Review: That this review even exists is proof it works!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 6, 2013
I get quite a number of "review requests", and quite honestly most of them are deleted without even bothering with a reply. Rude? Well, maybe. But how would you respond to " Dear <Reviewer_name>, I see that you are a top reviewer and I know you would be interested in my new book on creating custom butterfly nets..."  Theo Rogers wrote a nice request letter to me asking for a read and review of his book, and based more on his letter than anything, I agreed. Based on that, I'd have to consider the book a success.=== The Good Stuff ===* The book is short, and quick moving. I read the whole thing in less than an hour, and picked up most of the ideas presented on the first read.* There are specific tips on how to approach authors, what to ask for, how to present your request, and how to select reviewers to target. Are they all 100% guaranteed to be successful? Of course not, but there are enough ideas to get anyone started.* Rogers appears to be an Amazon reviewer who has at least been the recipient of a few letters, so he writes with the knowledge of someone who has been there. As usual with this type of work, many of this opinions are just that, opinions- so you may or may not agree with them all. But he does a reasonable job of explaining his ideas and why he believes them.=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===* A bit of editing would have helped. Rogers occasionally gets overly wordy, both in his sentence structure and his topics. In his attempts to explain the "mind of the reviewer", he occasionally strays off topic and gets caught up in issues mostly of interest to other reviewers.* Rogers has an annoying habit of switching between voices in the text. Maybe not a big deal, but drives me nuts. Also his writing gets a bit too "informal and familiar" for my liking-but just a personal preference.=== Summary ===If you are an author trying to figure out how to crack the Amazon Reviewer puzzle, this is as good a place to start as any. There are some concrete tips for success, and even more important, good advice for not getting into trouble with the Amazon Reviewer Community. I'd recommend it to anyone for that purpose.=== Disclaimer ===I received an unsolicited copy of this book directly from the author. I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in the author, publisher, or anyone involved with this publication.