As a project manager, an important part of our job is ensuring continuity throughout the project. In the book production process, every task is meant to build on one another, and making sure your work stays integrated throughout the project will result in a strong book launch. In this blog, I want to focus on review requests and how they incorporate all of the work done before in the project, and build a strong platform for the work to come after. 

First, what is a review request? 

A review request is essentially a pitch to a reviewer, making it clear to them why they would enjoy this book and even more importantly, why their audience would enjoy it. It typically includes a hook, a short description of the book, an elaboration on why you think the book is perfect for the reviewer and their audience, and some great blurbs if you have them. 

What is the review request process built on?

A successful review request process relies on a strong understanding of your book’s audience. The very first task that a team undertakes when working on a new title is a “persona exercise,” where you attempt to describe in as much detail as possible who the primary and secondary audiences are for your book. The next task is to create your marketing plan, where you’ll expand on how you’re going to make sure your audience knows about this book. Even this early in the process, we are starting to think about publications your audience might read, bloggers or social media personalities they follow, and anywhere else they are getting book recommendations. 

Another important piece of the work on the marketing plan is identifying solid comparative titles. In this case, the comparative titles we are looking for will not only be recent and have similar genre and themes to your book, they will also come from a similarly sized publisher and have sales that are achievable for your book. While your official marketing materials will only include three to five comparative titles, keeping a larger list or spreadsheet of comparative titles will give you a great pool for blurb requests. While blurb requests may be going out of style, for the time being, some positive words from respected authors are a great thing to add to a persuasive review request.

What does the review request process set up for the future? 

Reviews are the first major step we take in planning a book’s publicity, although they will probably not be the first public information you see. Reviewers are overall extremely busy and usually require four to six months to read your request, and (if they decide to review it) ask for an advance copy, read it, and write and publish their review. Reviews are typically timed to be published in the month leading up to a book’s release. 

Review requests are essentially sowing the seeds far in advance to reap the publicity harvest down the line. If you have identified your audience and written a killer request, you might end up with some solid reviews that you can also incorporate into your book’s online descriptions and social media posts. Most importantly, review requests get people talking about your book outside of your publishing house’s sphere of influence and bring in readers you might not be able to access otherwise.