Book Reviews

Last week in our Sisters in Crime local group meeting, we took care of the usual pre-guest presentation business. This being January that included electing officers, and making plans for guests and presentations for the upcoming months. Instead of having a guest author or expert in the field in February, we voted to have a members' discussion on publishing and marketing. During our introductions, one member mentioned she was a reader and also was a book reviewer. She is a retired librarian but she also put the word out there about doing book reviews, having done many of them herself, especially if we've read other members' books - word of mouth. Not only is that exposure for the book reviewer who is an author, it is exposure for the other author being reviewed.

Yesterday on my blog I talked about followers and readers, so it only makes sense that reviewers are part of the circle as well.

Therein lies the age-old question - how do you go about getting reviews and thereby readers of your books who are followers of your blog or website or your books in general? This is the hardest part of marketing. Getting those folks to read your books.

I've got a special deal running for the month of January of giving away PDF or ebook version files of all titles available in exchange for reviews. I have had one request for three of the titles (same person requested a copy of Finally Home, "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss") as of the end of last week. How do I get people to read my books or stories when they won't even request a free PDF file to read in exchange for giving me a review?

I'm also going to try doing some sort of contest every time a new title comes out but I'm not really sure yet what I'll be doing. I need to build up some "swag" with covers, logos, et cetera but at this point, it's a bit tight. I don't think I can do contests and giveaways without really having a supply of things to give away. Please just keep checking my main blog for more information on what is happening with my writings.

I hope all of you will take me up and request a free copy of any of the titles I have available (all in PDF format, 100 copies of each title will be sent out) in exchange for reviews. This offer will go down the end of January. If interested, please email me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com and put "free books in exchange for reviews" in the subject line. In the body of the email, please state which titles you would like to review - State of Wilderness, State of Quarries, State of Reservations, State of Successes, State of Heights, State of Nature, Finally Home, "The Proposal" or "The Tulip Kiss". All of the state books will also have the accompanying study guide. You can request one or all nine or anything in between. If requests are made in the latter part of the month, I hope to have two more titles available (I'm waiting on covers for those two) - "Bride-and-Seek" and "Butterfly Halves" - so it is possible that will be eleven titles available. If you request them and they are not available at the time, I will send them to you as soon as they are available.

Book reviews, authors desire them and need them since this lets us know we are being read. Happy reading - E :)

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Ms. Eldering is the award winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories "Train of Clues" (shared 2nd place story), "The Proposal" (third place winning story, now available as an ebook), "Tulip Kiss" (1st place winning story, now available as an ebook), and "Butterfly Halves" (runner up, now available as an ebook) all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests). Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (now available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet. When she's not busy with teenaged children still living at home, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her state series and her YA paranormal mystery, Finally Home.

For more information about the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog or the JGDS website.

For more information about Elysabeth's other writings, please visit her general writing and family blog or her website.

6 comments:

elysabeth said...

Good morning, hopefully there will be many book reviews coming from this article. See you all in the postings - E :)

Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com

Magdalena Ball said...

Getting book reviews is always a critical (and not always easy - so many books and so few reviewers) part of any author campaign. A well crafted query with a great synopsis helps. One site I often use is www.bookconnector.com which has a really extensive database of reviewers. Good luck!

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Evening Elysabeth, and I'm days late posting. I read this earlier and simply assumed you'd be flooded with requests.
I'd love to read your books. Shall email you.

elysabeth said...

You are only a day late and please do send me an email. I would love to be assaulted with requests but it isn't for lack of trying. I'm hoping that something turns around soon and people start buying my books from everywhere. I look forward to your email.

Maggie, thanks for the site. I'll check into it. - E :)

Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com

Kristi's Book Nook said...

Hello, I would love to review your books. I have 2 book review blogs.
You can email me at memelynne at yahoo dot com

Unknown said...

Hi Elysabeth,

I'll get you an email out this weekend. I wish I knew a successful method for procuring book reviews. I could use it myself. Good luck though. I hope you get lots of requests.

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