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How to get reviews

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REVIEWER RESOURCES FOR INDIE AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

When you are an Indie author, it can be hard to get reviews. The established traditional publishers, especially the large houses, have an in to get this done for you, and small to medium size publishers can do this as well. However, it takes some leg work to set up your own professional reviewing network. Here are some resources that will help you tackle this critical ingredient in getting your book out to the world at large.

  • First, here are solid preparation steps to take before you contact reviewers
    https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-get-book-reviews/


  • Book Blogs – once the big thing for authors to nab reviews, book blogs are still productive, but as always, you must carefully choose bloggers whose focus, and readers, are relevant to your book*
    https://blog.reedsy.com/book-review-blogs/


  • *Another way to make finding relevant blogs easier -- try Targeter. Takes the hard work out of finding most productive list of bloggers to approach
    http://www.clkmg.com/ddrum/brthome 
    From https://nonfictionauthorsassociation.com
 
  • The Indie Review
    http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/


  • Midwest Book Review Resource List
    Free, highly regarded review source. Will review Indie books and have for years.
    http://www.midwestbookreview.com/links/othr_rev.htm
 
  • Non-fiction reviews, with highly useful tips to both market and get reviews. Applies really to both non-fiction and fiction. (See more on fiction next page.)
    https://nonfictionauthorsassociation.com/how-to-get-book-reviews-50-resources-to-generate-book-reviews/
 
  • Booklist – Librarian Reviews
    https://www.booklistonline.com/online-exclusive-reviews?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
 
  • Publishers Weekly
    One of the most highly regarded orgs, you can actually contact them at their weekly column "Book Life" for a review.


  • More free review sources
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/73538-the-indie-author-s-guide-to-free-reviews.html


  • Paid Reviews from Kirkus
    https://www.kirkusreviews.com/indie-reviews/
    Caution: they charge several hundred per review, plus, no guarantee the review will be positive, and the entirety will be posted on their site, so one cannot use only a positive sounding snippet. But if you get a good review, it is from a highly respected source.

Fiction – reviews and marketing combined - for eBooks primarily

Today there are also very low cost (and free) options for getting eBooks to market yourself, and some include tools to get reviews. Look to KDP to both print your book, and to convert your print book to eBook format -- for Kindle only. There are also conversion apps (e.g. Sigil) that will allow you to convert the Kindle-only eBook format to ePub, which is used by all other eBook distributors, including iBook. If you choose Ingram/Spark for print, they will convert your print book to ePub format for a small fee.

Growing Market in the eBook world -- serialized fiction leads to both reviews and sales

Also, there are new services offering interactive tools to help you develop an audience, as you use readers’ input to create serialized books. How this works – you publish one chapter at a time, read comments and incorporate in next chapters. This helps you build a buying audience as you go, and gets reviews.

Check out http://Radishfiction.com, started in the UK. Their authors can earn substantial incomes, and serialized books are also being sold for TV and film development. Publishers Weekly also reported in 2017 there is money to be made by writing in this way, including, as radish reports, sales to film and TV. Radish looks for authors at KDP, also Wattpad, WeBook, WidBook. They are open to all, and provide a form on their site for writers who wish to sign on. Not exclusive to fiction. Check their site to find out other genres they are developing.

Final note on the eBook and cell phone reading phenomenon. Print is still selling, and in fact has not been replaced by these forms of book. What is intriguing is that worldwide there seems to be a growth, not surprisingly, of reading on cell phones, rather than e-readers or tablets. It should be noted that in China 306 million people in 2017 “read Chinese literature on their mobile phones,” according to the Beijing Municipal Committee.
(http://medium.com/radish-fiction/fiction-on-your-phone-thats-novel-bf402e2e84b2) 
 
In Japan authors are also writing books on cell phones. We should all keep an eye out to see what happens in the U.S. Medium.com reported that in 2017 60% of people who read stories at least some of the time read on cell phones. They, like radish, also reported hundreds of millions of people are now reading cell phones for serial fiction.
 
Format note: Cell phone reading and writing may call for shorter books. However, serialized fiction may not -- readers salivate for the next installment. Here is a discussion of book lengths from online creator platform wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/62276449-wattpad-101-your-guide-to-the-world-of-wattpad-how
 
Questions? Contact us

Website, stories, videos, photos, audios and tools © 2010 Ina Hillebrandt ꟾ Updated regularly
Revised 2021. Updated March 2022
.
Some stories copyright by individual authors. Please do not share any material as is, or altered, re-packaged in any way. Short excerpts for review purposes only permitted. For other reprint information, please contact us.
  • Home
  • Services
    • Memoir and Fiction Writers' Services
    • Performance
    • Workshops and Appearances >
      • Footprints Memoir Workshop
    • Speaker Services
    • Educators' Services
    • Virtual and Other Options to Work With Coach Ina
    • Ask the Coach!
    • NEW! Momoirs
  • Books and Tools
    • You Are Who You Eat
    • How to Write Your Memoirs
    • Books by Our Authors
    • Ina's Weird Prompts
    • How to Get Reviews
    • Stories by our Authors
    • More Tools 'n Gifts to aMUSE the Writer in You
  • Testimonials
  • About Coach Ina
  • Press Room
  • Contact Us
    • Submit a Story
  • Blog