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5 Tips for Getting Your Book Reviewed

There are a lot of good articles out there about Review Etiquette, both for the reviewer and the author -
just a small sampling of which is here:

The Bookish Brunette: Thinking Too Hard About - Author Review Request Emails

But I thought I'd add my two cents and give my top five ways to up your chances in the 'getting your novel reviewed' department.

1. Read the Review Policy. Period. This is a given. As reviewers we cannot emphasize this enough. This was the one common thread to every single article above. The Books, Biscuits & Tea article above made an excellent point: if an author can't take the time to read the review policy, which almost always takes less than 5 minutes (mine is 3, I timed it), plus the maybe 10-15 minutes to send a personalized email that has all the reviewer's specifications, why in the world would a reviewer dedicate maybe 10-15 hours to read their novel plus the additional time to write a review? Authors have to take the time if they want reviewers to invest almost 10X the same amount. Nothing annoys a reviewer more than if someone ignores what they've specifically stated. It's a waste of both the author's time and the reviewers.

2. Be Polite & Professional. You'd think this would also be a given, but nope. You'd be surprised at the amount of rude and inconsiderate things I've read as a reviewer. And trust me those people always go on my blacklist. Example: a potential author sent me an obvious mass email (big no no #1) that actually had a disclaimer at the bottom saying they were sorry if the book didn't meet my requirements for review (This novel didn't meet my requirements big no no #2). I replied "Read the review policy in more detail and we might consider it. There'll be an extra two week waiting period for not doing so in the first place." In response this author said that I must be referring to the note buried at the bottom of my review policy, that there was much better reviewers out there to use who'd been doing it longer than I had, and that my two week waiting period was "a joke, immature, and unprofessional". (HUGE NO NO) This author got it better than prospective authors now, if you don't make the statement I specify in my policy I discard your request. Yes I could've used something less direct for my original communication but that's absolutely no excuse for what this author said. I will never review for this author, nor will I ever read anything by this author. Pretty sad to burn bridges when you're trying to build up your book isn't it? Please please please, be considerate.

3. Support the Reviewer. Be Active On Their Blog. As time has gone on, I am receiving more and more review requests. I really like to help other authors, but with me doing only one review a week it works to the author's advantage to do everything they can to set their book apart. So help us reviewers out. Follow our blogs or our twitter handle. Like us on facebook. All those good social media things. I've met some amazing other authors and people through friends of internet friends. It's common sense that those authors who follow a reviewer's blog, who comment on posts, who know the content (etc) will get a leg up than those who just send an email. We're all trying to make connections in one way or another. Personally I truly appreciate the gesture and the effort.

4. Have A Great Request Submission. I really want to love a book right from the beginning. If an author hasn't at least perused QueryShark. Go look. Like right now. A good book request is essentially a query letter. When I do eventually submit my own novel to reviewers I can pretty much assure you I'm most likely going to be copying and pasting the paragraphs describing my book. A good query letter can be used over and over again for submissions to agents, editors, publishers, even eventual back cover copy. I am that much more likely to prefer a novel that sounds enticing. Include your cover art. This means cover art done by a designer, not a pencil drawing done by you and some Microsoft WordArt. Make sure you pay attention to the do's and don'ts of each reviewer. It's an awesome feeling when I read a review submission and I like the request so much that I'd really like to jump the book to the front of the queue. :D

5. Contact Correctly & Be Appreciative. As reviewers it's hard to take seriously an author who floods a twitter feed or facebook page. If you've read the review policy and contact me once through twitter or facebook, I'd say you're okay. But it's those authors that contact just because and don't do one iota of looking beyond the facebook page or twitter handle, that are hard to stomach. In addition it's always nice to graciously send appreciation. This is especially important if it's a negative review. Some reviewers may not want a thank you email, but most don't mind. For me, I find it energizing. Make sure to do your due diligence and understand how to contact the reviewer, and should you be fortunate enough to get a review an appreciation email is most often a good way to go.



Cheers! :D






12 comments :

  1. Love these tips. I beleive you just made a few reviewers day by just knowing more authors will have some knowledge on a more professionall way that they can send requests :)

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    1. Thanks Nic! Yeah it's a definite need to know for both authors and reviewers. :D

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  2. Thank you so much for linking to my blog post on blogger etiquette, Danielle...and for making such great points yourself. Especially about being polite and professional! :)

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    1. You're most welcome Linda! Each of the articles above were great in their own right and so I wanted readers to have a chance to check them out. I also wanted to make a point that I'm not the only reviewer talking and posting about this, so obviously there is an issue. Cheers and thanks for the comment!

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    2. You're most welcome. Just for the record, I'm an author myself, and not a reviewer. I wrote my post because of so many negative experiences I heard about from blogger friends, hoping that other authors might pay more attention if it came from "one of their own." ;)

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    3. Thanks Danielle. Very informative and a true delight to have some great guidelines:-)

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    4. You're welcome Cheryl! Thanks for the comment!

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  3. Such down-to-earth, useful and worthwhile tips - I'm surprised I haven't come across your blog before now. I will make sure to make use of your pearls of wisdom which I'm certain will enhance my promoting efforts considerably.

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    1. Thank you! I'm glad to be of help, and hopefully with the upcoming blog mini-makeover and some more promotional efforts of my own, more people will "come across my blog." :D

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  4. Thank you for the link to QueryShark! I found that writing my novel was an amazing experience, but promoting it is way beyond my comfort zone. This is the kind of advice that I need. Soliciting feedback is so important. Thanks and good luck with your own novel!

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    1. Glad the link was helpful! Thanks for the comment and good wishes and good luck yourself with all your efforts.

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  5. Thanks for taking the trouble to post these tips!

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