In all fairness, I must also acknowledge that there are many good, honest, devoted and ethical book bloggers out there. I have been fortunate to make contact with some of them and they are gems in the sea of spam and scams targeting independent authors, and particularly new and inexperienced authors.
Despite this, I probably won't be wasting anymore of my time on sites like IndieView (even the admin didn't respond to my emails) looking for reviews or anything else for that matter. I'll probably just hire one of the many companies that get book you a complete virtual book tour complete with reviews, interviews and guest posts often for only around $50.
They'll handle all the dirty work and the frustration for me, and I'll only be paying them to do that service. None of the people who will be reading and reviewing the book will be getting a dime. That's the real difference between hiring a company to do the work and paying someone to read what you give them for free, something that I find absolutely disgusting considering how difficult and expensive it can be to put out a book by yourself.
This is a cautionary tale for other indies who might just be starting out and trying to find their way around this maze. My advice to you is that you should never pay an average joe to read your book. The only time you should ever pay for a review service is when getting a professional editorial review from a trusted company who is a reputable name in the publishing business. There are many out there, do your homework and you'll be rewarded instead of scammed.
As we go along, I will be sharing my own experiences with different services and companies that I'll be using and that I have used up until this point. Ultimately you'll have to decide for yourself what you want and what works for you as no two authors will be successful the same way, but with my two cents I hope to pay it forward and thank those who have advised me and guided me on the right path.
If you have any questions or just want my objective opinion on something don't be shy to post a comment or send me an email. I won't ignore you (unless you spam me of course) and I'll try to help you as much as I can, free of charge.
Rant over.
RSS Feed