Since publishing my book and attempting to get more involved in supporting other indie authors, I’ve noticed there are several issues that indie authors face. One of the biggest issues is getting exposure and reviews.
How many readers will actually pick up a book that has zero or only a handful of reviews or even just ratings? How many of you have the bias assumption that if there are only a handful and they are all good that they are reviews written by friends of the author so not legitimate? I’ll admit, I struggle to overcome this bias myself because this does happen sometimes. Not all the time, but I have seen it. This is a hurdle that a lot of indie authors struggle to overcome.
Getting book bloggers to review your book is also a huge struggle. Not all bloggers take indie review requests. Then you have to find a blogger that is interested in your genre. Then, and this seems to be a big issue with some book bloggers, is actually getting a response. I’m talking at all. Not just an agreement to read. This leaves the person requesting the review sitting in limbo wondering if their contact request got lost in the ether or at the bottom of someone’s spam folder. The second part of the blogger review struggle is sometimes actually getting that review once the reviewer agreed to do so. This is again problematic if that reviewer doesn’t notify the author they won’t be reviewing the book after all.
I’m seeing this from both the indie author perspective and the blogger perspective, so I can see how this is problematic on both sides. As a blogger, I want to read quality books in the genres I prefer to read in. Yet there is still an unfortunate number of indie authors that feel very strongly that the DIY method is perfectly fine when it comes to editing, formatting and cover design. I respectfully disagree with this stance because I do not believe that you can be objective enough to do those things for your own book. It is because of this that I can see why so many book bloggers shy away from reading indie books. As an author, even if I don’t fit that mold, I have to overcome those biases to get a blogger to read and agree to review my book. It is an interesting place to sit, that’s for sure.
I have run across a few places that are working towards creating databases of resources for indie authors, including bloggers. It is still incredibly difficult because you still have some of the above issues. So, here is a little bit of advice, from both sides of the indie author/blogger support perspective:
If you are a blogger that doesn’t want to review indie books, please make that clear on your blog so we can pass you by. We don’t actually want to waste your time or ours contacting bloggers that aren’t interested on an even basic level.
If you are a blogger that wants to support indie authors, please:
- Have a review policy on your blog that states you are open to indie requests.
- Make it clear how you want to be contacted and what things need to be in that contact, like blurb or a link to the book.
- List the genres you are willing to read.
- If you have other requirements, like the book formats you accept or anything else that may impact your decision to read or not read, add that to your review policy.
- Please note that print copies are expensive for authors to provide. If you really don’t have a preference, please be willing to consider an ebook.
- Double please here – respond one way or another to all requests! Yes, this can be overwhelming and a lot of work, but things do end up in junk and we never know that you actually got the request.
- Give a rough time frame that requests will be responded to, again, because junk happens. Authors don’t want to feel like spammers for resending a request.
- If you agree to read a book, please give a rough estimate on when you will be able to get to it. As a mood reader, I can completely understand how this is not always an easy thing to do, but even a broad time frame is better than “I’ll get to it eventually.”
- If you agree to read a book for a review, please let the author know if for whatever reason you’ve changed your mind and can’t do so or if your estimated time frame has changed. I can’t speak for all authors, but that kind of communication is a huge stress relief because it means you are going to do what you said and not ghost us.
- Posting on the major sites (this may vary by country) like Amazon and Goodreads in addition to your blog are massive things for indie authors, so do as many of these as you can.
As an indie author, I totally understand readers being picky. I am a picky reader myself. I can’t speak for all indie authors, but I do think that most would understand you specifying your requirements as a reader and being okay with saying no if something doesn’t work for you because we really want readers that are, hopefully, going to enjoy our work. Even if you only read one or two indie books a year because that is all you find that interest you, it is better than zero.
If you are an indie author looking for book reviewers, please:
- Don’t spam every single book blogger out there on every platform they exist on.
- Don’t expect reviewers to purchase your book. They are doing you a favor, the least you can do is provide a copy of your book.
- Don’t send your book unless a reviewer has agreed to read for you.
- Read the review policies of the reviewers you are considering requesting from and don’t request from them if your book doesn’t fit in their requirements. It’s okay if you aren’t certain, but take the time to see what they’ve read if their policy isn’t clear to see if you are even close.
- If they have instructions about contacting them, follow those instructions.
Having a relationship between book bloggers and indie authors is really critical to an indie author’s success. This also gives readers and bloggers more books to chose from, which is always a plus. Being courteous to each other and respecting what part each of you play is just as important.
TJ Fox: Sharing the Experience 
This is an older link – I hope I still get a reply. I am both a reader and a writer and I have a blog where I am happy to offer indie book reviews because I am an Indie (as of yesterday) and proud of my work and proud to be an indie – I think it is the way of the future and so happy to be part of the Indie community so..do you think if I had a page on my blog that listed contacts for indies and what I am willing to review that would be okay? I don’t want to get inundated as that isn’t helpful to anyone but I can buy and review say 5 books a week and I would in turn like people to buy my very reasonably priced poetry book on Amazon and give it a review in this way we create our own publicity and exposure – slowly but steadily and honestly – does this sound fair?
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I will always recommend putting a review policy on your blog, especially if you are willing to read indie. Also, I have a list of several great resources in my sidebar for indies authors. A couple have listing services for reviewers (both to get listed as a reviewer and to find reviewers for your work). They are all worth looking into.
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Awesome information Thankyou !
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As a writer about to release his debut novel, I am naturally worried about the difficulties of getting exposure. Thanks for your post.
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I have several links in my sidebar to some amazing resources for authors at any stage of their publishing.
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Great job on describing both sides of a complicated issue. Authors and reviewers need to be respectful and considerate of each other.
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Thank you! Being on both sides of this issue has been eye opening and frustrating.
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I recently decided to address this issue with offering reviews on my blog for anyone who has a Middle Grade or children’s book. It’s a limited service due to the audience my website/blog is for. My own writing is aimed at MG so I wanted to reflect that in things I promote. I may consider extending to adults depending on the subject but atm am focusing on my initial offer. I completely agree with your comments on book bloggers but I think it’s a problem with many readers – the perception that without a publisher, a book isn’t “good” – a frustrating attitude to face. We just have to prove them wrong!
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I’m also open to reviews and have noted it in my policy along with the genre’s I’ll accept. I’m hoping to create a list of bloggers willing to take on indie requests, so if you are interested in being a part of that, let me know. The goal is to make it easier for authors to find bloggers that fit their book by separating the bloggers by their preferred genres.
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That’s reminded me, I must post my review policy on my website. I would definitely be interested in being on that list. All I ask is that the author provides a pingback to the review on their social media accounts. Thanks.
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If you wouldn’t mind sending me the links to your blog, review policy (when you get it done) the sites you post on outside of your blog (Amazon, Goodreads) and a list of your preferred genres. I’m going to be starting the list soon and your listing will be noted here when I’ve got it finished… https://tjfox.net/indie-author-resources/indie-friendly-bloggers-reviewers/.
Please pass this along to anyone you know that might be interested in being a part of this project!
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Certainly,
Jgjbooks.com/JGJ-blog
Reviews posted on Goodreads (Amazon if requested)
Genres fall under a few different categories:
Absolutely: chapter books, middle grade books
Ok: picture books
Maybe: (dependent on content) young adult
No (at present): adult of any genre
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Can I add a link to your Goodreads profile?
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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19339320.J_G_Jones
I will link my review policy once I’ve got it posted, probably tomorrow as it’s now nighttime here.
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Thank you so much! I’ll add that to your info.
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Have just created my review policy
https://jgjbooks.com/2019/07/26/tibc-review-policy/
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Thank you! I’ll get that added as well.
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I’m an avid reader, but I stink at writing reviews.
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This is geared more towards those that do write reviews and especially anyone that reads books written by indie authors. I didn’t mean to come across as saying that every reader needs to start writing reviews (sorry if that is how it sounded!). Just that this is one of those seemingly impossible hurdles for some indie authors to get past without some help. For those that can and want to help, these are a few things that can be done and can make a world of difference.
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Oh, it didn’t sound that way at all!!! I just wish I was better at writing reviews.
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Honestly, some of the best reviews are really simple. Just a slightly expanded version of why you liked or disliked a book. Some of us tend to probably go into a bit more detail and get way more wordy than some people want! ;D
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Every now and then I’ll do what I refer to as “Kind of a review.” I’m not a discerning reader. Can’t generally tell you why I like something.
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I get those times as well and I just have to throw my hands up and skip the review.
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