One of the questions I’ve been most frequently asked since The Kitchen Daughter was published isn’t about the publication process itself. Other than “How do you balance social media time with writing time?” the question I’m most often asked is “How do you get book bloggers to review your book?”
Answer: you don’t, really. You pitch, and you hope. That’s the most you can do.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t try. You should. Pitching your book to book bloggers who do reviews is actually not that different from writing query letters to agents. And you know how to do that, right? If you’ve gotten to the pre-pub or already-pubbed stage?
After soliciting input from the book bloggers I’ve met through Twitter, I’ve confirmed there are some ways that pitching book bloggers is very like pitching agents, and one way in which it’s totally different. So, let’s start with the similar ones.
With bloggers as with agents, the number one question is: why is YOUR book right for ME? I know what a nightmare process writing queries is, believe me. I’ve been through it multiple times for multiple books. But the truth is, it teaches you a very valuable skill. You need to differentiate more than describe. Just saying, My book touches on the all-important themes of identity, compromise, and adulthood doesn’t actually say much. A lot of books do the same. But why should an agent look at that manuscript? Why should a book blogger look at that book? The approach is the same. As blogger @BookaliciousPam put it, “Most of us are swimming in ARCs much like agents. Why do *I* want yours? you have to tell me.”
Another similarity: There’s so much uncertainty. If a blogger agrees to take look at your book for review, it doesn’t mean they’re agreeing to review it. Just like an agent reading a partial manuscript, or even a full. Manage your expectations.
Next: there are guidelines. Use them. Many bloggers have a published review policy, just like agents have guidelines on their websites about which genres they will or won’t read. Jenn of Jenn’s Bookshelves has a great sample policy, very clear and straightforward: check it out.
The most important similarity: Do your homework. A blanket “cc” to a zillion agents and a blanket “cc” to a squillion bloggers are likely to get the same result: zilch. Differentiation is key.
And how is it different from finding an agent to represent your work? Here’s the number one difference I’ve found:
With blog reviews, it pays to find professional help. In querying, I’ve read about “query services” that blast your query out hither and yon to a thousand agents, and that is most emphatically NOT helpful. You should do your queries yourself. Period. You can have other people read them (in fact, I recommend it) but it needs to be you, directly, telling the agent about your book. But with book bloggers, there are “blog tour” companies that assemble a roster of bloggers to review your book on certain dates, and they’ll do the legwork for you. Your publisher can also do this type of outreach for you. So, reach for the help you can get. But if you can’t afford outside help (and your publisher is focused on other things), it’s all doable yourself, as I said above.
It’s just about telling people why YOUR book is right for THEM. Period. And you can do that, right? Of course you can.
For more on this topic, check out @DevourerOfBooks’ guest post on Blurb Is A Verb: very helpful stuff.
(Image by Joost J. Bakker IJmudien)
About Jael McHenry
Jael McHenry is the debut author of The Kitchen Daughter (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books, April 12, 2011). Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. You can read more about Jael and her book at jaelmchenry.com or follow her on Twitter at @jaelmchenry.
Great post, Jael, full of very valuable and important information!
You know, I’m not sure I read any book bloggers…and I should. Not just because someday I’d like to have a book out that they might blog about, but because I’m an avid reader and I so often buy books just on impulse rather than ones that actually sound like something I’d enjoy.
Any of the smart W.U. readers know some good book blogs I should check out for reviews of literary and/or mainstream and or mystery books?
That last link “very helpful stuff” doesn’t seem to be going where I thought it would go. It’s pointing to Jenn’s Bookshelves’ review policy and not Blurb Is a Verb, as you indicated. You’ve got my interest piqued, so I’d love it if that link got updated. :)
Sonje, great catch! Thank you! It should be headed to the right place now. :)
Good topic, Jael. The word “pitch” is key — especially for folks like me in the business (PR) of pitching for a living. The tricky part is 1) crafting the best pitch possible; and 2) figuring out where to draw the line between carefully targeting the most appropriate bloggers and casting a net that’s wide enough to up the probability of success. Beyond that, a good, methodical approach is all it takes.
Our company coordinates blog tours and even has a little report on tips on pitching book bloggers. Your advice is excellent, Jael. The one thing I would advise over and over again is your point on reading the review policies! It makes no sense to pitch your book to a blogger who reads other genres. Good luck!
Great post. I don’t accept many review requests for the simple reason that so many of them have a spammish quality. If it’s obvious that a publisher or author hasn’t read my (short & sweet) review policy, and that they haven’t taken the time to see what sort of books I typically review, there’s not a chance I’ll accept an arc…let alone review it. Doing a book blog has taught me a lot about the art of querying, though, for that day when I’m pitching my own novel.
I could definitely see how reading other people’s pitches would give you a great sense of what to do and what NOT to do when pitching/querying your own!
I’d add: craft a personal approach. If a blogger feels like you’ve taken your time to become familiar with his or her blog, you’re more than halfway there. It’s much harder for us to resist these targeted, personal appeals – i.e. “I noticed you really enjoyed BOOK by Author and BOOK by Author and since my book has similar themes, I think you might enjoy mine too.”
You are so right Lenore! Those are the ones I agonize over and am more likely to accept. :-)
Thanks for the tips, Jael! I hadn’t thought of approaching book bloggers as being similar to querying agents, but you’re totally right, it is!
I’ve emailed a few book bloggers to review my ebook, and even if they weren’t interested (usually because they don’t review self-published work) they were all nice in their responses. There were a lot of no-responses as well, and then there were the BEST responses: the “yes, please send”s!
Thanks for the report from the front lines, Kristan! The positive responses are always the best, but a polite no is a good second.
Oh, what an interesting post – book bloggers as agents – I hadn’t thought about that. Book bloggers are overwhelmed these days so you really have to contact quite a few to find only one or two who will review your book. It’s nice to have, but not totally required. So much info about social media but I agree with the writers who say the best thing you can do is write your next wonderful book. My books sell, not because of what I do with social media, but really by being available online.
Lenore’s comment is spot on. I can never refuse a book (unless it’s really a genre I never read) when an author shows they read my policy page even a little bit.
Thanks for your perspective, Pam! People complain that customizing pitches (to agents as well as bloggers) takes a whole lot of time, but just a few minutes with someone’s site is often enough to know whether or not your book’s a fit.
I’m a book blogger and totally agree with your post.
I myself expect authors to have checked that (some of ) the books I review are similar to their book. I cannot always tell from a short description.
I review every book I get but don’t accept many – but if I (mistakenly) think the book might be interesting (and the author hasn’t filtered me out, when they should have), a negative review may follow if the book isn’t what I expected. And that’s a real pity.
So, find book bloggers that cater for your type of book! And give them a good description of the story.
Great advice, Judith. A negative review is kind of the worst outcome for everyone. Better to know what the book is, and make the decision to accept it or not for review based on that accurate assessment.
Great advice. Thanks Jael. I’m about to jump into the fray and your words are quite helpful.
The agent analogy is very apt, as I’m currently finding. Once again, you’re pitching the idea of your book to a stranger who is already overwhelmed with submissions, and the rate of rejection is also similarly high.
Yeah, this writing gig is a piece of cake, isn’t it? Thanks for the insights/reality check!
I’ve been setting up blog tours for launch authors at Entangled Publishing, scouring the web for sites that seem like the best match for each. It’s been eye opening (and a bit exhausting!)
Thank you so much for the link to Devourer of Books’s guest post. Her tip and link on the Book Blogger Search Engine was spot on. The other thing I do is do an Alexa search ranking and then check how many people comment on reviews (seeing reader engagement.) Like an agent hunt, you’re not just frantically trying to connect with anyone. If you’ve got a limited amount of ARCs or time, I think you want to aim for as much “return” as you can.
More than a bit exhausting, I’m sure! Thanks for weighing in, Cathy.
You’re absolutely right, Jael, and so obvious now that you have mentioned it. Good little wakeup call. Tanks.
Fantastic post! I know it must be difficult to put yourself out there trying to get readers. Why not ensure success. I have to agree with those who said, read the review policy. If its not something a blogger reads why send it to them. Personalized pitches are fantastic. It is so hard to turn down someone who has taken the time to familiarize themselves with your blog.
Good Luck to all of those who are getting ready to send out pitches!
Yes! What a helpful post. And thanks for the link to Blurb is a Verb. I found Jenn / Devourer’s post helpful too!
S.P.
Thanks for an informative and timely (for me) post. Is hiring someone to set up a blog tour different from hiring a book publicist generally?
Hi Mari, there are a whole lot of options. There are publicists who have good relationships with bloggers and will pitch your book to them, but there are also “blog tour companies” that specialize in finding a specific number of bloggers who will schedule their reviews on specified days. I used TLC Book Tours and was really happy with them.
In the end, the blog reviews of The Kitchen Daughter came from all over — some pitches I did myself, some that were pitched by my in-house publicist or my independent publicist, some bloggers who reached out to me or my team themselves, and some from the TLC tour. So we sent out lots of books! But they were almost all pitched first, not sent blindly, and I think it made a huge difference.
Very smart advice, Jael.
I also agree with Lenore. It’s important to do some research, have some knowledge about a site. Kath and I don’t review books here at WU, as anyone familiar with the blog would know, but that doesn’t stop people from asking us to review their books. Could they have pitched us a little differently, asked about a guest post instead? Sure, but they didn’t. A little homework goes a long way.
Thanks for an informative post: I have never thought of book bloggers acting as agents, but of course, you’re right, that’s what they do!
All your points are well-taken but I can’t over-emphasize how LONG it takes before a reviewer reads your book! You think 6 weeks is about right? Well, maybe in some rare cases, but in my experience it takes much, much longer!
So one shouldn’t get discouraged: as I keep repeating on my blog, your e-books are up on that digital shelf forever, Time is on Your Side!
This is true — if you want a review at a specific time, especially, many book bloggers are scheduling their reviews three or four months out! Even a well-crafted pitch is unlikely to get a positive response if you say “My book is coming out next week, can you review it then?”
This is a great article.
I’m not really a book blogger, per se, but I do write book reviews for a blog, collaboratively. While I don’t get “pitched” as often as a regular book blogger would, I do get offers from time to time. The main reason I refuse a book is because it doesn’t sound like something I would read. It has nothing to do with the author– it’s the pitch alone. My time is so limited, if a book doesn’t have some kind of intrigue to *me*, I can’t commit to reading and reviewing it. That’s not fair to anyone.
The main publisher I review for has one of the best approaches I’ve seen. They send everyone the same email, but it’s all about the books books books. And they pitch them in batches. Then they leave it up to the reviewers which books they’re interested in reviewing and all we have to do is let them know. If none of them look interesting enough for *you*, you simply don’t reply. But the next time there might be three books you want to review, and you can request as many or as few as you want to. So it all balances out, and you’re more likely to write a positively bent review of something that piqued your interest in the first place. Everybody wins.
The point, though, is that sometimes I do feel like an agent getting pitched to, like you said. Especially when I get individualized requests for review from, say, a self-published author. Unfortunately, also like an agent, there are many times when I think “why would this person want ME to read their book– where have I ever hinted that I would read something like this?” And I explicitly state that I don’t review self-published books… and I still get review requests for them. I can totally understand the frustration of agents with authors who don’t follow their query guidelines. Like Therese said, “a little homework goes a long way.”
But I’ve rambled on long enough now, sorry. This is just such an interesting topic! Thanks for sharing. :D
Thanks for the post. I’m gonig to check into some of this. Since my book is coming out in about two months, I want to get on the march.
Now’s the time, Stephen! Good luck!
It is funny that you are calling book bloggers agents, I had not thought of them like agents before, but you are surely right. I found this topic of yours very-very interesting, great tip you had here.
I laughed out loud when reading about sending mail copies to a “zillion agents” and a “squillion bloggers” :)
Great post. I’m inching closer to the querying stage, so I’m a ways from this but hopefully I will be asking a book blogger to review the book one day. I have a dumb question, though … Do bloggers receive your ARCs, then? And then choose from those to review? That sounds much like the slush pile, so I can see why approaching them personally would make a big difference.
Hi Stacy, not a dumb question at all. Depending on the timing of the review, bloggers may receive ARCs or even a finished book (which they then sometimes run a giveaway for.) A lot of publishers are now sending e-galleys, too. So it really depends. But yes, there’s a cost to sending ARCs out, so it’s important to give them the best chance of being reviewed once they’re out there.
Exceptional post and quite accurate. Most of us have review guidelines and often they are never looked at. This can be very frustrating when getting pitched book after book I will not like and therefore not read simply because someone chose to not look at my review policy (it is short). As a book reviewer I love books or I would not review them. If I reject a book it is usually because it is a genre I do not care for and while there are exceptions, my schedule is usually too full to make any.
I enjoy receiving pitches and it is usually evident straightaway if my review policy or for that matter review blog has ever been looked at by the person pitching me a book.
This is excellent advice! It’s also something that can be done before a writer even has a publishing contract. It makes the process a whole lot less overwhelming if writers start reading book blogs that cover their genres, commenting on the reviews, reading their peers, and starting a list. Twenty strong, well-researched leads will get you farther than an email service that randomly hits 500 book bloggers.
Exactly, exactly. The earlier you start reading book blogs, the better — and it’s fun, besides! I’ve picked up a number of books based on reading blog reviews. Just reading blogs for pleasure and making a few notes here and there doesn’t feel like work, and it can save a lot of time later on.
Jael and Writer Unboxed —
This is a fantastic sum-up of one of the most rapidly changing parts of the publishing industry, and it fascinates me. Thank you for sharing the things that worked for you, and for adding tips and links. Wonderful!
I love this post. I am going to agree with Lenore and say that I appreciate emails from authors that are personal. It shows that they at least spent a little time getting to know me on my blog. They read my review policy, a little about me, and some reviews. Then they know what they can expect and what type of books I like.
Nothing is worse than an email addressed to MelinDa (there is no D in Melina) or one pitching a book that is way too mature for a tween girl like me.
This is fantastic!
Like Lenore said, if an author takes the time to read my review policy and look around my blog and includes that information in their email, I’m more than likely willing (and excited!) to take on their book – and sometimes I’ll even bump it right to the top of my pile, schedule be damned =)
That said, if you approach me with an unprofessional email that includes some of the following:
– Hard to read text. No super small text or weird fonts
– Something attached to be downloaded (if I want the media packet, I’ll ask you for it)
– Address me as “Dear Blogger” (BIG NO NO, my name is easy to find, use it)
.. then chances are I’ll not only say no, but sometimes I won’t find the time to respond. I figure you didn’t take the time to read what I had laid out, quite clearly, then why should I take the time to respond? I get dozens of pitches every single day and that takes away from my reading and reviewing time!
Great post, Jael! It’s interesting to know how authors feel about approaching bloggers. Good info, and I’ve linked back to it in my post here http://trishawolfe.blogspot.com/2011/08/review-my-book-i-have-chocolate.html
Thanks so much!
Great post!
I’m a YA book blogger: theawesomemagicattic.blogspot.com