Lois’s answer to “Hi Lois: I'm 100% new to this. Just published my book: Antebellum Struggles" with KDP. I don't k…” > Likes and Comments
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Insert a polite request for reviews at the end, including a link to where the reader can leave a review to make it as easy as possible.
Otherwise, Amazon's rules being what they are, just wait and hope.
There's a Goodreads Author Feedback Group which may be helpful.
You can find author groups for most genres on Facebook, too.
There is an Independent Author support group. Discussions in there make it really clear how hard it is to get reviews. In general, when you start selling, fewer than 10% of purchasers will leave a review.
I have a comment that I think would help. You have the book listed on Amazon under two different titles? Is your book, "Antebellum Struggles: A Story of Love, Lust, Pain & Freedom" as the paperback version says it is and which also is how the cover shows it? Or is it "Antebellum Struggles: Slavery, sex and suspicion" as it is listed under the Kindle version. Amazon may be able to keep these straight but the rest of the world will be confused and wonder if this is the same book or not. A title should be the same title everywhere: on the cover, on the title page and with each version of the book listed everywhere. This may not seem to relate to your question but I assure you it is essential that the world has only one title for your book and not be confused as to whether one is a sequel to the other or a different edition or just someone trying to sneak in on the action. Second I recommend that you join literary groups. Maybe Women's Fiction Writers Association if your main character is a woman and it is her emotional journey you are focussed on. Historical novels can be a segment of Women's Fiction. They offer a wide range of free resources and the published authors in that group are generally helpful to new authors through their members only Facebook page or the workshops they hold throughout the year, they will be doing a pitch session with agents in the next week or so. Also submit the book for contests. There are now lots of contests for self-published books. Winning one or more or even getting honorable mentions can get the book "out there" so people want to interview you which can get the book noticed. Also notify the organizations looking for books about their own history. I just read an article by a guest blogger and her books won awards from Latina organizations and I find her latest one in my library. Look into getting your book into libraries. Give talks locally maybe at independent bookstores if there are some where you live and if you travel, contact independent bookstores wherever you are going. Also offer to talk to groups about the research you did in writing the novel and what you learned that most people don't know. Offer to talk to book clubs in your area (sometimes your library has lists of them). Join local writing groups. Get involved in anything happening in your area that is at all related to your subject. Write articles related to how some current events relate to things you studied and wrote about and then submit those articles locally or online and ask that each article is published with a note about your novel. Contact bloggers who write about books or history who might want you to write their blog post on what you know and ask for a link to Amazon's page at the bottom of what you write. Give away copies to bloggers who write about books or history. And if you have any money to use, see about having Book Bub or one of the other companies that notify readers of new books with special deals. Have a website and a blog and a newsletter to give people more information about your book. Have a Facebook page (a Page) about your book.
Hope some of the above give you some ideas as to how to get information about you and your book out into the world so that people will look for your book, find it, buy it and maybe do a review so that you get more people to read it. But your book has only been out for a little more than a month and it takes time to get the word out even for those people who have a publisher who helps get them interviews (often done digitally or for podcasts by voice). Good luck.
It's another reason to join and participate in a writer's group, preferably with published writers. You review their book, they review yours.
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Insert a polite request for reviews at the end, including a link to where the reader can leave a review to make it as easy as possible.Otherwise, Amazon's rules being what they are, just wait and hope.
There's a Goodreads Author Feedback Group which may be helpful.
You can find author groups for most genres on Facebook, too.
There is an Independent Author support group. Discussions in there make it really clear how hard it is to get reviews. In general, when you start selling, fewer than 10% of purchasers will leave a review.
I have a comment that I think would help. You have the book listed on Amazon under two different titles? Is your book, "Antebellum Struggles: A Story of Love, Lust, Pain & Freedom" as the paperback version says it is and which also is how the cover shows it? Or is it "Antebellum Struggles: Slavery, sex and suspicion" as it is listed under the Kindle version. Amazon may be able to keep these straight but the rest of the world will be confused and wonder if this is the same book or not. A title should be the same title everywhere: on the cover, on the title page and with each version of the book listed everywhere. This may not seem to relate to your question but I assure you it is essential that the world has only one title for your book and not be confused as to whether one is a sequel to the other or a different edition or just someone trying to sneak in on the action. Second I recommend that you join literary groups. Maybe Women's Fiction Writers Association if your main character is a woman and it is her emotional journey you are focussed on. Historical novels can be a segment of Women's Fiction. They offer a wide range of free resources and the published authors in that group are generally helpful to new authors through their members only Facebook page or the workshops they hold throughout the year, they will be doing a pitch session with agents in the next week or so. Also submit the book for contests. There are now lots of contests for self-published books. Winning one or more or even getting honorable mentions can get the book "out there" so people want to interview you which can get the book noticed. Also notify the organizations looking for books about their own history. I just read an article by a guest blogger and her books won awards from Latina organizations and I find her latest one in my library. Look into getting your book into libraries. Give talks locally maybe at independent bookstores if there are some where you live and if you travel, contact independent bookstores wherever you are going. Also offer to talk to groups about the research you did in writing the novel and what you learned that most people don't know. Offer to talk to book clubs in your area (sometimes your library has lists of them). Join local writing groups. Get involved in anything happening in your area that is at all related to your subject. Write articles related to how some current events relate to things you studied and wrote about and then submit those articles locally or online and ask that each article is published with a note about your novel. Contact bloggers who write about books or history who might want you to write their blog post on what you know and ask for a link to Amazon's page at the bottom of what you write. Give away copies to bloggers who write about books or history. And if you have any money to use, see about having Book Bub or one of the other companies that notify readers of new books with special deals. Have a website and a blog and a newsletter to give people more information about your book. Have a Facebook page (a Page) about your book. Hope some of the above give you some ideas as to how to get information about you and your book out into the world so that people will look for your book, find it, buy it and maybe do a review so that you get more people to read it. But your book has only been out for a little more than a month and it takes time to get the word out even for those people who have a publisher who helps get them interviews (often done digitally or for podcasts by voice). Good luck.
It's another reason to join and participate in a writer's group, preferably with published writers. You review their book, they review yours.
You could try posting in some of the community groups here. Click on the Community heading at the top of the page, then choose "Groups". If you enter "reviews" into the search function on that page, you should be able to discover a few groups of readers who are dedicated to reading and reviewing new books. You may find you need to explore more deeply than that, but it should be a good way to start.
Good luck!