10 Steps to Obtaining Reviews for Your Book
Posted By Sue Collier on February 1, 2010
If there is one thing about promotions I try to impress upon authors, it’s that reviews sell books. The process for obtaining reviews can be somewhat overwhelming, though, so here is a step-by-step approach.
- Well in advance of your publication date (at least two or three months), gather your list of potential reviewers in print, broadcast, and electronic outlets. Double-check that contact information is correct and be sure to address your request to a person—by name.
- Write a great letter or email, emphasizing the benefits to your reviewers’ readers, and be sure to include a picture of your book cover. We’re finding that there are very few sources who don’t want to accept emails these days, so that’s usually the route we take. However, there are a group of book trade reviewers who have very specific requirements for review requests. Be sure to follow the instructions on their websites.
- Follow up on all requests the week after you’ve sent them out. Continue to follow up until you have either gotten a “yay” or “nay” from everyone, or until you’ve made at least three attempts to touch base. We use an Excel Spreaksheet to keep track.
- When the responses start coming in, send review copies within a day or two of receiving the request. Include with the review copy of the book your press kit, which should minimally include a press release, an author bio, a mock review (This is a favorable review written for your book.), and a galley information sheet.
- After two to three weeks, send an inquiry to the potential reviewer, ensuring your book has arrived and asking when they might make a decision as to whether or not a review will appear in their publication.
- If you don’t hear back from them, follow up a couple more times, emphasizing how your book provides a benefit for their readers.
- If you do hear back, be sure to follow up, based on the response you receive. Always express your appreciation for their consideration.
- Continue to follow up each week until you’ve exhausted your list.
- Keep track of the favorable responses you receive and make sure you get a copy of every review—or article, story, or interview. You can use these pieces to obtain even more publicity.
- Post the links to the reviews/stories in your media room on your website and mention them in your blog or newsletter, and on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
About The Author
Thanks for that advice, what really struck me was the amount of following up – I am so timid when it comes to things like that, I would be worried about turning into a harrasser of book reviewers. I would be afraid of driving them mad and thus putting them off reviewing my book.
Emma–there is definitely a fine line between reasonable follow-up and harrassment. But I think reviewers will expect a certain amount of it. And email makes it much more nonintrusive than calling on the phone. Good luck! And thanks for reading!
That’s a good point. Thanks for that, I will be brave when I produce my print version
Disclosure: I’m writing this as a book review service.
You certainly do have some very good points and thanks for publishing them. However, one important thing you missed is “Read the guidelines listed on the site.” (Your slight mention about reading the instructions wasn’t strong enough and should be an emphasis on its own.) Every reviewer has a set of guidelines and it’s extremely important to read them BEFORE sending any queries or books out for review. Not all reviewers respond to queries and many don’t even open up the follow-up queries. As reviewers, we get inundated with queries.
Personally we get at least 10 queries per day from people that didn’t read the guidelines and those are never answered.
Another thing I want to emphasize is making sure contact information, especially an email address, be included with the request for a review. We get at least 5, sometimes as many as 10, books per week with no contact info at all – just a book in an envelope. We have no idea who sent it to us or who to contact if we review it. Consequently those books end up on the donate pile immediately and aren’t even considered for a review.
Thanks, Irene. That’s a very valid point–the importance of reading (and following!) instructions–that could have been emphasized more. And I totally agree about making sure a review request, along with book and contact info, if included with any review copies. In fact, I recently tweeted about this very thing, having just received a book to review myself with not a bit of accompanying info!
I appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to write!