Say “Woo-hoo” for Reviews
I am excited to write this blog post because I have just received my first review ever—and it’s a Starred Review. Woo-hoo!
After receiving a file full of rejections and crickets chirping from agents all over the country for the past year (longer, actually), They Will Be Coming for Us has been deemed a “Notable Book” by BlueInk Review. I honestly never thought it would happen to me. Considering all of the agents I tried and failed to connect with, this is amazing. (If you’d like to read the review, it’s posted on my About My Book page on my website. Click Here.)
This is good news not only for me but for any self-publisher who was unable to drum up attention from an agent. Believe in your book!
Reviews: Why You Need Them, How You’ll Get Them
Basically there are three different types of reviews, three layers of the Review Pyramid, if you will. The foundation of the pyramid is made up of pre-publication reviews. As the name suggests, indie authors (self-publishers) can send their manuscript to review magazines prior to their book’s publication. The biggest, most well-known of these reviewers is Kirkus Indie, with Blueink Review and Clarion’s Foreword next in line. Magazines like these review traditionally published books as well. The difference is that indie authors have to pay for their reviews.
Now, you might be thinking, What good is a review that you pay for? If you pay for the review, the reviewer has to be nice and basically give you a favorable review, right? Wrong. That’s not how it works because that would defeat the purpose of doing reviews. These magazines don’t have to give you a good review, and they won’t do so if they don’t like your book. All three companies make that clear up front. This means that you could pay upwards of $400 and still get a bad review. And that is the chance you take.
If you receive a bad review, or simply one that you don’t like or don’t think will be good for your book, you can ask the magazine to “kill” the review. In other words, you can ask them not to publish it. You will still have your review, and you can post an excerpt or any positive phrase or sentence that appears in the review on your website, but the review itself will not appear on the magazine’s website. This means you will miss the opportunity for it to appear on distributor databases (which are accessed by librarians and booksellers) as well.
What you’re looking for from a review is one phrase (at least) to use as a blurb on your book cover or on your website, and in your Amazon book description. You also can use a favorable review to help obtain blurbs from well-known authors. A few kind words from a reviewer can go a long way in helping draw interest in your book. “Kim Catanzarite’s They Will Be Coming for Us holds readers spellbound…”—BlueInk Review (Starred Review), for instance:)
A favorable pre-publication review can also help you obtain media reviews, which make up the next layer of the pyramid. These are the ones that appear in newspapers, magazines, blogs, and on social media, television, and radio. When you receive your pre-publication reviews, you can contact the media sources of your choice and say, “I see that you review books like mine (tailor your list of contacts appropriately), and I would like to send you an advanced reader copy. Kirkus had this to say: ‘Get it!’” And Clarion called it “Spectacular.”
Many of these news outlets and blogger-reviewers have a Contact form to fill out when requesting a review. It’s not easy to get media reviews because so many writers are seeking them, but if you reach out to enough of them, hopefully you’ll be successful with a few. Also, while it would be nice to have all of your media reviews come out the week you launch your book, one that publishes after the book has launched is just as good, so don’t worry too much about perfect timing.
At the top tier of the Review Pyramid, you have the readers. The media reviews hopefully have inspired readers to go out and buy your book and read it—and now those readers can leave their own reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Apple, Barnes and Noble, etc.
Reviews play a key role in helping you get the word out about your book. Begin your campaign to obtain reviews with pre-publication reviews and go from there. The more reviews you get, the more readers will learn about your book. In this way, you will find an audience.
My next blog post will discuss book titles and how to come up with a good one.
