Introduction

In the past few weeks, many users have contacted us asking the same question:
“How does BookVillage determine the number and type of promotions I can activate?”

We understand perfectly why this question arises.
If you have never used a system of this kind, everything may seem unfamiliar.
If you come from other platforms, you were taught a completely different logic based on accumulating coins, spending coins, and repeating the cycle.
All those platforms function in the same way and share the same structural weaknesses. The real problem is that no one has ever explained these weaknesses to you in a clear and honest manner.

This is exactly why we decided to write this article.
BookVillage is built on foundations that are completely different, and before you understand how the system calculates your activatable promotions, you need to understand why we made these choices. Only by following this logic will the structure begin to make sense.

In this guide, we will address a series of topics that clarify the reasoning behind our model. We will discuss concepts that, in the publishing world, are almost never explained, because doing so would highlight a series of uncomfortable truths about how certain systems actually work and why they tend to become unstable over time.

This guide is divided into clear sections. Step by step, we will lead you through concepts that very few have ever chosen to explain. By the end, you will see exactly why the architecture of BookVillage is the only structure capable of remaining stable over the long term, and why our simulations confirm that the platform is anti-crash even under more than a decade of continuous use.

1. Why BookVillage Does Not Use a Coin-Based System

Before you can understand how BookVillage determines the promotions you can activate, you must understand why we chose not to use any coin-based system at all.
This decision is not a technical preference. It is the foundation of the entire Village.

After analyzing the internal structure of coin review platforms and studying their behavior through statistical and economic models, we reached a clear conclusion. Coin systems introduce avoidable risks, structural weaknesses, and compliance concerns that no independent author or publisher should accept.

To understand why BookVillage follows a completely different approach, we need to examine the three main issues that affect all coin-driven platforms.

1.1 The Compliance Question: Why Coin Systems May Become Problematic

We are not claiming that coin platforms explicitly violate Amazon’s rules. The issue is more subtle and far more important. Their structure includes elements that could become problematic if Amazon decides to examine these systems more closely in the future.

In most coin-based platforms, every review you post rewards you with virtual credits. These credits are not real money, but they are still a form of compensation. Under a stricter interpretation of Amazon’s policies, this could be seen as a mechanism influencing user behavior.

The risk becomes even more evident when the number of credits you receive changes based on factors such as the length of the book you choose and the speed with which you are willing to publish your review. If your reward increases when you pick longer books or when you submit reviews faster, it becomes increasingly difficult to argue that your choices are fully spontaneous and uninfluenced.

This is exactly the kind of pattern that Amazon, which has already intensified several layers of automated detection, could decide to analyze much more rigorously in the future.

Given these concerns, continuing to rely on coin-based mechanisms means taking unnecessary and fully avoidable risks. Amazon has strengthened its monitoring both on reviewer accounts and on KDP author accounts, and this makes the coin model increasingly unsuitable. For this reason, we chose to eliminate it entirely. Replacing it is not simply a strategic improvement. It is a mandatory requirement for long-term stability and peace of mind.

1.2 The Sustainability Problem: Why Coin Economies Collapse Over Time

The second issue is mathematical and economic. All coin systems we examined share the same structural flaw: they reward more coins for posting a review than what is needed to receive one of the same type.

This injects new credits into the system at a faster rate than the system can absorb. The result is an economic bubble that expands week after week.

For a while, everything appears to work. Users accumulate coins, their virtual wallets grow, and the platform looks active. But this apparent stability relies on two fragile conditions: users continue hoarding coins without spending them, and new users keep joining and generating additional coins.

As soon as either condition weakens, the system begins to fail. This is exactly what happened in early 2025 on one of the largest review platforms at the time. Thousands of users were full of coins but could no longer find readers willing to pick their books.

In economic terms, this resembles a small-scale Ponzi bubble. The supply of credits grows far faster than the platform’s capacity to convert them into real reviews.

Our simulations show that if all users were to spend their accumulated coins at once, tens of thousands of review requests would remain unfulfilled, causing an immediate system crash. This is not theory. It already happened.

This is why BookVillage eliminated coins entirely. A system designed to last must avoid inflation, hoarding, scarcity of readers, and the structural imbalances that have already destroyed other platforms.

We are fully prepared to discuss every point we have presented here with anyone who wishes to challenge it, because our conclusions are based on precise mathematical models, real-world case studies, and statistical simulations.

1.3 The Meritocracy Problem: Why Coin Systems Cannot Balance Review Types

The third issue concerns meritocracy and the internal balance between different review types. In most coin platforms, the difference in rewards given for an unverified review and a verified paid review at 0.99 dollars is minimal.

This creates a serious imbalance. A user who posts ten unverified reviews can earn enough coins to request seven or eight verified paid reviews. This directly harms users who actually invest 0.99 dollars to contribute with higher quality and higher value reviews.

Verified reviews are far more stable over time, receive fewer removals, and are tied to real transactions. Unverified reviews, by contrast, have historically been used by virtual assistants and fake reviewers who cannot attach a valid payment method.

In these coin-based systems, a user who posts large numbers of unverified reviews can accumulate almost the same purchasing power as someone who invests real money to provide verified paid reviews. This creates a structural imbalance where low-value contributions generate disproportionate benefits, allowing users who rely only on unverified reviews to receive a surprisingly high number of verified ones in return.

Meanwhile, those who consistently contribute verified reviews struggle to receive the same level of verified support, despite offering far more valuable and far more stable contributions to the platform. The outcome is clear: the system ends up rewarding weaker contributions while penalizing the users who sustain the ecosystem with the highest quality review types.

This is the opposite of meritocracy. And more importantly, it is the opposite of long-term sustainability.

1.4 The Elephant in the Room: They Are Selling Coins for Money

This is the moment when coin systems stop being risky and become openly dangerous. Some platforms now offer “extra coins” if you pay for higher tier plans. It may look like a simple upgrade, but the implication is serious.

In a balanced system, every review received should correspond to a review written. If users can purchase coins with real money and then use those coins to request reviews, the question becomes unavoidable: who is actually writing those reviews?

When money is used to obtain virtual credits and those credits are used to obtain reviews, the mechanism begins to resemble paid review behavior, even if it is disguised through a virtual currency. This is exactly the kind of pattern that Amazon’s detection systems are designed to flag.

Using a platform that sells coins means taking an unnecessary risk. It can place your KDP account on the fastest possible path to trouble, and no independent author should ever operate under those conditions.

2. A Contribution-Based System That Is Balanced, Merit-Based and Anti-Crash

Once we identified all the weaknesses of coin systems, the solution became clear. We replaced them entirely with a model that is mathematically balanced, merit-based, and designed to be anti-crash even under long-term stress.

In BookVillage, the only unit of value is your real contribution. There are no coins to inflate, no virtual balances that can collapse, and no artificial incentives that distort user behavior. This eliminates all the risks discussed earlier and creates a structure that remains stable regardless of how many users join or how intensely the platform is used.

There is also a commitment we consider fundamental.
BookVillage will never sell contributions and will never sell reviews in any form. Your opportunities inside the platform will always come only from what you genuinely contribute, never from payments or shortcuts.

This is the foundation that allows the system to remain fair, credible, and structurally safe for every author and publisher who relies on it.

3. Why This Is Not a Compensation System

Before we explain how contribution translates into activatable promotions, there is a question some users may naturally ask. If completing a review allows you to activate a promotion of the same type, is this not a form of compensation?

The answer becomes very clear once you understand how the mechanism truly works.

When you book an assignment, you commit to reading a book and posting an honest review. In return, you gain the right to activate a promotion, but you do not gain the right to receive a review. What you receive is visibility inside the Library, nothing more.

If your book enters the Library but no one chooses it because the cover is not appealing, the topic does not attract interest, or the title fails to capture attention, then no reader will book it. And if no reader books it, no review will be posted.

It is a rare situation, but it demonstrates the essential point.
BookVillage is not giving you a review in exchange for your action. BookVillage is giving you exposure, and the review exists only if another user chooses your book voluntarily.

This is exactly what keeps the model compliant and fully aligned with Amazon’s expectations. Every review remains genuine, voluntary, and uninfluenced by artificial incentives such as book length, speed of submission, or virtual credit rewards.

4. How BookVillage Determines the Promotions You Can Activate

At the heart of BookVillage there is one principle that never changes.
The platform returns to you the same type of value that you contribute to the community.

If you consistently act within the same review category, the system maintains a one-to-one ratio between the assignments you complete and the promotions you can activate. The logic is simple and fair.

If you post a Standard Unverified review, you unlock a Standard Unverified promotion. If you complete a Verified Purchase 0.99 assignment, you unlock a Verified Purchase 0.99 promotion. The same applies to every promotion type inside the Village.

This system ensures that the support you receive as an author is always aligned with the support you provide as a reader. There are no shortcuts, no artificial boosts, and no ways for low-value contributions to be converted into high-value benefits.

This is what creates real meritocracy. It guarantees that every user contributes to the stability of the ecosystem and receives value in a way that is proportional, transparent, and structurally fair.

The next question is natural. If the ratio is one-to-one within the same category, what happens when you want to unlock a promotion that has a higher intrinsic value? That is where the weighting system comes into play.

5. Why Different Assignment Types Unlock Different Promotion Types

Not all review types carry the same structural value. A verified review backed by a real purchase is stronger, more stable, and far more reliable than an unverified review. For this reason, BookVillage uses a dynamic weighting system to ensure that higher value promotions require higher value contributions.

Although the system may adjust slightly over time based on real user activity, the average equivalences remain consistent and easy to understand.

On average, three Standard Unverified assignments unlock one Verified Purchase 0.99 promotion. Two Kindle Unlimited assignments unlock one Verified Purchase 0.99 promotion. Just under three Verified Purchase 0.99 assignments unlock one Verified Purchase 2.99 promotion.

These ratios are not arbitrary. They reflect the real economic cost and the real structural strength of each assignment type.

Take Kindle Unlimited as an example. A subscription costs around 11.99 dollars per month. If a reader completes roughly four or five assignments each week, the effective cost per assignment becomes roughly 0.50 dollars. This means that two Kindle Unlimited assignments correspond very closely to the cost and value of one Verified Purchase 0.99 assignment.

Standard Unverified assignments, on the other hand, hold a lower valuation. This is because they involve no purchase, they are more frequently removed by Amazon, they have historically been associated with fake reviewers, and they offer less stability and long-term reliability.

For these reasons, the system requires more unverified contributions to unlock higher value promotions.

By aligning contribution value with promotion value, BookVillage ensures that the ecosystem remains balanced. Users who contribute stronger, safer, and more reliable reviews gain access to stronger, safer, and more reliable promotion types. This weighting system is one of the core elements that keeps the Village fair, predictable, and mathematically stable over time.

6. A System That Prevents Early Saturation and Keeps the Village Balanced

In addition to being merit based, the contribution model eliminates every form of early saturation inside the community. Because each promotion type is tied to real contributions, users can shift their activity at any time, both as readers and as authors, without ever destabilizing the system.

If, during a certain period, you prefer to focus on Verified Purchase 0.99 assignments, you can do so. If later you notice that fewer readers are currently booking that category, you can temporarily switch to Kindle Unlimited or Standard Unverified contributions. As an author, you can make the same strategic choices based on your immediate needs.

This flexibility is what keeps BookVillage balanced. The system adapts naturally to user behavior and ensures that the total number of reviews posted and the total number of reviews received remain aligned over time. This is exactly what a healthy ecosystem must guarantee, yet it is the point where coin-based platforms fail completely.

On those platforms, the number of coins produced grows far beyond the number of real reviewers available. This creates a massive imbalance between expected reviews and the system’s actual capacity to deliver them.

BookVillage removes this problem entirely. A model based on real contribution cannot inflate, cannot accumulate impossible obligations, and cannot crash due to saturation, even with long-term usage.

7. Why Verified Paid Promotions at 0.99 and 2.99 Are the King of BookVillage

Before moving forward, we want to clarify one important point. We have nothing against Standard Unverified reviews or Kindle Unlimited reviews. If that were the case, we simply would not have included them inside BookVillage. They have their place, they serve a purpose, and many users rely on them responsibly.

However, especially in the current Amazon environment, unverified review types carry a significantly higher risk of removal. This is a fact, not an opinion. Amazon has intensified its monitoring systems, and unverified reviews remain the category most frequently targeted for deletion. For this reason, it is essential that these review types do not interfere with or devalue the users who choose to contribute with Verified Paid Purchase reviews, which are the backbone of long-term account safety.

We have already published an extensive guide on how to protect your reviewer accounts, but here we want to explain the issue from an economic and strategic perspective.

Let us compare a Verified Purchase 0.99 review with a Kindle Unlimited review. A Kindle Unlimited review effectively costs a reader about 50 cents, assuming a monthly subscription of 11.99 dollars and an average of four to five assignments per week.

A Verified Paid Purchase at 0.99 dollars seems more expensive at first glance, but it is not. Amazon pays 35 percent royalties on a 0.99 dollar eBook, which means the real net cost of the review is approximately 65 cents. The difference between a Kindle Unlimited review and a Verified Paid review is therefore around 15 cents.

For a difference so small, choosing Kindle Unlimited over a Verified Paid Purchase review becomes difficult to justify, especially considering the massive strategic advantage of verified reviews. They are dramatically more stable because Amazon sees a real financial transaction tied to your account. They count across all Amazon marketplaces, regardless of where the reviewer posts the review. They remain visible far longer, often permanently. They strengthen both your book’s trust metrics and the reputation of your KDP account.

When you add to this the fact that unverified reviews, including many Kindle Unlimited reviews, are currently being removed at a far higher rate, the conclusion becomes obvious. From a strategic, economic, and safety perspective, not using Verified Paid reviews simply makes no sense.

They cost only slightly more, they offer massively superior stability, and they protect your book and your publishing brand in ways that unverified reviews cannot match. This is why, inside BookVillage, Verified Paid reviews at 0.99 and 2.99 are considered the king. They are the foundation of a safe, credible, long-term promotional strategy.

Conclusion: A System Designed to Protect You and Built to Last

With everything we have discussed, one message should now be absolutely clear. BookVillage was not created to imitate existing platforms. It was created to replace them.

We eliminated coins because they create compliance risks, inflation, imbalance, and inevitable crashes. We replaced them with a system based entirely on real contribution, mathematical stability, and long-term meritocracy.

In this model, the value you receive is proportional to the value you contribute. Higher quality contributions unlock higher quality opportunities. The entire ecosystem adjusts dynamically to maintain stability, preventing early saturation, eliminating artificial shortages, and keeping your promotional activity predictable in the long term.

But the strength of BookVillage does not rely only on structure. It also relies on the protective tools we have built to keep the community safe and compliant.

First, the Fake Reviewer Detection Method. This system automatically identifies reviewer accounts that behave abnormally. If the same Amazon account jumps between different BookVillage profiles beyond a very low threshold, its contributions are excluded and do not count. This protects the community from virtual assistants who sell reviews and from operations that recycle the same reviewer identities across multiple clients.

Second, the Automatic ARC List Creation. This feature allows you to build a fully compliant list of compatible readers who are genuinely suited to your books. You can also permanently exclude specific users from reviewing your titles in the future. This is not a manual block. It is a compliant separation of reviewer paths that prevents repeated interactions and increases the long-term credibility of your catalog.

Third, our Superior Anti-Swap Algorithm. Unlike basic systems that only prevent two users from reviewing each other directly, our algorithm manages interaction patterns over time. If User A has reviewed User B, the system enforces a natural waiting period before User B can see A’s books again in the Library. This prevents artificial loops, circular exchanges, and review patterns that Amazon’s monitoring systems could consider suspicious.

All these tools work together to enforce one goal: to ensure that every review posted inside BookVillage is genuine, voluntary, and structurally safe. No incentives, no shortcuts, no distortions. Only authentic interactions between real authors and real readers.

This is why BookVillage is not only different. It is the only model designed to remain stable for years, not months. It is anti-crash by design, compliant by necessity, and merit-based by principle. A system where your publishing business is not only supported, but protected.

Thank you for reaching this point of the guide.
And welcome to the platform built for the future of independent publishing.

As always:
BookVillage is on your side.

— The Minister of BookVillage