Getting Your Book Reviewed is Money in the Bank! by Carol Malone

by Beth Barany · Published June 17, 2016 · Updated August 11, 2017

Please welcome author and book coach in training Carol Malone. Today she’s sharing her article regarding the process and skills needed to get your book reviewed, a necessary part of book marketing and promotion. Enjoy!

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Once you type “The End” on your marvelous, ground-breaking manuscript, all is not complete. You now need people to read and adore your book, and sing your story praises to the world. What you need is a book reviewer, someone who spends a great majority of their day just reading books and letting the world know if the book is a hit or a flop.

But where do you find such a top reviewer, one who’ll be willing to read your new novel?

Sometimes the closest readers to you are living in your home or sharing your Thanksgiving table. It would seem that our family members would be a good source of reviewing readers. And if you have folks in your family who read a lot, this might just work for you. However, this isn’t the time to drag out Aunt Martha and Uncle Bill from Tucson, and your cousin twice removed and her brood of twelve children to give you nothing but 5-Star reviews on Amazon. In fact, Amazon frowns on stacking the review deck, so to speak. And besides, having thirty perfect 5-Star reviews by people with the same last name is highly suspicious.

So you want to sell more books and get people to read them. It’s important get impartial people to read it, love, and tell other people to read it and love it. That’s the “real trick, isn’t it?” Han Solo asked in one of the Star Wars episodes.

What you want is to find someone keyed into the industry in your particular market to review your book.

We want Key Influencers.

What is a “Key Influencer?”

The answer comes from Beth Barany:

“Key influencers are people, personalities, or businesses that already have the attention of your target audience.”

Where should you start looking for a Key Influencer?

Beth Barany suggested in one of her stellar courses, “How to Get Book Reviews,” that one great place to look for books reviewers is to look for book bloggers. I suggest that you might try to find such people using the seer stone of the internet – Google. Type in the SEARCH bar “Book bloggers,” then your genre and see what magic happens.

EXAMPLE: I keyed in “book bloggers” and “noir romance sports” (because that’s what I write and it would be appropriate for me to find bloggers who specialize in my genre). Here’s what popped up.

I found SheReads.org. A list of “savvy, talented, and intelligent book bloggers in the business.” They list all the names and their bios for me to choose from. Since I write pulp-fiction romance, I joined a member of a number of pulp fiction writing Facebook groups. That has been a godsend for finding reviewers of that genre.

So search Facebook for your genre and join groups.

Make sure you know your story’s genre before searching out bloggers. Develop keywords for your Google search. Perhaps you have a particular theme you want to search on: romance, divorce, marriage, abuse, death, winning against all odds, etc. Try Twitter and search for #bookreviewers. See what you uncover.

Some Facebook groups have met the challenge of getting reviews for the author. Below is my list of review sites. The only caveat, you might have to reciprocate in kind – you’ll have to review other books as well.

Getting Your Book Reviewed is Money in the Bank

Facebook review sites to get your book reviewed. (This is just a short list.)

2 friends, promote your books with us:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2friendspromatewithauthors/

Amazon Book Review exchange:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/amazonbookreviewXchange/

Author’s, Readers, Reviewers & Bloggers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/312062222223877/

Author, Reviewers, & Book Lovers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BooksLuvers/

Beta readers/reviewers/blog tours welcome:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/312859708809053/

Book Marketing & review exchange:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookmarketingandreviews/

Book Review & Promotion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1403142149929031/

Book Reviews & Promotion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/148313988694907/

Book Review Depot:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookReviewDepot/

Book Review Exchange:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/reviewersrock/

Connecting Authors & Reviewers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/245132875517181/

Indy Writers’ Review Exchange:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/119691434778538/

Julies Book Review:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/JBRauthorpage/

Kindle Book Publishing and Review Exchange: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealthFitnessandbeauty/

Kindle eBooks Review Exchange:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/639649646049467/

Macias*Authors*Reviewers*Bloggers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RomanceMacias/

Novelspot Readers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NovelspotRecommendsbooks/

Post Book Review Only:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/273532452764586/

Review Seekers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/reviewseekers/

Reviewers Roundup:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReviewersRoundup/

The Book Exchange and Review:
https://www.facebook.com/thebookexchangeandreview

Writers, Readers, Researchers & Reviewers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/441618909278671/

Some Online Review Request Sites

If you don’t do Facebook, there are still plenty of places online that will read and review your book. A lot of them are free, but some charge. Some charge a lot of money, and there no guarantee of a good review. Do your research.

BookLikes:
http://booklikes.com/

BookLookBloggers:
http://www.booklookbloggers.com/

BookPlex:
http://bookplex.com/book-reviewing-service.asp

Booktalk:
http://www.booktalk.org/

Book Tweeting Service:
http://www.tweetyourbooks.com/

Createspace Question board: Where to get a free book review?
https://www.createspace.com/en/community/message/149171

Dearauthor:
http://dearauthor.com/

Freebookreviews:
http://freebookreviews.blogspot.com/

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/

Kelliesreadingnook:
http://kelliesreadingnook.blogspot.com/

Kirkus Reviews:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/indie-reviews/

Novelspot.net:
http://www.novelspot.net/

NPR:
http://www.npr.org/books/

Omnivoracious:
http://www.omnivoracious.com/

Online Book Reviews for Independent Authors: https://www.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1471

Readers’ Favorite:
https://readersfavorite.com/book-reviews.htm

Reedsy:
https://blog.reedsy.com/book-review-blogs/

ReviewRUs:
http://reviewsrus.forumotion.com/

The Kindle Book Review:
https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/book-reviews/

Writer’s Digest:
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/marketing-self-promotion/how-to-get-reviews-for-self-published-books

Your Writer Platform:
How to get review for your book without begging, bribing or resorting to subterfuge

More ways to get reviewed

According to Beth and her online home study course, the following people are the usual suspects when looking for reviews: Avid readers, your relatives, strangers, writer friends, booksellers, and librarians.

How do you contact people? By phone, at other book launch events, by sharing your book with someone, at a library, at a bookstore, by getting a speaking engagement, or by joining a local club.

The more you can do to get your book in front of people of influence, the better it will be for you to market your book. Approaching people is an art form as well. Learning how to ask folks for reviews requires gentle asking and diplomacy. Beth teaches that in her course, too.

Good luck! Wishing you much success finding book reviewers to praise your novel.

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Editor’s Note: Updated 8/11/2017. If you have resources that we can add, or links that need editing, let us know. Thanks!

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About The Author

An award winning novelist, Carol Malone writes historical romantic suspense to rocket readers into the past to uncover a hard-fought happily-ever-after. If not hammering out new tales, Carol is reading, watching sports, The Voice, or reruns of Castle with her author husband on the coast of California. She loves to connect with her readers on her website, Twitter, and on Facebook where you’re also invited in for a chat.