Is it worth it submitting to online reviewers?

[Zackery Arbela]

So I just published my first novel and like everyone else I am eager to sell a million copies around the world...or at least enough to buy a decent cup of coffee.  I've written to couple if online review sites in my genre, but to be honest am somewhat nervous about the procedure. I know any exposure is good, but is it really worth the risk of getting a bad review? A lot of these sites won;'t even look at self-published works. Anyone have wisdom to impart on this issue?

[ShaunaG]

10 of my 15 reviews on the first book in my YA series are from book bloggers. If you felt ready to publish then you should be ready for people to read it. You may get some negative reviews, but at least with bloggers they'll be very constructive and will take the time to also explain what they liked about your book. But if you do get a negative review the ONLY thing you can say is, "Thank you for taking the time to read and review my book, appreciate your time."

[MichelleR]

So I just published my first novel and like everyone else I am eager to sell a million copies around the world...or at least enough to buy a decent cup of coffee.  I've written to couple if online review sites in my genre, but to be honest am somewhat nervous about the procedure. I know any exposure is good, but is it really worth the risk of getting a bad review? A lot of these sites won;'t even look at self-published works. Anyone have wisdom to impart on this issue?

If your book is the best that you can make it, and properly edited, what do you have to fear from bloggers and review sites? These things certainly don't guarantee a good review, but they do make it unlikely that you'll be taken to task over the truly embarrassing stuff that should have been fixed in the first place. Then, the most critical reviews are more likely to fall under the cover of simply not the reviewer's cup of tea. And you walk away with publicity that might lead to purchases from people who simply like what the reviewer dislikes.

[brinacourtney]

I run a review site and I can honestly tell you to run not walk to your nearest twenty bloggers who work with your genre and ask them to review your book.  If nothing else reviewers are amazing people, who sometimes can help you create the brand you're looking for.

[D a l y a]

YES.

All it costs you is the time to read their review policies and send an email.  Book bloggers are awesome.  They just LOVE BOOKS.  Sure, they don't love all of them, but even the critical reviews are pretty pleasant.

[MadCityWriter]

There are a lot of bloggers who support indie writers and review indie books exclusively.  As you research and network, you'll find them.  You can start by joining the Indie Exchange on Facebook.  They help connect reviewers with authors.

[Krista D. Ball]

I have a great relationship with several book bloggers. I love them.

Even though they don't directly affect sales (as in, they review and I get X sales within 24 hours), they do affect sales in a passive, long-term manner. Those reviews stay up. They post them on Goodreads and Amazon. They post them to their blogs. It helps, especially for those who won't buy books unless it has a few reviews or will only buy books recommended by blogs they trust and follow.

[John Blackport]

There's an enormous time investment, because there are so many, and because they (the book bloggers) are all so busy.

But most of them genuinely enjoy reading and reviewing; there's little incentive of any other kind to spend so much time on this.

Definitely worth the effort, a promising prospect for a good ROI

[JRTomlin]

Publishing at all means you risk getting bad reviews. In the end, if a book gets sales it is likely to get some bad review. That's writing. You put on your big girl pants (or boy or whatever) and suck it up.

[psychotick]

Hi MadCityWriter can you tell me a little more about the Indie Exchange.

Thanks Greg.

[David Adams]

Seeking online reviews is like online dating. There's *heaps* of people out there, but... 95% won't even reply to your hello. So many blogs are either snowed under due to request or closed due to author burnout. So you start with heaps of really personalized emails, but after about 20, 30, 40 of those you get sick of it and just resort to copy-pasting in generic queries. Which means you get super-ignored.

So... if you can stomach it, yes. You should. I gotta admit though... I'm tired of trying to look for reviews, so I don't anymore (well, very rarely). Of the 8 unique reviews I have between Amazon and Goodreads, exactly two of them came from solicited reviews. The rest came from readers.

I must have sent out a hundred of copies, and another hundred emails on top of that inquiring about reviews, where I found blogs and submitted them. I just got sick of it.

It takes time, too. I mean, Lacuna is science fiction, so you have to find a review blog that is:

- Accepting science fiction (everyone wants to read YA paranormal romance... like they said, put a vampire in it!)
- Accepting self-published works.
- Accepting e-books.
- Not booked up for a year or more (a review promise for 'early/mid 2013' is a little... depressing).
- List some way to contact them or have a submission process.
- Isn't accepting money for reviews, and isn't offering a "5 star review spam service".

Then you have to:

- Write a personalized email with a minimum copy/paste because a copy/paste job will get ignored. I found great success in commenting on their blog name, or their real name. Something like, "Dear Aragon, (Is that your real name? Cool!)", or "Dear feathered friends," (for a 'Book Owls' blog). Be funny and quirky, you'll get more attention than "Dear sir/ma'am,"... boring.
- Convert the eBook to whatever format they want (PDF, mobi, epub, .doc, etc). Sometimes this has already been done, but every time I get a new format request I have to run through the whole rigmarole of checking if the conversion was done right, etc... so it can take up to an hour. And it allows errors to creep in.
- Make sure you follow all their rules, including submission templates, genre, language/swearing restrictions, etc etc.
- Wait.
- Never even receive a reply. :/

And that's been my experience so far, heh.

I mean, okay. The two best reviews I got were those I sought out and contacted, but for those two there must be over a hundred that just disappeared into the ether. It can be rewarding -- very rewarding -- but it's also a very time consuming process and, to be honest... I'd rather be working on the sequel. It's hard to summon the motivation to cold-call reviewers so, for the moment at least, I don't.

[oliewankanobe]

I've never sent my work to anyone for a revue. I am still on the fence for the next book, which has been my year-long labor of love.

I've recently become sort of... completely turned off by review sites.  Why, for instance, are reviewers who sign up for a free blogger account exempt from the same quality checks as authors?  I worked as a film critic for a major paper, later with a side blog, and still later ran a review blog with other writers.

We edited.  If I had been too lazy to do things properly I would not have dared critique anyone else's work.

I'm torn. I think I may use regular media and let the bloggers find me or not.

[Krista D. Ball]

You are confusing amateur reviewers and pro reviewers.

[MichelleR]

I've never sent my work to anyone for a revue. I am still on the fence for the next book, which has been my year-long labor of love.

I've recently become sort of... completely turned off by review sites.  Why, for instance, are reviewers who sign up for a free blogger account exempt from the same quality checks as authors?  I worked as a film critic for a major paper, later with a side blog, and still later ran a review blog with other writers.

We edited.  If I had been too lazy to do things properly I would not have dared critique anyone else's work.

I'm torn. I think I may use regular media and let the bloggers find me or not.

Authors are selling their books, reviewers are sharing an opinion. The better written the review, the more people will take the reviewer seriously, but the fact remains that it's ridiculous to say that the only way a reader/reviewer gets a voice is if they're meeting the same level of proficiency as someone who expects people to pay for their work.

[D a l y a]

As for letting them "find you", I've had a couple of book bloggers pick up my books via a Librarything giveaway, and the occasional one has gotten my book via a free promo day through Amazon, so it can happen.

[Steve Vernon]

Reviewers get pummeled with review requests and/or review copies. Waiting for a reviewer to "stumble" across your work and ask you for a review copy might make for an AWFULLY long wait.

Your best bet is to start checking out the review market. With your book being scifi/fantasy you have an awfully large group of reviewers to choose from. That's good. That will work in your favour.

Somebody like myself, working in horror, has a lot fewer reviewers to find. Folks in romance, YA or paranormal romance have an abundance of reviewers to choose from.

Once you begin finding reviewers you need to start researching them. Have they written a lot of reviews. Does their blog site look professional. Do their reviews read like good professional reviews or do you see a lot of "Ya, I thought this book was kuul."?

Prepare a proper review request. Take a half an hour or so and put one together. You'll want a short letter-sized document that tells the potential reviewer what the book is about, who you are, how many books you've written, whether you are new to this business.


Think of it as being the same as pitching a publisher a new book idea. Remember, these reviewers are READERS first. They want to read something that will get them excited enough to write a good review. They don't do this sort of work to bore themselves to sleep at night. They review books because they have a passion for it.

Do your homework, and send out a few review requests. In the long run they are worth it. You may get a good review, you may get a bad one - but it will improve your visibility and (hopefully) improve your sales for the next ten books that you write. Each step forward in your writing career will take you further down the road - so by god, make it a good step.

Good luck and have fun.

[Millard]

And that's been my experience so far, heh.

Same here, to all of that.

But add in replying to a bunch of "Hey, I'm doing author interviews on my site" threads on here, typing up super detailed pieces, where I'm striving to say something different from the last one, and getting a "Thanks! I'll put that up soon" reply in my email, but only ever seeing one actually go up, while the others get bored of updating their sites and never post anything.

At this point, I'm at a total loss at how to get my sales to climb out of the toilet for the first time, because the whole thing of seeking reviews like this is incredibly wearing, and got me nowhere in eight months.

[Sean Patrick Fox]

Yes.

There's no easier way to say it.

Yes, yes, yes.

[Zackery Arbela]

Thanks for the feedback. Can anyone recommend a good book blogger or reviewer for fantasy? Aside from Fantasy Book Critic, I'm somewhat ignorant in this regard....

[Millard]

Thanks for the feedback. Can anyone recommend a good book blogger or reviewer for fantasy? Aside from Fantasy Book Critic, I'm somewhat ignorant in this regard....

You know what, I'm going to piggyback this, based on my comments earlier in the thread.

Can anyone recommend a good book blogger or review not for genre stuff?

[Krista D. Ball]

http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/

Start there, then research.

[Millard]

http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/

Nice one, cheers.

[Zackery Arbela]

http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/

Start there, then research.

Much appreciated!

[Krista D. Ball]

I am convinced that the reasons most people aren't getting contacted back is because of how bad their review requests are, if I base on the ones I get.

[oliewankanobe]

You are confusing amateur reviewers and pro reviewers.

Unfortunately, I'm not.

Don't get me wrong... I have tons of online reviews.  I just don't solicit them.

And I worked as a film critic and a book reviewer. I've been asked to write other types of reviews (television, etc) freelance by old friends still in publishing.

PROFESSIONAL is subjective these days.  Funnily, I read more than the average person. Publisher's Weekly, Huffpo (I don't like them, but whatever), many of the more respected media have some of the WORST editing. 

So do some big NY publishers.  To be fair.

*shrug*

[Krista D. Ball]

Perhaps I'm not understanding your comments in context, then. We are discussing book bloggers, who are amateurs. Are you discussing professionals, who are being paid?