I’m looking for reliable reviewers to join my Advance Team. Interested? Read on!

What the hell is an Advance Team?

An Advance Team (Team ALPHA, yo) is a group of readers who have proven themselves to be reliable. I’m looking for readers in my genre (science fiction, especially space opera and cyberpunk, and fantasy, especially dark and high) who want an advance copy of my latest book. All the reader needs to do is read the book in the time window (usually two weeks) and post their review on Amazon (and other places) on the assigned date (usually the release date of the book).

To be considered you’ll need to have reviewed one of my books. If you don’t have one of my books you can get the first two stories in The Empires Rogues by joining my regular mailing list.

How does an advance team help?

Rolling the dice on Amazon isn’t good fun. I’ve done it a few times now and it’s a real lottery. Amazon’s algorithm – hereafter “fuckery” – can really impact who sees a book and how often. This fuckery can make or break a book. This isn’t some noble death-by-combat scenario: it’s usually just death.

The sweet spot with the fuckery is within the launch window – up to a week after it’s released. The more reviews in that window, the more the fuckery notices. The fuckery is especially interested in reviews that happen within the first couple of days of launch. The fuckery sees this, says, “Well, hell, someone took five minutes to write a review, this must be brilliant,” and gives it a nudge inside the system. This means shares, it means the new releases page, it means email advertising.

The thing is, an indie author like me doesn’t have a big marketing budget. I’m pretty reliant on the fuckery working in my favour, and you and me – well, we can kick Skynet’s ass by putting in those reviews on launch day.

What’s this form for?

If you fill out the form, you’re telling me you want to be on Team ALPHA.

The information I’m requesting is to secure your place in the Advance Team.

• You’ve got to have an email address so I can send you the damn book.
• Your name, so I know who to credit.
• The link to your review so I can make sure it’s the right kind of thing.

You must have previously reviewed speculative fiction books and have the link to be considered.

Team ALPHA is about getting together a small, reliable clique who are interested in reading my books and can post an Amazon review on time.

I’ll drop you a note when I’ve approved your application. I’ll be able to give you an idea of which book is coming up for release, and when. This is so you have some idea of what’s coming your way – remember, you’ll get a couple weeks to read it and post your review, so awareness is key (people have busy lives, right?).

Once you’ve posted your review, send me an email and give me the link to the review. This secures your place on Team ALPHA for subsequent advance books.

If any of this isn’t clear, you can send me an email. Thanks for your interest. This is going to be a beautiful thing.

Yours in our shared desire to overthrow the robots,

Richard Parry