When it comes to\u00a0promoting an indie book, you don\u2019t have a whole marketing team behind you like a traditionally published author does. Authors on contracts with publishing houses generally have a whole campaign developed for them, not only saving the author time and money but also potentially leading to a wider reach for the book.<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t abandon all hope, indie authors! Times are changing in the self-publishing sector. Nowadays, with the right marketing and promotion tactics, you can gain an equal (or even wider) reach for your book. And one of the most effective ways to do this is by seeking book reviews.<\/p>\n
Here are a few key reasons…<\/p>\n
Once you understand just how important indie book reviews actually are, it\u2019s time to learn how to source them.<\/p>\n
Here are our five top tips for getting reviews for your indie book.<\/p>\n
While there are many\u00a0professional book review avenues<\/a>\u00a0out there, we\u2019ll be focusing largely on reviews from book bloggers here.<\/p>\n Book bloggers are by far the biggest source of reviews for many genres and styles of books\u2014speculative fiction, romance and young adult (YA) in particular. There\u2019s a rich online community of people who are passionate about their particular genre or category, and who regularly read and review books on their established blogs and websites.<\/p>\n To start your book review quest, you\u2019ll need to tap into this community. Whichever\u00a0genre or subgenre<\/a>\u00a0your book falls under, you\u2019ll find people online who are into it. Try the following to get you started:<\/p>\n Google \u2018[genre] + book blogger\u2019.<\/strong>\u00a0Searching \u2018YA fantasy + book blogger\u2019, for example, comes up with a huge number of results\u2014both direct links to blogs and\u00a0lists of bloggers<\/a>\u00a0compiled on other sites.<\/p>\n Explore book communities on social media.<\/strong>\u00a0Twitter and Instagram, in particular, are full of book bloggers (or \u2018bookstagrammers\u2019 for the latter). Try searching hashtags like #bookblogger, #bookreview, or genre\u2014specific hashtags like #romancebooks or #YAfantasy.<\/p>\n Search lists of indie reviewers.<\/strong>\u00a0Some book bloggers only review traditionally published books, so consulting lists like\u00a0this one<\/a>\u00a0can help direct you straight to bloggers you know will be interested in an indie book.<\/p>\n Make a list of any book bloggers you think might potentially be interested in reading and reviewing your book. Then it\u2019s time to move onto the next step.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve explored the book blogger community and discovered the huge number of blogs there are, it might be tempting to send out a mass email seeking book reviews from every single one. But trust us: you\u00a0don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0want to do this.<\/p>\n There are three things you\u00a0do\u00a0<\/em>want to do when\u00a0working with book bloggers<\/a>:<\/p>\n Book bloggers are busy people, often with backlogs of dozens of books they\u2019ve been sent for review. If a blogger is sent an obvious \u2018send-to-all\u2019 review request, or if the book in question doesn\u2019t fit with the genre or style of books they usually review, you can guarantee that request will be sent immediately to the trash.<\/p>\n Most book bloggers will have a review policy on their site. Make sure you read it! As we mentioned above, some bloggers don\u2019t accept self-published books for review. Others might be temporarily closed to reviews, or might only accept certain types of books. All this will be disclosed in their review policy.<\/p>\n When choosing bloggers to approach, don\u2019t just skim their policy section; you need to actually read their blog and familiarise yourself with it. Read their \u2018About Me\u2019 section and their past reviews. Check them out on social media. Try to get to know what type of blogger they are and what books they like.<\/p>\n After you\u2019ve done all this, if you\u2019ve determined that your book fits in with a particular reviewer\u2019s blog and policy,\u00a0approach them with a personalised email or contact form submission.<\/p>\n If they accept, be sure to follow our next tip…<\/p>\n It\u2019s a good idea to be prepared (preferably before even contacting any bloggers) with a book review kit, containing everything the blogger might need to review and feature your book.<\/p>\n The kit should include:<\/p>\n You might even like to consider having\u00a0ARCs<\/a>\u00a0(advance reader copies) to offer for review. These are copies of your book that are sent out early\u2014preferably a few months before publication. Pre-publication reviews can really help to generate buzz and anticipation for your book and increase sales in that all-important first week or two.<\/p>\n So! You\u2019ve found some reviewers who are interested in your book, and you\u2019ve sent them a copy, plus all the additional material they need. Now it\u2019s time to wait.<\/p>\n This is possibly the hardest part of the book review process. Waiting around for reviewers to read your book, compile their thoughts and finally publish their review can be nerve-wracking, especially if this is your first experience publishing a book. However, there are some things you can do to make the process easier.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re initially liaising with a reviewer, ask them for an estimate of how long it will be before their review is published. Many reviewers will have time frames they stick to, which can make waiting a little easier.<\/p>\n However, if your reviewer can\u2019t give you a time frame, or if their stated time frame has elapsed and you haven\u2019t heard anything or seen their review go live, it\u2019s OK to follow up with them.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t pester them constantly, or follow up unreasonably early. But do keep a record of when you sent them the book, and when a reasonable amount of time has elapsed, you can send them a gentle message to check in with their progress.<\/p>\n Once a blogger\u2019s review of your book\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>published, make sure to\u00a0thank them<\/em>! This is extremely important. They\u2019ve devoted their own time and effort to reading and reviewing your book, and you should show them your appreciation for that.<\/p>\n Also return the favour by sharing their review with your own readers and social media followers, and finding other ways to support them if you can, such as engaging with or promoting their other content.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve mainly discussed the book blogger review route so far, but it\u2019s important to remember that you don\u2019t have to rely solely on them to review your indie book.<\/p>\n Reader reviews are just as valuable, especially on influential platforms like Amazon and Goodreads!<\/p>\n Regularly remind your readers, social media followers and\u00a0author newsletter<\/a>\u00a0subscribers that if they enjoyed your book, it would help you out a great deal if they left you a review on one (or more) of these platforms.<\/p>\n Even if they just leave a positive rating, rather than an in-depth review, it will help to boost your book\u2019s overall score and presence on the sites.<\/p>\n If people have bought your book through Amazon, their review will be marked as an \u2018Amazon Verified Purchase\u2019 review, which are often lent more credence. So, if you\u2019re selling primarily through Amazon, really try to encourage your purchasers to leave a quick review if they liked your book.<\/p>\n Reviews won\u2019t contribute to your chart positions on Amazon, but the higher your book is rated, the more likely people are to purchase it\u2014and the more sales you get, the higher your chance at becoming an Amazon Bestseller.<\/p>\n When it comes to\u00a0promoting an indie book, you don\u2019t have a whole marketing team behind you like a traditionally published author does. Authors on contracts with publishing houses generally have a whole campaign developed for them, not only saving the author time and money but also potentially leading to a wider reach for the book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,43],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newsletter","8":"category-tips"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. Build genuine relationships with bloggers and reviewers<\/h3>\n
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3. Make sure you\u2019re prepared with a book review kit<\/h3>\n
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4. Follow up and thank reviewers<\/h3>\n
5. Encourage all your readers to post reviews<\/h3>\n
<\/h5>\n
This article was originally published on Writer’s Edit<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0The author,<\/em>\u00a0Claire Bradshaw<\/a>, is a freelance writer, editor and proofreader. As well as contributing writing and self-publishing advice articles to Writer\u2019s Edit, she enjoys working with indie authors to perfect their manuscripts for publication. <\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"