The Pitfalls of Book Review Swapping

After a stressful day of pushing papers, herding nerfs, or defenestrating your political enemies, it can lift your little literary heart to read that someone owned up in public to liking, even loving your book. It’s more challenging for indie authors to get that review sugar, since most of the standard review-type publications—unless we are willing to part with some buckage—give us Ye Olde Royal Snubbing. So I understand the temptation to swap book reviews with other authors. Indie Land is a mostly supportive and lovely community, and we want to support and love each other, well, in that platonic, pat-on-the-shoulder bromantic sort of way. So what’s wrong with a little mutual backscratching to get a little bling of your very own? Well…in some cases, this might not be your best move. Here’s why: Continue reading “The Pitfalls of Book Review Swapping”

Looking for Book Review Sites?

Lots of people contact us requesting reviews. Indies Unlimited is not a review site. Fortunately, there are a lot of book reviewers out there. For your convenience, I have posted a list of some of them below. I borrowed this list from the great folks at Book Junkies, and thank them for sharing. You can find some additional book review blogs in my blog roll. Be sure to check them out as well.

Jan Fischer-Wade also put together a list of 14 book review sites that have massive followings over at Curiosity Quills. Note that some reviewers and reviews sites specialize in certain genres, so do your research before submitting a book for review.

In posting this, I make no representation or warranty about whether your book will be accepted for review by any of the reviewers listed, nor the type or quality of the review your book may receive. It is not at all unlikely that if they feel your book needs work, or should just simply be used as fireplace tinder, they will tell you so. That is what makes an objective independent review valuable to both readers and authors. The list is below the fold. If you know of someone who’s not on the list, please add their link in the comments. Continue reading “Looking for Book Review Sites?”