Book Lovers Inc.
Romance Novel Reviews, Author Interviews, Commentary
The Secret Black Book of Blogging – How to get your dates with bloggers?
Filed in Advice For Authors , The Geeky Lover Posted on June 15, 2011 @ 10:00 am
17 comments
We as book bloggers can imagine that as an author it must be intimidating to reach out to bloggers to get your book read. We know that you worry about how you will be treated and even more how your book- your work and heart, will be judged.
What is the big PRO for doing this yourself and not through a blogtour company? Not only will you save money (and some blogtour companies seem to want an arm and a leg for this), but YOU will have direct contact with the bloggers. If you are nice they will perhaps actually be ready to host you again in the future (FOR FREE). That is how social networking works, helping you to connect with your readers.
1. Research Blogs
One of the most important things is to check the blogger’s review policy. Make sure that you fit their genre preferences. You don’t want to take the risk that this person hates for example YA and will bash your YA novel simply because she/he just doesn’t like to read about teens in general. This will make the reviewer grumpy and if they say yes nonetheless it won’t be a very positive review for your book. And yes, we know some people say all publicity is good publicity, but think about it. It would actually be better to at least try to get some good, honest reviews. You want people who get your story – not someone who will hate it with all their might just because they don’t like the genre.
To find a blog fitting your genre you have many possibilities. You can look at blog directories:
Book Blogger Directory, Book Blog Directory, Technorati (Book Blogs), BotW Blog Directory, Networked Blogs
or twitter lists:
or the blogroll of the blogs you already found and follow (bloggers tend to read blogs that prefer the same kind of books they do, not always but often)
Goodreads (but please refrain from the DONTs aka recommending your own books (i.e spamming readers’ inboxes – nothing turns off readers from your book and you as an author than constant spamming Goodreads messages), rating your own books, bashing bad reviews, debating your bad reviews, and bashing bloggers who wrote negative reviews): just look at reviews of books similar to yours.
When you choose a blog don’t choose simply because of their follower count. Look at what kind of interaction there is, the comments they receive. Many smaller blogs have a wider reach and influence on their readers. To find out you can just look at the comments they get (and no, we are not talking about the comments left on giveaway posts). Do they actually discuss the books they have reviewed? Smaller blogs are usually more intimate BUT the readers are easier to interact with.
2.Organize yourself and keep track of your correspondence
To stay on top of everything you need to get organized and do this from the start. If you start slacking at one point it will be hard to keep up. But be assured, it’s not that hard when you start ASAP. I do it all the time and I’m not going crazy. 😉
Here are some of my recommendations, this is just how I do it and it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any better methods.
Add the events you booked BUT also add the dates you offered someone so you don’t accidentally book 1 day more than once.Keep in mind that you need time to interact on blogs so don’t overload your schedule, that will just stress you and people will notice. You will be expected to answer comments on guest posts and interviews, and this takes time. You have to decide how often you can do that per week. Readers appreciate an author who is active and interacts with their followers. Makes the author approachable and human, not just an abstract celebrity on a pedestal.
b) Google Docs
Keep track of who you already asked in the past: there is only a few things bloggers hate more than having to answer your email more than once. I would suggest to make a list of blog names, blogger names and note down when you requested a review at their place. You can also make notes of the ones that said yes, so that when you contact them again in the future it comes handy to jog your memory to remember you had already worked with them.
c) try to stay on top of your Email inbox
If you email many blogs you are bound to get many replies, they may be positive or not. Use the folder function in your email account to get a better overview of what is there to answer.
3. The Request Email
First again look at the review policy and look for what the blog would like you to send in your request (e.g. blurb, title of the book, author website, etc.). Don’t waste your subject line. Believe me, we have always around 20 requests in our email account and 90% have the subject line “Review Request” – put your title there! You have to remember, the easier you make it for the blogger, the more inclined they will be to help you.
It is better to keep your emails professional but please take the time to use the blogger’s name or if there isn’t one make sure they see that you looked at their page (use the site name or mention something they said in their “about us” or review policy page) and make it seem personal, you don’t either want to receive an answer with “Dear Author”, just as we don’t like to receive “Dear Blogger” ones… Sign the email with your name at the end, we want to know how to address you in our answer.
When you get a negative answer no matter the reason, don’t start telling the blogger that you are better off without them because your friend at PW will review the book for you. Book bloggers are a chatty folk and that attitude won’t stay between the two of you. Also there may be a lot of reasons why that particular blogger said no: they can be busy with other previous requests, real life engagements (yeah, work keeps us busy during the day *sighs*), or the blogger saw that your book wasn’t their cup of tea and actually made you a great service: trust us, you don’t want to receive a negative review just because the blogger doesn’t like that particular genre/trope/storyline.
4. Blog Tour Checklist
a) blog button:
Most blog tour companies make wonderful flashy blog buttons BUT in our opinion those don’t matter that much. Simply your cover with Blog Tour and the date on it would work. Don’t forget that this is what it is all about: your book and not some flashy eyecandy. The reader should take notice of what is important: your book. To be honest: blog buttons are a pain – WE bloggers hate posting them.
b) provide giveaways
Those don’t have to be books: swag, trading cards, bookmarks etc. are just as good and it also makes it easier to keep it international (ebooks, paperbacks from the Book Depository (which offer free worldwide shipping!). Speaking of international: believe me you don’t want to keep the audience away from your book and if the giveaway is only US you can be sure that the international readers will be so miffed that they won’t even read the post. You ask yourself if so many people are international? At least 40 % of our clicks are from outside of the US so it’s not something you should underestimate.
c) provide review copies:
E-arcs will again help not restrict your reach to US/Can only. Another example: we have one US reviewer the rest of our team are international. And still 60% of our readers are American. So even though we aren’t Americans we still reach a bunch of them.
d) promote, don’t spam
Use twitter, facebook, your blog etc. to promote the blog tour (RT the posts). One or two times a day tops, no spamming your followers, or they will unfollow you. Comment/answer/interact on guest posts and interviews. Engage the reader in a discussions, get to know each other. BUT don’t do that on the reviews, say Thank You for the review if you have to but don’t say anything else, that will only cause a discussion or rather a heated debate.
e) keep in touch with the readers
Be active, blog, use twitter, facebook, no matter what. Don’t only promote the book, be a human and talk to the readers and bloggers. We have at least one topic in common: books and our love of reading, so it shouldn’t be that hard to build a connection. Remember that you don’t have to do everything once again if you keep your lists and connections, and hopefully there will be a second book that needs to be promoted.
Questions? Anything else you always wanted to ask bloggers but didn’t dare?
Leave it in the comments or in the form and I will try my best to answer it.
(please be aware that I won’t be able to always reply ASAP- it can take some time but I will try my best.)
Share This Post
Subscribe and stay up-to-date
17 Comments
Join the Discussion
Previous Post
« Review: The Devil in Disguise by Stefanie Sloane Next Post
Romance and Me: The Ex-Factor »
« Review: The Devil in Disguise by Stefanie Sloane Next Post
Romance and Me: The Ex-Factor »
Our Sponsors
Our Giveaways
Unfortunately Google Friend Connect will stop working for non Blogger blogs at the start of March.
To stay up-to-date use one of the other options above to subscribe to the newest Book Lovers Inc. action.Thank you!
| |||||||||
| 5 Stars: Perfect! I Love It! | |||||||||
| 4 Stars: Awesome Book! | |||||||||
| 3 Stars: I Liked It! | |||||||||
| 2 Stars: Not bad, but maybe not for me. | |||||||||
| 1 Star: Didn't like it! Did Not Finish it. | |||||||||
 | | | | | |||||
Blog RSS Feed
Follow Me on Twitter
My Facebook
I HEART this post – that is all!!!!
I love this post! So helpful.
Speaking of international: believe me you don’t want to keep the audience away from your book and if the giveaway is only US you can be sure that the international readers will be so miffed that they won’t even read the post.
This is true. I'm not miffed per se, but I don't click on the post if the giveaway is limited to the US / Canada, etc. I don't really see the point of reading the post because I don't like being excluded just because of where I live.
But that doesn't mean I'll not buy the author's book, but only if it gets lots of good buzz, etc.
@Has Thank you! ((hugs))
@Nadia Thank you sweety. True, and our stats usually show that clicks on US/CAN posts are lower, so it seems we aren't the only ones.
Great post!
Today I got a review request where they addressed someone else..ok that doesn't sound so bad since I get a lot of those directed to Lis who reviews for me. But it was not addressed to her either, it was a name of someone who has never written on my blog. Sorry author but that just show lack of research. it is not that hard to find a name
Great post!
The coolest review request I got so far was from an author looking for the 'pig perspective' 😀
So much better than those copy/paste mails that are send out to multiple reviewers.
Great post! Lots of very sensible points made but they do need to be made, and all in one place, too!
This is a fantastic post!
This is a great post and a must read for new authors!
Susi, thank you for putting this out there! Excellent post. I agree with everything you mentioned. *hugs*
@Blodeuedd Thanks hon. I really hate those but sadly I can't say I don't get these.
@Sullivan McPig Thank you. LOL that is hilarious. Love those requests that make you smile.
@Sheree Thank you sweety.
@Erica Thank you so much!
@A Buckeye Girl Reads Thank you.
@Diana Thank you sweety. *hugs*
Such a wonderful and HELPFUL post!
My personal pet peeve is when I get e-mails with "Dear Blogger", and then the author/publicist saying how much they like my blog. If they do and know it, then why keep it so bland and unpersonal? I have a name thank you.
Love your tips Susi and I agree, as an internation reader/blogger, I tend to skip those posts restricted to US/Can residents, and as I can see I'm not the only one..
Thanks for putting everything in one place, can't wait to see what questions you will get! 🙂
Great list and great points. I agree that twitter is a good place to find readers/bloggers. Though I could be biased since it's where I'm most active. 😛
It's always good to think "about the other side" – as you said with the form letters. I've been pretty lucky with not (yet) getting spammy emails about my blog. 🙂 But then I'm small beans. 😀
This is a must-read blog post for all those authors out there. Granted, so far I haven't received any review requests that could have made me raise an eyebrow 😉 but who knows what might sit in my inbox tomorrow?
I agree on the skipping of the US/CA posts – I skip them more often than not myself. There are many more countries and continents, so think of us, please!
What an awesome idea this post is! I'm curious as to what other questions authors might put forth. Sometimes it can be a considerable task to figure out how best to approach others in the reading/blogging world who fill a diff role. "Bloggers are from Mars, Authors are from Venus," and all that. :o)
Bookmark this post and read it again and again.
Love this post Susi! (thumbs up!) I'm more than agree for US/Can part. I'm myself live outside US, and I love giveaway (no shame to admit that :P), and usually disappointed when read "US/Can" only, LOL.
I want participate! So I'll be grateful if author make it international, and I'm glad,some author don't mind that.. 😀
This post is a must read for authors, and I hope it can help to make them more participated with reader and blogger.. Cause, hey, if there no readers, there's no author 🙂
@Stella Thanks hon and yes I really hate those.
@limecello Thanks hon! You know those requests are sometimes weird. I get them for my inactive The Geeky Bookworm blog- I think someone passed it to some spamming author guild or something.
@Birgit Happens faster than you would think. It really seems I'm not alone with that. =) Thanks sweety!
@Alisha Thank you ma belle. Yes I was a bit scared about that. But I really just wanted to show that there is a way to do it yourself and be successful with it.
@Ren Thank you! And yes we all want to be included and we should count as much as the rest of the world. And as I said in the post it really isn't that hard or even more expensive. ^_^
I'm late to the table Susi, but just wanted to say this is an awesome post and one all authors should read!
Well said and thank you for all your hard work.. :))