Your Book In Review

In books as in movies, book reviews are important. As I do my research I am discovering the importance of reviews.

At present, when I publish I’m putting my novel out into the world. I can tweet it. I can put it on my Facebook page, but reviews will give it extra gloss and credibility. Reviewers will tell everyone what they think of your book (good, bad or indifferent). Their network of readers can spread news of your book wider than you can by yourself.

So how do you find someone to review your book? That is easier than you think. Or rather, finding them is easy. Getting them to review your book? That may be a little trickier. But first, how to find them.

My first Google search was for Book Review Sites. That yielded 700 + million links. Had to narrow that down. I needed to find reviewers for my particular book. As Shadow Point falls under Paranormal Romance, I did a second search for Paranormal Romance Book Review Sites . That dropped my search results down to about a million which is reasonable in the world of searches.

Now for the work. You need to go to each of these sites. Find out exactly what type of PR books they review. For example if they only review vampire/shape-shifter types of stories, then my Supernatural Crime story isn't going to interest them too much.

Most of these sites have a ‘Request a Review’ contact page. They tell you exactly what kind of information they need before they consider your book. It may seem strict, but it is necessary for many of them. There are only so many hours in a day. There are thousands of authors looking for reviews and you've just joined the queue.

Patience is going to be a major requirement. It will take time for these reviewers to get around to reading your book even if they've accepted it. You are looking at a wait time of up to 4 months in some cases. If they don’t like it, they may not review it at all and they are under no obligation to tell you that.  

As Authors, the idea of getting your book reviewed by the New York Times is like winning the Pulitzer for journalists. It means you've arrived in the world of books and publishing. It’s a wonderful dream. But may be a bit unrealistic. Do I want to be on the NYT Best Seller list? Of course I do. But it’s not my only dream. To have my book read around the world and moderately successful would make me just as happy.

On a side note, I've run into the question of paying someone to review my book. I considered the option. But my decision is not to go that route. The primary reason behind my decision is that it doesn't seem honest. A good review for a bad book is not the type of reputation I want. That is what I want. An honest review. A honest good review would be great.

So, since Shadow Point is still in the editing phase, I am making a list of the reviewer sites I think would be interested in reading and reviewing my book. As of today, I've bookmarked about 23 sites and plan to continue searching for more Review sites. Does it seem like a lot of sites? Maybe it is, but the more exposure, the better. That along with the hope that the good reviews will outweigh the bad.

The Path to Publishing

Compared to the critique process, I'm finding another part of the writing/publishing world a maze. The world of self-publishing is a broad and busy minefield of options and choices.

The Path

Years ago, I like many tried the traditional publishing route. I sent manuscripts out to publishers I thought would like my stories. A few rejections and my belief in my writing took a beating. Oddly enough I kept writing.

Then the world of literary agents opened up. People who would take my novel and go head to head with publishers and all their minions to get my book out there. They were a busy bunch, but there were a lot of them. I figured my chances were better at avoiding the slush pile. A few hundred query letters later with my latest works and I got more rejections.

Yet, I kept writing. I turned my skills to writing Fanfiction for a while. I must have learned something from all those rejections as I started to develop a small fanbase for those stories. My trampled ego began to recover.

Vanity Press

Yeah this was well named and I considered doing this at one point. However, I was in a constant state of broke. I couldn't afford the number of copies I would need along with the fact I had a full time job that wouldn't allow me to go haunt the local bookstores. In addition, my chances of success were low.

Self-Publishing

This is the world I'm currently exploring. The internet has exploded with options and opportunities. At first glance it seems pretty encouraging. The pitfalls on the other hand are equally daunting as the advantages.

There are so many options that trying to find the best one for me is hard. If you don't believe me, just do a quick search on 'self-publishing' and look at the total of results.

So you, fair reader get to follow me on my path of publishing research. Even though I'm still in the 2^nd revision of Shadow Point, waiting until I'm done to start this process would be a bad idea.

Then End is Near (The 2nd One)

My first novel. Not the first one I've written, but the first one I'm going to put out into the world. NaNoWriMo 2008 was when I wrote this. I had such a sense of relief when I reached The End. It was stressful and crazy-making. But I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything.

I found a writers group that does critiques and I joined. Then last year I got brave and handed them the first chapter. I refer that that experience as having my baby eviscerated a piece at a time.

The evisceration is almost over. I handed them the last chapter and I expect the final notes this weekend. The End again.

.That means the start of Phase 3: Editing. Taking what they have given me and cleaning it up to make it publish worthy.

I am relieved to learn over the past months that the skeleton and some of the vital organ are worth keeping. I was lucky enough to find a group honest enough to tell me when I've written something that is crap or is good.

It's been a roller coaster, but it was worth it.