To get good reviews for your book and get it in front of your target audience, getting book bloggers to review your book is a good idea.
A lot of book bloggers have their own fan base who follow their recommendations of books and value their reviews. Therefore, it is important to get your book mentioned in a good review with a few bloggers to increase your sales.
If you had tried pitching to a book blogger about your book and received a negative reply, then you know that it is not as simple as it sounds. Book bloggers have their own set of guidelines that they follow and it is important to reach out to their interests. Here are some tips to help you pitch to book bloggers the right way.
Approach Book Bloggers Who Read Your Genre
It is important to approach those book bloggers who are relevant to your book. Do not waste your time pointlessly pitching to someone who does not read books from your genre. It would actually feel like a sign of disrespect to the blogger as it is clear that you haven’t read or even went through the blog.
Read Their Other Reviews
It is important to read at least some of the book reviews of the book blogger before you pitch to them. There are two main reasons for that.
- If you can find a common ground or any particular review that you like, you can mention a line or two about it indicating that you had actually taken the time to read their blog. Bloggers love it when people have read their work and it can act as an extra point in your favour.
- Some book bloggers are not afraid to tear down a book with bad reviews. Remember that reviews can go either way – good or bad. And you would not want to voluntarily get bad reviews for your book that could potentially bring down its sales.
Just spend 10 minutes to read a few reviews and understand the style of the book blogger. It can go a long way in helping you get some good reviews.
Include The Relevant Information
When pitching to the book blogger, include a small book blurb, preferably something around 100 to 200 words. It will be easy for the book blogger to get a gist of the book and decide easily whether they want to write a review for it.
Also, the book blogger may want a thing or two about the author. To save them from the efforts of going around searching on the internet, include a look to your website, other book links and social media pages so that they get every information they want from a single mail.
Some authors make the mistake of attaching a copy of the book along with the pitch. Do not do that. It shows like you are pushing a random blogger to do something for you which can turn against you fast. Instead, wait for the blogger’s response and send a copy of the book in their prefered format only when they reply in affirmative.
Specify The Deadlines
If you have any deadlines for the reviews, please include them too in the email. You can either include them in the very first pitch you send if you are under a tight deadline, else it is better to wait till the blogger has confirmed and then inform them about the deadline.
Make sure to give them enough time to read the book and write a blog about it. If you have some time, say when you have approached the blogger before the official release of the book, then you can actually let the book blogger decide the date.
Send A Thank You
After the book blogger has added a good review about your book, it is time to send them a thank you mail.
It is important to stay in touch as you may again need a book blogger for the release of your next book. You can send them emails wishing them on special occasions and about how well the book is doing and a simple thanks in it. When your next book is ready for release, you can directly send out a friendly message and get a nice review for it.
Want to know how to leverage good reviews for your book promotions? Click here.
