Verdict
High-risk solicitation pattern
Reviewed 2 September 2026
The cost is not the fee
Most of these offers are priced low enough to look like a small experiment. The exposure is not the fee. Retailers treat manipulated reviews as a violation by the author, and the consequences land on the account holder: reviews stripped, ranking affected, titles removed, in serious cases the account closed with unpaid royalties in it.
The seller carries none of that risk. You carry all of it, for a service you cannot prove you bought if it goes wrong.
The two legitimate things this imitates
Paid editorial reviews. Some review outlets charge to read and review a book, publish the result under their own name, and disclose that the review was paid for. You are buying a professional reading and a citable quote — not a customer review, and not a rating.
ARC distribution. Services that get advance copies into readers' hands are selling logistics. Some of those readers will review; many will not; some will be unkind. That uncertainty is the evidence you are buying distribution rather than outcomes.
If an offer guarantees the number or the rating, it is neither of these.
The opening move
The example above is how this usually starts, and it is worth recognising because nothing is being sold yet.
Someone reports having already posted a five-star review and offers to send you the link. It costs nothing, it flatters, and it asks only for a reply — which is the entire objective. What follows a warm response is a conversation about doing more of the same, at volume, for money.
It was sent to AuthorAZ, which has never published a book. The review being described does not exist.
Red flags
- A number of reviews is promised, or a star rating is guaranteed.
- Reviews are offered specifically on a retailer where incentivised reviews are prohibited.
- You are asked for your book's live listing link so reviews can be "placed" on it.
- Reviewers are described as a network, a team or a pool rather than as readers who chose the book.
- Delivery is scheduled — so many reviews per week — which no genuine readership does.
- Payment by cryptocurrency, gift card or transfer, and no invoice naming the service.
How to verify it yourself
- Read the retailer's own review policy, and check whether what is being offered is permitted there.
- Ask in writing whether reviews will be posted on a retailer as customer reviews, and whether reviewers are paid.
- Ask whether a negative review is a possible outcome. A service that cannot say yes is selling ratings, not reviews.
- Search the service name with "terms of service", "removed" and "banned" and read what authors report.
- Separate the two things you might want — copies in readers' hands, or a paid editorial review that is labelled as one — and buy only that.
What legitimate outreach usually looks like
- Editorial review services charge for the review to be *written and published by them*, disclose that it was paid for, and do not place it on a retailer as a customer review.
- ARC distribution services get your book to readers who may then choose to review it. What is bought is the distribution, never the review or the rating.
- Legitimate services never guarantee a rating, because they do not control what a reader thinks.
What not to send or pay
- Payment for reviews or ratings on a retailer.
- Your account details, or access to your publishing dashboard.
- Lists of your own readers or mailing list subscribers.
If you already replied
- Stop the arrangement before more reviews appear. Retailer enforcement looks at patterns over time.
- Do not try to delete reviews yourself; you generally cannot, and attempting it draws attention.
- If reviews have already been posted, be aware the risk sits with your account and your title, not with the seller.
- Keep records of what you bought and from whom, in case you need to explain the pattern to the retailer.
Redacted examples
Real solicitations, with senders, addresses and links removed. Enough to show the shape of the message and nothing more.
Subject: I wanted to share how much I enjoyed your book
I recently finished reading your book on Goodreads, and I genuinely enjoyed every moment of it. It was such a memorable read that I felt it deserved a 5-star review, which I've already posted. If you'd like, I'd be happy to share the review link with you.
Related
This page describes a pattern, not a party. It is not a legal finding about any individual sender or company, and a message resembling this pattern is not by itself proof of anything about whoever sent it. If you are unsure about a specific approach, verify it through the steps above rather than by replying.