I've just finished my first revision of Storm Warning, my collection of short crime stories set on the fictional Caribbean island of St. Crescens, and I'm busy sending out queries to reviewers who might be interested. I find this part as excruciatingly difficult as submitting queries to agents and publishers. So far, I've sent out about thirty requests to various bloggers and have gotten interest from about five. That's a bit disheartening but, of course, I'll keep on trying.
I came up with my list by Googling blogs of mystery reviewers. Once you've done that and found a few likely candidates make sure to see if the blog carries a list of links to other reviewers. Quite often, bloggers will have a list of blogs similar to theirs on their sites or they'll participate in certain memes and you can pick up a lot of other names and addresses that way.
One thing that's really important is that you check the reviewers review policy - they might not review in your genre or they might not be accepting any new books for review at the moment. I can imagine that it would be annoying to receive a lot of requests to review romantic comedies when you only read horror. In addition, some bloggers won't accept from self-published writers or don't want ebooks so do check the policy out carefully.
Also, keep a list handy of everyone you submit to so you don't end up submitting twice, as the more absent-minded among us might.
Oh, and, if you can, make sure to post the cover and blurb up on Goodreads or Shelfari as some bloggers will check you out there first.
Eugenia, thank you for talking about this subject. It's one I have almost no knowledge or experience with. I appreciate your advice of how to go about getting reviewers. What a process!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to Storm Warning, Eugenia. One of the most entertaining crime novels I've read was set in the Caribbean (Finding Maubee) and in the 20 or so years since I read it I've flirted with the idea of writing one. That's still somewhere in the future. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteGreat advice re reviews. I've submitted to only a couple reviewers in the past because the process was so time-consuming and frustrating. Since publishing the indie books over the past few months I've realized that I'll have to be far more proactive.
I haven't gone down that particular road yet with my novel, simply because trying to get someone to read, let alone review, erotica is an adventure within itself.
ReplyDeleteBut...I managed to get several on Amazon and one on GoodReads (I think. Not too sure as a friend uploaded it for me and said she left a review. Personally, I find GoodReads very non-user friendly), all through word-of-mouth.