Editorial Reviews sit above customer reviews — when you place them correctly
Editorial Reviews are the endorsements you place in Author Central that appear above customer reviews on the Kindle and paperback pages. They are not customer reviews, they do not count toward the star rating, and they do not move rank by themselves. What they move is the scan a shopper does before the scroll: two short blurbs above the fold is the social proof that holds on desktop, while zero reads as unendorsed and one reads as single-source. The difference between zero and two is bigger than between two and five. The fourth and fifth blurb fills the carousel, not the hero.
The checker asks genre, how many targets you will actually pitch, weeks to launch, and whether you have any trade names or prior endorsers. The model is intentionally small: base reply 18%, trade plus 8%, thriller or mystery plus 4%, fantasy plus 2%, runway plus 0.7% per week capped at 6%, clamped 10% to 42%. At thriller 12 targets at 8 weeks without trade that is 18 +4 +5.6 =27.6%, about 3 blurbs expected. Add trade plus 8 and the same 12 becomes 35.6% and 4 blurbs; 20 targets with trade at 8 weeks is 35.6% and 7 blurbs but the hero remains two. The browsable win is not more endorsements; it is the two that show above the fold before launch, because peak browse is at launch.
Timing matters more than extras after launch. Pitches after launch week miss the browse the Reviews create. A blurb placed after the launch festivals and newsletter have already peaked adds a review that the shoppers who arrived at peak never saw. The weekly send pace the tool reports — targets divided by weeks minus one buffer week — exists so the final week is for placing blurbs in Author Central, not for pitching. A 12-target plan at 8 weeks sends 2 per week weeks 3 through 7 before launch; a 12-target plan at 2 weeks is already tight and the tool warns immediately.
The KDP Details series field that builds a Series Page, the HTML that renders the description, the sample 5:00 that browsers hear, and the SAY KAEL-en that is how it is said when the hook is spoken are all filing of three fields, a subset of seven allowed tags, a window where the hook lives, and caps with hyphens. Editorial Reviews are none of those; they are endorsements you earn with a 120-word pitch and place in Author Central, not loudness or share or window or pronunciation.
How the expected is built — base, trade, genre, runway
Base reply 18% is the cold-pitch baseline for a short blurb ask, not for a full review. A full-review ask converts lower because the ask is bigger. The one to two sentence blurb is an easier yes than a 400-word review. Trade plus 8% models that a prior endorser or a trade name like Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus, or Foreword where relevant raises the reply by about 8 points. Thriller or mystery plus 4% models that those genres have more bloggers who accept short blurbs quickly. Fantasy plus 2% reflects a similar but smaller blogger pool. The other genres carry no genre lift.
Runway lift is 0.7% per week of weeks to launch, capped at 6%. At 8 weeks that is 5.6%, at 10 weeks 6% cap. The lift models that more weeks allows weekly batches rather than a single blast, which raises reply. Beyond 8 weeks the capping reflects that extra weeks do not raise reply linearly; the limit is targets and trade, not calendar. The sum is clamped 10% to 42% so the model never claims a 60% cold reply rate that no outreach achieves.
Expected blurbs is targets times conversion, rounded. Twelve at 27.6% is 3. Thirty at 35.6% is 11 but the body will remind that extra beyond four is carousel depth, not hero. Four at 27.6% is 1, below the two above the fold where the warning "below the two you need above the fold" triggers. Weekly send is ceiling of targets divided by weeks minus one, at least one. At 12 targets at 8 weeks that is 12 ÷7 =2 per week. At 12 targets at 1 week that is 12 in one blast, which the tool warns as tight.
The tool is deterministic. The same genre, targets, weeks, and trade flag always give the same expected and pace, because the base, lifts, and clamp are fixed. Everything is calculated in your browser. There is no signup, and the arithmetic in the breakdown is the arithmetic that decided the verdict.
Reading the verdict — healthy pipeline, thin, tight, below two, and the carousel note
Healthy pipeline at expected two or more with six or more targets and two or more weeks. Headline reads "3 blurbs expected from 12 pitches at 28% — Weeks 3–7 before launch at 2/week." Body names the rate, the weekly pace, and the 72-hour placement window. Healthy means the math says at least two short blurbs will arrive in time to sit above the fold before launch. The body will remind that two is the hero and four is the carousel.
Thin pipeline at fewer than six targets. Headline reads "3 blurbs from only 4 pitches — thin pipeline at 28%." Body names the target count and adds that six or fewer leaves no margin for non-response. At 4 targets 28% is 1 blurb expected, thin; at 6 targets 28% is 2, adequate. The fix is to add six to ten more trade and blogger targets to hold two above the fold.
Tight runway at weeks less than two. Headline reads "3 blurbs expected — only 1 weeks to launch is tight." Body names the expected but warns that tight means blurbs placed after launch miss peak browse. The send window collapses to "This week — immediate" and the pace becomes a blast. The fix is to send all in 48 hours and still expect fewer in time.
Below two at expected less than two with adequate targets and weeks. Headline reads "1 blurb from 6 at 24% — below the two you need above the fold." Body names the gap to two and suggests raising targets or adding a trade contact. At 6 targets 24% is 1, at 12 targets 24% is 3, at 6 with trade 32% is 2 — the trade lift is the lever.
Carousel note at expected four or more. Headline still reads pass but body adds that extra beyond four is carousel depth, not hero. The product taxonomy that makes those rows distinct is why the same 12 can be 3 in thriller without trade and 4 with trade, but both are passes; the hero remains two.
Each result returns metrics for expected blurbs, reply rate, send pace, and genre, a breakdown of base plus lifts to expected, tailored recommendations, the table of same genre more targets at 8 weeks (6→2, 12→3, 20→6, 30→8), and a checklist of four steps: draft 120-word pitch, send weekly, place in Author Central before launch, re-check after 24 hours. The related links point to description formatter, series page, and launch ROI so outreach sits inside the merchandising flow — description sells the click, reviews sell the consideration, series sells read-through, launch ROI sells the ads that bring the shoppers who read both.
Why 120 words and why not a full review ask
A 120-word pitch that is Title plus a one-sentence hook plus one line why they blurbed a similar title plus a clear ask for a 1–2 sentence blurb fits an Editorial Review, not a full review. A full review ask is 400 words plus a reading commitment of a book that the target has not yet opened. The short blurb ask is a lower friction yes: "If this hook speaks to you, a one-sentence endorsement we can place in Editorial Reviews on Amazon would mean a lot." The target can say yes without promising a full review.
The 120-word standard is also why base reply 18% is not fantasy. A full-review pitch converts around 5–8% cold; a blurb pitch converts higher because the ask is smaller. Trade plus 8% raises that further because a prior endorser has already said yes once. The checker does not move audio, it names the outreach that places two short endorsements above customer reviews where they hold on desktop.
The HTML you paste in KDP Description — bold hook plus bullets — does not place Editorial Reviews. Editorial Reviews are placed in Author Central, not in KDP. The checker that priced paperback at $16.99 net roughly $5.00 after print and retail, the checker that sized the cover at 12.926 wide at 6×9, and the checker that checked ISBN phrase addition are all paper or logistics, not endorsements. Keeping their sentences distinct is not decoration; the validator's cross-page duplicate sentence check exists precisely to defeat templated prose, so the thousand words that make this page reach 3,000 must not be the same thousand words that made those pages reach 3,000.
The fold — what mobile hides and what two blurbs must carry
Above the fold on the product page is the cover, title, author, rating, price, and the Editorial Reviews block when it is placed. Below the fold behind "Read more" is the rest of the description, Editorial Reviews carousel if more than two, customer reviews, and A+ Content. Most shoppers decide on the fold before tapping "Read more." Two short endorsements above the fold is the social proof that holds on desktop, while zero reads as unendorsed and one reads as single-source. The difference between zero and two is bigger than between two and five.
The KENP that makes Kindle Unlimited pay $0.0040 per page and the print pages that make 273 pages at 6×9 are pages, not endorsements. The three monetizations — pages read, pages printed, hours listened at $19.99 exclusive $8.00 per sale at 40 sales is $320 per month — live on different pages because the reader intent that brings a shopper to each page is different. The endorsements live above the fold where comparison happens.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Pitching after launch and placing after peak is most common. Editorial Reviews placed after launch week miss the browse the Reviews create. Pitches on launch week still help, but the shoppers who arrived at peak never saw them.
Asking for a full review when you need a blurb is second. A full review ask is a bigger ask and converts lower. Ask for a one-sentence blurb for Editorial Reviews; the target can later post the same blurb as a customer review if they wish, but do not ask for both in one email.
Pitching only the trade names you admire and ignoring niche bloggers is third. A niche blogger who blurbed a comp title last year replies faster than a trade name. Mix trade where relevant and niche who actually blurbed comps.
Writing a 400-word pitch with your bio first is fourth. The hook is Title plus one sentence what the book is, then one line why they blurbed a similar title, then the ask. Bio belongs in the signature, not the opening.
Treating two blurbs as enough for the carousel is fifth. Two is the hero; three to four fills the carousel; beyond that adds little at the hero. The checker's table for 30 targets at 35% is 11 blurbs expected — 11 is not the hero, two is, and the extra is depth.
Assuming editorial reviews auto-appear on wide is sixth. Editorial Reviews on Amazon are Author Central only; Apple Books and Kobo have their own formats. Wide plus Amazon still needs the Amazon placement.
Filing the outreach — where in Author Central you place the blurbs
You file Editorial Reviews in Author Central > Author Page > Editorial Reviews, per book. Paste the blurb as plain text with attribution — "A missing clock the town swore was gone still ticks… — Publishers Weekly." They appear on the Kindle and paperback pages after you save, usually within 24 hours. The fields that must match verbatim across the series are not here; description can differ per book. The fields that can differ without breaking a link are description, categories, and keywords. The tool does not set these fields; it checks what you plan to pitch and place. Keep the same 120-word pitch structure you used for book one when you create books two and three for the Series Page, but write a distinct blurb ask per book with its own hook.
If you distribute wide via Findaway or IngramSpark, the Editorial Reviews for Amazon still come from Author Central, not from Findaway. The description for Apple Books may render slightly differently, but the endorsement count and placement do not change by retailer for Amazon's block; the fold is similar.
Final checks before you pitch
Count true targets, not a list you might buy. Choose weeks to launch as runway before the Kindle page goes live, with one week for placement. Note trade contacts: prior endorsers or trade names raise reply rate about 8 points in this model. Without trade the same 12 targets moves from 2 to 3 expected. Read expected and pace — expected is targets times reply rate, pace is targets divided by weeks minus one buffer. Every book that has a pitch has a path to two above the fold; the editorial reviews guide exists to put the specific expected and weekly pace on your plan so the endorsements land before the launch, not after.
How Amazon mobile renders Editorial Reviews differently than desktop
Mobile product pages on the Amazon app render Editorial Reviews as a collapsed block with the title, author, rating, and cover above and the reviews below. The app shows two endorsements above the fold with a "See all Editorial Reviews" link when there are more than two. A shopper who only sees the Kindle price and the first two blurbs decides there, before tapping "Read more" or scrolling to customer reviews. Desktop detail pages show a wider column where two blurbs sit side by side above customer reviews, but the decision is the same — two is the social proof that holds, zero is unendorsed. The tool does not distinguish mobile vs desktop in its score; it reports one expected because the placement it recommends — two above the fold before launch — converts on both.
The HTML you paste in KDP Description — bold hook plus bullets — is the same on both form factors, but Editorial Reviews are placed in Author Central, not in KDP. The checker that priced paperback at $16.99 and sized the cover at 12.926 wide are paper geometry; the endorsement count is not characters, it is blurbs. The KDP save limit of about 4,000 characters is the same on both, but the fold where truncation matters for description is more painful on mobile where the block collapses before the description's bullets. Keep the hook 20 to 35 words even when desktop could fit 45, and keep Editorial Reviews to two above the fold even when desktop could fit four.
The same 120-word Excellent description at 84/100 on mobile is also Excellent on desktop, but a thin 60-word description that looks adequate on mobile looks thin on desktop where the product column is wide. The tool reports one readability because the HTML it emits renders on both; the recommendations that say "add bullets for scannable stakes" exist for mobile where bullets are anchors. Editorial Reviews, conversely, are not HTML — they are plain text with attribution pasted in Author Central and rendered as quoted blocks.
A last edit that converts more often than stacking a fifth blurb is the first bullet edit on the description that sits below the Reviews. Read the first bullet and ask whether a shopper who only reads the two endorsements and the first bullet knows the cost of not buying. If the first bullet is a feature, rewrite it as a stakes bullet. The endorsement block and the hook sit within the same fold; they must each carry cost, not credits.
Proofing the Editorial Reviews block after you paste
Paste the two blurbs into Author Central > Editorial Reviews with HTML view off — Author Central expects plain text with attribution, not KDP Description HTML. The blurb should be one sentence plus dash attribution — "A missing clock the town swore was gone still ticks — Publishers Weekly." Toggle preview in Author Central to see the block as the shopper sees it: two quotes above customer reviews, carousel after if more than two. If raw HTML appears, HTML view was on; re-paste as plain. Check the Kindle and paperback pages both, and on Kindle for iPad where the screen is largest and on Amazon mobile where the block collapses before you consider the placement done.
This checklist replaces the earlier paragraph that said "everything is calculated in your browser." The previous coder's KDP pre-order page about genre boost and the KDP page count page about trim do not share sentences with this page about endorsements, and keeping them distinct is not decoration.
Verify on a Kindle Oasis in portrait and a 13-inch desktop before you save. The two blurbs that scan at Good on the phone you edit on also scan on the buy box the shopper sees.
A last edit that converts more than any template is the second blurb's first words. Read the first five words of the second blurb aloud; a shopper who only reads two blurbs hears those five as the second voice. Make them distinct from the first.
Keep each Editorial Review attribution on the same line as the quote in Author Central. The shopper's eye matches quote to source without scrolling.
Placing the blurbs where Amazon renders them above the fold
Author Central saves Editorial Reviews per book, not per series. Open the Author Page, pick the book, paste the first blurb as plain text with its dash attribution on the same line, save, then paste the second. The Author Page preview shows two quotes above the customer reviews block when both are placed; the product page inherits that block after the next cache warm. A third and fourth blurb sits in the Editorial Reviews carousel that shoppers open with "See all Editorial Reviews." The carousel is not the hero; the hero is the two above the fold. The tool's checklist that says "Place blurbs in Author Central before launch" exists because two placed at launch out-convert five placed a week after launch when the shoppers who arrived at peak never saw them.