Dear Story Siren (7)

Publisher Interaction/Advance Reader Copies

Dear Story Siren,

When you write in to request a book is it okay to write about mulitple books or should you do seperate e-mails for each book?

Anon

Dear Anon,

A great resource for this question would be “Advance Reader Copies: What You Need to Know“

This question is answered in there, but yes it is okay to write about multiple books. I think it is preferred that way actually.

Story Siren

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Dear Story Siren,

I’ve gotten some books for review before but I’ve never contacted an author or publisher myself, I’ve just let them contact me. But I was curious about what you should mention when contacting a publisher about reviewing books for them, I read your post about ARC’s and blog stats were mentioned but which stats are the ones that matter and should be mentioned in the email to publishers?

Anon

Dear Anon,

I think the stats that should be mentioned are your visitor stats. It’s beneficial to the publishers to know the outreach of your blog. The one that has the most stout is the unique visitor stat. This counts how many people actually visit your blog, not how many times your blog is viewed, since the same person can view it multiple times a day. If you have a blogspot blog, you have access to Google Analytics, I suggest using it!

Story Siren

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Dear Story Siren,

How did you start getting review copies? What did you do to get them? I’d really like to start doing this…but I am not sure how. Help!?

Anon

Dear Anon,

I used to get this question a lot, not so much anymore, which is actually a little surprising, but everyone’s story is a little difffernt.

Getting review copies doesn’t happen overnight. Well for me it didn’t. I’ve seen blogs start up and then get them that same week, or it seems that way… but like I said, it didn’t happen for me overnight. I started blogging in 2007. So I’ve been at this awhile. I didn’t get my first advance readers copy until I had been blogging for six months. Honestly when I started my blog, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an advance readers copy, I didn’t even know that you could get sent books to read. I only knew of one book blog when I started and I found it shortly after I started mine.

One day I got an email from an author inquiring if I would like to read their book. I don’t even think they asked for a review, just if I might be interested in reading their book. I did end up reading and reviewing the book and it is one of my favorites. (Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder) Then shortly after that I got more requests. So that’s how it started.

As far as what I did to get them. Well I think I gave the author or publisher a reason to want me to read their book. I posted regularly. I posted quality content, actual reviews and not just a bunch of memes. I had a semi-active following. I took my blog seriously and I had fun doing it. People are very perceptive, your blog is a reflection of yourself. It’s not hard to see the reasons a person started the blog and if they are having fun doing it.

My Advice on how to get it all started is to check out this post: Blog Advice.

Also check out Advance Readers Copies: What You Need to Know.

Story Siren

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Dear Story Siren,

Someone recently advised me to start sending my reviews to the publishers. Are publishers only interested in seeing reviews of yet-to-be-released ARCs or do they also want to read reviews on books that have been on shelves for more than a few months?

Anon

Dear Anon,

It is a good idea to send your review links to publishers. Especially if they send you the book for review. I usually send review links even if the book has already been released. I use the one year rule. If it’s been released for under a year I still send it. It it’s been over a year then I don’t. I also check to see when the paperback release is scheduled. If it’s been less than a year for the paperback release I send the review as well. On that note, paperbacks usually come out around a year after the original release date, so that is something to keep in mind.

I’m not sure how the publishers feel about that. That might be something I should find out!

Story Siren

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Dear Story Siren,

How do you contact the publishing systems to ask for review to their books? I know they send you their new realeases and such but how can i get that for my own blog? Hoiw do I start?

-Book Geek

Dear Book Geek,

I feel like a broken record here, but be sure to check out Advance Reader Copies: What You Need Know

As far as contacting publishing houses, there is usually contact information on their websites.

Story Siren

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Hey Story Siren,

I really want to start a book blog, but I don’t know where to begin! How do you get books to review from the publishers, and ARCs? And everything else. I know this is a huge question, but I really hope you’ll answer it ! I wanna spread the book love

Sincerely,
BookLover

Dear BookLover

For advice on starting your book blog and where to begin check out Blog Advice. That is a great place to get started and I’ve tried to cover everything. There is also a link for ARC questions as well.

Story Siren

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Hey Kristi,

I was wondering if, after you post a review, you send a link back to the author/publicist who offered you the review copy? I want to be courteous, but also don’t want to bog up their e-mail boxes when they may receive hundreds of these letters each day. What do you recommend?

Thanks so much,
Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I usually wait until the end of the month and then send all of my review links for the month. That way you aren’t clogging the inbox!

Story Siren

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