I had a great time at Book Camp this weekend (thanks to Ami Greko and co for hosting/organizing and providing fancy Smart water!) I got to meet Margaret Atwood AND David Gutowski (it was an honor to meet Ms. Atwood, but the online publicist in me geeked out way more at meeting David). See Bethanne Patrick, Ron Hogan, Susan Danzinger. Fun.
My blogging (and publishing) buddy Ann Kingman and I hosted a discussion called “Building Buzz with Blogs” (I was so glad that Erica Barmash of Harper Perennial was there as she’s one of the masters at this. I kept looking at her to confirm what I was saying.) I came away from the discussion with two thoughts…the first of which is, there are so many blogs that have review guidelines which is great, but there isn’t really anywhere that lists what bloggers should do to have a successful relationship with publishers. Here are a few of the things that came up on Saturday:
1. Be clear with the publisher about what you really LIKE, don’t just say “I’ll take them all.” That makes the publisher think you actually don’t want any.
2. Be in touch! If you request a book, send a link when you post your review.
3. Be honest in your review. Most of the publishing people that I know that work with bloggers welcome honesty because it means that when you DO love a book, you mean it. Of course, I understand only posting positive reviews and I try to only send you things you will like (see tip #1 for this to be effective). But honesty is the best policy.
4. Engage in the community. Build your blog. I’m totally willing to work with a “small” or “new” blog…but I want to see that the blog is evolving over the course of when I work with you. I also want to see regular posts.
5. Check in! (This might not be true for all publishers, but it is true with me.) If I say I am going to send you something and then you haven’t received it in 3-4 weeks, it might have gotten lost in the shuffle. A reminder is very helpful.
6. I hear that there is sometimes jealousy about who has what galley. If you really want a galley, ask the person who has it where they got it and ask the publisher for it. Whining gets you nowhere.
7. We DO judge a site by its cover. Make your blog nice. Clean. Neat. Readable. If it crashes my computer every time I click on a link, I’m going to stop clicking on links.
8. Register a domain name. It’s cheap and it makes you look way more professional.
9. My favorite bloggers also send me gossip. I read blogs, but I don’t have time to read everything. Be my ear on the ground and I will love you forever.
My second thought which I didn’t get to address in the discussion relates to contests. My feeling about contests, unless something really cool like a movie (or an imprint launch…) is happening and there is fun schwag to give away, is that they are a pain for everyone. You have to track down addresses. You have to bug me to send the books to them. Inevitably things go awry. And, to be honest, they kind of feel like a cop out. Like you want to cover the book (maybe as a favor?) but you aren’t really invested in reading it. There’s no need to do favors. I think time is precious and as a blogger you only have so many moments in your day. Why waste them on contests when you could be reading or writing or commenting?
I’m open to being dissuaded (or supported) on the topic of contests. I know they drive traffic and follows etc. But at this point, aren’t the same people entering and winning? I know there are a number of bloggers who read this site, would love to hear your thoughts.
Please note that all opinions expressed in this post are mine and not that of my employer.
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I do my once a year blogging anniversary contest, other than that if a publisher asks me to do a contest I will do one. My ARCs I get I give them away to other bloggers before the release date so the book gets even more buzz. This is sage advice!
Sounds like a good policy, Pam. I think if a publisher asks you to do a contest then it’s fair game!
Hi Miriam!
Thanks for this helpful post.
I don’t do giveaways as favors or to drive traffic to my site or boost my number of followers. I do them because I want to give back to readers who are loyal to my site, who check in regularly and leave comments often. There are a million blogs out there and I’m grateful to people who choose to read mine.
If I had enough money, I’d buy multiple copies of books I like and just give them to readers. Since I can’t afford to do that, hosting giveaways is the next best thing. I only agree to give away books I think I’ll like (if I haven’t had time to read them) or by authors I’ve recommended in the past. Even though the books come from publishers, they have to be something I’d send out myself. It’s like me putting in a request to the flower shop to ship a dozen tulips to three people I know without my having to pay for them!
I don’t do giveaways often because they ARE time-consuming, but they’re worth it when I hear back from some of the winners saying they loved the book and they might not have read it if they hadn’t won it through my site. That always makes my day and encourages me to keep doing giveaways.
Hi Elyse, I hadn’t even thought about the reader angle and this is a great and valid point. Of course you’ve done some great giveaways for me. I do think it is great when an author is in town and you can draw attention to their event with a giveaway. I’ve always thought that was a great use of the contest. Thanks for making me think about this in a new way!
I do contests on a rare occasion, but I too think they are a pain in the butt. I try to find some original things to do, like the calendar this year. But, otherwise, I wanted to either 1.) be excited about the book myself or 2.) really have it be something special.
And I love the points you’ve shared Miriam. Thanks! Very helpful.
Your calendar idea is super original. I also love your photos of authors reading other authors books. It’s all about sharing the love!
I think all of your points are valid ones and I love this post. I do a fair amount of contests if the publishers/publicists ask it as part of my review. Rarely do I giveaway a book without reviewing it — maybe once or twice. I wondering if I should rethink that…… I agree that it’s usually the same people and only the HUGE contests get different entries. I think I’m going to be much more selective with the giveaways in the future.
Thanks for the advice!
Julie your reviews are often more detailed than the book! They are awesome!
These are wonderful tips, Miriam.
I occasionally run contests, but usually provide the prizes myself (that seems to be the simplest solution for me). The contests are a fun way to foster interactivity between the blog’s community (I generally ask contestants for a personal favorite that corresponds to the contest prize, which always draws interaction).
Now I have to go and round up some gossip for you.
Thanks for the great post! I don’t do that many publisher giveaways these days, but I love to give away autographed books that I buy at author events. It’s my way of supporting the publishing industry and promoting the author I just met.
Great ideas for bloggers to keep in mind. I know I can always use reminding about some of these things!
As for contests, I’ve decided that I’m not doing them anymore unless I have the book physically in my possession and will be sending myself and even then they will be few and far between. I’ve had too many things go astray (as a contest host and as a contest winner) and trying to figure out how to make it right is a colossal pain in the rear.
Miriam,
I don’t do give-aways at all. The main reason is time and energy. I get asked to do them by the publishing houses but am honest with them. Between reviewing up to 15 books a month for that section of the Dew, the other section is reviewing, accepting and publishing short stories. I’m swamped!
Thank you for the guidelines to being a good online reviewer. Quite a few of those points are why I’ve never outsourced/brought in help for any of the books I receive for review – quality control!
I haven’t held a contest since… November. However, I’m not short on hits because I know how to work SEO and have kickass content, yes, I am confident in my blog. Idk, for the most part, I think contests are just filler and I’d really rather do like Pam and just send whatever ARCs I get to blogging buddies for them to read and review.
Also, some of these 9 tips are new to me. See, I don’t ask publishers to put me on a mailing list or whatever, but I do occasionally email to ask for a specific ARC, etc.
I just wanted to respond to the point about contests. I have found that, now that I use Google forms I am getting 5-10 times the number of entrants as I did when I ran contests through my comments and that difference is being made up by non-bloggers who were intimidated by leaving a comment. I do see a lot of repeat entrants from contest to contest, but the winner tends to keep changing, and I don’t think they are entering contests on a ton of blogs. At the same time, I actually don’t think that contests actually pull in all that many REPEAT visitors, although it may temporarily drive up page views, which is why I don’t bother with them usually unless they are offered to me.
Jen you would be really surprised, I found out by googling the email addresses..shocking is all I can say
Hi Miriam, This is a great post.
I usually don’t do alot of giveaways anymore because it gets to be alot of trouble and I never host a give away/contest for a book I never read. Like you said it tends to be the same winners constantly. Also for me to personally host a giveaway/contest I don’t do much of that either because its expensive mailing from Canada.
I now there is a ton of books I never received either they were lost in the mail or they were never sent. For some reason I thought it was being pushy emailing the rep saying a book never got here.
have a good day Miriam.
Chalk me up as another in the “only does contests when they are proactively offered by the publisher or tour host” camp. But when the are offered, I agree with Elyse that it’s a nice way to get books into the hands of people who may not otherwise read the title; may hook someone on a new author or series that way. More books in more hands = more reading and more love shared.
And thank you for putting together the tips list. Nice to see a publisher’s “review policy” so to speak laid out like that.
I don’t do a ton of giveaways, but some are just too fun or too cool to ignore — movie posters, special editions, signed copies, and fun swag get my attention as do giveaways of hot titles.
I think many of us have eyes too big for stomachs when it comes to reading — I try to highlight or spotlight or tease the books I really, really want to read and have gotten review copies of because I can’t possibly read everything. But I hope I’m bringing good books to the attention of my readers and I hope publishers can see I’m trying the best I can.
Thanks for the shout-out!
Sometimes I do giveaways on our blog. With the last one I did, I let it run for a pretty long time because we had some ads pointing to it, and a few people got nasty in the comments because I hadn’t announed the winners soon enough for their liking!
That being said, if a blogger wants to do a contest I’m always cool with it, but it’s not usually my suggestion.
And I agree with all these tips, but especially #2 (sending us a link to your review is great because then we can pass it on to the author and editor, which increases awareness of your blog and the power of blogs in-house) and #7 (and please especially do not have music that plays when i go to your blog. PLEASE.)
Thanks for these tips – they are very helpful and it is good to see that publishers are interested in providing guidelines on how to best work with them.
I do very few contests – it seems between work, reading and trying to post regularly there is just not enough time to manage contests too. Saying that, however, I have been the lucky recipient of great book prizes from some bloggers that I visit regularly and I like to return the favor – I like the idea of a contest as a way to thank my regular readers which is why I don’t add “bonus entries” for following or promoting the contest. That just seems to drive people to my blog that only visit for the contest and don’t become regular visitors or interact. I also like a contest when the book is one I feel passionately about and want to share with others – I am doing that later this week with a book I just read and it blew me away so I bought some copies to provide to readers.
My thoughts on contests have certainly evolved as I have been blogging over the past year – thanks for prompting the discussion here!
Amen to not adding “bonus entries” when doing a contest! It’s the quality of subscribers that matters, not quantity. 200 active subscribers are “worth” more than 2,000 inactive people who only signed up because of a contest and then never visited again.
We are actually very new and haven’t done a give-away yet. Infact we are just planning our first one. Thank you for these thoughts!
What a great post, Miriam! It covers all the basics & I definitely agree with you. Loving all the comments too.
Tips for publicists
[not directed at Miriam specifically or the companies she represents]
1) *Try* to remember who has reviewed the last 6 of your clients books pretty favorably and make sure they have a copy of the new one. (yes, I know everyone is busy hence the try). Someone predisposed to like one of your books who also has a platform? Fuggedaboutit.
2) Don’t send us lots of follow up press releases. As a corollary, don’t follow up so much. It reeks of desperation and some dude banging on the front door on a Saturday afternoon asking if you’ve accepted Jesus into your life. Even people who have find that guy annoying. A little follow up is cool but all things in moderation
Kidding aside, but not really, here’s a point by point fisking.
1. Mostly agree. I have other reviewers at my disposal so I am inclined to take almost everything.
2. Agreed. I used to be SOOO good at sending a follow up link of the review but I’m not any more.
3. We all know my opinions on critical reviewing so AGREED! As a side note. There is always a small part of me that worries what a publicist will think after I’ve written a critical or negative review — and I’ve written some doozies.
4. Agreed. Also remember that coverage of your book may only consist of an enthusiastic tweet.
5. Agreed. A follow up email is a good thing.
6. Agreed. There sometimes is a twinge of jealousy. At times in the past I’ve wondered why person X has received a book that I want to read when they don’t even review or aren’t prolific with whatever type of coverage they offer. This is a personal thing. I always try to be good about asking for a book I want though.
7. Some of this is subjective but mostly agree. Specifically in terms of color choices for background and words. Don’t hate on a site because you don’t like reading white words on a black background.
8. Mostly agree. Some of the best sites are blogs and not registered domains. Detectives Beyond Borders and The Rap Sheet come to mind.
9. I don’t do this but I could start. Last week when I was privately ranting and raving like a mental patient about the noir i09 articles and the Domenic Stansberry noir manifesto which eventually coalesced into the GalleyCat article I wrote you weren’t on my oh-em-gee-you-have-to-see-what-I-just-found list. But like I said you certainly could be.
The one thing I would say to everyone in this community and others is that in most cases all you have to do is ask. There is some overlap in the different communities and chances are you get what you want or need by asking. I’ve had publishers of noir fantasies for example ask me who in the mystery crime community they should reach out to and I’m always happy to provide a list.
Future topics to consider:
1) Let’s start to have a serious, industry and community wide discussion on e-ARCS. PDF’s (and other file types) get passed around a lot between authors, agents, publicists and editors during the road to publication so when will reviewers be let in? A lot of us are starting to get ereaders and it is low cost no cost for the publisher. The most common fear vocalized to me is fear of piracy. If that is your fear then offer them only to those you feel you can trust. I’ve been reviewing for years now y’all know where to find me. I’ll even consider agreeing to some sort of NDA if it will make you feel better. My kindle has re-mapped the way I read and I’m plowing through even more ebooks then paper books — so make sure yours is one of them.
I’ve made the e-arc option available to publicists for about four months now. Generally speaking it seems as if the smaller, independent publishers are more willing to send me a pdf.
Full disclosure – I WILL share a pdf with other people that write for my site. So, one e-ARC may be put before a half a dozen pairs of eyes. INHO this maximizes the possibility of exposure for the book.
2) I think that there is a disparity between what is referred to in the industry as the sales window and the bloggers review window. The sales window is the amount of time, after publication, that the book has to perform before retailers will start assessing how much product to return. The individual blogger often can’t manage that window and is on their own schedule. Coverage may come weeks or even months after a books release. My only hope is that publicists will realize this and be patient when necessary.
Also, consider filling a request by a blogger for a book that’s already out. Sometimes a book may only have made it on to my radar screen because of someone else’s coverage. So if I missed the boat before then consider throwing me a lifeline. (E-ARCS would help in this regard also.)
There’s my two cents during lunch break.
Wow. So much to respond to. Am super busy now so I can’t speak to every point. But, I will say that we have all of our galleys available via Netgalley. If you’d like them, just sign up for Netgalley, request them and you will be approved.
I suspect I may have a Netgalley login that I’ve never used. I’m off to check it out now….
And I do! I remember when I first signed up for Netgalley I found the selection to be wanting so I never really used it. Checking back in after all this time things look good over there.
I just requested a literal buttload of books
RE: Netgalley. So it looks like I can read Mulholland ARCS on my computer but can’t export to a reading device? Do I have that right?
You should be able to export to a reading device as well. Although I believe that currently the Kindle option might not work. I am assured that it will work again shortly.
RE: contests, I’m prohibited by my ad sponsor’s contract from doing publisher-sponsored contests and giveaways so the only ones I do are ones where I pay to mail the books and give away my own copies. So, I don’t do very many. On the one hand I like having the “out” when I’m approached to do contests because often they’re a lot of work I don’t want to do; on the other, sometimes I feel like I miss out on neat opportunities. I think they can be very helpful when trying to promote a blog, though, especially a new blog. You say you want to see new blogs promote themselves; contests are a part of that since as you say they drive traffic and build awareness. A blog can be great but people need to know you’re out there; giveaways build awareness. I see my follower count go up- and stay up- after every contest I run. Yes, they can be a pain too, but doing one every once in a while is worth it for me.
[...] thought this post, Best Practices For Bloggers: 9 Tips For Working With Publishers And A Question About Contests, which I thought were [...]
i’m new to your blog–directed here from kathy at bermuda onion–and these are some great tips. i will be more direct and in contact with publishers after receiving copies for review because in the past i didn’t want to bog them down with emails saying ‘i got the book’ and then ‘i posted my review’. typically, i just tweet the publisher with link to the review. as for giveaways, i tend only to do them once in a while if i really love a book and then i sponsor the contest. i have done publisher giveaways but am more comfortable hosting them myself. thanks for the information, miriam!
Ok I am one of those that enter lots of contests. Why not? At any rate introduce me to new authors or genres and convince me honestly that I must put this on my must buy list and I am there. I am not a blogger but just wanted to add my 2 cents
Love & Hugs,
Pam
Great post and wonderful tips.
I do contests, I think they do build up a community and it’s something to give back. I most do contests the publishers offer even though I might do a “Rebate Giveaway” at election time. That depends on the ad revenue, I’m going to promote it as “Not only politicians can bribe you with your own money, I can do that as well”.
http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
Great post, Miriam!
Re: Contests. I do them, but I’m selective. If I get two copies of the same book, I give away the extra copy when I review the book. Sometimes I like to do a giveaway just because I like to reward the readers of my blog. But, I almost NEVER do a giveaway unless I’ve read the book first because I want to be sure that it was a book I enjoyed
It’s just a thing for me – the only exception has been with an author whose books I’ve read and loved in the past – then if they ask, I’ll do a giveaway for them. I am not seeing the same people winning all the time (at least not on my blog). Lately, I’ve had a lot of non bloggers winning books which is nice to see since they don’t have the same opportunities to get swag as we do 
I will confess that I have done a lot of contests/giveaways. However, I usually review the book that I am giving away or feature the author in a Q&A (or both). I try never to do so simply because I have nothing else to do with the book. I think that the benefit of giving away books is that it exposes readers to an author they might never have discovered otherwise. That, and I love to share some of my favorite books–or signed books, because I think those are just plain awesome.
Thanks for a great post. It’s neat to see this from both the blogger perspective (which I am) and a publicist perspective (I do marketing and events planning so I can totally relate).