Honestly, I’d probably give them away in small batches rather than all at once. 😄 Maybe start with 50–100 and see what kind of response you get, then adjust from there. That way you can learn what works instead of giving away all 1,000 at once.

I’ve looked into paid book reviews before, and I think it really depends on what you’re hoping to get from the review. If the goal is mainly credibility or having a professional review you can use in your marketing, it could be useful. But I wouldn’t expect the review itself to automatically translate into book sales. I’d also be interested to hear from anyone who has actually paid for one and can share what happened afterward.

Yes, this happened to me before. I actually paid an influencer for book promotion last year—about $1,900. I found them on Fiverr, went through with it, and honestly… my book didn’t make even $1 in sales from the promotion. 😅 It hurt even more because I had already spent so much money on the book itself. But a few months ago, one of my friends invited me to a great book spotlight group. They have a community of up to 1,000 people, and my friend introduced me to them. I reached out to them through Gmail and asked if they could interview me at one of their upcoming meetings about my book. They asked me questions about the book and my experience, and I paid around $150 for the opportunity. The surprising part is that those interviews have been much more valuable for me than the influencer promotion. Since then, I've been making $5,000+ a month in Amazon book sales through the exposure from the interviews. It definitely changed the way I think about promoting a book. Sometimes it's less about paying someone to advertise your book and more about getting in front of the right community.

Yes, I completely understand you. There are definitely a lot of scams out there that take advantage of authors, and I’ve seen people misuse the names of real groups and organizations too. In my case, though, the group I worked with was real and verified. We communicated through a verified Gmail account, and the meeting itself was listed through Meetup. The $150 I paid wasn’t for promotion or guaranteed book sales. It was a support/organizing fee for the group and the event. I’m not saying there aren’t scams—there definitely are. I just think it’s important to remember that not every book club or author group that charges a fee is necessarily a scam. It’s worth verifying each one before paying anything.

@Hank Quense Wow, that sounds frustrating. 😅 I can imagine how surprising it must have been to realize that you were expected to handle basically all the marketing yourself. It definitely shows how much there is to learn beyond just writing the book.