THE Group for Authors! discussion

Over the years, I've sent my book to a number of reviewers, book clubs and readers who offered to review my book. One person has my book now and her review is overdue. Do you ever check back with a potential reviewer to see if they intend to review your book or do you let it go? Or is it a case by case situation, in which "case", when do you check back with a potential reviewer?

Sheila, send the tardy reviewer a brief and empathetic reminder. Understand the causes of the delay, workload, etc. If that doesn't work, take that person off your list. But at least you will have avoided creating any bad blood between the two of you.
Victor Rangel-Ribeiro

I agree with Victor. Check with them and if they don't respond, check them off your list. I've had it happen to me. You probably won't ever get one from them.

Victor and Pamela’s advice is excellent. I once had an offer to do a review from someone who said she belonged to Goodreads (she had, years ago) and offered to review a paperback copy. I sent her one, never heard back, and then found my book for sale on EBay. Unfortunately, you do have to be careful.

I recently offered readers on my mailing list the opportunity to review my newest book. I hoped that most of them would leave a review.
I sent this to any who downloaded the ARC I made available:

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your interest in reviewing my book. As a reader, you are so important to new independent authors as your reviews allow us to compete with the multitude of other authors, signed and unsigned.

Reviews do not have to be long. Even one or two sentences can attract new readers, and at the very least, a star rating would be appreciated. As for timeline, I'm hoping that they can be done within 4 weeks of receiving your review copy.

When you have completed your review, please let me know so that I can link it on my website. If you choose not to leave a review for any reason, could you please inform me so that I can remove you from my current reviewers list.

Here are the review links. Please leave a review on any (or all) of the sites.

Out of 20 downloads, only 5 submitted reviews. This was disappointing, as I try to make a connection with the subscribers and make them feel like a part of my writing journey.

I put them on a different mailing list so I can include posting information, and see who opens them (70=75% surprisingly). They receive this:

First of all, I want to thank everyone again for choosing to read and review my book. Rating and reviews are crucial for indie authors, as many readers make their choices about new authors based on them.

For many of you, Feb 5th or 6th was the requested date to get your reviews posted. If you need more time, please let me know. A few still have until the 12th.

Each week I try to send a friendly reminder, but it is hard to not come across as passive aggressive, especially when most seem to have just taken the book for free.

I hope that you enjoyed reading (or still are) my novella. I used several platforms to gather reviews for this book, and have been pleased by both the number of reviews and the high ratings. As newsletter subscribers, one of the benefits of putting up with weekly (maybe soon to be bi-weekly) is getting an advance copy of a book before the other plebeians—umm, I mean the lovely general non-subscriber public.

I want to thank everyone who has already submitted their review. I loved reading them.

Just a quick reminder that once you post your review, let me know and I will take you off this list and move you to the main one because we are having fun over there (well, it is fun but it's the same stuff, minus the review info)

That's what I do.

Victor, Pamela, Frances and Leon,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. You all agree that some follow-up is warranted. Leon, you even supplied a few possible messages--much appreciated. I definitely will send the reviewer a message today and let you know if I get a reply. Thanks again!

Sheila

Sheila wrote: "you even supplied a few possible messages--much appreciated. ..."

Feel free to use them!

Happily, I sent the reviewer this note: "Thank you for your interest in Best of All Gifts. I learn so much from reviews and look forward to your take on the story. If you choose not to write a review for any reason, or if you have a specific date in mind to publish it, please let me know."
And behold! She wrote me right back and said it was her next read and would I do a Q and A for her newsletter. Lesson learned, it never hurts to ask.

Sheila wrote: "Happily, I sent the reviewer this note: "Thank you for your interest in Best of All Gifts. I learn so much from reviews and look forward to your take on the story. If you choose not to write a revi..."

Yay!

Leon wrote: "Each week I try to send a friendly reminder, but it is hard to not come across as passive aggressive, especially when most seem to have just taken the book for free.
..."

A reminder every week sounds pretty aggressive to me. It takes me weeks to read a book. And just because someone accepted your offer, doesn't mean that they owe you a review. It's possible that they don't like the book--and know it from the first few pages--but are reluctant to tell you.

I believe that a better choice when asking for a review is first suggest that they read the first 1-2 chapters on your website, and if they are interested, you'll send them the book. You'll save yourself a lot of the angst.