One topic I discuss a LOT – and do workshops about – is reviews. Finding them, requesting them, and dealing with them and reacting to them. I did a workshop on that topic at RWA this year (and thank you again to everyone who came).
One of the points I stress is that the book and the author are separate things. I know it can be difficult to separate, because writing a book, especially one about emotions and sexuality, can be a very intimate process. But alongside the oft-repeated phrases that reviews are for readers and that the conversation about books once they are published cannot be controlled is my repeated insistence that the book and the author are distinct things.
So I try to maintain that separation as much as possible when we review a book. Very early reviews of mine did not, and I re-read them and cringe like cringing has never cringed before. Now, it’s a line I try to maintain as best I can – though sometimes it gets fuzzy.
This is one of those cases. Recently, we received the following request for a review.
I have read your website and still I am brave enough to contact you to request a review.
My book is a romance book with a real difference – it goes behind the mawkish, slushy, sentimental type of novel and has a deep and meaningful plot. I hope you can handle it….
If you want a challenge and are up for delving into a deep and profound romance book that will show you a different side to relationships and love, please contact me.
Yikes.
The pitch generated a lot of discussion among the five of us. As a result, we also wanted to address that pitch and others like it (yes, there are many). We decided it would be helpful to talk about pitches, what works and what does not, and what we think best practices might be.
Generally speaking, pitches that insult us, the genre, and other books we like are not going to get the desired response. I mean, I would think that was obvious, but in this case apparently not.
Note: This is not true for all blogs. We don’t speak for every reviewer (Dude. No way. Not a job we want!) but, much like social media interactions, review blogs are still growing in the publishing world, and in many, many ways, we’re all still figuring things out as we go.
So let’s talk pitches and reviewers.
What pitches work on you? What do not? What are your recommendations?
RHG:
One of the things that really pissed me off about that particular pitch is the “I hope you can handle it.” Because that’s the author giving herself an out if I didn’t like it- it’s obviously because I just “couldn’t handle” the subject matter and not because of any other factors.
Then there’s pitches that say things like, “I think you’re gonna hate my book, and I can’t wait to see you savage it!” Or, “I know you’re going to tear my book to pieces, but I can take it.”
That’s….please don’t do that. Please don’t. There is at least one person who needs to believe in a book, and that’s the author.
I really am tickled to see the pitches that say “I really think that this specific reviewer would like this book!” because it demonstrates that you’re familiar with the site, and with us, and when you find the match of reviewer to catnip, it’s glorious.
Sarah adds:
The amount of vowels used in the reply when I correctly forward a review pitch to someone whose catnip trigger will likely be tripped is AMAAAAAAZIIIIING. We all get so excited about a book we think we’re going to enjoy.
Amanda:
Personalization. I cannot stress that enough. A pitch is more likely to capture my attention if the book can be related to me in some way. At SBTB, romance readers (and reviewers) come in all different forms. Carrie loves some good scifi and dips into nonfiction titles. RHG is a historical romance and old skool fanatic. Elyse’s catnip includes suspense. Sarah handles everything plus the kitchen sink (except romantic suspense). And I just snag whatever looks interesting. For those pitching books, I second RHG’s advice in connecting with a specific reviewer. It also shows you're familiar with a site and aren’t just sending out an email blast.
For those who may not know, I’m currently a publicity intern at a publishing house. I write pitches. I send them off. But before I do that, I do an obscene amount of research. Some places aren’t right for certain books and that’s okay. It’s hard to resist a large audience or an outlet that has a great community, but if it doesn’t fit…don’t force it.
In my pitches, I do my best to tie the author or subject matter into the website. That way, whoever is receiving it doesn’t have to figure out an angle. I’ve done the work for them. I tend to pitch a lot of nonfiction, so this may not apply to romance.
Throwing down a gauntlet is never a good idea, in my opinion. It may catch our attention, but the writing/plot better deliver on whatever promises the pitch makes.
Elyse:
For me, it’s huge when the author/publisher/agent calls me out directly because he/she has researched the site and knows what I like to read and review. If someone directs a pitch for a romantic suspense at me because they know I love that sub-genre, that will straight up get my attention. If they ask me if I want to review the latest Twilight-esque New Adult, I know they really don’t know who I am or what I read, and I assume I’m part of a blast going out to lots of reviewers. Everyone wants to be recognized as a special snowflake sometimes, even me.
I read historicals, romantic suspense and some erotic contemporaries, basically in that order. Honestly, if a pitch falls outside those sub-genres, I probably won’t look at it at all.
One set of pitches I struggle with are those that contain tales publishing woes; it makes me really uncomfortable. I recently had a self-pubbed author email me explaining that she just couldn’t break through and telling me my review could help make her career. I’m really flattered she said that, but I can’t even make an omelette, much less someone’s career. It also made me feel very pressured to give her extra consideration because, despite popular belief, I’m not a giant asshole and I really do want people to succeed and be happy.
CarrieS:
I can’t agree enough about the importance of personalization. I look for science fiction and fantasy, books that have some sort of science or geek appeal, and books that feature diverse protagonists. I recently agreed to review a book because the author included in her pitch the fact that her book featured a kraken. This has the same effect on me as flashing a laser pointer at a cat. Another pitched a contemporary but it’s one in which the hero is a French rocket scientist – so even though I don’t read many contemporaries I immediately had a ton of interest in the book, plus respect for the author who had done her research before making the pitch.
I like it when authors understand the process. I can’t guarantee a review. The TBR is simply too big, even given the fact that between Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and Geek Girl In Love I write approximately 8 – 10 reviews a month. I also am not in the role of career-builder/life coach. One person pitched her book to me by saying that a review from Smart Bitches was going to make her decide to either keep writing or give up. No, no, no. If you want to write, write. If you want honest feedback as part of your process, join a good writer’s group. I’m here to give honest, constructive reviews, not determine anyone’s destiny.
Sarah:
One of the points I make in my workshop is that pitching for review is often a bit like querying an agent or an editor. If a writer addresses an agent query to someone who doesn’t represent romance, that’s not going to work. Same for an editor who may publish romance, but doesn’t acquire that particular subgenre. That’s a lot of time wasted on all sides.
With reviewers, identifying who is most likely to really like a book is the first part of a good pitch. Most review sites have profiles of their reviewers – for example, here are ours.
But here’s the TL;DR:
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Insulting the reviewer, the genre, the readers, or other books in the same genre or even completely different genre: BAD IDEA JEANS.
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Presuming that we feed exclusively on the tattered remains of books we have not enjoyed: not true. We also like cookies.
I’m kidding, of course. All of us here, we want to read books we’re going to like, or that are so completely over the top full of effervescent crazysauce that we are charmed senseless. It’s rare that we hate-read a book.
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Researching review sites and developing a list of those who have reviewed similar books: Terrific idea!
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Addressing a review pitch personally to someone who is likely to enjoy a book: Excellent notion!
Note: I’m not saying writers need to develop personal relationships with every single reviewer online. Egads, no. But good Google search or two can help significantly.
There are so many review sites now, covering so many aspects of the genre – not to mention every other genre besides. And as I said, the community changes daily, and we’re figuring things out as we go. I hope this discussion has been helpful or at the least interesting. And if you have suggestions to add, I hope you’ll share!
I review video games for a living, and we get literally dozens and dozens of submissions a week by developers who all want their work to get a chance in the spotlight. It really isn’t that much different from this process, and we get the same red flags. Most of my advice is applicable whether you have a game, a move, a book or a quiche.
– Never, ever demand or act like you’re entitled to a review. If you can’t handle rejection, don’t submit, even if you’re POSITIVE the reviewer is going to spew rainbows over your work. All you need to say is, “Thanks for checking it out!” and move on. Also, don’t nag… if you don’t get a response back in a few days (not a few hours), send a gentle bump asking if the reviewer saw it. Don’t get snippy and huffy… I once had some developer send me an e-mail that opened with “Since you’ve apparently decided to ignore me, I’m trying one last time to get through to you.” I was instantly uninterested, and the ironic part was I discovered he had been sending everything to an e-mail address that had nothing to do with us and hadn’t been posted anywhere at all. So not only was the mistake all his, but he made an impression as a snippy, rude jackass I definitely wasn’t interested in working with.
– Don’t treat reviewers like editors. If they don’t want to review your stuff, by all means ask for feedback, but don’t expect them to help you fix every single aspect and work with you for a finished product. (This happens all. The. Time. in my industry.)
– Like Elyse says, make the effort to be a little personal, and at the very least, know who you’re contacting. A friendly, warm opener like “Hey Dora! My name is ___ and I’ve written a book called ___ I think would be right up your alley” is all you really need. (If you’re going to claim you’re a fan of our work when you’re not, just… don’t. “I loved your review about this random link I pulled, anyway on to my stuff!”) Likewise, RE-READ YOUR PITCH. Not just for spelling errors and the like, but I can’t count the number of e-mails I’ve gotten that opened with “Hey (SiteName/Reviewer)!”… it’s not that it’s insulting, it’s that it shows me you didn’t care enough to double-check even the tiny details and couldn’t be bothered to get them right.
– Don’t submit something you know doesn’t fit the site’s focus just because you’re spamming your work everywhere. (Points are lost every time we can see we’ve just been included in a mailing list of literally hundreds of reviewers, or if you accidentally refer to us by another site’s name because you’re just copy/pasting blindly.) As I mentioned, I review video games, but because my e-mail has wound up on a bunch of PR lists somehow, I get pitches for everything from movies to music, charging cords, laptops, watches, professors, self-watering plants, calculators, and more. It’s especially annoying when so many of these e-mails include “This would be a great fit for your site!” when it would be clear if they’d ever even visited the home page that it isn’t.
– Don’t write a novel to pitch a novel. Or anything else, really. When you get tons of review requests a day, your eyes glaze over every time you open one and see a massive wall of text. Keep it short, snappy, and intriguing, and invite the potential reviewer to contact you for more. Don’t give everything away, but don’t be vague either.
– Whenever possible, always offer a review copy, and if we don’t have to ask you for it, even better. For us in the game’s world, a link to a full version of the product or an included product key is ideal. I’d imagine including a pdf or something similar for the Bitchery would be just as helpful.
– And yeah, never, ever insult other people’s work, even indirectly. Call your book “different, a standout, something that doesn’t fit as easily in established genres”, whatever. Don’t imply that everything else out there is garbage and you’re the breath of fresh air we’ve been waiting for.
Finally, and I don’t know if you guys feel the same way, but this is a huge pet peeve of mine… avoid solely comparing your work to someone else’s as a means of selling it to me. I’ve read pitches that are more about name dropping than the content itself. “If you enjoy Stephen King, Nora Roberts, HP Lovecraft, Sailor Moon, JK Rowling, you’ll love this!” It doesn’t tell me anything, and it sort of makes me feel like you don’t have confidence in your work because you have to bolster it with comparisons to others. You can describe your stuff without resorting to rambling off a list of popular people… and frankly, you deserve to! Don’t say you’re “the next Nora Roberts”, because I should be thinking about you and how awesome YOU are, not someone else!
Wow. That’s a lot of very valuable advice! Here’s hoping it saves you some really annoying emails….
What I really want to know: Did you guys respond to the email with a link to today’s article? (PLEASE say yes, please say yes….)
@Dora:
YES WHAT YOU SAID (except for the PDF part. I HAAAATE PDF review copies. Can’t adjust the text, can’t reformat for my poor eyeballs – FEH). THANK YOU. YOU GET ALL THE COOKIES. Especially for:
Yes. The Spaghetti-at-the-Wall approach really isn’t good for anyone. And it’s a waste of perfectly tempting carbohydrates, too.
Back when I was an acquisitions editor, I was always amazed (and sort of amused) by the pitches I would get from authors that said, “All the books on this subject suck and mine is great.” Dude (always a dude, I’m not being sexist), how did you manage to not notice that we were the publisher and I was the editor on at least half of those books? Guess how excited I am to work with someone who thinks my previous work is terrible? Not so much. It was a fast pass to the reject pile.
This valuable advice should be included in a “What every new author needs to know” packet.
Is it just me or did that sample pitch sound like it was written by a “pick-up artist” practicing his negging?
Dora, I’ve got to ask. Were you actually requested to review a professor? I work in academia so that one caught my eye.
Sound advice, all of it.
@garlicknitter:
DUDE. That is the perfect name for it – pitch negging. Well played!
Why, why was this post not called “Pitches for Bitches”? WHY?
Hi Kelly S! Yes and no. As I mentioned, my e-mail wound up on a bunch of PR lists that get passed around and sold. What this means is that as far as those lists are concerned, I’m just “media”, not a reviewer, so largely these people aren’t looking for reviews, just coverage. I’ve been contacted and asked to provide interviews and coverage for several different professors and scholars who have written books in their field of study. This ties in to the whole “know who you’re contacting” thing, obviously. A site that exclusively reviews video games isn’t going to want to do an article about your children’s book, or let you post a blog on boat repair, or interview a “YouTube sensation”, or sell your “technology required to accurately recreate a loved one’s smell in fragrance form*”, and yet all those things come across my desk daily, with “this would be a great fit for your site, contact me to set it up!” and are accompanied a few days later by a pissy e-mail demanding to know why I’m not jumping on it. (And honestly, after six years doing this I’ve decided if you’re going to send me unsolicited pitches and clearly don’t know who I am or what I do because you couldn’t be bothered to actually visit the site you’re contacting, I can’t be bothered to extend you the courtesy of replying. I used to, until I realized they didn’t care and often just ignored it and kept e-mailing.)
*Yes, that is actually a thing I was sent.
Very good info! I’ve “pitched” here many times and I’ve always gone through Sarah. Is there a way to contact individual reviewers? I think I follow Elyse on twitter, and I see her handle listed here, but I would never pitch there.
Excellent info! Thank you for your perspectives.
@Jill: Sarah usually forwards us everything as a group! So if you address the pitch to someone, Sarah is amazing at making sure we get it. Sarah and I (I think) are the only ones with SBTB email accounts, though mine is fussy at times.
Even if your intended reviewer says no, there’s always a chance one of the others might jump on it.
I love the idea of researching a reviewer as I would an agent or publisher. It’s not rocket science to know you shouldn’t tick off the person you want help from. Or maybe it is…
When we were working on the post in email, I called it the “Pitch Imperfect Post.”
Pitches for Bitches is better, though.
Thanks Amanda!
Enjoyed reading that!
I occasionally get requests to review books. One such email began, “Dear Marian. Raped at the age of seven, I was a lonely child.” The book was a contemporary about a little 7-year-old girl who was – you guessed it – raped.
There was no way I’d have gone near this stick of dynamite. Even if the subject matter hadn’t made me pause, the fact that the author was writing fiction so close to her own experience meant I wouldn’t be able to honestly critique it for fear of hurting or upsetting her.
Another time I replied to an email from a publicist saying that since I’d noticed two typos in the excerpt included, I wouldn’t be requesting the book. The publicist replied that two professors of English Literature had read the book without such complaints. I replied, “Then ask them for reviews” and blocked the email address.
Excellent info! I will be sending a link to the members of my writing group.