I wanted to share some of my experiences as a blogger over the past almost 5 years since Christine and I founded Shh Mom’s Reading™

I love finding new authors. One of my favorite things about blogging is finding a book that moves me and shouting out about it from the rooftops! It’s even more amazing if it is a new author to me.

How do I find new authors you ask? Lots of ways—friends whose opinions I trust, other bloggers (are you shocked that bloggers follow each other?) and inquiries both personal ones and ones that are sent to our blog email address.

I have discovered some of my favorite authors after responding to a well crafted and personal inquiry to either me or our blog email.

A couple of things really stands out when I receive an email that will make me consider reading a book—if it is a well written email, it was addressed to my name personally, it said something about our blog and the author shared why she felt I would enjoy her book based on other books I have loved.  Do those personal messages take time to craft? Heck yes! But guess what? In an inbox full of emails, those personal messages are the ones that pull me in to reading that book!

I am not hard to find, though back then it did take a bit of research which made me respect that author even more. But that email with my name on it caused me to take a second look.

The email also had the blurb to the book in the email so I didn’t have to click or search for it on Goodreads. The author provided all the information I needed to decide if I wanted to read the book in that well crafted and professional email.

Speaking of blurbs… I can not stress how important these are. I have heard from many authors that they dread writing them but please, PLEASE take the extra time. Share the blurb with someone you trust to be crazy honest with you and work it until those you trust to be honest say “yes that makes me want to click this book!”

Another author who is now a go to, must read author for me—I first meet this author when she wrote me a very nice and very personal email in response to my 3.5 star rating of her debut book. She thank’ed me for the honest review and I now consider her a dear friend. She was beyond professional and I was so touched that she took the time to read my review and really thought about my experience reading the book.

For my day job (I know shocking—blogging doesn’t pay the bills!) I use LinkedIn for a lot of communications. I address each email to the person I am writing it to. Maybe I am old fashioned but people have names—you should use them.

No different than teaching our sons to call or address someone by name if they are wearing a name tag.
Does research who each blogger is take time? Yes. Does it take time to find reviewers who have loved books similar to your upcoming release? Yes. But guess what—owning a business is cumbersome and takes time  and hard work.

Being an author is about more than writing a book and it publishing. Taking the extra time to send personal messages may result in less messages being sent, but they will be higher quality reach outs.

We are all busy. We all don’t have enough time in our day so use yours wisely. If you want reviewers to read the messages you send and agree to read and review your book, take the extra time to draw them in as you would a reader.

As I said prior, these days I am not hard to find. I am just me—running my business, being a wife and mom, running Shh Mom’s Reading™ with Christine and fundraising to honor my brother Keith Milano. But if you message my personal Facebook page and we don’t know each other, well that should be an even more personal message since it is my personal account.

I hope some of these tips will help authors when they reach out to reviewers new to their work. And maybe my tips are way off and I am just old fashioned, but it’s my two cents and how to get me to consider reading your next book.