How Do You Get All Those Books – The Author Side
The extremely awesome Story Siren has done several valuable posts on how to get started as a book blogger. They include:
These entries are an amazing resource for the burgeoning book blogger- you should totally read them, and listen to everything she has to say. But I’d like to add something to the conversation, and that’s the author’s side. Everybody’s savvy to the idea of ARCs now- and let’s face it, everybody likes free books. (I do!!) But I wanted to clarify a couple of things from the author’s side, some good, some meh, but hopefully all something that you can use as you start, or continue maintaining, your book blog.
If You Get an ARC, You’re Lucky!
Publishing houses don’t print that many ARCs for most books, so they tend to be expensive. This means unless the title is a big mouth lead (ie, they print a huge run of ARCs because they want to build buzz,) there won’t be many of them- for bloggers, or authors.
I got five- no more, no less. So do most of my Delacorte imprint-mates. So there’s not a lot of point in asking an author for an ARC. We probably don’t have any and our publicist will be annoyed if you get one and review the book six months before it comes out.
You can still get them- sign up for each publishing house’s review clubs (Story Siren has the links!) and sometimes, the sweet rain of ARCs will fall on your doorstep. But seriously, probably best to wait until the book is due out in a month and ask for…
Finished Copies
This is the book in finished form, whether it’s hardback, trade, or mass market paperback. It’s the same book you would buy on the shelf, and when these are available, this is the best time for us to review our books- the month leading up to, the month of, and the month after. Most authors get a batch of finished copies, and many publicists are happy to send out finished copies to reviewers. So if you’re going to request something, wait until a month before the release date and request a finished copy for review.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive… Maybe
If you ask an author for a review copy, s/he’ll probably say something like, “Give me your contact information and I’ll forward it to my publicist.” While we do have copies of our own, we also have fifty seven aunts, uncles, grandmas, English teachers and best friends from grade school who’d like a copy of our book.
Plus, if our publicist sends it, you get the nice biographical information on the Press Release with it, which makes your job as a reviewer easier. So give the author your contact information, and s/he’ll forward it to their publicist.
So here’s the ugly part where I pull back the curtain.This still doesn’t mean you’ll get a book. Our publicists don’t have a never-ending supply of review copies either- because our publishers are in the business of selling books, not giving them away.
Publicity has to order copies to their office to be sent out- they can’t just pop down to the warehouse and grab a couple hundred. Which means we can send your contact information to them all day, but ultimately, PR decides whether to send a review copy.
Sometimes, if your letter was particularly professional, or we especially like your website, we can plead our case for why you should get one- but in the end, they decide.
How They (And We) Decide
About those author copies I mentioned above- yes, we have some. And lots of us buy extras to send out for review as well, but like our publicists, we have to decide where to send them. So this is how I decide whether to buy a book for someone who requests one- and it’s about the same way my publicist decides as well:
1) Their review blog has consistent posts for more than 4 months.
2) Their giveaway posts have more than 10 entries.
3) Their reviews are longer than 100 words and contain more than a summary.
4) They review, in quantity, books that are like mine in genre and tone.
I know that may seem arbitrary, but we’re not giving away books just because we love books. (Part of it is the love, for sure!) We’re giving them away because reviews help us sell our books- so perhaps this one will do well and we’ll have the opportunity to publish another one.
If no one’s reading your reviews, then it’s hard to say- without extenuating circumstances- that it’s worth spending 20+ dollars to buy and ship the book to you.
And You Should Know
You can get review copies without ever asking for them. How? Put an e-mail address in your bio and have an entry dedicated to your review policy. That entry should tell us what you like, what you don’t like, and how you handle books you don’t like.
I’ll still (shaking, quaking…) send a book to a reviewer who posts all reviews, one star to five stars, but I like to know beforehand. It’s helpful to know if you don’t like my book, if you’ll simply never post about it. Again- it doesn’t change my mind, it’s just good to know.
Between my house and me, we’ve sent out almost fifty review copies of Shadowed Summer to bloggers alone. I’d say that 85% of those copies were sent because I wrote to a blogger with a brief summary, and an offer of a copy if they were interested. Authors won’t leave comments offering copies, because then we’d get too many requests- so make it easy to contact you.
This Is Our Business, And In a Way, It’s Yours Too
Please be professional when you write to us. That doesn’t mean you have to be stiff and formal and weird or anything, but I’ve gotten requests for books like:
I need you to send me a copy of your book for review.
A lot of people read my blog, so you want me to review you.
I didn’t get a copy of your book (from your publisher’s buzz program.) Send one to…
I hope that authors are being professional and polite to you when they write to offer you copies of their book, and I know most of you are, likewise. I’m constantly, consistently impressed with how elegantly you run your review blogs; even if I weren’t a writer, I’d enjoy reading them.
But just in case it’s not clear, asking is always awesome, and talking smack about an author who didn’t pony up a book on your blog, in other people’s comments, or on Twitter? Again, I can’t speak for anybody else, but I remember people who do that, and I make a mental note not to send review copies their way.
That’s Not to Say
That you owe anyone a good review- because it’s important for everyone to remember that reviews are NOT for authors. They’re for readers. Sure, I dread getting a bad one-but it’s that truth that makes your reviews valuable. When you consistently, honestly offer your opinion on books, that matters. People rely on you- the people buying books, and the people selling them. Because nothing in the world is better than a good review that we earned.
So… that’s this author’s side of “how do you get all those books.” Keep reading, keep blogging, and I’ll see you online!
Posted in Meta
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Great post, Saundra!
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March 3rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
This is a really useful post. It’s always great to see something from a new perspective, and I haven’t heard much about review copies from the author’s side. Thanks.
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March 3rd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
This was interesting to read from your point of view.
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March 4th, 2009 at 8:16 am
WOW! That was great! I even learned a thing or two! And thanks for mentioning the blog tips! I think your extremely awesome too!
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March 4th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Thanks so much for writing that, it was interesting and informative to here an author’s side of things.
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:21 am
wow that was really informative. thank you!
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March 4th, 2009 at 8:42 am
That was interesting to hear from the other side of the blogger-author relationship. Thanks.
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Yeah I have noticed some reviewers asking for books and not even saying thank you. It really annoys me. If everyone wants free copies of books, then all authors won’t have a income anymore! =( I myself will be very happy when I get a free book which only happens once in a blue moon.
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:26 am
That was amazing! Thanks for writing that, I always love to have both sides of the story and it makes sense.
I haven’t heard too much about Reviewer Copies outside of the YA blogging world so it’s really great to hear your take on them.
Thank You!
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:27 am
WOW. This really helped! Thanks for posting this. :)
Stephanie
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Thanks so much! I feel even more honored than I already did that I have been receiving so many books to review!
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Thank you for the wonderful post! You have a lot of good tips! Its nice to here your opinion!
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:54 am
This was such a great post! It’s so nice to hear things from the authors point of view:)
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Thanks for the wonderful post. :) You have a lot of good tips in there. :)
hope.
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Great post! I’ll be sure to beef up my contact and review policy pages. Thanks.
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:27 am
This is more helpful to reviewers than you can imagine ^^. I love the last part about not owing a good review to authors.
Thanks for the post!
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Thanks for the information. I do read all of the books sent to me but if I don’t like a book I ask the publisher or author how they want it handled. Usually it is that the book doesn’t really fit into the genre I like to read. I have gotten pickly lately about accepting books for review. I try to only read what I and my readers like.
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:53 am
This is a really informative post. Even being a blogger for more then a year and learning quite a few things about review copies and such, I found this entry to open my eyes to many new things.
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March 4th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Thanks for putting all of this into a succinct and informative post, Saundra! It’s all the stuff I’ve wanted to say myself! :)
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March 4th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Well, gee! I didn’t get one of those 50 review copies! How rude!
(kidding!!)
This is actually a great post and I appreciate you writing it. Having worked in bookstores for almost a decade I know how precious ARCs are and how awesome pub reps can be. ;) You have some great tips in here and I think everyone should read this post!
By the way, your book is on my wishlist and has been since I heard about it! I’m just trying to be slightly more responsible with the money I spend on books so my mortgage company will be happier. ;)
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March 4th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Excellent post, Saundra!
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March 4th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Fantastic post, Saundra. It’s so interesting to see this from your point of view – clears a lot up!
(Also: that author voodoo is working MAGIC, I tell you.)
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March 4th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
This is a fantastic post. I’m going to point my readers to it. Thank you!!
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March 4th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
This is one of the most interesting posts I’ve read for ages. Thanks for writing it!
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March 4th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Thanks so much for posting this Saundra! I’m glad that an author finally said something about it!
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March 4th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
This is so informative. Thank you for sharing this information.
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March 4th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Thank you for this post. It was unbelievably helpful and helped boost my ego, man… :) Thanks Again.
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
There’s a lot of great information here. Thanks for posting it! It’s always good to know what it’s like for the author!
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March 5th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Great post, there’s alot of helpful information there. :)
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March 5th, 2009 at 12:05 am
So can you send me your book now or what?
hahaha just kidding!!
Like everyone said, this was a really great and useful post especially for us noobs at the book blogging world. Thanks for this Saundra! ^_^
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March 7th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Thanks for a terrific post. As a blogger who gets a lot of review copies and ARCs of books, I am always interested in the perception and thoughts of the author. You have given bloggers wonderful insight into the review process…
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March 8th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
[...] Here’s a post about getting ARCs from an author’s point of view. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic! [...]
March 9th, 2009 at 8:13 am
This is a great post. Thank you for sharing it. Its very helpful and phew now I know I am polite when I am asking for books from authours LOL.
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March 9th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
v. helpful post :D glad i read it! (and glad i got an ARC of SS!)
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March 9th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
So if I hadn’t already bought your book because I want to read it (we have a date this weekend), I would so buy based on your blog. I learn so much!
Thanks
~lindsey
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Saundra Reply:
March 11th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Awwwwwww, Lindsey, you’re too sweet. You’re going to love Carrie’s book, and I just feel lucky that I get to be her friend and stuff. :D
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March 10th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Great info every blogger seeking ARCs should read. I’m going to link to this from my advice for new book bloggers FAQ (which is here in case you missed it).
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Saundra Reply:
March 11th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Thank you so much, that would be fantastic! I’m so glad you found it useful!
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March 19th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I am really new to book review via a blog and I am thankful that there are people from all kinds of perspectives willing to help people like me.
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March 22nd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
A very interesting and informative blog entry here! Thanks for providing your side of the situation here.
I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised at the… brassness of potential “reviewers” but I am. It would never occur to me to “ask” like the example you gave, but other people are not me.
It is interesting to see how blog etiquette changes slightly from circle to circle – I’ve been a part of the “self-hosted Wordpress and layouts designed from scratch” circle for almost two years now and have only just started an offshoot blog just for books (to keep it from taking over the main blog) so it’s interesting to see how the two circles are both the same and different.
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May 14th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Hi saundra, those are some great tips for newbies who love books and like to review them. As a middle school librarian I’m learning to do better reviews for my kids and other librarians. By the way I just reviewed Shadowed Summer for our local school librarians and I reccomended to all of them! Can’t wait for your next book!
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Saundra Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Wow, Darcy, thank you so much! And I can guarantee you, that I do my DEAD level best to make sure all librarians get review copies. I’m pretty sure that heaven is a library. :) Thank you so much for your kind words, and for recommending my book. It really means a lot to me!!
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November 15th, 2009 at 11:34 am
good insight = thanks :)
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December 6th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I’m a fairly new blogger myself, so I can’t tell you how much this helped me! Thank you so much, and I’ve amended my review policy to say something along the lines of “I will not outright insult your book,” and I’ve never come accross a book that makes me want to say that either way. Great post! :)
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