Review: How to Get Great Book Reviews

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, the queen of being a successful writer without breaking the bank, has added a third book to her How To Do It Frugally series. Her newest is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Face it, we all would like our writing to make money but at times it seems like we're spending more money than we're making. There are so many options when it comes to promoting a book! But, especially for writers promoting their first book, it's difficult to determine where are the best places to invest your money and where are the places where you should cut corners.

That's where How to Get Great Book Reviews (all the books in the series actually) comes in handy. It helps you to separate the frivolous from the necessary and even find less expensive (or free) options. This book is a source of information not only about the value of book reviews and how to get them but how to use them once you have them.

This is an encouraging book because it takes a "it's never too late" attitude. So often we learn at some point in our book's life "Oh, I should have done this three months ago." Then the anxiety ridden person inside of us begins to panic, thinking that overlooking one thing has torpedoed our book's success. But author Carolyn Howard-Johnson is very soothing. "Yes, you should have done this 16 weeks before your book was released but if you didn't here's what you can try..." Bless you Carolyn for ensuring us that all is not lost!

How to Get Great Book Reviews tells you where to go for reviews (including some great lists of must-contact publications that publish reviews), how to get reviewers on your side, what to do with great reviews (and not great reviews) once you get them, how to build a contact list. I read this book on my Kindle and must tell you that it has a great index set up to help you hone in on just what you need.

Even if your book is still just a file on your computer this book is a great one to read. It's never too early to start planning!

Jodi M. Webb is writer living in Pennsylvania who also is a WOW blog tour manager. You can find her blogging about books at Building Bookshelves.