Today’s guest post isn’t from an author; it’s from a reviewer. My Twitter buddy, Frida Fantastic (it’s possible that’s not the name on her birth certificate, but we won’t pry) has agreed to give some tips on what reviewers want (and what will have them deleting your submission faster than spam emails promising body part enhancements).
Without further parenthetical comments, here’s Frida:
I’m a book blogger and I blog at Frida Fantastic: indie speculative fiction reviews. I review indie ebooks in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, pulp, and horror. Today I would like to share a few tips on the best ways for authors to approach book bloggers.
I define a book blogger as a reader who volunteers to blog about books on a regular basis. Book blogs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are more flexible in what they review, whereas others have a more defined focus like “indie ebooks” or “science fiction and fantasy books”.
Book blogs in all their forms are helpful in promoting books. If a popular book blogger reviews your book, their readers are far more likely to check it out. Many book bloggers cross-post their reviews to Amazon, Smashwords, and Goodreads. Positive reviews are best, but at minimum, a well-written book review will provide some useful information about a book and help other readers determine if the book is for them. Some book blogs also participate in blog tours, which can also help generate interest in a book. The tips here are more specific to requesting book reviews as that’s what book bloggers are most known for, but the same principles apply to requesting other services from book bloggers such as participating in a blog tour or hosting a guest post.
I started book blogging in early April so I’m still fairly new to this, but I have a good idea about what constitutes as good netiquette between authors and book bloggers. So listen up if you’re interested in getting a review from a book blogger 🙂
Tip #1: Before you ask a book blogger to review your book, check the book submission (or review policies) page on their website, and respect those guidelines.
Most of the blogs that accept review requests have a page like that, and some may have very detailed and specific requirements. Even if some of it seems idiosyncratic or unnecessary, follow it to the letter, because the blogger has their system set up to handle the flood of submissions. Many of us can’t review all the books we receive because there are so many books and we only have so much time. But we love books, and we review the ones that capture our interest.
Tip #2: Don’t request book reviews via Twitter, Facebook, forums, etc. Generally, book bloggers want you to send an email.
Just like you, we have six or more accounts at different places, and it’s too time-consuming to check them all. Follow our submission policies. Most of us want you to send your review request by email, so we have all our submissions in one place. Asking for a review through a non-standard route like Goodreads is akin to jumping the queue—that’s not fair, and many of us ignore these messages. Sending unsolicited Amazon gifts is also no-no, and book bloggers can’t reply to those messages as they are sent from an Amazon no-reply email address.
Tip #3: Book bloggers are on social media, but don’t spam them.
I like books, but if you message me and give me a link to your books, I generally will ignore them. I can’t speak for all book bloggers, but the way I see it, if you wanted to request a review, you would have sent me an email. If you’re trying to be a salesman, that doesn’t work on social media. Be friendly and personable without constantly plugging your book, and people will eventually get to know you.
Tip #4: When you email book bloggers your review request, make sure your book is ready.
I’ve received some review requests for books that had serious formatting problems in the first five pages, which probably doesn’t help sales either. I notified the authors about the issues I saw, but really, having an unfinished book is the quickest way to getting a review request rejected.
Tip #5: Don’t write emails that will get trapped in the spam folder.
If the book submission page specifies a subject line, follow that. If not, use a simple subject line like “Review request for (Title of Book)”. Weird subject lines get trapped in the spam folder.
Address book bloggers by name. If the name is not available, address the blogger by his or her online blogging pseudonym. Emails with generic greetings like “Hello sir/ma’am” look like the beginning of unsolicited spam mail, and my Gmail tends to trap those in the spam folder too.
Tip #6: Write short and clear review requests.
Book bloggers don’t want to know your life story, or all the business models you’ve tried, or which publisher we’ve never heard of has print rights to what. It depends on the blogger’s focus, but being published by an unknown small press means absolutely nothing to me. Being previously published by more well-known publisher like DAW or Tor Books could get the attention of a science fiction/fantasy blogger, but really, we just want to see if we’d be interested in reviewing your book. So tell us about your book, and don’t bore us with your experiments in publishing. We’re readers—we care about your book, not your business model.
Other book bloggers may be different, but my eyes glaze over whenever I see an email over a thousand words long and I don’t finish reading it. I choose which books to review on the basis of the description on Smashwords or Amazon, and whether I liked the sample or not. I don’t read press releases attached to a review request email, and I doubt other book bloggers do either, because well… we’d rather spend that time reading books.
Tip #7: Be patient. If you don’t hear from a book blogger for a while, depending on the book submission policy, you can still send a review request for another book.
We receive a lot of review requests. As I’m writing this, I have 40 unread emails requesting book reviews. Other bloggers receive 10-20 requests per day. We consider every request, but please understand that it could take us a while to get to your request. Many bloggers have long to-review queues, some as long as six months or a year. I keep mine relatively short at about a month long, and I add a new book to my review queue every week.
If you haven’t heard from us in a while, it doesn’t mean that we have ignored your request. It means that either we haven’t gotten to it yet, or that that particular book isn’t up our alley. Email correspondence is time-consuming so sometimes we can’t respond to everyone. While you should focus on book bloggers that tend to accept your review requests, perhaps the others that didn’t accept the request for this one will be interested in your next book.
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I hope these tips are helpful. If you have any thoughts about approaching book bloggers or about book blogging in general, feel free to leave a comment. I’m happy to answer questions! 🙂
So, in other words, we should approach exactly as we approach agents. Follow the directions and a concise query and politeness goes a long way towards a positive reviewer/author relationship. 🙂 Excellent advice.
Judging from the book bloggers I’ve chatted with on Twitter, it seems to be very rare for authors to follow the submission instructions! Darned creative types… 😛
Exactly! 🙂
I’m not sure if some agents ask for the author’s previous publication history, but many authors don’t follow Tip #6. I’m a reader. I don’t care about Obscure Publication History or Obscure Regional Awards. I just want to learn about Awesome Book.
I get long-winded emails that go like “I’m pleased to announce that my self-published book has been acquired by Obscure Small-Press. Obscure Small-Press will be printing my book in six months and this book is no longer being sold as an ebook. Please let me know if you want to receive an ARC. If you want to read about my ebook publishing history, visit my site here [link].”
That sort of email makes me go *headdesk* because I didn’t need any of that information, there was nothing said about the book itself, and I can’t even find the ebook to sample because the ebook is gone. I run an ebook blog. I only review ebooks that are available on either Smashwords or Amazon.
It’s really silly to sell the idea of “Hey, my book is good enough to get published by Obscure Small-Press!” instead of actually talking about the book. And ARCs for indie books don’t make sense IMHO. I strongly recommend only asking for book reviews once the indie ebook is published.
People don’t anticipate release dates for books they’ve never heard of from an author they’ve never heard of. If they’re interested, they’ll do an impulse buy. If they can’t buy it the moment they read the review, they’ll move on to the books on their more established To-Read list. My To-Read list is 10 pages long with books from Kurt Vonnegut, Jorge Luis Borges, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Arthur C. Clarke, Clive Barker, etc. Does an indie author want me to put their book on that to-read list, hoping that I’ll choose their book first over the free Ursula K. Le Guin one available from the public library? I think that’s a bad idea, and I haven’t even read Vonnegut yet. Authors with indie ebooks should go down the impulse route: only give your books publicity when readers can buy it immediately.
Thanks to Lindsay for having me here, and thank you everyone for your kind comments 🙂
Excellent advice, Frida. Following submission instructions is the most critical. Nothing gets me to toss an email in the “not interested” pile quicker.
“Follow review/submission policies” is the golden rule =D If I was an author, I’d approach submitting review requests like submitting a resume. I’d have a “template” email with everything (genre, synopsis, link to ebook, ebook attached) and then tweak the email for each blog.
I actually have pretty simple book submission policies. If their books qualify (SF/F, over 15,000 words, etc.), all authors need to do is say “Hi Frida”, send a link to the Smashwords/Amazon book page, then I’ll sample it and I’ll let them know if I want the review copy. That’s it.
I approach selecting books for review just like an ordinary reader browsing the shelves in the bookstore or library. I read the description and sample a bit of the book. I receive submissions that look like a very proper and formal query without a book link in sight, and I usually just ignore them. I don’t want to go hunting when there’s already other books for me to look at right in front of me.
And no offense to authors but, reading queries is boring. I’m not not an agent. I don’t work for a publisher and never have. I’m an ordinary reader, and the book description on the ebook retail sites generally describe the books better than the long-winded queries I’ve read. And nothing grabs me faster than excellent prose, and I can’t get a sense of that in query, which is why I prioritize the book link over everything else.
Yes, excellent advice. Thanks for cluing us in, Frida and Lindsay. 🙂
Very well said 🙂 Totally agree.
Really good to know! Indie authors are, for the most part, new at this, so we make some beginner mistakes. I hope I haven’t made too many! It’s nice to have the etiquette clearly spelled out so we’ll all act more professionally in the future. Thanks!
I have a bizarre way of dealing with review requests as a book blogger. I require that authors friend me on Goodreads or follow me on Twitter in order to get my attention. Then, I look into who they are and what books they have, and then I ask them for the review copy if I’m interested in anything they’ve written. It keeps me from getting swamped by emails, and puts me in the position to do the asking. I actually like it this way much better!
Sounds reasonable! I’m a little like that with guest post requests. I’m less inclined to agree to one from someone who just contacts me out of the blue. I wanna be romanced first. 😛 (At least leave a comment on the blog or say hi on Twitter!)
@Cathy: I could see that working quite well, especially if you’re already very active on Goodreads and Twitter. I think it’s great you have it explicitly written on your review policy, which makes Tip #1: “Read Review Policies” the golden rule. Everyone works differently and we find ways that work the best for us 🙂
Thank you so much, Frida and Lindsay! I needed this post. Now I’ll get cracking and find reviewers to properly approach with requests to review. 🙂
Great info. Thanks for the insight!
Great list. I get quite a few requests for reviews, and like to see polite, understandable requests. You would be surprised at how many people don’t spellcheck their email. If your book title is misspelled, chances are, I won’t read it.
My one tip: if you’re asking about an ebook, don’t send the ebook with the request, assuming I’ll say yes. If I agree to review it, then send the ebook. Otherwise, it comes across as rude and presumptuous.
I agree 🙂
About sending the ebook with the email, it depends on the blog. So again, “Read Review/Submission Policies” is very very important. I’m like Sarah (I don’t want the ebook attached), but other reviewers like Grace Krispy want the ebook attached.
There’s really no “one size fits all” way of submitting books. I know it’s really time consuming for authors, but we’re all volunteers and we’ve found different systems that work best for us. For me, it’s a volunteer gig that takes up 7-10 hours each week. We don’t do this for money (I think I’ve earned 30 cents from affiliate sales in four months and I can’t even collect it), so the least that authors could do is follow our individual submission policies.
Thank you so much for this blog post! I’ve been wondering about the netiquette of requesting reviews, but I hadn’t done any research yet. This is a great place to start.
Thanks for the helpful advice, Frida!
Just read this from a link of Frida’s site. I just started book blogging recently and I’ve already been swarmed with submissions that don’t fit what I asked for too.
Not that I’m really complaining. I haven’t been doing this long enough for it to become a nuisance. It’s just a shame that authors are short-handing themselves. Not that my blog gives anyone much exposure yet but I’m sure if they’re not following my instructions, they probably aren’t following those of more prominent bookbloggers either.