Indie Book Collective discussion

Has anyone ever had much luck soliciting lists of book bloggers for reviews? I keep finding lists, sending out requests, and hearing crickets. It's really very dispiriting

M.E., in defense of most book bloggers, they are largely swamped with requests, so it's understandable that they don't always respond. It's actually normal to hear crickets when requesting reviews. It's a numbers game really, so you have to send out lots of requests in order to get a few interested bloggers. Even then, there's no guarantee the blogger who accepts your request will review your book in a timely fashion or at all. Still, it's worth it at the end of the day if you want to increase your reviews. Just make sure to get the most bang for your buck by requesting the reviewer post their reviews on other sites beside their blog like Amazon and Goodreads.

Here's a suggestion. If you'd like to get some quick, guaranteed reviews, I highly recommend you check out this group. It's a review exchange group, but there isn't any back-scratching going on over there. I've reviewed and gotten about half-dozen reviews there, so I can vouch for its effectiveness in getting some "honest" reviews.

Thanks. I do understand they are busy. But my current success rate is hovering well under 10% - I get maybe one response for every 10 requests. Right now, I'd be happy with a "sorry, I'm really busy and I can't help you" response. At least then I'd know where I stand. I'll check out the group.

I totally feel your pain. I've been playing the review request game for six years now and it only seems to be getting harder every year to land reviews. It's a brutal process and one I never look forward to. But you should have some success with the review group if you decide to sign up. Good luck and best wishes.

Speaking as a blogger, authors also are guilty of not responding or not paying attention to our preferences.

I look at threads where authors ask for reviewers and if the book sounds like my kind of thing, I contact them. I don't always get a reply. On one group I even offered free blog promotion to any author from a range of genres-and got ONE reply from several thousand members! As it happened, that book was good and I'm now promoting that author on my blog and Twitter.

I get offers for books that don't interest me. When I join a group, I set out clearly what I like and don't like to read. ie I like urban fantasy and horror but I won't read Anne Rice style gothic or historical vampires as I just don't enjoy it. So when I list genres I like, I automatically get UF historical vampire books offered despite saying I don't like that kind of novel! A lot of authors don't seem to really read my preferences, they just jump straight in at the words 'urban fantasy'. So some of them can be guilty of bugging reviewers!

I do think that authors and reviewers, however busy life gets, should reply at least with 'no thanks'. Like M.E said, you want to know where you stand one way or another.

M.E. Your book sounds interesting. I'm not a "book-blogger" per se, but I do review books upon occasion, and interview fellow authors on my blog: http://jenelleschmidt.com/blog

I get approximately 20-80 hits a day, which isn't a ton, but my audience seems to be growing steadily.

I stick to mostly sci-fi/fantasy/and YA (your protagonist being in 8th grade leads me to believe you at least fall into the YA and possibly sci-fi genres)

If you are offering your book in paper format (as opposed to e-format, which I cannot abide), I would be happy to read/review your book - and/or possibly have you over for an interview, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

You can PM me or email directly at [email protected]