Book Bloggers

tempered_steel · Jun 1, 2013

Hello everyone!

After a bit of hiatus (during which I wrote and published my most recent novel), I'm back to AW!

My main question is about submitting to book bloggers. I've read Medievalist's amazing sticky here in the forums and am doing my best to follow the suggestions! I have an author website, Tumblr blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, Goodreads account, Amazon author page, and LibraryThing account. (Whew!)

Now that I have all that set up, I'm looking to start getting the word out about my newly published novel. I have heard from many that book bloggers are the way to go.

Here's my main question: should I submit to as many book bloggers as I can or choose a select few? I've done my research and compiled a database of nearly a hundred. Should I fire off requests to all of them?

Basically, I'm just wondering what everyone else has done in this area. I'm curious!

Thank you so much for your advice in advance!

Deleted member 42 · Jun 1, 2013

Choose a few bloggers who review the kind of book you've written, and who write real reviews, that is, they've read the book they're reviewing, whether or not they think it's the best thing ever.

You want to avoid Harriet Klausner style reviews. (Harriet doesn't seem to actually read the books she reviews; she may have, but the reviews suggest otherwise).

Rjo · Jun 2, 2013

I hope you'll excuse a really dumb question, but where/how do you find a good list of book bloggers to choose from?
Incidentally, Medievalist, I've been wanting to tell you that I finally took your advice and self-published the book you advised me to self-publish some time ago. I would give the link to it here, but I don't want to use this forum to promote my own book, and I don't think I'm allowed to anyway. Anyway, thanks.
Richard.

Rjo · Jun 2, 2013

Oops. I realize I just promoted my own book because of the change I made to my signature some time back. Sorry about that. (And here goes again.)
R.

Old Hack · Jun 2, 2013

Don't worry, you're fine with self-promotional links in your signature. It's when you pepper your posts with them that we start to get twitchy.

Deleted member 42 · Jun 2, 2013

Rjo said:
I hope you'll excuse a really dumb question, but where/how do you find a good list of book bloggers to choose from?

You read a bunch of 'em. You google book bloggers, and book review blogs. You read and read and read. You look at what they review. You email them first to ask if they'd be interested.

You look at Good Reads profiles and blogs and whether or not they review. You do Good Reads and Library Thing giveaways.

You are always glad that they give you a review, even if they hate the book and consign you to outer darkness, you are glad you got a review. You never engage in the Author's Big Mistake.

Rjo said:
Incidentally, Medievalist, I've been wanting to tell you that I finally took your advice and self-published the book you advised me to self-publish some time ago. I would give the link to it here, but I don't want to use this forum to promote my own book, and I don't think I'm allowed to anyway. Anyway, thanks.
Richard.

I hope you sell lots and lots of copies.

And if you read the FAQ: Everything You Wanted to Know About Signatures you'll see having your book linked in your sig is fine, and you can learn how to link to the title and/or a small cover image.

tempered_steel · Jun 2, 2013

Rjo -

My book is a young adult novel, so what I actually did was put 'young adult book blogger' into Google. One of the search results was a database someone put together.

Also, this database has a wide variety of book bloggers that review self published and indie books: http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/

The problem for me is that there are hundreds of young adult book bloggers! Time to start filtering through and find a few good ones to submit to. *cracks knuckles*

Thanks for the advice, Medievalist!http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/member.php?u=29

Rjo · Jun 2, 2013

Old Hack said:
Don't worry, you're fine with self-promotional links in your signature. It's when you pepper your posts with them that we start to get twitchy.

Noted, and thank you.

Rjo · Jun 2, 2013

...
I hope you sell lots and lots of copies.

And if you read the FAQ: Everything You Wanted to Know About Signatures you'll see having your book linked in your sig is fine, and you can learn how to link to the title and/or a small cover image.[/QUOTE]

Thanks once again for the good advice, and for the good wishes. Right now my wife and I are between Providence and the place in southwestern France where we usually spend the summer, but as soon as we're settled into the latter, I'll get to work.

Rjo · Jun 2, 2013

tempered_steel said:
Rjo -

My book is a young adult novel, so what I actually did was put 'young adult book blogger' into Google. One of the search results was a database someone put together.

Also, this database has a wide variety of book bloggers that review self published and indie books: http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/

Great! This gives me some good ideas on how to proceed as soon as we're settled, and on how I'm going to spend the rest of the summer.
Thanks and good luck with your own efforts.

nkkingston · Jun 3, 2013

I'm a little wary of databases; they don't stay current for long and it's often tempting to pad them with blogs that barely meet the criteria (or include sites that charge for reviews!). You want to go through each blog yourself and ask they following:

Are they still active?
Do they appear to have much of a readership?
Where do they normally get their books from? (if they're good, most will be sent to them, rather than buying them)
Do they accept books subbed by authors, or is it netgalley/publishers only?
How long do they take to post reviews?
What formats do they accept?
How have they felt about books similar to yours? No point sending a dark dystopian YA to a blogger that saves his/her five stars for fluffy contemporary YA.

The good thing is once you've established a relationship with a few good review blogs it'll be easier in future. If they like your books they'll be keener to read more.

SentaHolland · Jun 7, 2013

My experience is very mixed - some blogs are lovely, others seem a little 'cliquey'. I am still hoping to find a book blog that loves my book AND has a large readership. That would be fabulous, I think. The journey continues...

AKMartin · Jun 8, 2013

i have to say, the one thing we take note of when a book gets sent us for review is does it have a persnonal touch, in that the author gives some info about themselves makes it more personal,
unlike just sending the blurb and say please review my book or just sending a book and nothing else, just us but always think a personal touch get you noticed.

Anthony

AyJay · Jun 13, 2013

I dove into the book blogger pool, culling the Indie View list down to 23 review sites or bloggers that seemed like a fit for my new release.

I've gotten a positive response from 6 so far. One negative response, and I suspect that many of the rest of them will be "no response means no."

Book Bloggers

tempered_steel

Writing, fencing, and chocolate!!!

Deleted member 42

Rjo

.

Rjo

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Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Deleted member 42

tempered_steel

Writing, fencing, and chocolate!!!

Rjo

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Rjo

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Rjo

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nkkingston

Bemused Girl

SentaHolland

'Out of the Shadows' HarperCollins

AKMartin

AyJay

Luv's Conscript