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Confessions of a Book Reviewer

By C.J. Domino

After hours, days, months and maybe even years, your novel has finally been published. You're excited, overwhelmed and eager to get the show on the road. Now comes the hard part, promotions. Book reviews are worth their weight in gold and therefore are huge assets to any writer. The process of submitting your novel for a review is usually very simple, but what authors dismiss is the workload of a book reviewer and the time and effort that goes into producing a worthy write-up and not every book submitted for a review is read. C.J. Domino , former Book Editor for The Baton Rouge Weekly Press and author of the upcoming novel, Sideline Ho , offers some invaluable tips as she takes a look in the life of a Book Reviewer.

Rule #1: Don't harass the reviewer! Most of them have a waiting list from here to Cancun. Unless you are with a major publishing house that has taken the liberty to send over a gift basket, lunch or some other major token of appreciation you can forget it! Your book will be placed in a pile marked ‘To Be Read.' Continuing along the lines of harassment, don't tell the reviewer where you want your review to appear. Most of these individuals volunteer their services and they have specific publications in which they have established relationships with and know that your review will be published. Harassment only aggravates the reviewer and makes your chances that much slimmer of seeing words of praise in print about your work. And don't ask them to buying a copy of your work and then let you know what they think of it!!!!! That, my friend is tacky.

 

Rule #2: Send goodies! This increases your chances of them selecting your book to review. Book Reviewers will be more inclined to read a book that came with a t-shirt vs. an envelope with only your book enclosed. Remember that stack of books that's lurking on their desk. Give them a reason to take a look at yours NOW!

 

Rule #3: Autographs please! One of the perks of being a reviewer is that they get to keep the books that they review. Again, this is a simple step that sets you apart from the other ten authors whose book arrived on the same day as your novel. But one word of caution; if you are going to write a note to the reviewer, make sure you have the correct name. Imagine receiving a book with praises meant for someone else.

 

Rule #4: Send two press releases; one via e-mail and another one by the postal service. The e-mail puts your book in the reviewers' memory bank. The physical one is a follow up that now has them curious. Do not send more than two releases to a reviewer. Remember the pile on their desk. They are already bogged down.

 

Rule #5: Make sure your book is properly edited and I am not talking about the spell and grammar check on your computer. Spend some money and get a decent editor. A book reviewer will discard a poorly edited book in a second. It is considered a waste of their time when you haven't finished the entire book publishing process.

 

Rule #6: Say thank you. Nothing goes further than a little common courtesy. Let a reviewer know that you really appreciate them for taking out the time to promote your work (because when they write that review that's what their doing, promoting your work for FREE), because you never know when you'll need them again J

As you continue on your journey in this crazy business that we refer to as ‘publishing' I hope that these tips will become invaluable to you; opening doors that may have remained closed or cracked open only to be slammed in your face. Take off your diva crown and opt for your thinking cap when coming up with creative approaches to catching the eye of a book reviewer and landing that fabulous review.

C. J. Domino Bio:

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