Guest Blogger Author Cesar

Best way to get Reviews

This is my first book and I chose at some point along the road to self-publish for a few reasons, but this left instant issues on my mind, most of all, how to get reviews. If you walk through a bookshop and browse books, what is the first thing you notice? Yep you have a little read at the blurb comments left by reviewers which may say “amazing read” or “left me on the edge of my seat”. Yet here I was on the road to self-publishing and first of worried about how to get reviews of my book before it had even been published; so that I could quote from them for the cover. The task haunted me! What made it worse was when I contacted newspaper or review companies that even if they did reply, they were not interested because I was self-published. I felt like pulling my hair out.

What set me on the road to recovery was joining two websites in particular, authorsden and linkedin and that’s where things changed for me. Maybe other authors could review my book? I went back to my publisher that was doing the design of my cover and asked them if they had some sort of service where authors could review each others work, but they didn't. So I posted on authorsden and linkedin that I was looking for pre-publication reviewers for my Book of Prophecies. The offers slowly trickled in and I got thirteen requests within a couple of weeks.

Then my worry switched suddenly, paranoid that maybe one of these nice kind people who had offered to help me would perhaps steal my book or post it on some website that people could get ahold of it for free. So I done what most people do, I posted myself a copy through registered post service, which apparently stands up in court if anyone chooses to challenge the ownership of things? And so I sent off my book into the world and got my reviews that I needed for the cover, but it wasn't easy, and maybe I only found reviewers for my book because of its unusual topic, that I do not know, I guess I will find out when I got through the process again with a book that’s not about prophecies. But the key is definitely to be part of a book social network, to make friends with other writers who are willing to help you out, and you must be willing to help them out in return.