How can a book review blog help you promote your writing? Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? When I started my book review blog in June of 2007, I didn’t plan to use it for anything other than sharing my thoughts about the books I was reading. But, now I’m getting free books to review and the traffic from the book review blog has helped increase the traffic to my website.
The main driver of traffic to my blog is my membership in the Thomas Nelson Publishers BookSneeze.com book review program. See details here. You must have an established book review blog in order to apply for the program. Because links of my reviews are on the BookSneeze site, I get traffic direct from Thomas Nelson. And, once visitors come to my blog, they sometimes click over to my website. It’s given me more traffic than I ever dreamed of. I also get books from author friends who know I have the blog. And, most of the time, I do not ask for these books, they just arrive in my mailbox.
I should be enthusiastic about the blog, then, shouldn’t I? Well, like any endeavor, Tennessee Christian Reader has its good points and bad points. And some points that I haven’t made up my mind about.
The Good
- Free books.
- Increased traffic to book review blog and my website.
- My book reviewing skills have improved because I had the opportunity to study the book review guidelines on BookSneeze. (This is available only to members once approved).
The Bad
- You have to read the books. (Go ahead and laugh, but it takes a lot of time from writing).
- You won’t always get the books you want. Because you have to post a review on any book you currently have before you can request another book, you’ll sometimes miss books you really want.
- BookSneeze is currently offering more ebooks than print books. Some are available in both formats, though.
The Uncertain
- Monetization? I put an Amazon associates link for every book review post. I say something like, “Take a look at this book on Amazon.com.” So far, I have earned nothing at all from Amazon sales.
- Promotion value? Is the increased traffic I’m getting helping me promote my writing? I don’t see increased subscribers to Blog4Writers. I don’t get invited to guest post on other blogs. There is no way to know if the time I spend on the book review blog is doing me any good.
- Reviews can be reworked to fit print pub guidelines and submitted as reprints. But, I wonder how many editors like previously published reviews.
I also have some reviews of writing books on Blog4Writers. Check them out here. I found that these reviews helped me build content for my writers’ blog while improving my knowledge about writing.
What about you? Do you write book reviews? Please share your experience by commenting on this post.