Sometimes I think things are so obvious that I couldn’t possibly need to write a tutorial on them.  Review requests seem like basic common sense to me, but judging from the number of requests I’m still getting despite having closed submissions over a month ago shows that some authors have no idea what the heck they’re doing.  So in my usual list format I’m going to go through the steps of writing a book review request email that won’t make reviewers want to punch you.

Step #1: READ THE REVIEW POLICY!

Due to the generally family-friendly nature of this blog I am resisting the urge to swear to emphasize my point.  Regardless, the first thing you should ever do when visiting a book review blog looking for a blogger to review your book is read their review policy.  How do you find a review policy?  Well, it’s either under its own tab at the top or side of the web page or is generally under FAQs.  If it’s not under any of those, use the search bar.  Once you find a reviewer’s policy, ask yourself these questions while reading it:

a)  Is this reviewer open to submissions?

b)  Is my book in the acceptable genre list?

c)  Does my book meet any other requirements?

d)  What other information do I need to collect in order to make a request? Continue reading →