Book Bloggers: Seriously?
By Adam Henig
If a DIY author has any chance of success, he or she must be realistic and knowledgeable about how and where to get press for their book. Don’t waste your time, for instance, contacting the book review editors of the New York Times or Los Angeles Times. And for that matter, don’t even bother contacting your local daily newspaper. The newsgathering industry is dealing with its own financial demise and it is certainly not going to dedicate its space publishing a book review of an unknown author. Essentially, bypass the traditional book reviewers altogether.
To reach prospective reviewers, (and in turn, readers), there are several avenues an author can take without spending a dime. Using popular social media sites such as Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook are a given, but nothing is as effective about creating buzz for your publication as the Book Blogger.
A subculture unto itself thanks to websites like Blogspot and WordPress, these bloggers are the new gatekeepers of the publishing industry. Kirkus, Booklist, and Publisher’s Weeklyin several respects have been supplanted by “Amy Reads,” “Bookslut,” “Busy Mom Book Review,” and “Reads 4 Pleasure” that are calling the shots.
After sifting through endless pages of Google search results for “Book Blogs,” in hopes of establishing a cadre of potential reviewers for my own book, I began to notice a pattern among these bloggers.
From their “review policies,” it is clear that these bloggers are being inundated with lots and lots of books, most of which, I presume, do not get reviewed, let alone read. These policies in many instances are quite cumbersome.
What I found disconcerting, though, as a self-published author of a biography, which is only available electronically, I concluded that the odds of having it reviewed by one of these book bloggers are nil.
Why?
Let me explain:
- No eBooks – First and foremost, book bloggers are adamant that they will not review eBooks; they want a hard copy. Are they aware that in 2013, eBooks accounted for nearly a third of all books sold in the U.S.? More to the point, considering their blogs are only available electronically, I find their refusal to review eBooks a bit odd (and hypocritical) at such a request, but, hey, they are the gatekeepers.
- Nonfiction is non grata – Nearly all book bloggers are female. Certainly, this does not bother me on a personal level but the reality is that most women’s reading taste (i.e., fiction: fantasy, romance, coming-of-age, paranormal, food) is frequently different than generally men’s (i.e., nonfiction: biography, military history, science & technology) as demonstrated by the scores of published blogs. Clearly, I am at a disadvantage in terms of what most book bloggers are willing to review.
- Self-publishing stigma remains – The majority of bloggers refuse to review, let alone consider, books that are self-published. Certainly, I understand the need for a filter like this one. Most self-published books are poorly designed, are not professionally edited and focus on topics that are narrow in scope. However, there are a number of self-published authors (such as, Catherine Ryan Howard, Edward W. Roberston, Johnny B. Truant, David Gaughran and many others) who are on equal footing, in my view, with most seasoned writers.
Furthermore, I find it ironic that the vast majority of book bloggers themselves are neophytes in the industry. Most have no professional background when it comes to the books they examine. Only a handful have ever reviewed books for an established publication. Yet, they are willing to exclude newcomers similar to themselves.
No matter. Authors and publishers alike have figured out the value of these bloggers and are more than willing to acquiesce to their demands.
All I want is for book bloggers to remember their roots.
That is why I have taken the initiative and launched my own book blog! As part of my “indie” (a fancy word for self-published) author duties, I have dedicated space on my blog to review books that are: a) nonfiction, b) available either electronically or via hard copy, c) and do not impose a “no self published book” clause.
In the age of Amazon, anyone, literally, either can be an author or a reviewer. I understand refusing to review books you’re not interested in reading, but don’t discriminate based on who is the publisher or the nature of the format.
Adam Henig is the author of Alex Haley’s Roots: An Author’s Odyssey (2014). A book reviewer, Adam’s writings have appeared in San Francisco Book Review, Tulsa Book Review, The Indie Writer Network Daily and Blogcritics. To read his blog, visit www.adamhenig.com.
Well said Adam. I’d also add that a lot of the female book bloggers who review romance (which is quite a lot of them) have stunningly poor taste when it comes to both literary quality and romantic heroes. Some of the books they rave about make the male out to be so one dimensional that it’s appalling. That’s one of my pet peeves anyway.
But great post. Fantastic point about indie authors not getting the press they deserve. After all, it’s that one of the wonderful aspects of the internet, no more publishing gate keepers?
Cheers!
Thank you Axie. I’m glad you enjoyed the piece.
I agree about the lack of quality “recommended reads” by certain bloggers. It’s probably based more on either “who you know” or, more likely,”I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine” than on the book’s caliber; not to dissimilar from how the real world works, eh?
Not so, we have had too many indie/self pubs being rude to us. We put a lot of time into our blogs for no money and being treated unkindly has started taking it’s toll. Unless we are aware of the author from other authors we already know, we are very wary to work with anyone.
I don’t read or review any romance, and neither does my feature co-blogger and most of the others I know. The ones who do read and review romance usually don’t do it exclusively. This type of disrespect is one of the reasons a lot of us tend to work with authors who are repped, they are more respectful.
The biggest reason many blogger/reviewers are not accepting indie and self pubs anymore is because of the overwhelming numbers of requests and the RUDENESS! Yes, you have your fellow authors to blame for most of the shift away from indie/self pub. Most of us do this for no money and do not deserve to be treated unkindly. I still review indies and self pubs, but only those I request from Netgalley, Edelweiss and get from First Reads. Also, I think you will find that most blogs actually say they are no longer taking requests, not that they are no longer reviewing them. I also get indies by word of mouth from other authors I have worked with in the past.
So accommodating of you not to be bothered by the fact that the majority of book bloggers are women. It IS rather thoughtless of them to have ovaries, but at least you could overlook it. You also make some very helpful distinctions about what WOMEN read and what MEN read. I have stupidly been enjoying fiction—even fantasy—my entire life. I was not aware that this was a FEMALE genre. I will go pick up a book about baseball immediately.
I was also of the obviously inaccurate opinion that the majority of book bloggers were READERS. I foolishly thought that the majority of READERS statistically read fiction… and that the majority of READERS statistically happen to be female. So, silly me, I had the foolish notion that READERS might write about the books that they READ, and therefore book blogs would naturally represent those groups more prevalently. Clearly I was wrong, and the powerful gate-keeping bloggers are at fault for their choices and deserving of your derision. Shame on this group of social readers for not wanting to read your book all about you in the format that you prefer. The cads.
On a related note, you might be interested to learn that google is not limited to the very first search string you type in. Having entered “non-fiction book blog,” I receives 47,000,000 results in about 0.4 seconds. I thought that little tip might be helpful to you in the future, in case you were interested in seeing any blogs out there other than your own.
Keep fighting the good fight. Happy blogging!
Hear, hear!!
Hi,
As a book blogger, I feel like I need to give my view on behalf of myself and many others who I know feel similar.
If I’m sent a book for review and don’t feel like I can review it to the best of my ability fairly, I will decline it or just not review it. This is because I care about my audience and the people who take the time to read my reviews. It’s not fair on them if I review a book I don’t have complete faith in reviewing.
Secondly, I, and many other bloggers, have to juggle (multiple) jobs and schoolwork so do not have time to review every single book we are pitched or sent for review. This does not make us any less dedicated because I would absolutely love to read every book I’m sent! Sadly, it’s not always possible.
I do not have a problem with indie authors and, indeed, know many of them. If I were to be pitched an indie book I thought I would enjoy I would happily accept it for review. The problem can be though that the marketing and publicity campaign behind an indie book is just not worth the same as a traditionally published book with a publicity and marketing team behind it.
I also accept e-books to review, and know a plethora of people who also do. It may just be the fact that many people prefer to pay for the food on their table rather than a fancy e-reader.
I really feel like I needed to reply to think on behalf of myself and a lot of other book bloggers out there. While what you have stated may be true for some bloggers I can say for one that I have never ever stated that I would not accept e-books. 99.9% of review books that I receive and review are E-Books AND self-published. I love self-published books and have done quite a lot of publicity for them and many remain some of my favourite books of all time, ranked above those that are traditionally published.
What I would suggest would be to do more in-depth research on blogs before stereotypically umping us all together based on the review policies of a few individuals.
Adam, seriously? I’m not even sure where to start, your post is so sexist, entitled, and offensive. I guess I’ll go point by point.
E-books: I and many other bloggers are happy to review ebooks. However, like many other readers, I prefer to read physical books rather than ebooks. I am only likely to review an ebook if I can’t get a physical copy. It doesn’t matter how well ebooks are selling. Each reader has their own individual preferences and blogging about what we read doesn’t mean we stop reading what we like. For most of us, blogging is a hobby, not a job, and we do it for fun. It’s not at all hypocritical to refuse to read ebooks when our blogs are only available electronically. A blog post is much shorter than a book and it’s much easier to stare at a screen for the amount of time it takes to read a post than for the amount of time it takes to read a book.
Nonfiction: I’m a female blogger and I started my blog to read through the Dewey Decimal system, one book per number. I love reading nonfiction and find your sexist generalizations very offensive. Yes, there are fewer blogs which review nonfiction, but this has nothing to do with bloggers being women and everything to do with the fact that in general people are more likely to read fiction than nonfiction.
Self-published stigma: I actually agree with a lot of what you say here. There are many fantastic indie authors, but unfortunately, it’s easy for them to get lost in the sea of authors who haven’t edited their books well or who send unpersonalized pitches which ignore blogger review policies. I love reading indie books and supporting indie authors, but when I’m going through particularly busy times in grad school, I just don’t have the time to sort through the many requests I get.
I disagree with your next point, however, about it being hypocritical for bloggers to choose not to promote indie authors. I never expected anyone to promote me, so there’s no hypocrisy in my choosing not to promote others.
Bottom line, bloggers do what they do for fun. We love to read and talk about what we read with others. We’re not here to promote authors. We’re not, mostly, here to make money. We’re here to read what we love. If for some bloggers that means only reading traditionally published, physical copies of romances, then that’s their prerogative and there’s nothing wrong or hypocritical about it. There is zero reason for that blogger to pick up a book in a format, genre, or publishing category which they enjoy less.