How to approach a reviewer?

WackAMole · Mar 29, 2012

I searched a little through the water cooler and tried to find some threads on this, but I'm a little lost.

I am assuming that we should approach a reviewer in the same manner we might email a publisher a short query?

I have gone through the lists of reviewers on Amazons site and found a couple so far whose interests seem to be in the medical thriller/suspense category.

Once you narrow down those who might be interested in your story, do you just attach your book with a 'query' type letter to interest them in the story?

It is totally against my nature to solicit reviews but the more I read about this, the more I get the impression it is something I probably should do.

Thanks in advance.

eternalised · Mar 29, 2012

I can't exactly tell you what is the rule for Amazon reviewers, but for book bloggers/reviewers who have their own website, it's generally-speaking a rule of thumb to look at their review policy.

I would personally first send a mail introducing myself and my book, and give a short blurb of the book and the genre. Tell the reviewer you'd like him/her to review your book.

I would advise against just attaching a review copy of your book. If they're interested, they'll reply and ask for a review copy.

As a reviewer on my own blog, I personally always find it a bit presumptuous if people attach their book to our first mail. I generally don't reply to those emails, unless the book really interests me.

WackAMole · Mar 29, 2012

eternalised said:
I can't exactly tell you what is the rule for Amazon reviewers, but for book bloggers/reviewers who have their own website, it's generally-speaking a rule of thumb to look at their review policy.

I would personally first send a mail introducing myself and my book, and give a short blurb of the book and the genre. Tell the reviewer you'd like him/her to review your book.

I would advise against just attaching a review copy of your book. If they're interested, they'll reply and ask for a review copy.

As a reviewer on my own blog, I personally always find it a bit presumptuous if people attach their book to our first mail. I generally don't reply to those emails, unless the book really interests me.

Thank you! That was exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I never, ever want to be considered presumptuous! It's the worst thing I could imagine.

I haven't got a big list of people I want to ask to review, but there was one particular woman on amazon who was very into medical suspense/thrillers that I really thought about connecting with. Some reviewers there state flat out what they want, but in her particular case, I didn't see any particular 'rules' about submitting to her.

There were other reviewers who plainly stated that they would not review any material from previously unpublished authors.

It's all very new territory to me. Thanks for the tips.

J. Tanner · Mar 29, 2012

And the next question that invariable follows a few months down the road is:

"I gave a review copy to a reviewer and they haven't reviewed it. How should I go about inquiring about the status?"

And the typical answer is: there's nothing good that can come of it. Just move on. Expect that only a portion of people you send it to will actually follow through. Sometimes it's because they are backlogged, sometimes it's because they quit reviewing or change their mind about your book and sometimes it's because they didn't like your book and for whatever reason don't want to publish a negative review. I'm sure there's other reasons too, but virtually none that "pestering" (even politely) the reviewer is in your best interest.

Marian Perera · Mar 29, 2012

I wrote a blog post on this topic some time ago:

Why I will not review your book

An excerpt:

If any writers hopeful for a review are reading this, please ask yourself if your email contains

___ an attachment?

___ white text on a black background?

___ something that shows you haven’t read my blog, e.g. “Since you enjoy reviewing political thrillers…”?

___ requests for something I can’t provide, e.g. “I need your help to make my dream become a reality”? I just run a blog here.

WackAMole · Mar 29, 2012

J. Tanner said:
And the next question that invariable follows a few months down the road is:

"I gave a review copy to a reviewer and they haven't reviewed it. How should I go about inquiring about the status?"

And the typical answer is: there's nothing good that can come of it. Just move on. Expect that only a portion of people you send it to will actually follow through. Sometimes it's because they are backlogged, sometimes it's because they quit reviewing or change their mind about your book and sometimes it's because they didn't like your book and for whatever reason don't want to publish a negative review. I'm sure there's other reasons too, but virtually none that "pestering" (even politely) the reviewer is in your best interest.

Thanks for posting! I absolutely agree with you here. Writing for me is a hobby. I want to find the best way to get some feedback and a little attention for the story without being totally obnoxious.

After everything I have gone through, I have been thinking about how difficult it is for anyone who writes and goes through this process. I am actually considering doing some reviewing for amazon to kinda 'do my part' but I'm a little hesitant to do it because when I read, I read for enjoyment. I'm not one of those readers who is too bothered by small grammatical errors or small formatting issues. If it's a good story, I don't really see them unless they are 'glaring' at me.

Is it necessary to have a higher education to review or is simply reviewing a story and giving a summary of what you thought about the story itself enough?

Thanks again for posting!

merrihiatt · Mar 29, 2012

Is it necessary to have a higher education to review or is simply reviewing a story and giving a summary of what you thought about the story itself enough?

Anyone can review on Amazon. I think it's important to be consistent in your review process (create a rating scale that carries weight and meaning and can be used as a guideline for all fiction books you rate). Authors are always wishing more people would write reviews. I believe it's a good idea.

J. Tanner · Mar 30, 2012

WackAMole said:
Is it necessary to have a higher education to review or is simply reviewing a story and giving a summary of what you thought about the story itself enough?

That is certainly perfectly acceptable. There is no pressure for Amazon reviews to be in what we think of as essay style criticism.

I choose not to do reviews of other writers for different reasons. I feel like there's an implicit understanding that reviews should be unbiased--and that means sharing reviews across the full range of positive to negative options. I would not feel comfortable writing negative reviews of my peers and I know there are books I do not like. By not reviewing at all I avoid any temptation to avoid doing a bad review, or artificially inflate reviews for reasons beyond my opinion of the book (like knowing the author.)

And also, because there are authors who've been part of all sorts of shenanigans in regards to reviews you can get tangled up in the suspicion of impropriety even if you aren't doing so.

It's just not worth it to me to get involved in those things, so I don't do customer reviews anywhere.

Occasionally, when I find something I really like I'll put up a Recommended Reading on my blog instead of reviewing it. It's much more transparent there that I'm a writer too, that I'm only picking things I like to share rathing that writing unbiased reviews, and I disclose any relationship I have with that author if there is one.

I think there are ways to ethically do user reviews and don't begrudge writers who do so, but it's not for me.

ripple · Mar 30, 2012

I see all this as a perfect storm. There are a million plus authors trying to get visibility. There is a whole industry of book review blogs. It takes time and energy to read and review a book. The bloggers get inundated with requests.

So far I have several takeaways from my attempts to get my book reviewed:

A lot of bloggers give preference to traditionally published books and want hardcopy or ARCs. I can't blame them. That's one way to screen things out and get works that have been vetted by publishers.

Some are in "hiatus"...trying to catch up on their commitments.

A lot of reviews are pretty decent, not necessarily all glowing, but you can tell the effort is there.

I don't think any type of form letter has much of a chance. I try to find blogs where I read the profile of the reviewer and see if I connect in some way. If I do, I mention this...

Also I'm sure it helps to have a solid, brief synopsis and for that to click with the reviewer.

My biggest conclusion is that if someone likes to read and review books, they could be up and running in days and have a backlog of a lot of books in no time.

DavidMcGowan · Apr 3, 2012

Rachel Abbott, best selling Indie author of Only the Innocent provides some great guidance in this blog -
http://http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/indie-authorsgetting-those-all.html

She's got some excellent stuff on her own blog too. Don't think this is spam btw! It's just I've found her advice very useful, and she's remarkably approachable for someone who's sold 250,000 books in a year!

Sherrie Cronin · Apr 3, 2012

Thanks to all of you who have been down this road already as this is all very helpful.
Have any of you dealt with a group called bookrooster.com which offers to provide 8 or more reviews (no promises they will be positive) for a fee? Are the legit? Is this "cheating?"

J. Tanner · Apr 3, 2012

Paying for reviews beyond providing a free copy of the book is generally frowned upon.

Assuming the above doesn't deter you, there are a number of anecdotal stories of BookRooster specifically not living up to their obligated number of reviews, and of being unresponsive to their customers (authors.) This thread includes a number of typical stories:
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php?topic=74950.0

Sherrie Cronin · Apr 3, 2012

Thanks J Tanner. Like to think that my ethics are high, but they got me (or rather my $67) by claiming that the fee covered the administrative costs of finding interested readers for me (and indeed 8 - 10 people would hardly make anything apiece off of the fee) -- but not following through is of more concern.
I'll read the link, and will also report back here in a few weeks with my own experience ...

My problem is that both friends and my few random readers so far have not been inspired to post reviews ..... and I tend to agree with fellow posters here that begging for reviews is bad form also.

Good luck to you, whack-a-mole -- thanks for starting this discussion!!

WackAMole · Apr 3, 2012

Sherrie Cronin said:
Thanks J Tanner. Like to think that my ethics are high, but they got me (or rather my $67) by claiming that the fee covered the administrative costs of finding interested readers for me (and indeed 8 - 10 people would hardly make anything apiece off of the fee) -- but not following through is of more concern.
I'll read the link, and will also report back here in a few weeks with my own experience ...

My problem is that both friends and my few random readers so far have not been inspired to post reviews ..... and I tend to agree with fellow posters here that begging for reviews is bad form also.

Good luck to you, whack-a-mole -- thanks for starting this discussion!!

I've had a lot of my family and friends read my book. So far all the response has been great. (of course, its family and friends! LOL) One woman who read my book, the wife of a friend, actually did post a review of the book which was totally unexpected! To be honest, even I dont think about posting reviews on stuff I read. I just read and I think that's what most readers do

Reviews kind of feel like a necessary evil though. I have been reading through the list of top reviewers on amazon and trying to find reviewers who fit perfectly with my genre. I have gotten some very nice *Thanks for the offer, but I am pretty busy* replies to review requests, but I am starting to think maybe it is best to just let the dust settle on my rattled nerves, let the book sit out there a bit and wait for that '5 days to promote your book free option' before I start spamming out any more review requests. I am not a real big self promoter. I guess ultimately this might be a bad thing, but it just feels kinda 'icky' to solicit reviews.

Now I am going to rush back through the forums and see if I can find out what kind of stuff you write

Old Hack · Apr 4, 2012

Sherrie Cronin said:
Thanks to all of you who have been down this road already as this is all very helpful.
Have any of you dealt with a group called bookrooster.com which offers to provide 8 or more reviews (no promises they will be positive) for a fee? Are the legit? Is this "cheating?"

Paying for reviews isn't just cheating, it's unethical. Here's a link to a recent discussion we had about paying for reviews here, this link will take you to a discussion we had about writers arranging for fraudulent reviews of their own books, and here's another discussion where we talk about detecting paid-for reviews.

It sounds as if you've already paid for bookrooster to review your books: if that's the case please don't feel that I'm berating you for having done so. We all make mistakes, and we learn from them. I'm sorry that bookrooster hasn't come through for you, but it looks like their services are of dubious value so perhaps you've not lost anything significant.

Sherrie Cronin · Apr 8, 2012

Old Hack said:
Paying for reviews isn't just cheating, it's unethical. Here's a link to a recent discussion we had about paying for reviews here, this link will take you to a discussion we had about writers arranging for fraudulent reviews of their own books, and here's another discussion where we talk about detecting paid-for reviews.

It sounds as if you've already paid for bookrooster to review your books: if that's the case please don't feel that I'm berating you for having done so. We all make mistakes, and we learn from them. I'm sorry that bookrooster hasn't come through for you, but it looks like their services are of dubious value so perhaps you've not lost anything significant.

Hey Old Hack -- I appreciate the help and information. A year ago I did not know the first thing about any of this and now here I am out there doing all kinds of stuff ... including possibly stuff I shouldn't be

..... I suspect you understand that this can be quite a steep learning curve.

I did do some research though and find out that any reviewer from bookrooster gets nothing more than a copy of my book (through a file I provided) -- and because I would happily send that file to any man, woman or child on the planet who would provide a review, I can't really consider that "paying" my reviewer. Whew .....

I may however be guilty of a bad business decision by letting a company make $67 off of my desperation to be read. Sadly I have wasted more money on worse things, some of them also involving this book. (Don't get me started on trying to set up a website with go daddy.) Thanks anyway for the perspective.

Sherrie Cronin · Apr 8, 2012

WackAMole said:
I've had a lot of my family and friends read my book. So far all the response has been great. (of course, its family and friends! LOL) One woman who read my book, the wife of a friend, actually did post a review of the book which was totally unexpected! To be honest, even I dont think about posting reviews on stuff I read. I just read and I think that's what most readers do Reviews kind of feel like a necessary evil though. I have been reading through the list of top reviewers on amazon and trying to find reviewers who fit perfectly with my genre. I have gotten some very nice *Thanks for the offer, but I am pretty busy* replies to review requests, but I am starting to think maybe it is best to just let the dust settle on my rattled nerves, let the book sit out there a bit and wait for that '5 days to promote your book free option' before I start spamming out any more review requests. I am not a real big self promoter. I guess ultimately this might be a bad thing, but it just feels kinda 'icky' to solicit reviews.

Now I am going to rush back through the forums and see if I can find out what kind of stuff you write

I have the same problem with the "feels icky" part ... it feels like pestering busy people who already have enough to do. I am guessing that if we and others here felt better about promoting our books we'd all be working somewhere in sales and marketing (and probably not writing)..... Letting dust settle sounds like a wise approach ... I had no idea that actually finishing the book would leave me so impatient. Let me know what genre you write -- maybe we can help each other. Any which way -- Best of luck to you

Old Hack · Apr 8, 2012

Sherrie, providing a free copy of your book to a reviewer isn't the same as paying for a review: if the reviewer doesn't have a copy of your book they're not going to review it. So don't worry about that.

WackAMole · Apr 11, 2012

Ok now here is another new problem im having.

When I posted links and tried to promote my book on facebook and other places, I intentionally did not ask for people to post reviews. The problem I am having is that some of them are doing it and personally, to avoid the appearance of 'fudging' the reviews, I would really rather they didnt! I had one and that was ok, but then I got three more, ALL from people I know. Is there a kind or better way to get people you know to NOT do this? Or is it dumb to not want reviews no matter who they come from?

My half sister flat out asked me if she should and I told her to please NOT do it LOL. This is just something I hadnt really anticipated happening. Pretty dumb of me not to think a little farther ahead i guess! Any suggestions?

Sherrie Cronin · Apr 14, 2012

Maybe we could exchange relatives? Or, like, half of them? I promise to throw some good ones into your half

WackAMole · Apr 14, 2012

Sherrie Cronin said:
Maybe we could exchange relatives? Or, like, half of them? I promise to throw some good ones into your half

Haha! Please!

It's really interesting. I went into goodreads looking to promote a bit, find people willing to review. What has ended up happening instead, is that I have discovered a new love. I'm actually starting to review for people! I love it. I don't have a lot of time but you know, I am learning a lot about what *I'm* doing wrong in my writing by reading other peoples mistakes and successes. So far I have five books to review. I read like a fiend. The first book I got to review was actually great. I wasn't sure what to expect. This second one I am on now has presented me with a bit of a challenge. But strangely, it has really made me think about my own writing. So for now, I think I am going to take a breather from the stress of my own writing and just see how this goes for a bit.

merrihiatt · Apr 14, 2012

I believe anyone who has read the book is entitled to write a review. The thing about reviews that I find most helpful when reading them (as someone who is interested in buying the book), is what the reviewer liked and disliked. I want to hear both sides. If the book dragged in places or if the heroine whined through the entire book or stood up for herself halfway through. Reading that someone really enjoyed the book and thinks everyone should read it tells me nothing.

Then again, I glean more information from reading the first chapter, usually, than from reviews.

Paul · Apr 14, 2012

How to approach a reviewer?

From behind.

Well armed.

Old Hack · Apr 14, 2012

Paul, I see you've read my reviews.

WackAMole · Apr 15, 2012

Paul said:
How to approach a reviewer?

From behind.

Well armed.

ROFL!

How to approach a reviewer?

WTF?!?!

practical experience, FTW

WTF?!?!

starting over

WTF?!?!

Writing! Writing! Writing!

imagining doing the impossible

imagining doing the impossible

WTF?!?!

Such a nasty woman

imagining doing the impossible

imagining doing the impossible

Such a nasty woman

WTF?!?!

imagining doing the impossible

WTF?!?!

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Such a nasty woman

WTF?!?!