3 Tips To Help You Contact Book Reviewers!
I see authors every day begging, pleading, and spamming their books to people on social media who:
- Are not their demographic
- Aren’t reviewers or book bloggers
- Don’t read that genre.
Let’s deconstruct.
- DEMOGRAPHIC
Do you know who your ultimate reader is? You should.
Let’s use my latest book, Broken Pieces, as an example. As I wrote it, I knew that I wanted women and men to read this, but I focused most on looking at how women would relate to the material. It’s dark, it’s real, and it’s not humor like my past two books.
Betareading. This created a challenge: whom would I ask to betaread it? Which reviewers, book bloggers, and readers would I approach? Who would ultimately buy it?
Research, interact. If you can’t answer those questions, you’ve got some work to do. How? Google, Goodreads, even your social media (I use primarily Twitter and Facebook), to connect with people and discuss the subject matter and if it’s of interest to them. Social media is the ultimate in free market research.
I sent my book to about twenty-five betareaders who expressed interest in seeing it as well as giving me feedback. Leaving a review (positive or negative) is by no means expected or required, but by creating a ‘sneak peek,’ many readers are happy to leave you a review when your book goes live.
And when Pieces went live, I had about ten reviews within a few days. It’s been three months and I’m up over seventy-five!
(Betareaders can be anyone who is interested in reading your book before it’s available for sale.)
- REVIEWERS AND BOOK BLOGGERS
These are your friends, BUT, if you’re spamming anyone and everyone with your book, you risk losing followers, annoying potential shot in the dark readers, and having your account suspended for spamming people (I’ve seen it. It happens, my friends.).
I’ve received about ten or fifteen spammy requests today alone: Hi Rachel. Thx for the follow. Plz read, review, & RT my book It’s All About Me on Amazon. Thx.
NO.
When I check their stream or Facebook page (which believe me, I do), I see they’ve sent the same message to hundreds of others and usually unfollow.
Sigh.
Get informed. Read this article (from Amazon Hall of Famer Dr. Bojan Tunguz on my blog for suggestions on what to do and what not to do). Here’s another one by Tracy Riva of Midwest Book Review.
I get it. I was confused, too, before my first book came out. So I asked people what to do! I researched. I learned. I made mistakes.
If you’re not sure how to approach reviewers, Google it! Ask another writer. Read blog posts about it. But for the love of all things holy or otherwise, don’t spam your book in a welcome message or blanket your stream or Facebook in spam. It’s unprofessional and you will actually repel potential readers.
- GENRE
Read the guidelines. Book bloggers and reviews are very specific in what they review and they post their review guidelines right on their blog and sometimes, even in their Twitter or Facebook bio. It’s there for you to read and pay attention to. Why waste your time (and theirs) asking people to review your book who don’t review your genre?
Be selective. I get several requests daily to read and review someone’s book, and I’m not even a reviewer! I don’t review books; I’m not a book blogger. So, why is this happening? It’s not that I don’t appreciate it and I’m honored people give a darn about me at all, but there are thousands and thousands of book bloggers and reviewers who do this professionally. Why are you wasting your time on people like me who don’t?
Want a vetted book review/book blogger site? Check out BookBloggerList.com. It’s broken out by genre. Easy.
Hope you find these tips helpful. Any questions or experiences, please share below.
