One of the biggest concerns of new self-publishers is where to submit their books for review. Fairly or unfairly, most book reviewers are reluctant to review books from self publishers.
For this reason many authors go to great lengths to establish a publishing company identity that obscures the fact that their book is self-published.
In all honesty, many books that are self-published are not suitable for review and probably never should have been sent to reviewers in the first place.
There’s nothing wrong with publishing a book that’s unedited and put together from templates by a publishing-services website, if the book is for your own private use. But the flood of these books has convinced many people—wrongly—that all self-published books are ill-conceived and poorly produced, and the prejudice remains.
Finding Reviewers For Your Book
As publishing continues to open to self-publishers I’m sure many avenues for book reviews will become available. In the meantime, it’s important to conserve your efforts and find the most efficient way to get review attention for your book.
Now from what I’ve said above, you can guess that the most important job you have in is to make absolutely certain you have a top-notch product in the first place. If your book has been professionally edited, with a professional book design, and well-produced, you should be proud to send it to reviewers.
You’ll want to have a top-notch review package to go with your book as well, but that’s a subject for another time.
A Referral for Your Book Review Program
What I want to recommend to you is to make use of a great resource that’s been put together by Christy Pinheiro on her Step-by-Step Self-Publishing website.
Christy has put together an informative list of dozens of review sources who will consider self-published books, as well as links to lists at other sites. This is a terrific resource for all self-publishers and I encourage you to use it.
Getting a review for your book is one of the most effective ways of publicizing your book and yourself. In addition, because book reviews are editorial content, they are much more believable than “advertising.”
Now you have a way to find reviewers for your book, so that first review may be closer than you think.
