Market My Novel

One of the most annoying questions I receive from authors and publicists is, "Where is my book review link?"

Book reviews are fluid animals in the online realm and are posted when 1) the post had been uploaded 2) the post has been edited and 3) when the host has a slot open for it. (Virtual book tours tend to have solid deadlines.)

Why is this so annoying? Most requests are so general, it is obvious that the author or publicist didn’t even bother to check the site first.  As a VBT host, this says to me:

1. If they don’t check the site, then they don’t subscribe to our RSS or bother to visit at least once a week.
2. If they don’t subscribe or visit, then they likely aren’t driving traffic to our site.
3. If they aren’t driving traffic to our site by adding us to a blogroll or checking it out themselves, then they don’t care about our site.
4. If they don’t care about our site, then why should I care about their books?

When the "Where’s the Beef" lady asked that very question, she looked at the product before uttering the famous line from the Wendy’s campaign. If you want links to your book reviews, shouldn’t you at least look before you ask?

For those who appreciate vintage campaigns, I’ve included a YouTube snippet of one of the "Where’s the Beef" commercials, the brilliant, long-lasting marketing campaign for Wendy’s in the 1980s. Come on, how many of you still have a T-shirt with the phrase buried in the closet?