Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors discussion

Hey authors,

This is Frida, one of the volunteer indie SF/F book reviewers in the blogosphere. I see a lot of "How to get book reviews" threads in the different forums I go to, and after reading some threads and hearing some reactions from fellow book bloggers, I'd like to share my two cents.

1. Read this guide on how to approach book bloggers for reviews: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/guest-p... . I wrote the guide for a reason :)

2. Find book bloggers that will review indies and in your genre at these following databases:
(a) Simon Royle's Indie Book Reviewers List: http://www.simon-royle.com/indie-revi...
(b) Indie SF Reviewers (I manage this list); http://indiesfreviewers.wordpress.com/
(c) Indie Book Reviewer: http://indiebookreviewer.wordpress.com/
(d) The Indie Book Blog Database: http://hampton-networks.com/

3. Ask for reviews through message boards like this one, because not all book review blogs are listed at the databases above. There are new blogs all the time. But remember that whenever you ask for a review through a message board, your message only gets seen by whoever visits that message board. The established book bloggers in the databases above are too busy to visit message boards (I used to only visit message boards when submission numbers were unusually low, but since I have plenty, I almost never look at message boards).

Prolific book bloggers do three things: check their inbox, read the book, and blog. So send out your review requests to their proper emails, don't wait for book bloggers to come to you. Sending out 30 is a good number, but expect a low response rate because the busy book bloggers have a lot of books to choose from. I've got over 60 unread emails requesting book reviews in my inbox at the moment, but I do choose a book to review every week.

4. Keep a list of which blogs you've already sent an email to. Many of the same blogs are on different databases. If you send repeat requests, the blogger gets annoyed and is less likely to respond to you.

A lot of this stuff is super basic, but there are always new authors to e-publishing. Hope that helps!

Good tips. Thank you.

Keeping a list is an especially good tip!

Write a short book.

I say that tongue in cheek, but as an epic length writer I have had sites tell me the book was longer than anything they'd consider.

Keeping the list is a very, very good idea. Sending a polite thank you note, no matter what you hear back, is a good idea as well. Just because a blogger isn't interested in this book, doesn't mean he won't take the next one, so stay friendly.

Excellent tips.

Thanks Frida!

Great post!

Keryl- That does come into play, since bloggers have limited time to work like everyone else. However, a truly gripping book will be read no matter what. If I were approached by someone with a long book, sample chapters and a well-told synopsis would sway me.

Thanks for the links and advice. I think it's a good idea, too, to check that the blogger is a regular blogger before submitting. Otherwise it may be wasted effort.

Here's a question for any taker: what happened to Sift Reviews? Early on I received a review from one of their reviewers and it motivated me a lot. Unfortunately, Amazon in one of their "let's clean all these reviews up" sprees (write some code and eliminate anything with certain key words) erased the review on Amazon, and now I can't find that review site. It's no longer listed on Simon Royale either. My only evidence for the review is the quote from it on my website...sigh....
r/Steve

Thank you so much for this list.

Another piece of advice: check the review policy on the blog before sending your email. If the blogger says they don't review self published work, don't send it. I have in my policy that I don't review anything which the author had to pay to have published, but STILL get inquiries on a regular basis. If the inquirer has taken the trouble to let me know it's my site they're interested in, I at least reply; anything that looks like a mass mail out is trashed.Sorry! I just don't have time.

This is perfect. I'm in the early stages of hunting up reviewers for my book, and I am always on the look-out for more lists of bloggers.