Indie-Licious discussion

Hello all -- I'm still new on this site, and hope I'm not breaking protocol. But I've got my first book out, and I would really like to get it into the hands of as many people as possible. It's timely...a very different look at the 2016 presidential election...but I'm stumped about getting attention for it. Does anyone have experience and/or advice on how to go about this part of the writing world? Which, it turns out, was way harder than writing the book....

Craig, getting reviews is very tricky. My advice is to find bloggers on twitter and start building a book blogger list. I have one, but it is based around fiction bloggers so I don't think it would help (sorry) but I found most of them on twitter search #Bloggers #Book reviews and if there are some books similar to yours, you can look at who has posted reviews on goodreads for them and offer your book for review. Also, if there are any book groups for your genre, check and see if they have a Read for review program (I have found a lot of success with these programs on goodreads!) Hope this helps and good luck with your book! Also, there are a lot of people offering reviews for $5. (or more) Avoid them at all costs! Most of the time, the reviews are poorly written, and get flagged on Amazon, so will not end up helping you. I would suggest applying to 2-3 bloggers a day so you don't get overwhelmed.

Heidi wrote: "Craig, getting reviews is very tricky. My advice is to find bloggers on twitter and start building a book blogger list. I have one, but it is based around fiction bloggers so I don't think it would..."
Heidi -- Thanks! That really helps...I'd heard GoodReads was the best place to go, so I'll start networking around. And by the way, feel free to get and enjoy the book as well! -- Craig

Craig,

Thanks, adding it to my TBR. My list is a bit long ATM, and I have my own book launch I am working on for March, so it will probably be a few months before I can post a review.

Hi Craig,

I thought I'd chime in from the blogger side of things. As Heidi said, it's best to find bloggers who are interested in your genre and have reviewed books similar to yours. However, the trick isn't just to find these bloggers, you also have to go about asking them for reviews in the right way. There are certain things you can do that will increase the likelihood that a blogger will agree to do a review. Things like making sure to refer to them by their real name, rather than the title of the blog, or making a comment that shows you've read a post or two. Most bloggers get a number of review requests every day that we just toss in the trash because we can tell it's just part of a mass email campaign. For more info here's a post I did on 10 tips for getting reviews

It's a heck of a lot of work to get a bunch of reviews, but it's completely worth the time you put into creating those relationships with bloggers for any later publications. Bloggers love being able to connect with authors, but we also make you work for it.

And there are a lot of great groups here on Goodreads that makes it easy to connect authors with bloggers. The Making Connections group is very popular and active, or you can even just search for your genre and see if there is a group specifically dedicated to trading reviews. Goodreads has a lot of great resources once you get used to navigating it.

Best of luck!

Heidi wrote: "Craig,

Thanks, adding it to my TBR. My list is a bit long ATM, and I have my own book launch I am working on for March, so it will probably be a few months before I can post a review."

Thanks for getting back to me. I've been out of town, in New Hampshire, trying to promote the book to the political media. With mixed success. Most just want to stick with the same old narrative, but I did find one store to do a signing at...anyway, thanks again for getting in touch and advising. Good luck with your book! Looking forward to seeing it, and review mine if/when you get some time!

Craig

Ashley wrote: "Hi Craig,

I thought I'd chime in from the blogger side of things. As Heidi said, it's best to find bloggers who are interested in your genre and have reviewed books similar to yours. However, the..."

Ashley --

Thanks for the advice. It's much appreciated. I'm just now digging into the voluminous world that is book blogging, and hope to generate some heat that way. I had mistakenly been trying to go to mainstream press with this, and have slowly realized that's not the best approach as they very quickly tune out anyone they don't know. Whereas I'm hoping the book community will view this as it is and not take into account my complete and utter lack of name recognition! Thank you again, and hope you can check the book out yourself at some point.

Craig

Hey, Craig. Best of luck :)

I don't have much else to offer, alas, except that for mainstream press you may have more luck with small, local papers and the like. Smaller readership, of course, but every little helps.

Thanks...I appreciate the suggestions. I'm trying to do what you mentioned -- work small papers, blogs, etc. A very long process, and I'm still looking for any sort of comprehensive blogger list if you happen to come across one...thanks again!

A problem with such a list is that bloggers often have specific genres they like (or loathe), and, sadly, many go on hiatus or stop altogether. Keeping a comprehensive list simply maintained would be a full time job.

Craig wrote: "Thanks...I appreciate the suggestions. I'm trying to do what you mentioned -- work small papers, blogs, etc. A very long process, and I'm still looking for any sort of comprehensive blogger list if..."

Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I'm slowly going through every person I can find just be searching, and I'll see who I can find that way. Thanks again!