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How to Find Book Reviewers By Richard Wynes
The title of this article might have been How to Get Killer Blurbs, because that is what every author wants to see on the cover of his or her book. Each of us would like to see at least one juicy, irresistible reviewer’s endorsement from a respected reviewer or publication. One thing is obvious to us all: The first step in getting killer blurbs is to write a good book. Assuming you have already done that, what you’ll want to do next is conduct some research in order to find reviewers. Then you have to make them want to read your book. The Traditional Book Reviewing “Community” It should come as no surprise to you as a POD author that, as non-traditional as you are, at least in terms of the type of publishing you have chosen, not every reviewer or reviewing publication wants to hear from you or gives a hoot about your book. Unfortunately, this is one of the cold, hard facts of self-publishing. You might be thinking, “Well, excuuuuuse me.” And why not? POD publication does not a crummy book make, but the fact remains that if your book hasn’t been published by a traditional publisher, many reviewers don’t want to see it, neither in galley form, nor printed and bound.
“Why Don’t I Get No Respect?” It seems we always hear how the publishing and reviewing community is constantly looking for new writers with a fresh outlook, an engaging style, a distinctive voice, and so forth. The problem as I see it is twofold: 1. The community don’t seem to be willing to listen very hard for these new voices. 2. If the voices don’t come through the usual channels, the community doesn’t recognize them when it hears them. Every new technology faces the same stodgy resistance from the tradition-bound. I can imagine agitated monks shaking their quill pens at Gutenburg and scoffing at his Bible, saying: “Moveable type? Johannes, you cranked this thing out in less than fourteen years and you have the nerve to call it a book?” POD and self-publishing are going through the same thing right now, much of which is due to having to shed the (justifiably) bad image vanity presses managed to create over so many years. It must be added, though, that there are some of what I would call “factory” POD publishers that will produce anything by anybody. It is fitting that they earn a bad name for themselves in the process; the sad part is that the reputation of POD publishing as a whole becomes a little tarnished as well.
“Grisham Gets Reviewed by The New York Times, So Why Not Me?” Major daily newspapers usually do not post review submission guidelines on their websites, so POD books might not be specifically ruled out; nevertheless I wasn’t overly optimistic when I queried the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun-Times and others (about 45+ others) about reviewing Silver Eyes, my woman-in-jeopardy chase thriller. My lack of optimism was not without basis, it seems: out of fifty queries, I got exactly zero responses. Note that I didn’t say fifty rejections. A rejection is, if little else, an acknowledgement. Zero responses means fifty reviewers receive your press release, and then choose simply to ignore you. Although a known author might get reviews from the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, USA Today, and the Toronto Globe and Mail, don’t be crestfallen if such publications show little or no interest in your book.
“Okay, So Now What Do I Do?” Bad news so far. Does this mean you’ll have to settle for a review in your local Pennysaver, or Shopper, or other freebie? Emphatically no; in fact, you can actually do much better than that. As non-traditional as we POD authors are, there are non-traditional reviewers out there from which to choose, and who are actually eager to see your book. By non-traditional I mean internet reviewers, by and large. However, even some traditional reviewers from known print publications make themselves available, knowing that many POD writers are indeed doing quality work. There is one “must,” as I see it, as regards marketing a POD book, and that is you need internet access, and the ability to browse, follow links, etc. Basic stuff, I know, but you must have it. I realize I am preaching to the choir for the most part, but for those of you who are holdouts, who think a search engine is a 4-wheel drive vehicle used to find lost hikers in the woods…well, let’s just say you have a little catching up to do. I used Altavista as my search engine for a few years, but a techie friend informed me that it’s not nearly as effective as it once was. He recommends Google, so that’s what I use now. Okay, let’s say I’ve just written The Illustrated History of Shoemakers’ Hand Tools. My friends and family members tell me it’s a page-turner, and I know a movie-rights contract is in its future, but first I have to take that next step and get it reviewed. What I do is go to Google and enter the following: “book review” AND “hand tools” as the terms for my first search. “Shoemakers’ hand tools” is too specific, and will probably yield zero results, but is worth a try anyway. Generally, when you get zero results, you try again, but with less specificity. Then you just start following links. I can practically guarantee there are folks out there who not only love hand tools, but people with some credibility in that community who would love to read and review a book about them. Same thing if you wrote a book about raising exotic parrots, making elderberry wine, machining cylinder heads, visiting rainforests, or getting your teenagers to listen to you. Whether you have written a slapdash little genre romance or a tome that required years of research, somebody else out there not only knows the genre, but does reviews in the category. And most of them are online. You just have to find them. You do that by following every link that holds even the most remote possibility of containing the web address for a reviewing publication, a reviewer’s name, and a reading group for parrot lovers, say. Or the website for a neat little bookstore in Kenosha that specializes in books about machining engine parts. An Embarrassment of Riches One thing you may find is that the number of reviewers may quickly become so overwhelming that you feel inundated. I got up from one session so muddled that I had to take a nap to clear my head. When I awoke an hour later I had the brilliant idea of doing what one might call a rough scan first, putting every thriller reviewer, every writers’ portal, every thriller readers’ group, every reviewing publication or internet reviewing service or thriller/mystery bookstore in my Favorites folder, each of those categories with its own heading. This made the sheer volume of links, etc. seem more manageable, at least. There is quite a bit of crossover. For example, in the mystery genre, the website for St. Martin’s Minotaur imprint has links to readers’ groups, etc. After the rough scan, you return to all the sites you have selected, and then delete those that will not consider POD books, or which are not interested in your genre, or which you must eliminate for whatever reason. You’ll want to separate pre-publication reviewers from those who’d prefer a finished copy of your book. This is a good idea because the pre-pub reviewers usually want to see the galleys three or four months before the finished book comes out. If you separate them beforehand, you don’t have to go through the whole list later on, to separate reviewers in one category from those in the other. After you’ve culled your lists to manageable size, look for submission guidelines. Most will prefer that you send your press release. After my experience of spending $20 on postage to query the dailies mentioned above, I decided to forgo what might seem a more “proper” (by which I mean snail mail) introduction and email about twenty reviewers on my list. Nothing ventured, I thought. Out of the twenty, about ten asked to see the book. Out of the ten books I sent out, I got three reviews, all of them containing pretty good blurbs.
Pre-Pub vs. Post-Pub Reviews: Many reviewers will not review already published books. Book (http://www.bookmagazine.com) is one. Alan Caruba of Bookviews.com, on the other hand, has reviewed for traditional outlets for years, but is willing to look at POD books. He prefers the finished product, however, and will not look at galleys. Query according to what’s appropriate to your time frame. Pre-Pub reviewers usually want to see your galleys 3 to 4 months before publication. Since the interval between manuscript submission and publication is so short with POD books, you must bear this lead time in mind. Is it worthwhile for you to halt temporarily the publishing process, to allow the reviewer time to read your book and publish the review? That’s a question only you can answer. Starting Points Here are links to some sites and portals I have found. This list just scratches the surface, I am sure, but it will get you started: http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/bookwire.html http://www.dauphine.net/reviewers/rclinks.html http://www.ebookcrossroads.com/index.html http://www.geocities.com/ladyjiraff/reviewers.html http://www.huntressreviews.com/
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