Indie Book Reviewers Post Your Blog Link Here!

[Christy Pinheiro]

As an author and book reviewer myself, I've had a difficult time getting book reviews for my self-published books. Some reviewers are even downright rude about it. So I started an online list of reviewers that accept self-published books. The best of these is POD People and The Midwest Book Review, both of them are highly respected and the "Big Fish" in the self-publishing world. Neither accepts a fee to review. None of the reviewers on the list below are fee-charging.

So far I've spent about 80 hours (now) hundreds of hours putting this list together. Every reviewer on this list has agreed to accept (or focuses exclusively on) Self-Published Books. Contact me if you want to add a reviewer to the list. It has to be a reviewer that is currently accepting submissions.

http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net

Please post your blog link if you are willing to review indies and small press authors. I will contact you and you can also be included in the small press "yellow pages" that we are working on. I've uploaded the reviewer questions in a word doc. 

[cjcoombes]

I have been reading the numerous postings on this subject because it is close to heart. I am an unknown, unpublished author who has waged the battles of being reviewed. One of the factors to be considered is that the length of my first volume is 650 pages and includes illustrations. Being unknown, including artwork, and passing the +-250 page size eliminated me from print not only by publishing houses, but also in many cases, POD publishers. Size does matter.

My only recourse is digital. Ebooks.

But that presents even more headaches than POD because instead of submitting a Word file to a POD, you are faced with editing your own work (unless you have the funds to pay an editor), do all your own page layout (if you provide PDF formats), all your own conversions into html etc. (again, unless you want to pay for it), and aside from all of this, you still have to learn digital illustration apps, build a website, and then get reviewed, promote, and let’s not forget…write.

A recent posting mentioned that there were four or five typos in a work completed by an editor. At 650 pages, I can only dream of having such a glorious score. I have spent months going back over the work improving grammar and cleaning up misspellings. What many reviewers may not realize is that after a few hundred pages, spell check does not function, and those little "finger flops" go by unnoticed. The "ctrl Z" undo is particularly disastrous because it can undo one too many changes and trash your work without you having the faintest idea--and this, not when you are writing, but editing for the fifth time.

For every day I spend writing, I spend a month in support work. I believe reviewers of unknown authors should take these issues into consideration and understand that the raw capacity for storytelling is what is important. Technical matters can always be addressed by the rules and improved by learning, but good storytelling can't be had by the best proofreader, editor, or reviewer unless they possess the creativity to do so.

One result of my experience is a new blog that calls for unknown authors to collect in one place so that instead of searching for reviewers, they might attract them. If any reviewers would care to support this concept, I invite you to follow progress at http://www.ebook-review-request.blogspot.com. By all means refer your ebook authors if you don’t do digital. The courtesy would be appreciated by many.

Book Blogs is a great site. Thank-you.

[Michelle-IPBR]

hmmm, kinda like NetGalley for indie authors. Allowing reviewers to pick the book they want to review can also lead to a better fit. I would redefine some of the fiction categories though and maybe expand. For example, Mystery and Horror don't go together IMO.

[Christy Pinheiro]

I checked out the e-book review request blog posted by CJ, and I really found it difficult to understand the submission guidelines. I couldn't tell if the authors were supposed to post a comment or something else to get their book reviewed. It's a nice concept, though.

CJ, as for the disabled spell-check function, I also publish very large manuscripts (non-fiction) and the way around that is to break the manuscript up into chapters and work on the chapters, rather than a giant manuscript. It also helps prevent file corruption. I pay an editor now, but I understand not having the funds.

I am also a book reviewer, and while I understand that a few typos are unavoidable, if a manuscript is full of them, I dump it in the trash. It's simply too distracting. A great story can't shine through if I'm laughing at the author's typos and incorrect grammar. That's reason enough to do a Word grammar and spell-check by breaking up the manuscript.

[Ashley Wintters]

You can add me to the list. I'm a self-published author as well and there are some AMAZING self-pub books out there that just don't get the attention they deserve!
http://ashleysbookshelf.blogspot.com
my email is [e-mail] and I accept pretty much any type of book except horror :)

[Christy Pinheiro]

Ashley, I've added your blog site to the list and the home page as a "new featured" blog. Please check your listing and let me know if it needs to be changed in any way.

http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/

[Ashley Wintters]

Looks great. Am going to look at the reviewer list now and try to find a few reviewers for my book :) Thanks for the list and I look forward to reading/reviewing SP books from here :) :)

[iamjenai]

hi you can add me to your list
http://www.bookinglyyours.blogspot.com/
email address is [e-mail]

[Christy Pinheiro]

I've added your blog site to the list and the home page as a "new featured" blog. Please check your listing and let me know if it needs to be changed in any way. I like the blog design a lot, by the way.

http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/

[Russell Brooks]

This is an excellent idea, Christy. I've found a sizeable amount of book bloggers from this thread.

[L. J. Kentowski]

Hi Christy, I'm a new book review blogger and I'd be happy to be added to that list. Have them come and check me out at http://readerrecommended.blogspot.com. There are just a few genres I'm not too interested in, so I'd be pretty open for reviewing.

Lou

[Christy Pinheiro]

Thanks Lou! Your site has been added to the home page and to the main list as: "Reader Recommended" Please check your listing and let me know if it needs to be changed in any way. I know your blog is new, but it's very nice-looking already. You'll have a hundred followers in no time.

http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/

[L. J. Kentowski]

Thanks Christy. I hope so. Listing looks good. I appreciate it. Happy to help read a book at any time :)