Alicia

Sorry I was ambiguous! I meant that literary and mainstream and contemporary have fewer reviewers in general. Long day.

I didn’t use ‘indie’ or ‘traditional’ or self-published’ in the search. That part you find out by going to the individual sites and reading their submission guidelines. Which is where I often find barriers. Assuming the search term turns something up. It never occurred to me (did I mistype? – always possible) that ‘literary’ wouldn’t turn up ‘literary fiction’ in a search.

I will check again. Thanks.

When I commented about indie vs traditionally published, I was addressing the database search results. I got the impression from your comment that you believed you didn’t get the results you expected from your searches because of a bias against indie authors.

I wasn’t commenting on whether self-published authors have success when contacting the bloggers who show up in the search results.

Sandy

Thanks for checking – I’ll try that. ‘literary’ by itself didn’t get any hits. I obviously gave up to soon.

The publishing model is not irrelevant. Reviewers are not always open to indies. Some of them are quite… brusque about stating it on their sites. I don’t know about THIS database, but I’ve run into the problem often enough that I go into the search expecting to be told not to bother.

I understand the problem – indies have yet to completely overcome the perception of lesser quality, and reviewers’ time is valuable, so a blanket prohibition makes sense to them. I don’t usually try to persuade them otherwise.

Alicia, I just searched the database for “literary fiction” and got A LOT of names. You might want to give it another try.

Also, your publishing model is irrelevant when using this database. A traditionally published science fiction author searching for “science fiction” will get the same results as a self-published author searching for that phrase.

Enjoy your chickens.

Sandy

It is my usual problem: people don’t expect indies to aim for those categories. So getting reviews is like implanting teeth in chickens, and then searching for the few that take – and asking them to peck out a review for you. Rather slow.

That’s such a good point, Lisa. It applies to so much in life: Just ask. Thank you!

I hope the form helps you feel a bit more empowered when you DO ask!

Sandy

Thank you for asking, Karen. “You reproduce it as is” means exactly that. You may not make any changes to the form. You can get around that by including your reviews in separate text that either introduces or follows the form.

Sandy

I would like to embed the form into my newsletter but change out the sample reviews you provide with actual reviews from my books. May I do that if I include the reprint with permission text above?