Book bloggers can not only give you great reviews but can introduce you to their audience — sometimes a very LARGE audience!
There are literally thousands of bloggers who either occasionally review or mention books, or who review books by the boat load. Getting a mention on a popular review blog could catapult your book sales over the moon.
The BIG SECRET here is doing your research, finding out what blogs/websites are appropriate for your book and then contacting the site owners and letting them know about your book. You have to let bloggers know about your book and ASK for a review or mention.
What’s the work?
- First you have to FIND a review blog or a niche blog that might give you a review.Be very careful to match the potential reviewer with the genre of your book. It is an absolute waste of time to approach a reviewer who only reviews fiction books when you are pitching a non-fiction book. Ditto with niches and sub-niches. Take a look at what the reviewer has done before. If your book fits into the Romance – “Erotica niche” and the reviewer has only published reviews that fit into “Clean and Wholesome,” save your time and the reviewers time by NOT contacting them..
. - Create a list or database with the reviewers name, their website URL, the types (niches) of books they review and their email address, or link to their on-site form. If you can, also determine what formats the reviewer prefers (paper, PDF or e-book).
. - IF the reviewer accepts your book, send it to them, in the format they request and then WAIT. Make a note of the date you sent your book in your database.
- First you have to FIND a review blog or a niche blog that might give you a review.Be very careful to match the potential reviewer with the genre of your book. It is an absolute waste of time to approach a reviewer who only reviews fiction books when you are pitching a non-fiction book. Ditto with niches and sub-niches. Take a look at what the reviewer has done before. If your book fits into the Romance – “Erotica niche” and the reviewer has only published reviews that fit into “Clean and Wholesome,” save your time and the reviewers time by NOT contacting them..
How to FIND potential reviewers:
A fabulous starting point for finding Book Review Blogs is The Book Reviewers Directory maintained by BookSirens. This directory is up-to-date and easy to use. But do go ahead and make your own google searches as well, especially if you have a unique subject area. For example if your book is about gardening, do a google search specifically for gardening blogs.
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Be PATIENT.
The reviewer is undoubtedly busy, not only with their own life but with a stack of books to review. It could take them six months to get to your book, they may change their mind and not review your book at all, OR they may write the review tomorrow and forget to tell you. Don’t bug them, just wait. While you are waiting, contact OTHER bloggers, take MORE action marketing steps and keep on writing more books.
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Should you follow up?
- If the blogger is of special importance to you a gentle inquiry after a month or two wouldn’t hurt. Be sure to check their blog FIRST to see if a review is already there … it would be VERY embarrassing to ask them if they still plan on reviewing your book only to find out they already have!
The PAY OFF
Though there is a LOT of hard work involved. There definitely is a pay off.
And that is an introduction to a whole new audience of people who may otherwise have never found your book.
Many of the book reviewer links are permanent and could continue to sell books for YEARS. What started as a small blog could turn into a major player and YOUR link is there!
Time Saving Tip:
Do you have a Virtual Assistant? Depending on their level of English and their marketing knowledge, this is a job that you can turn over to them partially (have them do the research and create a short list of potential bloggers) or in full.
Not sure HOW to ask? Be sure to check this out: Asking for Book Reviews
When going on one of the blogs that you have listed…and there is just very basic info in their contact info section…is that where i am requesting them to do a review? For example Book fan…just has name, email, website and comment. In the comment area….do I ask for review after I’ve given them all of the info that they want, or is that the obvious? i feel a little confused! Thanks so much Melanie!
Hi Heather,
Since you need to keep your email as brief as possible, I’d actually START by requesting a review. Say something like, “Hi NAME” (if you can find one) if you can’t find a name…
“Hi there, I found your book review blog in the Book Review Directory and having read your guidelines, I am requesting a review. My book, NAME OF BOOK is a SciFi Fantasy, similar to Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Series. It is about (add 2 – 4 lines here. KEEP IT SHORT).
A bit more info here … your name, website URL, Amazon URL, email address, phone number.
If you need more information, or would like a review copy of my book (PDF or mobi file), please email me here:
your email address.
Thanks for your consideration.”
Heather, you might want to spend a bit more time refining your approach. The idea is to keep it short and easy to read. Reviewers get a boat load of mail and if it takes more than two minutes to read, they will file it for “later,” and never get back to it. MAKE IT EASY.
Hope this helps.
PS. I hope you noticed that if in the synopsis section, you click on the Reviewers Name, you sometimes get a lot more information. The information we have in the database depends on what the review has given us.
Thanks Melanie!!!