How To Do Better Book Outreach

Most pitch emails for people  – mostly bloggers – to review upcoming books look a little something like this.

[gratuitous but not genuine suckup to blogger, saying how much the author or publicity person loves your blog and thinks it would be so perfect to highlight this groundbreaking new book. Bonus points if they cite a random link to make it look like they really did read something.]

[hyperbole about the book’s awesomeness, including a selection of words from the following: breakthrough, leading, stand-out, groundbreaking, compelling, gripping, startling, eye-opening, riveting, paradigm shift, but without saying much about what’s actually *in* the book itself. Lots of bold and italic fonts.]

[lots of bio fluff about the author, including how many top-whatever lists they’re named to, a summary of their titles, awards, and prominent clients/customers, along with an explanation for why the author him/herself isn’t really interested in talking to you personally (sorry, their schedule is so prohibitive), but that if you’re really lucky they’ll do their best to get you a quote or two if you want one for your blog post, and hey thanks, champ.]

Authors, publishers, and publicists, we can do better than this.

I appreciate that I’m considered worth reaching out to, but this kind of shortcut outreach has the *opposite* effect, making most people feel as though they’re just the medium, rather than a person whose opinion and input is valued aside from the temporary reach they might have.

So, in the spirit of creation over critique, and as an author that’s been through this with a reasonable degree of success, let’s look at some different ways to approach the review pitch that actually might get those bloggers interested in paying attention.

What We Did for The NOW Revolution

I have to say up front that I don’t typically do book reviews myself. It’s not at all because I don’t think they’re effective (see below). It’s mostly because I have no desire to publish negative ones, and I would actually have to do that if I were honestly reading and reviewing all the books that are sent my way (or I’d just have to stay silent, which is kind of a statement in itself). I’d also have a hard time keeping up. So instead, I have a holding page up for Brass Tack Reading which is still being assembled (ugh, I’m a slacker) because I’d rather have a “recommended list”. I just think it’s much more useful.

But embracing my own hypocrisy, Jay and I absolutely asked people to review The NOW Revolution when it came out. Reviews help generate some buzz and rumble about the book, and if done well, honestly give other potential readers an idea of what to expect before they pick up the book, hopefully through the eyes of someone they can relate to. Even the thoughtfully critical reviews have value, because they not only tell us as authors where we may have swung and missed, but it also may prevent the wrong person from picking up the book and not having their expectations met. It’s not just about creating a hype machine.

We did two things.

First, we sent personal emails to about 50 people that we knew as friends or colleagues and who we wanted to ask directly for a review. It didn’t come from our publisher, but from one of us personally. We emailed them individually, and followed up once personally. Just a few sentences: Hey the book is coming out (link to the site), we’d love you to review it or do an interview with you, here’s a few things to help (links, cover images), let us know if you need anything. Short, to the point. We followed that with a copy of the book that included a personal letter from us (again, not from Wiley) with a few tidbits about what they could expect by reading, and how we’d like them to help.

Second, we ran an open call for reviewers, hoping to attract the people who actually *wanted* to review the book. We were happily flooded with submissions, and so asked our publisher to help us out by providing many more review copies than would be typical (a couple hundred, versus a few dozen). They were awesome and agreed. We pared the list down to 75, and sent them each *two* copies of the book – one for themselves, and one to give away. (We sent those confirmation emails personally too, by the way).

The results? We got a nice collection of reviews; several dozen to be not-so-exact, but more than half from the original review group made good on their promise, many of which also carried over into Amazon reviews, too. That’s all from a diverse cross-section of blogs – not just the social media crowd – and we didn’t need to resort to a stale, cookie-cutter pitch that we just blasted out to a bunch of people.

A Few Ideas To Help Your Book Review Pitch

Be personal. Please, please try to convince your publisher to let you do your own outreach (if you’re self publishing, hopefully the boss is in agreement here). It’s so valuable for individuals to feel like the author is actually *personally* and sincerely invested in the communication and taking the time to ask for themselves. It takes time, yes. All told, sending out those emails and follow ups and thank yous probably took me a few hours. What’s the ROI on that? I haven’t calculated it. But it sure made me feel better.

Be brief. The people you’re asking likely have busy schedules, too. Offer a few bits of information about the book with a single link and be *specific* about what you’re asking them to do (a review on their blog, a review on Amazon, an interview with you, and whether you have a deadline in mind). Then offer your contact details and more information if they want it. Follow up once if you’re so inclined. No response? A “No, thank you?” Be gracious, and leave it be.

Expand your horizons. The logical thing is to ask for reviews from the people you know and that work side by side with you in your industry because they “get it”. But your best input can come from people outside your speciality if your goal is to educate. Unless your book is directed at your peers instead of your customers or clients that need to learn from your expertise, that’s only one dimension. One of the most useful “reviews” I got was actually a private critique from my father, who was a long time business executive (the audience we were aiming for) but is completely outside of social media. Try opening up reviews to people who might be interested but that you don’t know. Ask folks you *do* know to offer the book to people you *don’t* know. Get creative, but try reaching out of your comfort zone.

Offer format flexibility, if possible. The outreach we did for TNR didn’t allow us to offer access to the eBook versions, because they weren’t available until after release, and we were doing this effort in advance of the book hitting shelves. But if you have the opportunity to give your reviewers a choice of the format – PDF, Kindle, hard copy – so much the better.

Be honest. If you don’t read the person’s blog, don’t pretend you do. Don’t attempt the false flattery thing, either. Better to be up front than disingenuous. If you want someone to read your book because you think a sincere review on their blog would reach a lot of eyeballs and generate buzz for the book, say so. If their perspective really matters to you, say that and tell them why. If you don’t know someone personally, tell them how you’re connected “I’ve read your book and we met at SXSW last year briefly after your talk.” Help them connect the dots, but shoot straight.

Be prepared for critique. There’s no use in soliciting reviews only if they’re positive. If you’re asking people to read and give you their honest opinion, you need to accept that you may very well get critical reviews mixed in with the praise. Tell people you expect their candid opinion, and be ready to respond to that gracefully, regardless of what it is.

Skip the hyperbole. Not every book is “groundbreaking”, “breakthrough” or “compelling”. Your bio doesn’t need to be dripping with every accolade you’ve had. Loading your outreach with a bunch of back-patting praise for yourself feels desperate at best, and is off-putting at worst. Tell folks who you are, what you wrote, what they can expect by reading, and what you hope they take away from the book. Let them judge for themselves. Isn’t that why you’re asking?

Include other options. Not everyone will have the time or inclination to write a full blog review. That’s ok. Give them links to your Amazon page so they can review it there. Give them a link to your Facebook page or Twitter account so they can share that, or post something there. Give them your email address so they can share feedback privately.

Listen carefully. Set up searches in your monitoring or listening tool of choice, or even simply in Google Alerts or Twitter Search for your book title. Pay attention to what people are saying, and be responsive. You’ll likely discover reviews, shares, and input that you didn’t solicit. Embrace it, participate in the discussions, and be gracious. An engaged author is a really good thing.

Share the love. Keep track of who you’ve sent books to, and who you’ve reached out to. When reviews hit the web, bookmark them somewhere you can share, like Diigo. Use your Twitter favorites to curate the ones that are shared on Twitter, and reshare them as much as possible. Do a “review roundup” on your own blog and share some links back to your reviewers. Send thank you notes.

Don’t stop after the campaign. Just because you aren’t doing a big push for reviews doesn’t mean they aren’t good things to have. If someone approaches you online or at a conference to tell you how much they enjoyed your book, encourage them to post a review on Amazon. If they have a unique take or point of view on something you wrote, encourage them to write a blog post about it and share it with you. Marketing a book doesn’t end with the release date!

What Else?

Have you been on the receiving end of book review pitches or requests? What works and what doesn’t? What do you find helpful? What do you find off-putting?

Are you an author that’s done outreach to ask for book reviews? Have you found successes and challenges and will you share them with us?

Let’s give the publicists and authors out there something better to work with, shall we?

image courtesy of Radian6