New Year, New Blog, Same great people!!
Now to a real question, which in today’s day and age is very important to try and be seen by as many people as possible. “How can I get my book reviewed and featured?” Wow, I’m glad you asked me that question, because that is something I can help you out with. I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it again for the hundred and first time. Writing a book is the easy part of this process, getting it read, reviewed, and sold are the difficult parts. Most authors don’t have a degree in marketing, and even if they do, that doesn’t mean much. Heck look at all the crappy commercials you see on T.V., just remember that millions of dollars and thousands of hours went into making that stupid thing, so don’t think that someone with a marketing degree is any better at getting their stuff read and distributed to fans any better than you. However, a lot of research and work have to go into getting your book read and hopefully featured and that should start BEFORE you finish the book. Spend a couple of hours a week finding blog sites that talk about your subject matter. If you are writing a mystery, don’t contact a paranormal blog site, hoping they will review your book because they won’t. Instead, search out book clubs, blog sites, radio shows, author fan sites, etc. that talk, read, and love mysteries.
Next, let’s take a magazine like, well Suspense Magazine. We cover the genres of suspense, thriller, horror, and mystery and all the subgenres that spin off of those major lines. However, when we get emails, we get a synopsis that is written on the back of the book and that is boring! Instead, you need to write a query like you would for an agent or publisher. When you look at the back of the book, that is written to sell the reader on buying the book, so you want to give them a cliff hanger of what is to come: will the hero make it out alive or will the killer succeed at his master plan. When you are looking for a review: so the hero is brought through a maze of challenges when the killer takes him on a ride through hell, but in the end the hero is able to weave himself through and ends up taking the killer down losing only a little bit of his sanity, but still keeping his family intact, or something like that. Remember that reviewers AREN’T buying the book, so don’t sell them on it that way, instead sell them on the characters, the plot, the beginning, the middle, and the end. It’s ok to give away the ending, or give details about how the hero loses his wife in a gun battle that ends up taking the killers life, but also his wife’s. Our magazine gets over 3000 books each year, yep 3000 and that doesn’t include the EBooks or the short stories, just in the mail. While we can’t review them all and many come unsolicited, we try our best to give every book some sort of look. Like many reviewers, they have read the same synopsis a hundred times. Yes, you have the best hero that is near the brink of death going up against the most intelligent villain ever written. Instead, you need to focus on the characters and don’t leave out the secondary ones as many times those are the ones that people will love or hate more than the main ones.
Posted on January 3rd, 2013 at 10:30 am
Words of wisdom! I just started my own horror/suspense publishing company, Smart Rhino Publications, just over a year ago. I’m no slouch when it comes to marketing, but I have to say that getting Smart Rhino books reviewed has been the biggest challenge in getting the company off the ground. It’s a neverending challenge as well!
But, I also need to point out that it is actually easier today than it was even a decade ago–thanks to technology and social media. You want to sell books? You must be omnipresent online. Being Web-savvy and using technology to market your books is not only essential, but critical.
John’s advice is spot-on correct. Listen to him, folks!
Posted on February 10th, 2013 at 9:50 pm
I have to go with Star HERO, because it balances readability with content. I like Fantasy HERO for its crunchiness but it doesn’t flow as well. I liked Champions, but I felt it didn’t really add as much as Star HERO did for stepping into the genre. However, some of that may be that my entire background with Champions/HERO is that superhero genre, so it’s harder to impress me, I admit. Very tough choice though – all the books are quite useful and have a high standard.