One of the great things to come out of KING CROW's recent review in The Guardian and on their blog site is that I several indy publishers have been expressing the same views about getting their books reviewed. Or lack of it from the broadsheets. There seems to be a consensus that the smaller presses don't get a fair look in. Fortunately we have cyber allies, readers who have come across websites and bought some great books and then gone on various blogs and spread the word. Hopefully now that reviewers know who and where we are, the great stories we publish, they will give us a fair shot next time. But chickens will remain in their coops uncounted. What we have to do collectively as independetnts is to work together, signpost our readers to other publisher's websites and let them know about the great books we are publishing. BUILD A READERSHIP FANBASE. INDY POWER. THE INDY SUMMER OFFENSIVE
It's simple really, it's all about the stories and that's what readers want. Something different and they're voting with a click of their mouse.
That about sums up our position too. It was lovely to have Claire sing the praises of "The Zoom Zoom" but, forgive the expression, it was a total facepalm. We had sent a copy out upon release and not a dicky bird.
ReplyDeleteThe same with our Not the Booker nominations. People complain about over-enthusiastic fans and "antics" but the facts are:
1. every fan who raves about our books is genuine. We don't do manipulation or sockpuppetry, and we refuse to engage even in the mutual backslappery of Amazon reviews. It's just that readers really do love the books. Which you'd have thunk is a good thing.
2. We dutifully send our review copies in and they get ignored. As a micropress that costs us money we can ill-afford. These online events are pretty much the only chance we get to have the ear of the bigger reviewers.
All we really ask is that a reviewer opens page one and reads the first sentence. If they do and hate it, that's our problem. If they don't even get that far, the problem lies elsewhere.
right there with you, moosey
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