How To Email A Book Blogger

Hey all,

I was going to post another review today but decided on pushing that back till tomorrow and trying to help some indie authors in the process of emailing us fantabulous book bloggers.

So let’s see what suggestions I have and at the end please feel free to comment with your own suggestions, every little bit helps!

*Use our names in the emails*

We really like this, it means you didn’t just send us something you copied and pasted…[which you totally could but adding our names makes it feel personal!] We’re not bots and showing us you actually know who you’re emailing goes a long way.

*Check to see if there’s a review policy*

Chances are if there’s a review policy there’s somewhere on the page to easily direct you to it, and if you look and look and can’t find one, don’t be afraid to email and ask ‘I was wondering if you had a review policy for requests, I couldn’t seem to find one on your page’ this way we know you at least took a glance, and there’s important information in those things!

*READ the review policy. READ IT.*

Seriously, please, we put those up for your benefit and ours. Some people are very genre specific, some people are closed to requests, some may say how long it takes to get back to you, some may tell you the answers to life because quite frankly we know most people don’t read them so we can tell all the secrets we like.

It’s helpful especially if someone isn’t accepting review requests, they’ll only be annoyed if you email and ask as it’ll be clear you didn’t go look at their policy.

Someone could hate Sci-Fi, and guess what, they’re not going to accept your book. Not only that, but, you probably don’t want them to because what are the chances they’ll give your book a stellar review if they hate the genre? You’re the rule not the exception.

[Five points to your house of choice if you know what that reference is from]

*Do Not Badger*

There’s some unspoken thing in some book blogging communities, if we don’t respond to your email…well…we’re not interested and if we’re busy sometimes it’s easier to not respond and let the silence be our answer. Other times…like in my case, your lovely request gets stuck in my promotions folder so it may take a few days or a few weeks depending on how adamant I am about clearing out the folder. If you don’t get a reply, there’s like a gazillion of us, we won’t be hurt if you move on to another book blogger…as long as you read their review policy and use their name. And for the love of all shiny things please don’t send us multiple emails especially if we’ve never responded, or worse, if we have and have politely declined. Keep track of who you’ve emailed so this doesn’t happen, I have to do it for publishers, I don’t want to get blocked cause I forgot I emailed them and just annoy them lol.

*R-E-S-P-E-C-T*

Find out what it means to meeeee. Okay I know this sounds like a no brainer, but hear me out, sometimes in an author’s excitement they just forget to do any of the above steps and just email you from the seat of their pants because they have a great book and they want to share it. Which is great. But. We are people, and not everyone has the same reading tastes. Not answering is maybe not seen as professional to some, but just like you lovely writers/authors, we’re super busy. A lot of other book bloggers have jobs and other commitments or may just quite frankly not be able to be bothered some days. That’s okay. We try not to badger and disrespect you all and publishers when we ask for requests so we ask please give us respect as well, we do our work for free too.

*Your Request has been accepted….now what?*

Oh you poor soul. Now it’s the waiting game. If you’re wanting a quick review, make sure to talk about that in your request, and check their policy -if they have one- to see if they mention anything about how long you may have to wait. But rest assured we’ll get to it. *Whispers* Eventually.

[First off if you’ve emailed me and I’ve accepted, I’m so sorry. I’m like two months behind, but I do warn if you have a time range to let me know. Unfortunately I have been swamped recently but this month I made major headway and plan on clearing this list of requests. Many to be in July but it’ll stretch until probably forever.]

Do not argue the rating.

…Please…please don’t try to correct someone on their interpretation of your book. These things are very subjective and know that when you put your book out there, you’re putting out there knowing not everyone will love it. I know I’m a pretty easy rater, I round things up on GoodReads and try not to read anything that doesn’t sound like I’d love it off the bat, but, even if I didn’t, that’s still my opinion. Most are not out to make it personal when we don’t like a book, and if someone does get personal…well that’s a time for another post but know that emailing the blogger that YOU’VE asked to review your book and argue their rating will not get your rating raised. If it does, you got lucky because most people do not play that game and it’s a dangerous one. The best thing you can do is try to take any constructive criticism into mind and push on and find other people who will hopefully love your book and write spectacular reviews.

[I’ve mentioned this before but if someone is attacking an author on a personal level and tagging them in negative reviews, that’s on them. That’s not nice, and hopefully it’s not something that happens too often. If I don’t like a book, that’s all it is unless the author has been harmful to others in their writing. Then that’s another ballpark.]

*Anything Else??*

You should be generally all set but look in the comments to see what others have to say about this! Everyone is different, but I can say if someone has a review policy there is the wealth of your knowledge for them if you want to send them a request.

I love my writer and author friends and I’ve never had anything other than polite and lovely requests but I do have friends who have had to deal with some interesting things so I’ve made this post out of inspiration…though…it wouldn’t kill you all to use my name when you email. Seriously. It makes me very happy.

Haley. [I’ll accept Hayley or other variations but know I’ll be giving your email a dirty look when I see the wrong spelling]