The Making of the Review (Part One)

This is the beginning of a two-part series in which I'm going to try to explain to you guys how to start out a book blog.  Where I get the books you get books to review, what you should consider when reviewing, and in general, what happens to become a book review blogger.  Today I'm gonna focus on how you guys can get books to review, should you want to.

1. Create a blog to review books on.  It doesn't have to be too fancy, but it should be decent and well thought out.  While you can get some books no matter how many followers you have, you should be actively seeking followers and building your platform.
2. Find out which kind of books you would like to review.  If you've looked at much of my reviews, I generally focus on Speculative Fiction, primarily Christian.  You want to stick to your platform, whether it be non-fiction, paranormal, mystery, thriller, etc.  Whatever you choose, you'll want to stick to it as much as possible.
3. Find out which publishers publish the genre you chose.  This is key to getting the books you want to review, and is essential for the next step.  A few publishers that I enjoy working with are AMG, Thomas Nelson, Waterbrook Multnomah, and Zondervan.  If you can't find a publisher that publishes your genre, you can pick a book you like in your genre, and then check the publisher on the book's Amazon page, and then go from there.
4. Connect with the publisher via email or their program.  First you should check if the publisher has a Blogger Review Program, which is optimal.  Thomas Nelson has a program called Booksneeze which I enjoy using.  If the publisher does not have a review program, find their contact page and see if they have a Public Relations contact.  If they do, then you can contact the publisher through that email.  You should include the following in your email:  Snail-mail address, blog address and statistics if available, amount of followers, be polite and as friendly as possible.
5. Select your book.  This may seem simple, but it's really more important than it seems.  Sometimes publishers won't have books available to review that you enjoy.  Be patient and don't choose those that you're not completely sure you'll enjoy.  You want to be able enjoy the book and give a thorough review quickly, and if you don't like the book, this can be difficult.
6. Give a full, honest review.  We'll talk more about this next time.

I hope you guys enjoyed this little tutorial!   If you have any questions, drop me a comment or email me.   If this helped you at all, let me know!