Today, we’re continuing our discussion about getting book reviews for your book. Yesterday, I explained how important it is to make your book the best that it can be in order to attract more of the right kind of reviewers. We talked about finding the hooks in your fiction or nonfiction book that could attract reviewers. I also touched on reviews in magazines and other periodicals.
The most revered reviews of all, however, are those posted at amazon.com. How do you get those reviews? Here are a few ideas:
1: Beg and plead for them. Well, at least ask politely. Put out an all points bulletin at your website or blogsite asking for reviews. If a friend or colleague mentions having read your book, say, “Cool. I’d love it if you’d review it at Amazon.com.” Send out emails or post a note in your monthly newsletter reminding people to post a review.
2: Contact book reviewers who review books like yours. You can check to see who has reviewed other books similar to yours. However, most reviewers are either readers whom you’ll never be able to find or they’re reviewers who have hidden their identity. Occasionally, a reviewer will use their real name or the name of their website and you can trace them down. The best method of finding reviewers, though, is through book reviewer directories. Here are a few:
http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net. They also have a book that comes out every other year—The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages. It contains over 775 pages of reviewers in every category, and the majority of them review self-published books.
Here’s a list of book review sites: http://writersresourcedirectory.com/Book_Reviewers.html
Here’s a list of 352 book reviewers http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers
Most (or all) of these do not charge for reviews, but they will give honest reviews.
Hey Patricia, I got this blog post on my Google Alerts, thanks for mentioning the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages! That reference book is a labor of love for me, but it actually looks like it’s going to make a profit this year, which is great. I use the reviewers listed in the book for my own books, which is the main reason I started creating a book reviewer list in the first place. I also found a blogger who is a great graphic designer and she’s done a bunch of logos for me on the cheap. So, lots of pluses for me. Anyway, your blog is great as always, so happy to hear your cozy mysteries are doing well. I have a lot of reviewers that mentioned that specific genre this year (I don’t really read mysteries, so it was a subgenre that I had never heard of). I think I even have 1-2 reviewers listed this year that specialize in cozy mysteries. This business is changing for sure, but it’s been great for independent authors, myself included.