Why You Shouldn't Burn Your Writing Bridges Before You Cross Them

If you're listening to the advice of your "marketing team" then you probably don't need me

One of the things that brings me the most joy as a writer is using my platform to bring attention to other voices. I believe that mission should be a fundamental objective of any writer. Anyone who has ever put pen to paper knows the struggle of finding readers. It’s a tragedy, because there are many worthwhile voices that are forced to give up before they ever have a chance to sing.

Recently I was on a video call with a teacher friend of mine. He related an anecdote that I thought would be a good article and I told him as much. I offered to help him polish the idea off and format it correctly.

“You’re the first writer who has ever offered to help me,” he said. That statement made me proud, but it also made me sad. This idea of helping each other shouldn’t be the exception. We all need to work together to engender generosity among writers.

That being the case, there are still some writers who get on my nerves.

The review request

A couple months ago, I received an email from an author inquiring if I was interested in reviewing his book. He included some promotional material so I checked out his background. I saw he was an academic and the book seemed interesting. I couldn’t tell if it was self-published, a small press, or something else.

I replied that I’d be happy to review the book and inquired how he’d found me. He said that he’d done a search for book reviewers and my name had come up.

Everybody ignores submission guidelines

At this point, I no longer even expect authors to read the requirements on my review publication before they inquire about a book review. When I launched my review publication, the idea was to start a sort of “round robin” enterprise. The rules were that you could submit a book for review but only after you’d interacted with two other reviews.

This was step one in what I hoped would expand into something bigger. I wanted to build enough reputation where I could require every person who wanted a book review to leave reviews for two books that had already been featured. See how simple and delightful a system that is? Through that method, we’d have a steadily growing database of reviews for independently published books.

The world needs this.

You’d be amazed at the good stuff that is out there

The simple fact is that a lot of great stuff is published every day that nobody ever sees. But this isn’t an insurmountable problem. We have the resources to explore these offerings. All it takes is a little effort and organization to get people to make it a habit of combing through all the independently published books.

Alas, I couldn’t even get people to look at two other reviews, much less read two other whole books. The review requests came flooding in, and eventually I removed the submission guidelines entirely. These days people find me because they’ve harvested my email from somewhere.

Imagine if every writer reviewed as few as one or two independently published books a year. We’d live in a better world.

“Yes, I will review your book”

In the end, I agreed to review the book. Normally when an author reaches out to me, I just buy my own copy. However, when I went to the listing I saw it was being offered at over $30 and the kindle price was even higher. If something is $3.99 or less, I usually buy without hesitation. But the cost deterred me.

“Great,” the author said, “just send your contact information to my marketing team. Here’s the email.”

That request was a red flag.

Independently published authors are humble

The wonderful thing about reviewing the books of independently published writers is that they usually shower you with gratitude.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I’ll get that book in the mail today! I appreciate this so much!”

Those are the kind of emails I’m used to. The reality is that reviewing somebody’s book takes a lot of time. I’m a pretty fast reader, but it’s still a commitment of about a week. Then there’s the time it takes to actually write the review.

The high cost of generosity

Essentially agreeing to a book review demonstrates a willingness to take on a lot of uncompensated labor. I don’t mind, that’s all part of the process. But I would at least like the author I’m dealing with to demonstrate an awareness of what I’m agreeing to do for them.

Asking me to send the request to the marketing team felt like needlessly creating more work.

I could compare it to agreeing to help somebody move and then having them text you, “Hey, on the way over here could you pick up the moving truck? Also, can you grab some snacks for the other guys?”

That doesn’t feel like gratitude. It feels like entitlement.

Consider what you’re asking for

Despite my better judgment, I pushed my feelings aside and sent my request to the marketing team. I’d informed the writer that I’d feature my review on my review publication and on my newsletter.

Now, I’m not the most famous writer in the world, but I have a lot of followers. My newsletter goes out to 5,000 people. Again, that’s not the biggest newsletter in the world, but my readers are thoughtful and educated. If they read my work, they understand the importance of supporting writers.

When you come right down to it, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for me to charge a fee to feature a review in my newsletter. It took a long time to build my following. It took a long time to gain the trust of my readers. Add that to the existing time demands of reading a book and writing a review, and you’re looking at about 40 billable hours. I think $500 to $1000 would be a reasonable assessment of value, and I believe my reviews are a lot better than the review sites out there that cost that much.

A little consideration for my time would be nice.

“We just need to learn a few more things about you…”

However, the next time the author wrote me, he said, “Hey, my marketing team wants to know where the review will appear.”

This was one of those cases where I typed out a reply, deleted it, turned off my computer, and went for a walk. On my walk, I found myself imagining the marketing director sitting in his office regarding my email. He probably wrinkled his nose in irritation and got the author on the phone.

“Hey, I just got a message from some guy demanding a review copy. Think of the nerve! Doesn’t he know that each of these ARCs costs $3 to print? Then there’s shipping costs to consider! I mean, when it’s all said and done we’re looking at an expense of around 8 bucks! There’s no way I’m sending him a book. Oh, you contacted him? Well, ask him where he’ll post his review and then I’ll consider it.”

The second the author told me to send an email to the marketing team, I suspected something like this would happen. I’m 50, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life it’s that the second you involve a third person in any undertaking, it’s only going to result in frustration.

This reminds me of how whenever you get sick, you have to give a detailed health report when you’re making the appointment, then you have to give it to the receptionist, then you have to tell it to the nurse, then, after telling your story to 3 people, the doctor comes in and says, “Well, what seems to be troubling you today?”

“I withdraw my request for a review copy”

When I got back from my walk, I cracked my knuckles and replied to the author. “Please tell your marketing team that I wish to withdraw my request for a review copy. Remember that you contacted me. I was operating on the assumption that you already knew who I was. I wish you the best with your book.”

Then I blocked the account.

Later that day I received a review request from another writer that I admire greatly. I’d already reviewed one of his books, and I was delighted that he’d think of me for the sequel. He also sent along a beautifully written article discussing the book, which I featured in my newsletter this week.

When I sent him the link to my newsletter, he said, “That looks absolutely beautiful, thank you so much!”

How much do reviews help?

All this being said, I have no idea if the reviews I write will ever compel anyone to purchase any book.

But writing a review puts the author’s name, the title, and the link to the purchasing page out into the universe. When I write a review, it’s likely to be featured in several articles and on a variety of platforms. That’s a lot better value than spending a couple hundred bucks on the kind of traditional advertising that high priced marketing teams tend to prefer.

As a general rule, if you have a marketing team, then I’m probably not the best guy to review your book. I have more faith in the personal touch. Get your books in the hands of thoughtful people. Everything else will take care of itself.

This publication is reader sponsored. If you have the means, please consider sponsoring at whatever level is comfortable for you!

My CoSchedule referral link

Here’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).