Requests left in blog comments?

[Evangeline Han]

What do you think of book review requests left in the comment field in your blog page? There are some people who (doesn't email you despite an email address being clearly provided) leave comments in my blog pages. I don't know if I should contact them or just ignore.

[Kathy Maxwell]

Personally, if it's a book that interests me, I would contact them.  But, I'm just trying to get in the book review door.

[Evangeline Han]

Personally, I find it rude since my email address is provided on the contact page and they leave their requests in the comment field of the contact page... but I feel bad just ignoring their requests. :(

[Vanessa]

I'm actually glad that you posted this question...  I am new here and have been poking around to get a feel for the etiquette and I hadn't seen anything about book reviews. I am excited about the opportunity to both review books and (hopefully one day) get my book reviewed by my peers, but I didn't see anything anywhere about how to go about initiating that type of exchange.

If there is a consensus of how we should all go about that I'd love to know, so that I can follow both paths respectfully.

Thanks for opening up the dialogue!

(and if it is posted somewhere I apologize, I just haven't found it yet) 

[Evangeline Han]

Hi Vanessa, if you're looking for book bloggers to review your books, you can contact them. Most book bloggers have their contact info listed on their page. If they ask you to email them, email them. Some bloggers don't except unsolicited books so check with them first before sending them a hard copy or ecopy of your book.

[Evangeline Han]

Haha, I understand what you mean.

[Kelli Wheelwright]

I would respond still, I would try to keep it short and sweet- I always try to be polite. You never know, sometimes its just a new author that doesn't know the proper way to request.

 

But I think you could let them know that in the future, please make all requests by email. SOME of these posts are just spam and can be disregarded

 

KW

http://www.ekfamilybooks.blogspot.com

 

[Evangeline Han]

Yeah, it gets difficult sometimes since I won't really know which is spam and which isn't.

[Kelli Wheelwright]

I normally judge spam vs no spam if it is a generic post. Personalized and heartfelt posts will most likely just be someone who didn't know better.

 

KW

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

I don't think that's very professional of an author or publisher--but KW has a point that the person who left the comment might be new to this and not know the proper way to go about it.

 

What I would do is respond to the comment with another comment in the same thread, because all commenters have the responsibility to check back, anyway. And then I'd edit my Contact page and Review policy to say that all review requests should be sent through e-mail.

[Evangeline Han]

Thanks for the tip! I will be doing that in the future.

[Sam Reader]

If they want to leave comments, I feel like they should. It doesn't hurt me that people request books, and I'm glad they care enough to suggest things I read, honestly.

[Evangeline Han]

I don't mind if they leave comments but I have a problem with these comments since they're left on my contact page and I very clearly stated in my review policy (and contact page) that I should be contacted via email, Facebook or Twitter.