Writers Tricks of the Trade VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3 | Page 21

W HY G ETTING G REAT R EVIEWS IS Y OUR J OB (C ONT ’ D )
the profit margin in publishing these days. Let’s face it, you can use help, and
you don’t need to deal with disappointed (irate?) authors. And, authors! We are
ultimately responsible for our own careers. Sometimes when we wait to take re-
sponsibility, it is too late in the publishing game.
Some publishers charge the author an additional or separate fee for marketing.
C AROLYN H OWARD -
Many who offer marketing packages do not offer a review-getting package. If they
J OHNSON
do, the review their authors get is a paid-for review, which is definitely not the
route you want to go. More on that later in this chapter.
Visit Carolyn’s
website
Many publishers do not even have lists of people to contact who might help
“Sharing With Writ-
your marketing with endorsements or reviews. Further, many big publishers are
ers”
relying on bloggers for their review process more and more as print journals and
newspaper book sections shrink or disappear and as they begin to understand that
N AMED TO "W RITER ' S
D IGEST 101 B EST
grassroots publicity—reviews or otherwise—can produce a very green crop. And
W EBSITES ," THIS BLOG
bloggers? Well, that’s a resource pool you can easily plumb yourself.
IS A WAY TO CONNECT
My first publisher supplied review copies only upon written request from indi-
WITH HER READERS
vidual reviewers. They did not honor requests generated by their authors’ initia-
AND FELLOW WRITERS ,
tives. This meant that I could not count on them to supply books to reviewers I had
A WAY TO GIVE THE
TEACHING
GENES THAT
successfully queried for a review. Unless the reviewer accepted e-copies (and many
POPULATE HER DNA
reviewers don’t!), I had to order copies directly from the publisher and then reship
FREE REIN .
them to my reviewers. This method is slow, cumbersome, unnecessarily expensive,
“ I FERVENTLY HOPE IT
unprofessional, and discourages authors from trying to get reviews on their own.
WILL ALSO BE A FORUM
FOR THE EXCHANGE OF
Publishers should offer review copies to a list of reviewers—even unestablished
IDEAS . P LEASE FEEL
grassroots bloggers—who have been responsive to their authors in the past. And
FREE TO SEND ME
they certainly should not charge an author for review copies. Publishers have a
YOUR OWN QUESTIONS
profit margin and publicity obtained by their authors (including reviews) affects
WWW . THEFRUGALEDIT
their bottom line, too. They should send their author a thank you (or a red rose!)
OR . BLOGSPOT . COM .”
along with encouragement to keep up the good work
Publishers should also market their books. That means that even if they are too
small or underfunded to have a marketing department, they should have a list of
reviewers to query for reviews, a list of influential people to provide blurbs for your
cover, access to book cover designers (not just great graphic designers) who know
what sells books, and a whole lot more. Ask potential publishers about their mar-
keting process before you sign, but—even if you feel assured after having that con-
versation—it’s best to assume you may be on your own.
And here’s more: Big publishers are relying on bloggers for their review process
as print journals and newspaper book sections shrink or disappear and as they
begin to understand that grassroots publicity—reviews or otherwise—can produce
a very green crop. Bloggers, you say? Well, that’s a resource pool you can easily plumb
S UMMER 2017
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE TRADE
yourself.
P AGE 14
So, the marketing part of your book that includes finding the right reviewers