How to Get Your Book Reviewed Part Two: Building Connections

Hey guys! Thanks for tuning in for the second part on how to get your book reviewed! Before we start, I want to tell you that the Dawn of the Apocalypse book trailer is up on Youtube! See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--OQlwhUhb0

I'm all for friends with benefits.

Now of course I mean book friends. What type of person do you think I am?

Over the course of a few months, I have exchanged emails with bloggers, authors, readers, tour hosts, and other types of people in the world. Book friends are awesome, maybe even better than your normal friends. Instead of talking about TV and cooking recipes, you can discuss the books you have coming out, the novel you just reviewed, the author you interviewed, etc. Doesn't that sound exciting?

PLUS, my book friends have helped me a lot with promotion of my book. A couple of authors have even agreed to review it. Here's a fun fact for you:

"A person who is your friend is more likely to read and review your book than a complete stranger."

Trust me, it's been scientifically proven.

Now where do you meet these book friends?

On Goodreads, you can meet lots and lots of people. SO many groups have "Introduce Yourself" forums, where you can connect with people new to Goodreads. You can even find people who will edit your book for free (if you edit theirs). You might even find beta readers!

Goodreads is where I met my friend Emily Sturgill, who I feature on this blog every now and then. You can click HERE to check out her blog.

Sometimes I don't have the time, nor the patience for Goodreads, so I met most  of my book friends through this blog. How? A lot of the authors I reviewed books for kept in contact with me. We talked about sequels and such, than some more personal stuff still regarding book promotion. 

I love to connect with authors. They're very interesting people, they provide new content for my blog, and a handful of them are interested in me as a person. And my book.

Sometimes you can even connect with the readers of your blog (that means you). Sometimes the readers have blogs themselves. So hey. Anyone want to read my book? 

Every now and than I will respond to a comment on Twitter and exchange a brief, humorous conversation with someone. Almost everyone I follow on Twitter has some relation to the book world. This is a great place to meet people. Just fill your Twitter feed with people who are authors, bloggers, reviewers, etc (and make sure you actually give a crap about them!). Respond to their tweets once and a while. And hey, you'll get some new followers and maybe you can send out a tweet asking for book reviews. And maybe someone will retweet it. Then their followers will retweet it again. Now you have this great big circle of life all coming down to your one tweet.

I'm a naturally curious person, so a lot of the time I will just approach bloggers, tour hosts and authors, questioning the hell out of them. I told you yesterday how this paid off with my favorite blog, which I am excited about. Asking questions will connect you with some very nice people. I mean, what harm comes out of saying "Hey, do you have any advice for starting a book blog?" or "Your blog is gorgeous! Did you design it yourself?'

I mean, that's what I did.

It's not rocket science, people. If you feel like you're getting nowhere with your review requests, it's time to put on your big girl smile and make some friends. With benefits.

And make sure you also help your friends out with whatever they need. That's what friends are for, right?