, I want to talk about a reader review service that is under new management and is worth a look.

This isn’t an endorsement yet, but I am hopeful it will become one. If you try them, I would like to know. Even better if we can share those results with the entire group (anonymously, of course).

Indie Reader was recently bought by WildBound PR. WildBound PR is a high-end marketing company for authors with a good reputation (and one of their founders has been a member of Book DNA since its early days). I spoke with the two owners, Jared and Julia Drake, and was impressed by how they are following Amazon’s review guidelines.

What does Indie Reader offer?

One of my biggest concerns is whether this follows Amazon’s review guidelines and is ethical. From what I see, it looks promising. Why?

If you try them, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Here is a short interview I did with them about what they are doing:

Ben: How do Reader Reviews follow Amazon’s review guidelines?

Jared @ Indie Reader: Adhering closely to Amazon’s review policies to ensure compliance and to protect authors and reviewers is very important to us. A key component of our platform is that our reader reviewers are normal, everyday readers who purchase titles themselves through their own Amazon account. We do not dictate which titles they choose to review, and we don't reimburse them for the purchase price of the book. IndieReader simply connects authors with readers looking for new books to rate and review. This organic, reader-driven approach helps ensure reviews remain authentic and compliant with Amazon guidelines. We've been in business since 2009 with no issues!

Ben: What is the difference in purpose and cost between Pro Reviews and Reader Reviews?

(Use coupon “BOOKDNA20” for 20% off if you want to test them.)

Jared @ Indie Reader:

Pro Reviews are professional editorial reviews written by experienced critics and editors, typically 350+ words in length. Each review includes a 1–5 star rating, and titles receiving 4 stars or higher are invited to participate in our All About the Book interview series, which further promotes standout works. One exciting new development is that all of our Pro Reviews reviews will be syndicated to Ingram iPage, meaning booksellers and librarians encounter them when considering titles for purchase. In addition, select titles may be introduced to booksellers, film and television acquisition executives, and other industry professionals.

Authors commonly use Pro Reviews in Amazon A+ content, retail editorial sections, media kits, marketing materials, and on book covers. Every Pro Review goes through a rigorous editorial process to ensure it meets IndieReader guidelines and standards. Reviews are thoughtful and critical, and occasionally not favorable. Even though this is a paid review service, positive reviews are never guaranteed, they must be earned. If a review receives fewer than 2.5 stars, authors are given the opportunity to approve publication beforehand.

Standard cost of a Pro Review is $299 for 6-8 week turnaround. A rush review is an extra $100 for a 3-5 week turnaround. 

Learn more here: https://indiereader.com/get-a-book-review/

Reader Reviews, by contrast, are written by everyday readers and posted directly to Amazon and Goodreads. These reviews vary in length and include a star rating, appearing as customer reviews on retail platforms. We do not influence, edit, or control Reader Reviews in any way. They reflect authentic reader feedback and help improve a book’s discoverability and social proof on retail sites.

Standard cost of Reader Reviews is $147 for 3x and $490 for 10x. Turnaround time is 4-8 weeks. A strength of our custom backend and platform is our ability to have total visibility on which books are being reviewer and which aren't. If an author purchases 10 Reader Reviews from us, we can reliably deliver close to that number. If we go over by 1 or 2, it's all good!

Learn more here: https://indiereader.com/book-marketing/

Importantly, none of the reviews on our site are AI-generated. Every review comes from a real person reading and responding to the book.

Ben: What types of readers are on the platform, and what genres work well?

Jared @ Indie Reader: A large part of our work, as administrators of IndieReader, involves cultivating and supporting our sizable reviewer community. We invest significant effort in building relationships with our reviewers, understanding their interests, and nurturing their ability to think critically and evaluate good (and bad) writing. Our reviewer pool spans a wide range of backgrounds, with most reviewers based in the U.S., along with many in Canada, Europe, and beyond. 

Because we know our reviewers well, we can accommodate niche requests. For example, we’ve matched books featuring Irish humor with reviewers familiar with that culture, connected titles with audio components to reviewers interested in multimedia experiences, and paired pop culture books with readers who were already fans of a specific series.

Our goal is always to connect books with readers who will engage thoughtfully, providing feedback that benefits both authors and future readers.

Note: This is not an endorsement and was not sponsored in any way. I am intrigued as they seem to be taking an ethical approach, and I’d love to have some authors try them and share the results with the group. I am hopeful that it can become an endorsement if they are doing good work and following Amazon review guidelines.

Recently, I’ve talked with authors about the following…

This is one of many perks for members: membership costs only the price of one fancy coffee drink a year, and everything we raise goes toward our mission to help authors and readers (I work for free).

Once you sign up for a membership, you can schedule a time to meet 😀.

Don’t forget, you can anonymously ask Ben a question, and he will answer it in the next newsletter.

I got one question last month:

Fantastic question!

This is in response to last month’s newsletter, which discussed my desire to give authors control over their readership (full article below).

First, one key point, I said “Give authors control over their readership,” not “control their readership,” as those are very different things. I want to help authors grow their fan bases and, when they have a new book out, make sure their fans know about it.

Why do I think this is so important?

#1: Ultimately, books sell via word-of-mouth, and your fans are a huge part of that. If I can help authors collect their fans and make it easy for those fans to get alerts when a new book is out, everyone wins! (and I want to build a lot more than that)

#2: From what I see within the book industry, the best way for authors to sell books is to build a fan base and engage directly with those fans. I think I can help authors do that and try to take more of the marketing burden off them (which gives them more time to write and, hopefully, go full-time if that is their desire).

If, as an author, you want to write a book, publish it, and don’t care if anyone reads your book, this is a great way to approach it. Go for it!

Or, if you have already built a fan base through your books, you are likely in a good spot. Because when you release a new book, your existing fan base buys it, reads it, and if they like it, they spread it to other people through word-of-mouth.

But for everyone else, I want to make it easier to market/sell your books without having to build all this yourself.

Give authors control over their readership.

Imagine a world where Goodreads gave you access to all the readers who have read your book and rated it 4 stars or higher. Instead of blocking you from your fans, they gave you tools to harness your fan base.

What might that tool look like?

How amazing would that be?

What did we finish and ship?

What are we working on?

What are we building after that?

Browse our full roadmap here.

For last month:

Last year, we had 2.2 million visitors.

Detailed stats on our traffic, clicks, sales, and demographics.

I visited my 2.5-year-old nephew back in the USA (along with the rest of my wonderful family, but he was the star). It was a great visit, and I've finally overcome the jet lag.

Thanks, Ben

P.S. The French coast at sunset.