My Sordid Adventures With Book Bloggers

If an author is fortunate enough to hook a book blogger's attention, a blogger with lots of followers, that can be a great means of shining a spotlight on your book.

Truthfully, most book bloggers don't work for free, though. At least the popular ones don't. If one of them is legit and everything about them checks out, I'm not averse to "donating" in order to land a review. Look at it this way--you're willing to pay a book promotion site for newsletter placement, so why would paying a blogger be any different? If you find the right blogger, that can be far more advantageous than a one-day ad.

Googling "book bloggers" is inefficient, in that their names aren't going to simply pop up, but you can find various lists of them. I used a few of those when I was intent on getting professional reviews. Be aware that this process involves a lot of trial and error. First, you have to isolate the blogs that will review your genre, then figure out the blogger's follower count, then scan the actual reviews on their site to get a taste of their process. Finally, cost comes into play. 

My genre is far down the list in popularity, which left me with a small number of bloggers to investigate. I contacted a handful of those; never heard back from most of them. One told me that while he will review books free of charge, those are few and in between, and his price for a paid review was outside my budget. Another told me she'd be happy to review my book--no charge--but several months have passed and she still hasn't.

My most unfortunate experience was being contacted by a blogger out of the blue, and while she sounded great and willingly provided screenshots showing how she'd helped other authors climb the charts, her real selling point for me was that I'd found her blog on one of my lists and had visited it long before her email arrived. She was on a list, so she had to be legit, right? I'd almost been scammed out of money once before with a non-blog-related scheme, but this time I was definitely scammed. The person never wrote reviews; she just promised to write reviews. I subsequently found a few scathing articles about her online, once my suspicions were raised (when my review was not forthcoming). It ended okay, though, except for my wounded pride. I got my money back from PayPal, and the woman didn't bother to contest my claim. I'm pretty sure she was used to it.

Which brings me to the blogger I've been counting on. Once, a couple of years ago, she reviewed Shadow Song, and her review was well done and comprehensive. I'd forgotten about her (she wasn't on any of the lists), but once she sprang to mind, I emailed her about reviewing Running From Herself. She agreed, but warned me that it would take a while due to her backlog of books; probably 'til October or November. Fine; I appreciated her clarity. Yes, she always asks for donations, but as I noted, I don't have a problem with that. I shot a donation her way.

This blogger publishes two different magazines, and they're hits in the niche publishing world. Yes, they're real--Amazon links and all. Thus, she includes a blurb in her emails to authors about writing an article for either her site or for one of her publications or both. I impulsively agreed to do so, and while I put it off until time started wasting away, I finally got it written and submitted. She really liked it! She told me she wanted to include it in one of her magazine editions. Awesome! Great publicity for my novel! Again, she hinted at a donation, so again I sent one. I'm not talking about a lot of money here--$20.00 to $30.00--less than many book promo sites charge.

Well, time passed...and passed some more. Each time she published an edition of her two magazines, she emailed her subscribers to let them know. Each time, I pulled up the link and nope, I wasn't there. And each time she published a book review on her site, she emailed her subscribers to let them know. Nope, not my book...again. (It's November now, by the way--which was the time estimate she gave me.)

I didn't know if I'd somehow inadvertently pissed her off, although I can't imagine how. My correspondence with her was always professional and to the point. I wasn't trying to become her best bud or anything. This was a business transaction.

Guess what? I've apparently pissed her off for real now. Yesterday, another notification arrived. The new edition of Blah Blah Blah Magazine is on newsstands! Take a look--here's the link! Naively hopeful, I clicked the link, scanned the list of contributors in the blurb and...well, you know the "surprise" ending.

Maybe she forgot all about me. It's possible. Things get lost, misplaced; she's very busy; she's got a lot on her plate. So, I sent her a brief question: "Just wondering if you're still planning to include my article in an upcoming edition. Thanks!"

Was that dumb? I'm pretty certain it was. She hasn't responded. And she won't. What she will do is pull my article out of her stack, crumple it and aim it toward the garbage can. And she'll press the delete button on my book in her Kindle.

I guess I'm of two minds on this. I know that being an independent author is a subservient role. I know that we are expected to humble ourselves...a lot. I've been willing to do that, to a point. Trust me; that's NOT my nature. I feel that everyone deserves respect, regardless of their position in life. Plus, if I'm PAYING you, you need to deliver or give me my money back. 

The more timid side of me says, play nice. You're only hurting yourself by being a pest, albeit a friendly one. I should have bided my time, and eventually maybe I'd get that review (probably be a positive one--which is down the drain now) and I'd eventually get my article published. 

Maybe. Maybe not. Shoot me for wanting to know for sure. I'm running a business, too. A publishing business. All business experts advise following up if you don't hear back from someone. That's the time-honored process. Because I'm a lowly author, I'm not granted that grace?  

I do feel a bit bad about all this. Not necessarily wrong, but regretful. I've now managed to strike out with every book blogger I've managed to make contact with. But big picture, does it really matter that much? I've already chalked my novel up as a loser, and scoring a review or placement in a magazine wouldn't change that reality.

But since I'm now in the business of giving advice, just leave things alone. If somebody comes through, they do. If they don't come through, it's up to you whether you want to try to recoup your money. I'm not going to do that in this case. I'm (now) going to let things lie. 

At least I maintain my record of failure! You can't take that away from me!