Countdown to Publication: 4 months & 5 days

Sometimes I feel like all I do is wait. Perhaps, that is simply life. Currently, my biggest basket of wait is filled with book reviewers. Funny enough, my time pursuing literary agents seemed to help, because submitting my book to blog reviewers was extremely similar to querying agents. Most reviewers asked for the same information, via their review policy guidelines. Just in case you are also interested in seeking out blogs that review books, I will impart a little knowledge from my 3-day jaunt of emailing.

Submitting to Book Reviewers 101:

• Prepare the information you will submit:
  • Book blurb
  • 3rd-person author bio
  • A paragraph or two that discusses your book in a general way, which includes:
    • Publisher or self-published
    • Target age
    • Genre
    • Series title/ number in series OR standalone
    • The format you are offering for review (book, ebook, etc.)
    • Publication date
    • The type of promotion you are interested in (review, blog tour, interview, giveaway, etc.)
• Read the blogger’s book review guidelines AND follow the guidelines.
  • This may include specific information they want and how to submit.
• Ensure your book’s genre fits into the reviewers preferences.
  • You may want to include a sentence on why you chose to submit to that particular reviewer.
• Be sure to:
  • Address the email or web-form message in a professional manner and directly to the person/people running the blog.
  • Keep the message short.
  • Thank the reviewer for their time.
  • Sign your name in a respectful manner.
  • Give plenty of time to read and write a review.
    • Generally, it is best to submit for review 3-4 months prior to publication date.
• Add links:
  • Website or blog
  • Twitter, Instagram, etc.
• Submit to many reviewers
  • Most reviewers are inundated with many requests per week. It is best to submit to many reviewers, so you have a better chance at getting multiple reviews.

You have to use your own discretion when choosing bloggers to review. One of the larger choices I made was not pursuing bloggers that charged a fee for their review. This is strictly a personal/financial choice that you will need to make on your own.

To find reviewers, I googled – book reviewer blog. It is as simple as that. I did stumble upon several sites with lists of reviewers. This was helpful, but be sure to check the last date a review was posted. Many blogs were still online and on list sites, even though they had not posted in years.