Submitting for Reviews and Book Clubs

I got some great marketing advice from a friend and colleague. He suggested reaching out to sites that do free book reviews and local book clubs (hopefully working my way up to Oprah). I dont know if my book is her style but she could be a secret fantasy fanatic haha.

My first step was doing some research into where to find free reviews. Most of the sites I encountered had paid reviews with a free option but the wait time can be up to 6 months. It's not that I dont want to pay money for a review, it just feels like then the reviewer could be incentivized to give a good review. Dont get me wrong, I want everyone to LOVE my books, but I want them to be honest because that's more meaningful. Plus it is against Amazon policies to pay for book reviews. You should earn your reviews, not "bribe" people to make them.

I know eventually, there will be someone somewhere who dislikes my work and creates a negative review, but I will take it with a grain of salt and reflect on whether or not I can use that review to improve my future books before they are published.

Here are some of the sites I visited to submit for reviews and book clubs :) I hope this helps any budding authors that read my blog <3

https://shamelessbookclub.com/submit/

https://independentbookreview.com/submission-guidelines/

Here is also a great read on how to get more reviews!

https://www.tckpublishing.com/free-book-reviews/