How to Get Your Self-Published Novel Reviewed

by C. Patrick Schulze

If you’ve decided to self-publish, you already realize every aspect of marketing your novel falls in your lap. And within the marketing arena, one of the most difficult things to accomplish is to have your self-published novel reviewed.  In this blog post, I’ll offer some tips on how to get your self-published novel reviewed and hope you find some that’ll work for you.

First, you need your marketing  pack, a sales tool all authors need. Your pack should include those same things a traditionally published author uses: a marketing post card, a professional head shot and letterhead for your author’s bio, information about your novel and blurbs. VistaPrint, among other shops, can do the printing of your marketing pieces. You’ll want to seek at least fifty reviews, so have that many packets on hand.

You want to have this material ready three to four months ahead of your pub date as that is when you’ll ask for your novel reviews. This means, of course, your book will not yet be published when you seek your reviews though you must have your completed novel in hand.

Okay, you’ve got your completed manuscript in hand and all marketing materials ready. Now, where do you get these coveted reviews?

Consider these sources:

Other authors in your genre

Organizations that relate to your novel

Bloggers Book review websites

Every major newspaper, especially your local rags

And of course, Amazon.com

While performing my research for this article, I found a number of websites that have self-published novel review sections. Take a look at:

Simegen

MidwestBookReview.com

BookReview.com

Midwest Book Review

Foreword Magazine

Reader Views

January Magazine

Critique Magazine

All Readers

The Compulsive Reader

Front Street Reviews

Self Published Authors

Book Ideas

Overbooked

Club Reading

Rebecca’s Reads

Breeni Books

All Book Reviews

Authors Den

TCM Reviews

American Book Review

Book Pleasures

Curled Up with a Good Book

Here are a couple of secrets to know when you contact these people or organizations. You should consider them individually in lieu of mass mailing to everyone. Many will have specific requirements you must follow for consideration and it’s in your best interest to follow those directions. Another secret is to seek niche reviewers. They may have influence over those people who might have the most interest in your novel. And finally, I’m certain there’s no need to remind you that basic courtesy goes a long way when asking for reviews.

Now for a few more sites that may have more information on the subject.

Self Publishing Magazine

Indiebound.org

Self Publishing Review

By the way, here’s a link I found that tells you have to get your self-published novel into Barnes and Noble. http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/how_to_get_your_self.htm

I hope you found something here to help you get your self-published book reviewed. If so, maybe it’ll help you achieved that best-seller status I wish for each of you.

C. Patrick Schulze

Platforms—Why They’re Important and How to Develop One

Why is building a platform important, even if you’re an unpublished writer? Besides the future promotional benefits, you also develop the discipline of writing (sometimes daily) for a responsive audience of readers. Writing interesting content daily is wonderful practice. And having an established online community that you’ll later be able to promote to is always a plus for a publisher.

Some things to consider when building your platform:

Do

Do use your blog as a way to practice writing regularly. Try to post on a regular schedule, even if it’s just twice a week. If you feel more comfortable having a buffer between you and the demands of your blog, consider building up several weeks’ worth of posts before you even launch your blog. But—continue writing posts as much as possible to keep that buffer up.

Do make blogging friends and network. You really only need one active blog to follow to get you started. This could be a blog in your genre or just a general writing blog. Active blogs usually have healthy blog rolls in their sidebar. Start clicking on blogs. Each of those blogs will also usually have a blog roll in their sidebar, too. In addition, when you add a blog’s RSS feed to your blog reader (e.g., Google Reader), when you click on “folder settings,” Google will recommend blogs that are similar in content to the one you’re adding to your reader (“More Like This”). That’s another great way to discover new blogs in your niche. The next step is commenting on blogs and developing a network, really more of a community. That step is extremely important to finding a readership for your blog.

Do consider Twitter and/or Facebook. Both are excellent ways to network online with other writers and industry professionals. You’ll learn a lot, discover resources that can help you with your writing, and network with other writers. Writing can be lonely and finding friends online is a tremendous help.

Do make sure your blog, Facebook, and Twitter presence is professional-looking. Professional doesn’t mean it has to be created by a web-designer—just that it’s carefully edited for typos or grammatical errors and that it has your contact information readily available. Plus…consider the content you’re putting on your blog and how it might look to an agent or editor.

Don’t

Publish manuscript excerpts on your blog. Many publishers and reviewers will consider your manuscript published if it’s appeared online.

Overpromote yourself. It’s much more effective to take a soft-sell approach when getting followers for your blog or (later) when promoting your book. Instead, look for ideas or resources that you can share with other writers. Try to contribute something of value to the community.

Hound agents or editors via social media about your query or submission. It’s not a good way to make friends.

With blogging, I’ve gotten ideas from other writers on plotting and character problems. I’ve developed friendships and readers—for my blog and my books. I’ve exchanged resources that help me with my writing. I’ve analyzed my approach to writing, which has helped me write other books. I’ve also known a couple of bloggers who found literary agents through their blogs—obviously a more tangible benefit to blogging.

Is platform building hard work? It is. But the rewards are worth it.

Elizabeth Spann Craig
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com
http://elizabethspanncraig.com

Elizabeth Spann Craig writes the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and is writing the upcoming Memphis Barbeque series for Berkley Prime Crime as Riley Adams. Like her characters, her roots are in the South. As the mother of two, Elizabeth writes on the run as she juggles duties as room mom and Brownie leader, referees play dates, drives car pools, and is dragged along as a hostage/chaperone on field trips.

How to Promote Your Writing with Technology

by C. Patrick Schulze

Listen to a PODCAST of this Article.

The world of writing is about to roll over in the grave it doesn’t know it’s in yet. The writing industry is on fire and undergoing cataclysmic alterations to its landscape due to the advancement of technology. And everyone involved with writing, agents, publishers, book stores, readers and those who do the writing, are caught up in this technological conflagration. It is my opinion the landscape that emerges from this titanic struggle will look very different than the one with which we are now familiar. The industry will survive, no doubt, but in a vastly altered state from the one we see today. As to those who do the writing, I believe they will become business people who write, rather than writers who do business. In fact, this alteration has already begun in earnest as even traditionally published authors are now required to do their own marketing.

With this in mind, it becomes evident writers should embrace this technology if they wish to enhance their marketing efforts. Here’s some thoughts I garnered on how to do that.

As a writer, you should consider using podcasting and videocasting to promote your novel. Even Simon & Schuster acknowledged this was necessary. Here’s why.

First and foremost, people spend a lot of their time on the Internet which is already transportable. Even more, the future of the Internet is video. In fact, video search is growing in popularity at an astonishing speed.

If you’ve paid attention to how to market books in today’s environment, you know the new attitude toward sales is all about the human connection. This link builds trust between people and trust is a critical element in marketing. With this in mind, video is about as personal as we can get without being there.

The best aspect of video is it’s demographics. From Elites TV, you’ll find video demographics are “53% male/47% female. 55% urban with median income of $74K. Nearly 70 percent are college educated, 47% are married, median age is 33, 71 percent are employed.” Pretty strong marketing core, wouldn’t you say? And best of all, these are the people who buy the books.

Would you like one more reason to get into video casting? Few authors do it. That leaves you with a larger piece of that pie. Keep in mind as the younger writers among us come up, they’ll use video and leave those who don’t in the dust.

How do you get involved with videocasting? It’s simple, really. Pick up a video camera at your favorite electronics outlet then talk into it and upload it to YouTube. After that, promote the hell out of it. Check out Gideon Shalwick’s article GetYourVideoOnline.com for more information.

An offshoot to video is a book trailer. Joanna Penn of TheCreativePenn.com has a nice article on how to create your book trailer at Book trailers: 11 steps to make your own.

Next, you should consider podcasting as a marketing tool. Podcasting is about as easy a thing as there is to do. You download free recording software from Audacity, pick up a microphone and start talking.

Why podcast? Well, with the advent of the IPod and its multitude of copycats, your audience can take you with them anywhere they go. It’s free and the spoken word has a great deal of impact. However, one of its most important features is it makes you read your work aloud. This technique has magnificent powers of influence over your writing. I can almost guarantee your writing will improve by the simple act of podcasting. To get an idea of how this translates into real life, check out BlogTalkRadio.

I have one last comment for you on book marketing in this gilded age of the Internet. Check out this information from Joanna Penn for even more help. After all, much of my research for this article came from her.

Oops, I have one more one last comment. Fortune favors the bold, my friends. Be bold and embrace the technologies of writing and your writing career has a better chance for success. Until we meet again, I wish for you only best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze
Author of the emerging novel, “Born to be Brothers.”