How Claude AI and I Went to the Land of Book Reviews
The Second Leg of my Amazon Ads Journey
Dear fellow adventurers,
In my last post, I shared the moment I realized I couldn't afford to hire a marketing expert for my new book, Get Unstuck: Writing Fiction with the Help of AI. Because of the high-cost proposals from advertising experts, plus needing money to spend on the ads themselves, I had to face reality.
Here were my choices: Let my book disappear into the Amazon void, spend more money than I could afford on a marketing expert, or learn how to run Amazon ads myself.
After a long walk and some serious conversations with Claude AI (my thinking partner), I decided to change my bad attitude toward marketing and embark on a marketing journey, documenting everything I learned along the way for myself and other authors in the same boat.
Claude convinced me that learning the ins and outs of Amazon ads would give me skills I could use for every future book. And Claude promised to accompany me on my journey. So here I am, figuring out Amazon ads with my trusty AI guide.
That post 1: “The Day That Claude AI Agreed to Come With Me” can be found here:
https://thewritersaicompanion.substack.com/p/the-day-that-claude-ai-agreed-to
Now, let me tell you what happened next...
Soon after embarking on my book marketing journey, I discovered that my quest would take much longer than I initially thought. What I assumed would be a straightforward path (learn ads, run ads, make a profit) turned out to have a massive prerequisite I’d completely overlooked.
I was deep in research mode, looking for people who could teach me how to run Amazon ads, when an Emeka Ossai video magically appeared in my YouTube feed. His video title immediately caught my eye. It was about making real money from books using Amazon ads. Finally! Someone would show me actual results instead of just talking theory. And, even better, I could learn for free.
I clicked play, grabbed my notebook, and settled in to learn.
Emeka was legitimate. He was showing real screenshots from his Amazon dashboard. These were his actual, current campaigns, with real money being spent, and genuine profit numbers. He wasn’t some guru promising magical secrets. He was a guy pulling back the curtain on his actual indie book publishing business.
I was taking notes like crazy, feeling pretty good about finding such solid, practical information. Then, partway into the video, he dropped a bomb that stopped me cold.
“You need to get 100 reviews on your book. One hundred,” he announced with his face a few inches from the camera. “And you absolutely must have at least 12 to 15 reviews before you run any ads at all.”
I paused the video and stared at my screen.
One hundred reviews? Fifteen before running ads? My book wasn’t even published yet, so it had exactly zero reviews. My plan had been to launch my book and immediately start running ads. But Emeka was telling me I needed reviews first.
This felt impossible. How does a little-known person get 15 honest reviews quickly? And then 85 more right after that!
I clicked the video back on. Emeka mentioned something called Book-Bounty.com. He explained that it’s a platform where readers and authors help each other by giving and getting reviews. Members have access to a pretty large pool of books. They choose whatever books look interesting, read them, and earn points in Book-Bounty by leaving reviews on Amazon.
I’d never heard of Book-Bounty before, and honestly, it sounded too good to be true. Was this some review manipulation scheme? Was it even legit?
So I did what I always do when I need help from a mentor: I talked it over with Claude AI.
“Is Book-Bounty actually legit?” I asked. “This sounds like it could be scammy.”
Claude assured me that Book-Bounty.com was a legitimate company. And he explained how the process works. It’s not a pay-for-reviews service or anything shady like that. It’s a book club ecosystem where everyone earns points by writing honest reviews for books they’ve actually read. Then, authors can use their points to get their books in front of other engaged readers who can provide reviews. The platform encourages genuine, honest feedback. Readers are expected to give their real opinions, good or bad.
Book-Bounty is set up in such a way that there’s never book swapping, which Amazon doesn’t allow. If I review someone's book, Book-Bounty’s algorithm ensures they'll never see mine to review. People don’t know each other on Book-Bounty. You see the books that need reviews, but there’s no communication with the author. No quid pro quo.
Claude encouraged me to explore. It assured me that this site was Amazon-compliant, which I knew was super important. So, I decided to test Book-Bounty’s support responsiveness first. If I were going to trust them with part of my book launch strategy, I needed to know they would respond to my questions promptly.
I went to Book-Bounty.com and found their message feature on the home page. I sent a question asking how many books I had to read to get a review of my book. I wanted to see how quickly they responded and how helpful their answer was.
To my surprise, Kevin, the owner of the site, answered me the same day. Not a generic customer service response. It was a personal response with a link to an introductory video that explained exactly what I was asking about. That was a good sign.
I watched the intro video, and everything appeared to be okay. Book-Bounty wasn’t about gaming the system. It was about connecting books with readers who were ready and willing to give and get reviews. The review process was designed to be fair and honest, with safeguards against abuse. The owner claimed that the system was 100% Amazon-compliant. Emeka and Claude had said the same thing.
Well, this is how Emeka gets 100 reviews on his books! The alternative was social media, since I didn’t have much of an email list. I might get a few reviews that way, if I were lucky. Book-Bounty offered a systematic way to get my book in front of loads of readers who were actively looking for books to read and review.
Also, I had been telling myself that I should be doing more reading. A writer should read, right? This was my opportunity to read books while earning points to get reviews. Besides, I often left reviews on Amazon for other people’s books. This was my chance to earn some points for doing it. Win-win.
So I signed up.
Here’s what I learned on this leg of my marketing journey:
We are called Bounty Hunters. Ha!
It’s not instant gratification. There’s a limit to how many books you can review each week. You can earn more points on some books than on others. There’s a timeframe for getting your review submitted to Amazon. If you miss the deadline, you lose points.
Hey, I could gamify this part of my marketing journey!
There are plenty of books to choose from. You may not find one in your genre, but there are so many interesting books that it really doesn’t matter. There are short books, long books, and even puzzle books.
The quality of the review matters. You can’t just skim books, click the stars, and be done. Kevin asks for detailed and thoughtful feedback. These reviews are going to show up on Amazon, so you (and the author) want them to be well-written. You get practice at critical reading while building up points toward your own reviews.
It’s educational! Reading dozens of books on different subjects has expanded my horizons and kept me entertained on what I thought would be a miserable marketing journey. Some books are free, while others cost between $0.99 and $4.99. If money is tight, just pick the free books. There are tons of them.
The other bounty hunters are as real as I am. These are not bots or fake accounts. Kevin runs a tight ship. They’re actual readers and authors who are all trying to solve the same problem: how to get legitimate, Amazon-compliant reviews for their books without spending forever on social media begging for reviews.
It takes consistency. Building up enough points for 100 reviews takes quite a while. Basically, you read 100 books, give or take, to earn enough points for 100 reviews. And there’s a limit to how many books you can hosey each week. But the time you spend reviewing other books is never wasted. It’s enjoyable, and you’re working with a large group of people who give and take toward the same goals.
The irony is that Emeka’s statement, “You need 100 reviews,” which initially felt like a massive, insurmountable roadblock, turned out to be a most enjoyable part of my journey.
Claude suggested that I start with Book-Bounty right away, before my book was finished. While I was still writing my book, I could read Bounty books and rack up Bounty points. Claude encouraged me to earn as many points as possible in order to do a proper launch. It explained that getting reviews (social proof) early after publishing is an important part of the book-marketing game.
I’ve come to understand that successful book marketing isn’t about rushing to market. It’s about doing the groundwork first, even when it takes longer than you want. Emeka says, “Don’t launch when your book is ready, launch when your plan is ready.”
Now my book has launched. It hit the Amazon Best Sellers List in three categories within its first week. I was in the top 100 of my main category, natural language processing (= AI) for Kindle books, also in that category for books, and in the writing skills reference category. Then one day, for about three hours, my book was #1 in the Hot New Sellers in Natural Language Processing.
And all this happened before running any Amazon ads. One reason for this success is that Book-Bounty readers picked it up.
If you want to see my book on Amazon, click here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJ8Y8CLN
If you’re interested in learning more about Book-Bounty, use my affiliate link here (even if you’re just looking):
https://book-bounty.com/?via=elaine
The quest continues,
- Elaine from Colorado