Melanie Rockett

Marketing and Publicity for Authors and Publishers

Asking for Book Reviews

by 41 Comments

How Do Some Authors Get HUNDREDS Of Great Reviews, While Others Get Nothing?

Reviews are a self-publishers #1 priority —because reviews help sell MORE books.

Self-publishing a book and then successfully SELLING it is made up of two essential components: your book package and your marketing plan. Both of these need to be in place before you publish.

What Is A Book Package?

A book package consists of the content of your book, the title, the cover, the description, an author page (bio), and the keywords and niche headings (eg. contemporary romance) you choose when you upload your book. In other words, the package is your book + the immediate marketing material surrounding your book.

While I consider an author website and list to be a major component of your marketing plan, the reality is you can sell books (GASP) without them.

You can’t sell books without REVIEWS!

One of the big tasks traditional book publisher undertake on behalf of their authors is getting advanced reviews. Why? Because advanced reviews help sell the book — BIG TIME. You will see snippets of review on the back cover, on the inside flap of hardcover books and on inside pages of the book.

As a self-publisher, YOU are the Marketing Department.

Your job is to get advanced reviews that can go in your Author Bio section or in your description section.

This involves asking review bloggers, review sites, other authors, magazine editors, newspaper editors, etc. for reviews.

A review from a publication such as Kirkus Reviews will go a LONG way.

You should also set up a volunteer team of readers. These are people who will read Beta copies or Advance Reader Copies (ARC). Part of the agreement is that they will write reviews.

The minute you hit the PUBLISH BUTTON, your team should “buy” the book, and post their reviews. NOTE: downloading a free copy of the book is considered to be a sale.

And finally, you must continue getting reviews, for the lifetime of your book. This step should never stop … it should be a daily or weekly component of your marketing plan.

How Do You ASK For Reviews?

There is the RIGHT way and then there is the way that guarantees rejection.

BUT, before I get started I want to address EXPECTATIONS.

Book Reviewers are NOT your friends or relatives. For the most part , they are NOT paid for their reviews. Your reviews may appear on a Blog, on Amazon, Goodreads, or any one of dozens of other sites.

Reviews from fellow authors, influential or famous people are a gift of time and effort — their reputations are at stake.

Even though you are looking for reviews in order to sell your books, the reviewers are NOT writing the review to help you sell your book. They are writing the review in order to help potential purchasers make a decision. They PRIDE themselves on writing honest reviews. This means that you may get a variety of reviews from five-star fabulous to one-star show-stoppers.

Once you send a reviewer your book,
it is out of your hands!

Approaching Book Reviewers:

Preliminary Research:

Unfortunately there is no quick way to do this. You can’t just approach reviewers willy-nilly without knowing who they are, what types of books they review and the format of book they require for a review. Start with the Book Reviews Directory. Click on the genre or genres your book fits under. Most of the categories in the Book Reviews Directory are fairly broad. Pick the one that fits the best. For example if you write chick lit … you should choose Women’s. If your novel is a dystopian thriller choose Action, Adventure, Triller and also choose Science Fiction.

There is a category in both Fiction and Nonfiction called ALL … basically those are the reviewers who are willing to read almost ALL the genres in each of the categories. Don’t forget to choose this category too.

Getting Organized:

  1. Set up a Swipe File
  2. Set up a Tracking System

SETTING UP A SWIPE FILE:

Before you start contacting reviewers, create a “swipe” file. Develop a list of the “facts” as well as one or more inquiry letter templates in advance. When you are filling out forms or sending emails, all you need to do is copy and paste whatever version is best suited to the reviewer.

Your Swipe File Should Include:

  • Name, address, phone number, email, your website link
  • The name of your book
  • Author
  • Author Bio (short form)
  • Genres (use the ones you are classified under in Amazon OR your own version of a genre mix)
  • Publication info: Date of publication, unpublished, pre-publication info
  • Formats: formats you can provide the book in (ie. mobi, PDF, paper)
  • Reviews (include star count and list of independent reviews & links)
  • Book — Fifty word summary
  • Book — Medium length summary (up to 250 words)
  • Book — Longer summary
  • Inquiry paragraph (you might have several versions)
  • Here is my book (attachment link)
  • Thank You for your review
  • IF you find yourself writing the “same” bit of information more than three time … add it to your swipe file.

SETTING UP A TRACKING SYSTEM

My suggestion is to create a spread sheet either in Microsoft Excel, Word or OneNote. Other useful alternatives are CRM database programs or Microsoft Access.

This is the information you need to track:

1. The name of the reviewer website

2. Name of the reviewer

3. Contact method (website form or email)

4. Genres they review

 

5. Book submission formats: Do they require a print copy or will they accept e-books (what format? PDF, mobi, Amazon GIFT, etc)

6. What is their review policy? In addition to the above what other rules do they have? Do they only accept new books, or will they read books well past the “new” date. You may want to make a note of what they won’t accept.

Finding book reviewers should be an ongoing part of your marketing strategy. As soon as you have a have a short list, you can start reaching out to the reviewers.

Once you start submitting requests, your spreadsheet should grow to include:

7. Date of inquiry submission

8. Result of inquiry (accept, decline, no answer)

9. Date of book submission

10. Results (keep track of when and where your book was reviewed. **You may not always find out whether or not your book was actually reviewed.

FOLLOWUP:

Once you get a review, celebrate with a cup of coffee and keep going. If your review was posted on a website, you can still use it onAmazon in the “Author” section. You can let people know about the review in your own blog and in your various Social Media venues: twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and others. You can also use any of the dozens of bookmarking services to give the review a +vote.

Don’t FORGET:

Send the reviewer a Thank You Note! Just a Thank You. NO need to get effusive. Don’t point out any reviewer “mistakes” and don’t mix your simple Thank You up with other requests or comments or links or please to please read this too!

Contacting Potential Reviewers:

You will either be contacting reviewers by e-mail or by using the contact form provided on their website. Contact forms vary widely — some just give you the room for some preliminary information while others require all the details.

Be polite, and if possible start with a salutation and their name. If you can’t find a name see if there is a user name. ONLY if you can’t find anything approximating a name should you say “Hi there,”

Keeping it as short as you can, let the reviewer know who you are, a bit about your book and if it has been published, OR when it will be published.

Offer to send them a copy in whatever format they desire (print, PDF, mobi, or as a GIFT). ** You should already know this, but are confirming and adding additional options. If your book is already published, include your Amazon (or other) link so they can check it out.

Sign off by thanking them for considering your book. Provide them with FULL contact information:

  • full name (and pseudnym if applicable)
  • email
  • phone number
  • your website
  • name of book
  • Amazon (or other) link

Don’t forget to include a Header. Some website forms have a space for a header. If they don’t, put your header on the first few lines of the body panel. Make it EASY for readers to know what your message is about. If you are sending an email, put your header into the Subject panel. Your header should be something easy like: “Review Request” or “Review Inquiry.”

Before You Hit SEND

Proofread, spell check, and then do it again. Your request will hit the trash can if it is filled with grammatical errors and typos … the reviewer will think that your inquiry is a direct reflection of your book. Using your swipe file to copy/paste information should help you avoid mistakes. Create a really great file, make sure it is grammatically perfect and typo free. It will save you a LOT of time and effort.

NOTE: Grammarly will help you ERADICATE contextual spelling mistakes and grammatical errors from your messages AND your books. Grammarly can help you become a better writer! Give it a try. It’s free!

DO NOT:

Do NOT Expect ANYTHING. No reviewer will guarantee a review. They may have the best of intentions and simply run out of time. They may “start” reading and decide they don’t like your book. Consider yourself lucky if they don’t post a bad review.

Do NOT ask for a positive review. Reviewers fiercely protect their right to their opinion.

Do NOT ask for a review to be posted on a specific date. I’m not a reviewer and I have a huge stack of both paper and electronic books to read. Reviewers probably have a stack three times as big. Reviewers are NOT being paid for this. They spend hours (or days) reading a book and another few hours writing a review. They do it for FREE. They do it because they love it. Don’t even THINK about trying to impose your schedule on them. It is just NOT done.

IF you want reviews to start coming in as soon as your book is published, make sure you give yourself plenty of time in your pre-publication schedule. Get your beta readers to do your first round of reviews.

Do NOT offer to pay for a review. Most reviewers will accept a free copy of your book. Many will state that they received an ARC or a free copy IN their review.

DO NOT bug the reviewer. Many reviewers get hundreds of inquiries. If they spend the time answering them all they will have no time left for writing reviews! They will reply to your inquiry IF they are interested. They MAY tell you when your review is done and where it is posted. “MAY” is the key word. Don’t bug them for any reason. I KNOW you are anxious. Get over it!

DO NOT ask the reviewer to change or revise their review. If you get a bad or neutral review, just accept it. Don’t ask … it puts them in the position of having to say NO which puts you on their bad karma list. If they said something wrong, or included a wrong bit of information, just ignore it. That’s the way THEY understood it, which is why they wrote it. If you get more than one reviewer “misunderstanding” what is happening, maybe your book needs a rewrite, or you could just go with the flow and rewrite your description!

DO NOT comment on your own reviews. Whether the review was fabulous or negative, you should leave it be. If you insist, get a “friend” to post a comment.

Does this sound like a lot of hard work? It not only “sounds” like it, it IS hard work.

Best selling authors get hundreds of reviews. They work hard at making their book a best seller. It is NOT an accident.

If you are overwhelmed, it may be because you are trying to do to much all at one time. Instead of trying to get 100 reviews, work on your first five. Then once they are in place, work on your next five. Though you may soon surpass 100 reviews, you still only concentrate on the next five!

Best of Success!

Book Reviews are critical to your book’s success.
Be sure to read this entire How To Get More Book Reviews series:

How To Get More Book Reviews: Your Website
How To Get More Book Reviews: Social Media
How To Get More Book Reviews: Author Groups
How To Get More Book Reviews: Facebook Groups
How To Get More Book Reviews: Reviewer Blogs
How To Get More Book Reviews: Amazon Reviewers
How To Get More Book Reviews: Purchase Reviews (this method is legit)

Check out the Book Reviewers Directory and my list of recommended Books on Getting Book Reviews

Comments

  2. Just WAITING for someone to do a review is so frustrating. I am tempted to yell at the reviewers to READ MY BOOK. I suspect they get way too many emails doing just that.

  3. Really good article and very useful. Fifth line down under Contacting Potential Reviewers – homophone typo spotted. Never know whether to point these out but I’d always rather know and correct.

  4. Thanks Pennie … happy to help! And YES keep pointing out typos, outdated links etc. Helps keep the content clean and up-to-date. Typo is now corrected!!

  6. Hi Melanie,
    Thanks for your honest tips here – I am working through a plan contacting people for reviews and feedback for my book launch. It is time consuming and tedious.
    I need a more systemic approach and you have made some great suggestions. For me, I dread sending spammy cold call emails to people I have ambushed through twitter – for example.
    So thanks and here’s to working harder and smarter!
    Thanks,
    Bren Murphy

  7. Happy to help Bren. I market my own books so I know exactly what authors face in order to get reviews. The great thing about the Book Reviewers list we are compiling is that these people love doing reviews and often have some instructions or a form where you can contact them! ~Melanie

  8. As a book publisher who also helps our authors get their books reviewed by bloggers I found your article very helpful
    Especially loved the ‘do not’ list
    Thanks for contributing

  9. Thanks Ash! In the next week or so our “searchable” book reviewers directory will be live. It will make it a hundred times easier for authors to find reviewers willing to review their books.

  10. Thanks for taking your time to write such a helpful and concise post with tips for getting reviewed. Loved your do this but don’t do this list. Most authors have to market books to some degree. The Swipe File is good news, as is the List and Categories!

  11. Thanks so much Judy Light Ayyildiz, we’ve been working so hard at the Reviewers Directory List and it is very nice to get some acknowledgement!

  14. As a writer and reviewer I found the Do not list very interesting.
    Do NOT Expect ANYTHING. So true but always hope for the best.
    Do NOT ask for a positive review. So very true. At our website we pride ourselves on honest reviews.
    Do NOT ask for a review to be posted on a specific date. We work a month ahead and post reviews on the 4th of every month. But it’s best if you remember that all reviewers have personal lives too.
    Do NOT offer to pay for a review. We wouldn’t accept money for a review. As reviewers we can’t guarantee a good review and if you pay out for a review you would be pretty upset if you paid for a bad one. Paying would leave us reviewers feeling obliged and you cheated.
    DO NOT bug the reviewer. Amen! We go as fast as we can and read as much as we can around our everyday lives.
    DO NOT ask the reviewer to change or revise their review. This is our honest opinion about your book, you asked us and we took the time to sit down read your work and write about it so please accept how we feel.
    DO NOT comment on your own reviews. We have had authors commenting on both our good and bad reviews. It’s awkward at times and we don’t engage in conversation other then the odd ‘you’re welcome’.
    I can’t speak for all reviewers but at escapology reviews we try our best to get through as many books as we can a month and a always let the authors know if we are reviewing their book and what month it should be up. As a writer myself I understand it from both sides and try to make it as painless for authors who have spent months of their lives writing the next best seller.

  17. Great article. Wish I had found it about a month ago. Am just finding out some of this stuff by trial and error. The spreadsheet idea is really helping me keep track of who I have contacted and what the results have been. Can I just give a shout-out to all the wonderful reviewers who very kindly place a link to their review policy front and center on their website? That saves me SO much time.

  18. Hi Melanie thank you so very much your information was not only informative but extremely understandable for the new author so you have my thanks and my respect.
    Have a wonderful week Kazzie

  20. Thanks Lissa … when we created the database, we tried our best to find a “review policy” page. I’ll admit to being frustrated many times at how hard the Reviewers made it to contact them AND to figure out what exactly they wanted to review. So I second your shout-out to all reviewers — PLEASE make it easy to find your review policy AND your contact information.

  21. Hi Melanie, Thanks for your tips and detailed how-to list. The process of getting reviews had previously seemed so daunting, but now it seems a bit more approachable (though not particularly easy!) I’ll be using your suggestions, and am looking forward to reading more of your posts.

  22. I appreciate your comment Lenna. Many authors don’t understand how important Reviews are to their sales. Even three reviews can make a difference and 10 or more can create a steady stream of sales. All the best with your marketing!! ~Melanie

  23. Thank you for this very informative post, Melanie. I have been trying hard to get reviews by asking people I know, only to find that Amazon does it’s research and does not post them, just in case they are not completely honest.
    Now I am busy reading, with the intention of writing reviews for other authors, in the hope they will return the favor. This takes a lot of time out of my already limited writing schedule! Glad to find out there are other ways of getting reviews for me to look into that are less time consuming with these tips!
    Thanks heaps!

  24. Thanks Esther and BEST of success with getting some review “trades” as well as reviews from the reviewers list. Getting reviews is one of the hardest jobs any author/publisher will undertake. I know from my own experience that is is very frustrating. You need to grow a hard shell and just keep on asking. Persistence is the key!

  25. This is a master list, Melanie! I am adding it to my collection of resources I give to new author clients. I’m also thinking about pasting a link to it on my Review Policy page!

    To add to Brienne’s comments …

    DO NOT send me the excerpts, ratings, and/or laundry list of everyone else who has reviewed your book.

    If you want me to review your book, then be confident that your pitch and excerpt will get my attention, show me that you respect independent thinking,and allow me the courtesy of waiting to hear what I have to say, rather than trying to “guide” me into other’s opinions.

  27. This is a really helpful post! I’m a book blogger, just getting into the world of reviewing and it’s nice to see what the other side of book reviewing is.

    I was surprised when you said a reviewer doesn’t owe an author a review. If an author is giving you a free book, it seems as though you should give them a review (positive or negative, it’s still a review and it still helps readers make purchasing decisions).

  28. There was an enormous controversy several years back when it was found that prominent book reviewers were selling the books they got as review copies. The controversy raged on for months. The result was that publishers started stamping the outside edges of their books with “NOT FOR SALE, REVIEW COPY ONLY.”

    My point in bringing this up is the fact that these “hideously low paid” reviewers got deluged with thousands of books that they were unable to read. Now I doubt that the reviewers in this site’s database get thousands of books sent to them, but the fact is that just because an author decide to send them a free book doesn’t obligate them to review your book. Many reviewers, myself included are reluctant to give bad reviews. I often know in the first ten pages that I don’t like the book. If I dislike the book enough to feel compelled to give a bad review, I also want to give a the reasons I don’t like it. The problem is, the effort it takes to tell people why the book is bad not only puts me in a really BAD mood for hours, but it wastes my precious time.

    So NO, just because an author sends me a book doesn’t entitle them to a review. However IF I look at your book description and REQUEST your book (which takes you time and costs you $$), I DO think I owe you the courtesy of a review, or a brief note telling you why I am not reviewing your book.

    I’d love to have other reviewers comment on this.

  29. Thank you Melanie. I recently agreed to exchange book reviews with a few other authors. One never reviewed mine even though I reviewed hers. What IS the protocol on this? Should I kindly ask her if she has gotten around to reading my book yet since I already reviewed hers? Also is 50 reviews a good amount to get in a 2 month period of time? Thanks so kuch.

  30. Oh my lordy!! I’m a reviewer and I am so impressed with this post. It was easy to read and exactly what I would love to say to every author who requests a review. I’m going to share this. Thanks 🙂

  31. Hi Michelle,

    Yes … just follow up with your review partner. Give her a gentle reminder as well as a link to the review you did for her. There really is no protocol. I know of some authors who remove the review they did, if their review partner does not return the favor.

    50 REVIEWS in two months. That is not only good, it is GREAT. Fabulous job.

    Melanie

  35. Nice article!

    I agree with all of your points, *except* for the last one which encourages authors not to comment on the review. As a reviewer, if I accept a book and take the time to read/review it, I SHOULD and usually DO get a public “thank you”!

    Whether the review is positive or not, I am more likely to review additional titles for an author if my review is acknowledged and comments/shares are always welcome on my blog as it increases traffic and visibility. I’ve even had several authors openly thank me for my critical review on my blog or Goodreads because I offer honest feedback and constructive criticism.

    It also shows potential readers that an author is “present” and makes them seem more approachable which is a necessity for self-published authors because their relationship with their readers is imperative for growing their fan base. I wouldn’t discourage this as a simple “Thank you” is harmless.

    Otherwise, this is a great article with sound advice.

    ~Dawn

  36. Dear Melanie,

    This is a wonderful resource. I am an indie from Kenya, and over the years it has helped me since I bookmarked it in 2016. I have even referred people to this link when they requested me to review their books but bugged me, or even asked me to buy their books to get a chance to review it (as though I they were doing me a favour. This is wonderful

  37. This is an excellent article and very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Did you know Team Golfwell does free book reviews? Team Golfwell does free book reviews in almost all genres and not just golf, especially children’s books, Y/A, non-fiction, and humor. It doesn’t hurt to ask https://www.teamgolfwell.com/free-book-reviews.html

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