Indie Authors Monthly Magazine For Authors and Readers discussion

Chris Lawson of Bassocantor Reviews says, "Are You Ignoring Me?

Yes, it's true. I respond to very few review requests I receive. After a brief perusal, I delete almost all of them.

Of course, the key word in the sentence above is almost. Of each 100 requests, I actually say "Yes" one time. It takes a really special pitch to get my attention. Just saying, "How 'bout reading my novel" won't cut it. Neither will the plaintive, "I really need some publicity." To get me to spend a bunch of time reading your book, you will have to do better than that.

The following tips apply equally well to books or products that you want reviewed. Here are some tactics to use when pitching your book to that finicky top reviewer."

Here is a link to the article:

https://www.bassocantor.com/blog/tips...

Thanks for sharing. it's nice to get the reviewers perspective.
I pretty much stopped doing requested reviews that come through my email.
After Amazon wiped me out- I was afraid to accept free books. I review only what I buy now, and yes, sometimes the author's pitch of the plot, or if they request, (as she said) in an interesting way- I'll buy the book.
I hit that delete button as soon as they demand a positive review, or if they are too pushy.

Some of those examples were pretty shocking. Thanks for sharing.

Earlier in the year I brought out my first book. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. As an indie author I found that although there are thousands of reviewers, it’s almost impossible to get your book read and reviewed. It’s not the reviewers fault, it’s just they have thousands of requests from self-published authors. They can’t possibly accept them all and even the ones they do accept can end up at number 250 on their to be read list. Let’s also not forget, that as well as indie books, they are avid readers and will also want to read books by their favourite established authors, and who can really blame them. It just means it’s near on impossible to get your book read by a revered reviewer. There are more indie authors everyday taking the number into hundreds of thousands. At the moment I’m writing a sequel that no agent would be interested in, but after that I am sending my 3rd story to the agent who asked me to keep her in mind when sending any future manuscripts. All in all, the indie world is getting harder to shine through. I’m not saying it can’t happen because it can, but it’s certainly becoming tougher. You just have to put your book out there, make friends and hope that one day you might be the lucky one who gets their book selected to be read by someone who can influence others to give it a go. Also, they have to like it otherwise none of their friends or followers will be keen.

Looks like you've gotten some great reviews already. It is hard to get them. Have you tried Net Galley? It's worth the expense. I've done them for my son's books and we've picked up a substantial amount of reviews.

I do have some brilliant reviews and I am so proud of them. I haven’t been the most proactive author as I didn’t even know how to use social media until a year ago. Self-publishing is a massive learning process as I’m sure you know. Thank you for the advice on Netgalley, I’ll look into it.