One of the most important elements in the promotion of your book is book reviews. You can do all the self promotion in the world but it is hard to reach wide numbers of people without reviews. Reviews give your book the social proof required to show readers that it is worthy of their time and money. Amazon and GoodReads reviews are wonderful but book bloggers can give you more exposure. Here are some things to consider when trying to get a blogger to review your book.
Study your potential reviewers before you reach out to them. Make sure they are interested in the type of book you write. If they strictly review non-fiction, there’s no point in sending along your sci-fi novel. Be sure to look for the size of the blogger’s following. Check the website for the number of followers or subscribers. If there are linked social media accounts, have a look at those numbers too. This will help you decide whether it is worth submitting your book for review in the first place. It will also help you decide here to submit first. Give priority to the bloggers with the largest amount of followers.
It is important that you show book bloggers that you respect their time. If they have posted policies around submissions, read and follow these policies to the letter. How do they wish to be contacted? Do they review self published books? Do they accept ebooks or do they only review books in a printed format? What genres do they review? Are they accepting books at this time? If you don’t follow these policies, you can more than guarantee that your book will not get reviewed.
Once you have narrowed down a list of bloggers who may be interested in reviewing your book, write each one a personalized email. Explain how you found them and a little about yourself and your book. Let them know that if they are interested, you’ll send them a copy in their prefered format (if they have one). Thank them for their time and consideration of your work. Before you send this email, edit and spellcheck. Then edit and spellcheck again. Typos are going to send the wrong message. If they decide to accept your book, you don’t want them going into it with anything but a good feeling about your skill.
You can also take the search offline. Check your local newspaper. Does it have a books section? Is there someone writing reviews? Maybe they’d be interested in reviewing a local. Talk to other writers in your circle, find out what they are doing. They may have recommendations for good reviewers or may be able to tell you where to find one. It’s also a good idea to pop into your local indie bookstores. They may know people who are actively reviewing books. Continue to nurture those Amazon reviews and continue to engage with your followers on your website and social media channels but don’t be afraid to reach out to book bloggers for a review. Book reviewers are in high demand and that means they often don’t have time to come looking for you. It’s up to you to put your book in their hands.
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