This is the second installment of my unsolicited advice column for authors, check out my first one here, which includes the reasons why I believe I’m qualified to give this advice. My rule this week may seem obvious to some, but I’m upset to discover that many new authors have fallen into this trap, so I’m here to set y’all straight. DO NOT PAY PEOPLE TO REVIEW YOUR BOOKS. For the love of Christ, there are a billion book bloggers out there who review books for free (including myself!), the only thing we ask for in return is a free copy of your book (including postage), and in some cases the blogger will review your e-book, so it shouldn’t cost you anything to send it to them.
I’ve noticed a few blogs charging for reviews, and when I do, I promptly close their website and never return. Sound harsh? It should, those people are scamming you, and you’re a fool for falling for it. And don’t get this mixed up with people who get paid to write book reviews-those people (typically professional journalists or writers) are getting paid by a legitimate secondary media source, i.e. a newspaper, online journal etc. for their work. I personally write book reviews for sources other than my own blog and get paid for it. But if I’m writing a post for my own blog? I don’t get paid for it because it’s my own damn website!
So what’s an author to do if they want to get their book reviewed? Follow this easy, step-by-step list:
- Research book blogs that review books similar to yours
- Check out the review policy of that blog
- If they are currently accepting review requests for books like yours, send them an email
- In said email, include: your name, your applicable background and writing history, info about your book and the format you have available to send it in
- For god’s sakes include hyperlinks in said email
- Address the actual email to the person or the name of their blog! Think of it as a cover letter and resume, and your book is the interview
- And if you’ve learned anything from my past advice column, you better have a goddamn website
- If the reviewer accepts your book for review but then asks for payment, don’t respond and find someone else to review your book
If the reviewer doesn’t respond to you at all, don’t sweat it, just try a few others. And PLEASE don’t pitch your book to a blogger until you’ve made sure they review your genre, there is nothing worse than getting unsolicited emails from an author who clearly hasn’t looked at your blog closely.
Sorry this article was so ranty, I just get really worked up about this stuff.
Questions, comments, hate mail, please send it my way!
I agree with everything here BUT I can’t think of many scenarios in which the AUTHOR emails me and asks me to review something and I actually do it. A did this a few times when I was a baby book blogger. But these days, that’s getting archived immediately. I want to hear from a publicist or publisher, not an author, because it’s just too awkward to say no, or be like “here’s the review” when it’s not positive, or, “I’m actually not going to review this because I have nothing to say”.
Yes me too, I rarely accept books from the authors directly, but if they don’t have a publicist I think this is really the only option for them 🙁
Yep, totally agree! While the idea of making a fortune reviewing books for a living quite appeals, I don’t want to be paid by authors to review on my own blog! What do you do – have a sliding scale of charges based on how many stars you give?? Imagine charging someone then giving their baby a 1-star review! Or giving fake 5-star reviews and expecting people to still visit my blog. No, no – if I take a book from an author (extremely rare) then I want to be able to send an email containing that little white lie – sorry, your book just isn’t my kind of thing so I won’t be reviewing it. Hard to do if I’ve cashed their cheque!
And you’re so right about checking the genres people read – how many e-mails have I had saying “You’ll just love my new fantasy novel about kick-boxing hermaphrodites in an erotic love triangle…” and had to restrain myself from using unladylike language in reply. This is the major reason I state on my blog I’ll only take books via publishers – too many authors don’t bother to research the bloggers they approach…
Lolz lolz lolz what genre would that be? Erotic fantasy?
I prefer to think of it as “Total Twaddle”… 😉
Haha! I was going to say the same thing about the fact that they rarely seem to have *really* looked at my blog. But I like the way you say it better. 🙂
gawd I know. Like seriously, my review policy is super short. And a 20 second persual of my blog will tell them everything they need to know. And yet…it rarely happens! That’s why I wrote ‘closed to unsolicited submissions’ so only people who were really gung-ho would get through 🙂
Haha – I sound a little bitter, don’t I? 😉