Does This Boat Have an ATM?

In Which We Discuss Whether You Should Ever Pay for Reviews

Like any good cruise ship should, the Ventorship of course has nightly entertainment. There are Broadway shows, iconic divas, and one-person-marketing bands featuring our very own author passengers. One such band features this fellow writer who says:

So recently my publisher let me know the release date for my book and since then I’ve been doing my best to promote it with posts, reels and much more but it doesn’t seem to be helping at all. I’m not sure where or who to turn to help get my book the attention it deserves. I’ve had reviewers message me asking if I want a review but there’s always a cost and I’ve had friends tell me to never pay for a review, yet I’m lost on where to find reviewers who would give a review for free. 

This is always the ultimate conundrum of how to get the word out about our books. What can work for one book might not work for another, even when you literally take the exact same steps. It’s frustrating as hell, and you really won’t find it in most other walks of life. Like, imagine getting a recipe for delicious oatmeal raisin butterscotch cookies, you follow it down to the very last morsel of butterscotch, and when you pull the batch out of the oven you discover it’s a lasagna.

WTF?!

That’s what marketing your books is like: Baking cookies but always getting lasagna.

Now, as for reviewers, they can be such a fantastic, collaborative, and loving way to get the word out about your book. In general, I would absolutely trust your friends who say to not pay for a review. But I will modify their statement a tad bit. In my experience, anyone who reaches out to you via DM or email offering to review your book for a fee is a total scam. Definitely, one hundred percent, do not take them up on it. Their guarantees of book sales or a certain amount of people seeing the review are just totally false and can easily be manipulated. So in that sense, your friends are totally right.

Here’s where a bit of nuance comes in. I do think it can be worthwhile depending on your marketing budget to hire people from time to time to help get the word out about your book. But rather than paying a scam account, you can pay social media creators that are in some way related to your novel. For example, I hired a handful of queer merpeople to post about OUT OF THE BLUE (my gay take on the movie Splash!). I asked them if they’d even be interested in posting about a book, and if so, what their rates were for a post. If they were on board and I could afford their rate, I sent them an advanced copy of OOTB. I made it clear to the creators that if they hated the book, they could throw it in the trash, but if they liked it, what sort of post I was hoping for and the window it should be posted in. This worked out so well, every last merperson was lovely to work with and outrageously supportive, and it felt awesome that we were artists supporting artists and nobody was expecting anybody to do any work for free.

That being said, I know our individual marketing budgets are very limited, if not all together nonexistent. There are very established and legit book reviewers who will post an honest review in exchange for a copy of the book. One way to find them is to make a post saying you’re looking for book reviewers and will send out free copies in exchange for a review. People know up front from your post that no money is being exchanged. They respond to your post instead of those sharks your friends warned you about who come swimming into your DMs looking for money.

I’ve had moments where those posts calling for reviewers receive no traction, so don’t be afraid to reach out to reviewers yourself being upfront about what you’re offering and expecting. Here’s where some of those reviewers may have a fee to post about your book, and that’s a-okay. Many of them make a living this way, but these folks don’t make claims about how many people will buy your book after. They may point out how large their following is and what they’ve valued that at, and that’s totally respectable. Many will opt not to do a review for money, because that can muddy the waters on whether it’s an honest review or not, but will instead do a promo post about the book with info y’all decide on together, and they will charge for that (I’ve done a few of these in the past and have paid $35-$75 per post).

I know this is a lot of info at once, and again, none of this is the magic answer of YES, THIS *WILL* WORK! (If anyone ever says that, it’s a scam). And in regards to your own posts not receiving traction, I totally get it. I’ve found it’s a long haul game when it comes to our own posts. The marketing work can be so draining, so only go up until the point you’re like, “Okay, no.” When you’re having fun, your viewers are too. And even if it’s only a follower or two trickling in, that all adds up, and they tend to be loyal supporters. So don’t guilt yourself if you don’t have many posts in you. You’ve already written the glorious book! That’s what your readers are here for, not whether or not you know how to do the TikToks.

-JJ

What about you, readers? Any advice on how to get the word out about your book? Feel free to put it in the comments, or write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com and I’ll anonymously include your words on this post.

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If you’d like to vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️