As an indie author, I've just
spent the best part of a week googling and listening in on twitter
streams like “science fiction”, in search of possible reviewers.
I've managed to locate four lovely bloggers who are first of all willing to review
indie authors and who, furthermore, are willing to read soft science
fiction.
The gatekeepers and the slush pile
What I've found time and time
again, however, is that a great many reviewers (most of whom are
themselves self-published) will not look at the work of the indie
author or the self-published. One such reviewer, Gav Reads, has
written a blog post entitled “Thoughts – Reasons Why We Reviewers Won’t Read Your Self-Published Book” which will give you a taste
of what indie authors are up against, not only when looking for
mainstream reviewers but also book review bloggers, and what reviewers are themselves up against.
With paragraph headings like “We
[reviewers] know it’s going to be rubbish”, as you can imagine,
this led to a lively debate and raised a few hackles – not least my
own. I think that the mistake I made was to be mildly offended by the
double standards operating between Gav's use of the term “We Reviewers”, which includes
the self-published and suggests a superior class of sentient being,
and the notion of “Real Writers”, which excludes self-published
proles like me.
Just to put things in context and to balance up the
blanket assumption that the work of self-published authors is bad,
here's a list of famous self-published books and authors whose work
was self-published at one time or another. Anyhow, that said, like
Dobby the house elf, I shall now have to go and iron my hands.
Don't get me wrong: Like writers, bloggers work long and hard, most often for free, and I am delighted to read on-line book reviews. I can also imagine
that like traditional publishers, book bloggers' slush piles must
become unmanageable and that, if I were to go into writing book reviews, I could see me being faced with the self same difficulties
and end up becoming an unwilling gatekeeper myself.
One possibility to help filter
content and make life easier is the idea of writers' collectives
offering some kind of seal of approval or British standards-like
“kite mark”. One such body which has just begun to implement such
a scheme is The indiePENdents. There's another lively debate about
their proposed “seal” at Indies Unlimited, and you might like to
check this out.
Hopes raised and dashed
As I went from site to site on the internet, I did find some possible openings and my heart began to lift as I read through the bloggers' review policies and found that I could deliver what they were asking, in the form they preferred. And then, time and time again, just as I'd committed myself to writing a formal review request, a little further down the page or on their contacts form, they'd point out that they had a long lead time and already had several months' – or in one case over three years' – worth of books on their “to be read” or “to be reviewed” list. Or else they'd say that regretfully they were not currently accepting reviews, and to come back again in perhaps another three months' time or even at some unspecified date in the future.
In two minds
I'm in two minds about all this.
On the one hand, we are advised that having written our book, it is
utterly fruitless sitting around waiting and hoping to be discovered
and that the chances of being accidentally discovered by readers at a
site like Amazon are remote. Having said that, I'm acutely aware of
the fact that authors can take their business strategy and
self-promotion a little too far at times at social networks like
twitter and facebook, to the point of churning out reams of annoying
and wearying legitimized spam.
And on the other hand, there are
others who might say that “the cream will rise to the top” and
that “if your work is good enough, reviewers will come to you and
readers will buy your book. End of story.” Of course, the world's
history is full of contrary examples of what often rises to the top
in our cultures. The meek, as they say, shall inherit the earth ... or what's left of it.
Have your say
Anyhow, what do you
think? What are your own experiences as a reader, writer, reviewer
or publisher? Have you successfully negotiated a way through this
obstacle course? What vision do you have of the future? Best of luck to you in your own endeavours.
• By Etienne de L'Amour ~ Google+