Yes, I Will Review Your Book for FREE!

But you have to follow the rules

I get what it’s like to be an author with an independent publisher. The publisher might have access to a world class editor, they might have a superior cover design team, but I can almost guarantee they won’t have a marketing budget.

Independent writers are often left to claw and scratch for even the briefest critical engagement with their latest release. The worst part is that the writing community always bleats about their commitment to inclusion, but the reality is that if you aren’t published with one of the top two or three publishers, few people are going to see your work.

But, it’s not all about you

I understand how independent writers often feel frustrated. However, what I don’t understand is why more independent writers don’t understand that other authors feel the exact same way!

Other people feel like you feel, so why not be a resource for them? That way at least some people have a chance at happiness. See how that works?

I was chatting with a writer friend recently and he said, “writers will not help other writers.” Sadly, it’s true. But the good news is it doesn’t have to stay that way.

I practice what I preach

Being a successful writer requires terrific networking skills. Although there are few working writers who are household names, almost all writers have at least a couple thousand social media followers. The best way to endear yourself to other writers is to review their books. If you get enough drops in the bucket, eventually it fills up.

A book review always gets a writer’s attention. Writing reviews is by far the best way to introduce yourself to other writers.

I received my first publishing contract back in 2007, and since then I’ve tried to review at least one independently published book a month. If every writer did this, there would be no shortage of great reviews, and we’d all have a better awareness of the hidden gems that get published every year.

Today, those hidden gems are largely falling through the cracks, and that’s unacceptable.

But you have to follow the rules

I listed that I’m a book reviewer on Twitter, and as a result, people often tag me when they make a post about their books.

Now look, I’m happy to help other authors out, but I expect them to at least dig into my profile a little bit and see what the system is for getting on my review list. I mean, these authors expect me to dedicate ten hours of my life to reading their book, and they can’t even take thirty seconds to click on my profile, or send me a formal query?

C’mon man!

The fact is, if you are a writer and you care absolutely nothing for helping out your fellow writers, you aren’t going to succeed. It’s a community, we have to help each other. We have to respect each other. Blurting out, “Here’s my book, go nuts,” is not the way to go about this.

How ‘bout y’all start with a big slice of humble pie

I get it that everyone is trying to “fake it till you make it” but it’s no big secret that your book probably isn’t selling all that well. Heck, I see a lot of works published by big name publishers that have four or fewer reviews. That instantly tells me that your book isn’t setting the world on fire.

As an author, I’m pretty impervious to the sales pitch. I write those myself, I know how they sound. You aren’t going to dazzle me. I’d much rather that you wrote with a forthright assessment about your career. Tell me your observations, I’ll tell you mine, and we’ll try to combine them for some future insight.

That’s valuable.

The big showman song and dance routine is not.

Once the review is posted, share it

Here’s the other thing that I find baffling. There are many occasions where I will do a book review for someone, send them the link, and they are like, “Okay, thanks.” Then it ends.

Dude, you have to share the link!

It’s in your interest to make sure as many eyes get on that review as possible. That means sharing it to all your social media platforms for starters. In fact, share it to your social media platforms every couple weeks using different images and promotional tags.

Then share it to a hundred or so relevant Facebook groups. Share it to Reddit. Share it again and again and again and again.

Remember the ten hours I spent reading your book? It’s kind of up to you to spend another ten hours promoting that review at the least. The more you promote the more chance you have of turning that review into something special.

I’m happy to review your book, but don’t forget that I am doing you a favor

Let’s try to be courteous throughout this whole interaction. There’s nothing that irritates me more than arrogance and entitlement.

I’m not going to write a nasty review. I always approach a review with the perspective that it will speak to somebody, and I try to write my review so that people can identify whether or not they are the type of person that will like the book.

However, I’m not going to mislead people either. If there are certain people that I think would hate your book, I’m going to mention that in the review.

It does you no good to trick a few people into buying your book that will turn around and leave a one star review. You need honest sales.

Every book deserves some attention

One of the things that the literary community often overlooks is that publishing is a business. There seems to be some misguided, underlying belief that great writing will always rise to the surface. That’s simply not true. The fact is, in competitive business it is in the interest of companies to put obstacles in front of competitors that offer a superior product.

Much of the greatest literature of our age is essentially censored.

If you’re one of those people who has ever complained about how terrible the writing is in mass-market media, then get off your butt and review some independently published books! Small press and self-published books wrestle with themes big publishers are terrified to engage. The problem is we have no mechanism for sifting through the hundreds of thousands of books that are published every year.

Be part of the solution

At the end of the day, it’s pretty easy to see what has to happen. Every author needs to take it upon herself or himself to engage the works of other authors in need of attention. Writers are constantly in need of content, so why wouldn’t you review? Writers must always network, and reviews are the best way to endear yourself to your contemporaries.

There are a lot of terrific books out there that nobody has ever heard of. Doesn’t that bother you?

Help me discover them. But please, take the time to make an appropriate contribution, and follow some semblance of structure so that the whole enterprise does not descend into chaos.

I look forward to checking out your work, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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