Writer and blogger Mercy Pilkington joins us for an inside look at how to request reviews for your book. What are the do’s and don’ts to approaching reviewers? Find out her five very-important-do-not-ignore tips to successfully pitching your book for review.
From Mercy:
They used to say the hardest part of writing a book was getting started. Then it was finishing it. Then suddenly people told you how bad the editing round was. After that, you suddenly discovered that publishing your book is no cake walk, even with great tools at your disposal.
But congratulations! It’s finally done! And now the hard part begins.
Too many authors in the recent digital publishing boom threw their ebooks up on the various platforms and then sat back and waited for the readers to come to them. Many authors became discouraged when their books didn’t sell and when book signing invitations didn’t pour in. More than one author has actually said to me, “I published my book, but it didn’t work.”
It didn’t work? What was it supposed to do? Wait, did you mean it was supposed to make you a household name and let you quit your day job to focus on a writing career? Yeah, about that…
Your book can only work if you do, and part of your job now is to reach out to genuine, book-loving readers and request a review. But that’s not an easy task either.
There are important things to keep in mind about reaching out to book reviewers. First, you are by far not the only person who’s going to contact them today, so keep your request short and sweet. Offer to share the link to their book blog across your social media channels, which by the way, is really something you should be doing before you ever reach out to them. Make sure you offer them your book in their preferred format, meaning if your book isn’t available in print, you might want to make sure they don’t require a print a copy for reviews.
Before you even contact a reviewer, make sure you do your homework. Do not waste the reviewer’s time by contacting someone who doesn’t read your genre. Find out what other books this person has reviewed lately, and mention one or two of them specifically by name: “I saw your reviews of _______________ and ________________, and I think you’ll really enjoy my book, _______________.” Be sure to explain why in a short pitch. Make sure you avoid this mistake at all costs: “I saw your review of Jurassic Park and think you’ll love my book, Twilight.” Those two books don’t even relate to each other, so why would that reviewer be right for your book, other than the fact that he has a pulse and reads books?
When contacting a book blogger or reviewer, fight the urge to act as though you are doing this person a favor by agreeing to let him or her read your book. At the same time, you also don’t have to grovel. State your purpose and why you think this reviewer might want to read it.
It’s shocking that I even have to bring this up: do not ask for a review then tell the reviewer to buy your book. As I said, it is absolutely unreal that I should have to tell you that.
But here is the single most important thing you can possibly do when requesting a review. Go ahead, sit down for this. Before you ever seek out reviewers, before you do your homework on the kinds of books they read, before you politely ask for anything…you must write a great book. If your book isn’t ready or if it’s gotten low marks before, sending it out to even more people isn’t going to accomplish anything. Make sure you read any previous reviews you’ve received, and then really think over what they were saying. If you do find reviewers or bloggers willing to share the word about your book, do not ask for a review and then be angry with the result, and never, ever lash out at a reviewer, especially one whom you’ve asked to write a review.
Author Bio:
Mercy Pilkington is the CEO of Author Options, a full-service publishing consulting company. She blogs about the publishing industry at ReadioactiveBooks.com and SeeLorcaWrite.com.
