Our new segment for 2022 is for new authors/writers and written by published authors, titled – Writing Tips. These posts will be shared with you every Wednesday. Our latest post is from author Srividhya Lakshmanan on the subject ‘4 Easy Ways to Boost Your Chance of a Blogger Book Review’. This post contains affiliate links.

4 Easy Ways to Boost Your Chance of a Blogger Book Review

As an indie author, publishing a book is only half the job. A good book marketing strategy makes it shine. One way to increase your book’s visibility is to get bloggers to write reviews. They are a great way to increase your book’s visibility because most bloggers post reviews on social media sites.

First, however, a blogger needs to be convinced to take up your book. And, most times, refusal is not about the book; instead, it comes from not understanding the blogger’s specifications. So, a few simple but critical elements can assure you of an almost 100% chance to get your book reviewed.

1. Can you picture your book’s review in their blog?

The first step is to read the blog, know what they write about, and be sure to read at least a couple of their past book review posts. It helps you understand how they review and rate books.

Some bloggers have a section on how they rate the books, but you can get a fair idea by reading a few reviews. Then, if you enjoy the blog posts, you can go ahead to the next step.

2. Read their review policy.

The second most crucial step before approaching any blogger for a review is to read their review policy. You will get answers to questions like:-

– Are they open to reviewing at present?
– Do they accept self-published books?
– Are they open to your book genre?
– What’s their rating policy?
– What is their preferred format?
– Where do they post their reviews?

Bloggers update this section regularly. But have you ever wondered why you never heard from a blogger? It is most likely that you didn’t read this section. Bloggers ignore review requests when you don’t follow their review submission instructions.

3. Personalise your emails

Yes, now you are ready to write to the blogger—don’t forget to personalise your email. Be genuine and mention things you enjoyed in their blog.

Finally, be sure to follow the instructions in the review policy. It is always preferable to send the basic book details and gauge the interest before sending out the full copy. While many bloggers prefer it that way, this will ensure that your mail does not land in their spam folder (unsolicited mail with an attachment usually gets caught in the spam filter).

Sometimes bloggers want you to send the request via a web form, so check the review policy section.

4. Follow-up on your request

You are most likely to receive an email within two to three days. However, you may want to follow up if you don’t. Wait at least a week before the follow-up.

Voila! You will have your review from the blogger ready in a month or two.

It may sound like a lot, but gaining reviews becomes easy if you build this habit. Also, after your first book, you would already have a preferred database of bloggers ready for your second book.

When I began, many review requests went unanswered, but not anymore. Now, my books get accepted for a review, or I get a friendly reply stating why they cannot review my book.

Happy publishing.

Srividhya is an award-winning children’s author, entrepreneur and writer. She always had a passion for storytelling and started to write when she was eleven. ​Her early success came when one of her dramas got selected by the ‘All India Radio’. She spent years reading and writing stories, giving her characters a bright sparkle. ​She spent 15 years in corporate jobs. Later, she founded and managed a fashion e-commerce company, Pink Hippo, before venturing into publishing.

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Time to jump into the ocean, sneak in some burrows, run through the savannah, roll down the hill, and find out how they sleep. ‘Do they all sleep?’ is a colorful picture book that can help your toddler learn how and where animals sleep through some fun little rhymes. In the end, let your toddler tell about their favorite way to snooze.

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