Michele Lee

Yesterday I talked about how to become a reviewer, today I’m giving a crash course on how to get reviews as an author.

It helps a lot if way before you need a reviewer you become aware of the sort of places that do reviews. Of course you have your biggies, newspapers, major magazines, Publishers Weekly. There’s no harm at all of being aware of these places but a lot of us don’t rate that sort of attention. And that’s fine because there’s plenty of options out there these days.

Think about reviews should start as soon as you make a big sale (the rules are different for sales of short stories to magazines and anthologies. The sad fact is it’s just harder to get attention for those sorts of things and the people who can get the attention are the publishers. One author trying to get reviews and do all the promo is not fun, or rewarding.) So let’s define a big sale as one that’s all yours. You are the only author, or one of two authors. These are the projects where you can make a difference by taking initiative and working your own promo angle.

It also helps if you know what the point of a review is, from a marketing point of view. A review is word of mouth advertising. It falls into the first and second tiers of marketing; 1) making the consumer aware that your book exists and 2) potentially letting them know it’s good too. Even bad reviews accomplish the first point, so don’t be afraid to get your book out there.

Now that you have a book coming out you need to start looking around and find potential review sites. These can include; newspapers (from the New York Times Book Review to your local paper), magazines (Most genres have magazines. Cemetery Dance does reviews, so does Romantic Times and Locus. If you don’t know which magazines are big in your field, spend some time in a book store looking around.), book blogs (there are tons of these, like my own blog, or Dark Scribe Magazine and The Fix), bookseller sites (LibraryThing, GoodReads, Shelfari, Amazon.com, etc) and even the personal blogs of other authors in your genres.

In fact there’s a whole type of review that comes from your peers. Typically it’s called blurbing, but it works the same way and you approach people the same way.

Make a list of the sites you think would be a good match for your work. This involves being honest about your work (what genre it is, whether it has cross over appeal, etc) and READING THE GUIDELINES of the site. What, you thought submission guidelines would be over when you got that acceptance? Some sites have no guidelines, just an address you send the book to. Most book blog sites now do almost everything online (at least communications wise). Make a note of sites that accept ebooks and those that take only print books.

Keep this list. After all this won’t be your only major publication, right? So might as well save yourself some time next time around.

We know your money and resources are limited, so after you make this wish list evaluate it very carefully. Don’t be afraid to research the review sites like you would a publisher, after all, some have reputations for only publishing positive reviews, for being slow but fair, for ignoring books received and some have been known to charge for reviews (on top of the cost of books) or turn around and sell submitted books without reviewing them at all. (Sad and a little embarrassing.) You have every right to send to the sites that you think will help you the most. You could send out dozens of copies to all the major review sites, and be passed up by every one for some bigger authored book. Another sad, but true fact. Be practical about your genre and your audience. There’s nothing wrong with SF/F/romance or horror, but it is much less likely to be review on certain sites. They’re just like you, focusing on a specific audience, which might not mesh with yours.

Plan to get the most bang for your buck. One of the huge positive points to MonsterLibrarian.com, by the way, is that it’s one of the few library-specific review websites out there. Its goal is to help librarians find good books, with a side of helping other readers too, and it has a reputation for quality among its audience. This is something you as an author can benefit from.

Ask before sending. Most places I know of are okay with an informal “Hey, this is my book, this is what it’s about, can I send you a copy?” They’re also okay with generically titled emails, and mostly flexible with how the book fits into their goals and covered genres.

Which leads me right into my next point, always remember that reviewers are allies of the reader and the author. Now, most are pro reader first, and pro author second, but we aren’t here to trash your book or ruin your career. We love reading, love the industry and almost always work in our spare time with little or no pay (very often only the book is what we’re paid). It’s easy to get anxious and want your book reviewed and reviewed now. Ask, don’t badger. Be polite, not demanding.

When you send your book that’s pretty much it. It’s out of your hands now. The sad thing is that reviewers are almost universally overworked so sadly, your book won’t always get reviewed. In my experience book bloggers tend to have better rates on reviewing what is sent to them (maybe because they have less space constrictions as opposed to those who print reviews.)

Sending repeated emails to the site asking when your book will be reviewed will irritate reviewers. Asking if the book was received is kosher, but “Are you done yet? very week makes us dread picking your book up.

Here’s a few secrets from the reviewing side:

Often if you send us a book for free we feel obligated to review it because you’ve paid out to get it to us. If we have to pay for the books we review we’ll just stick to the stuff we know we like, which doesn’t help.

We don’t usually have firm orders to our reading pile because we want to like the books we pick up, so we don’t want personal stuff like having just read three horror books in a row, or really not feeling like we can handle a true squishy romance because we’re going through a rough time, to stand against you. Yeah, it means it will take us longer to get to your book, but do you really want us to pick it up and think “Do I have to?”

Lots of people think just because we review that means we’re good for advertising to. They add us to spam lists and send us blurbs asking us to review their book–for only $15.95. If you’re polite and read the guidelines you’re already above that pack.

No reviewer I have ever met just reviews the books. We talk about them, recommend them, and often are in a position to make an impact. (Um, for instance, I recently became a bookseller at Borders. You had better believe that the books I’ve reviewed are front and center in my mind when customers are asking for reading suggestions. The people at Monster Librarian, for a second example, are in many cases actual librarian and therefore directly in a position to point people to your books. and everyone had friends, coworkers and family who read. If we read your book we’re in all likelihood telling a lot of people about it.)

If you have any questions, feel free to stick them in the comments. I hope this helped.

Inspired by both the upcoming cons and this article from a publisher on how to request review copies this week I’m giving you all a crash course on reviewing: how to do it, how to get your books reviewed and what I think make a valuable review. Today’s topic is how to ask a publisher, agent, author, publicist, etc for a review copy.

Start at the beginning.

I really did just one day decide to become a reviewer. There were many reasons behind it like wanting to establish a web presence without having much content, being tired of little book talk in my life, wanting a stronger reason to make reading and reading more widely a priority, and mostly, wanting to share my passion for what books I’d read and loved. But you don’t just decide you want to become a reviewer and start asking publishers to send you books. They’re businesses too, and they can’t afford that. You have to make a good case for why they should send you the books and the best way to do that is to be useful to them. This means learn to write useful reviews, establish a blog or webpage presence and find a way to spread your reviews far and wide.

More murky is building a reputation for honest reviews. Some sites only give good reviews. Some authors and publishers are drawn to this, but many readers learn quickly to discount these reviews (and often only visit the sites for contests.) It’s a real weird feeling to have writers who you really admire nervous about your opinion of their books. But establishing a reputation for taste and good critiques, in my opinion, makes for a longer lasting and stronger presence in the literary world.

I began by setting up a review blog on Blogger (which was completely free) and reviewing the books I bought myself. Then once I felt I had the reviewing thing down I joined a handful of freelance review sites (Monster Librarian, The Fix, Tangent Online). These sites are ALWAYS heavy and books and low on readers, but because of that there’s  need for timely professionals. Now, we all get overloaded with books and distracted by life, but if you can’t cut a review a month or so then you might not do well here. But aligning yourself with an already established review site is a huge help in establishing yourself as a reviewer.

I eventually began linking all my reviews through my BookLove blog because I wanted to keep track of them, and my genre tastes were more expansive than those of most of the sites I work for. I still read and review a lot of urban fantasy and science fiction, etc. Not all of it is good for the sites I work for, but books do still need help reaching an audience.

So let’s say you have a database to prove you can review books. What do you do next?

Learn how to approach publishing pros for books.

1. Know what you’re asking for.

Know the title, know the publisher, know who you are contacting (most publisher websites have general request emails, and this is fine) and why. Getting a name wrong, a title wrong, etc. just looks unprofessional. It happens, but there’s no harm in being careful and double checking your information.

2. Make sure to link to your site so the people you’re querying can see your review style and your reliability.

Many people get into reviewing because they want the free books. Whatever. See the thing is you get free books, but very often they are books you wouldn’t have picked up on your own. For every book I get that I would have bought myself I get at least three that I wouldn’t have. For every really amazing fantastic book I get three pretty good or okay books. This isn’t the way to make a mint off collectables or ARCs or get all your favorite author’s books for free.

You HAVE to do some work too, because again publishers and authors are businesses. They can’t just give away books willy-nilly, so you have to show you can be a valuable part of their promo. Also being affiliated with long established sites instantly boosts your credibility.

3. Be polite.

My standard request always introduces myself, tells the person I’m addressing where I work, what I want and thanks them for their time. Being polite just makes for better interactions.

4. Take what you get.

This is the bit that I think some people find the hardest. You aren’t entitled to any book (which is why you need to make your case with a history of good reviews and.or affiliation with a trusted review site). You will, if you’re lucky, get half the books you ask for. You’ll be offered a lot of books you don’t want. And once you’ve been out there for a while you’ll end up getting queried like an agent, added to people’s promo lists against your wishes and get Facebook and Goodreads messages from everyone and anyone advertising their book.*

You have to be willing to try new books, and books you might not like. And you will find a whole lot more authors that you do like. But you can’t get upset if a publisher doesn’t send you a book you requested (Marvel, for example, has never sent me any books I’ve requested, and Tor is very hit and miss.)

5. Don’t be afraid to say no.

It’s hard at first, but know how many books you can handle. Don’t request things you don’t intend to review and don’t tell people to send things you know you won’t read.

*6. Don’t be that person.

It’s hard to get established, as an author or reviewer. Don’t be that person on GoodReads or Amazon or Facebook who spams everyone who says they like a book. Don’t take everything you’re offered. Don’t beg for books to review. And for gods sake DON’T sell ARCs or review copies. I know some other people are okay with this, but I think it’s wrong to sell something you were given. Especially something with the average-low quality as books. I know there’s a collector’s market out there for ARCs, but they are printed at the author or publisher’s expense and given to you for free. It’s wrong to turn around and sell them. I’ve seen places give away review copies, or allow their reviewers to keep them (the places I work for are like this) that’s fine. I give mine away to local charities. Now they might sell them (one is the Louisville Free Public Library) but that money doesn’t go into my pocket, it goes to the charity.

Besides, publishers and authors really dislike this. It makes them feel as if they’ve been taken advantage of, and it can cause bad blood between them and yourself. Best to just eliminate the issue by not reselling books you didn’t buy to begin with.

Tomorrow: How-Author Edition.