Hello and good morning my fellow bloggers and readers!
Yesterday, I didn't get a single moment to check my inbox because of huge work load in my office, so when I went back home and opened my mailbox, there were almost 150 unread emails received within 10-12 hours duration, I know many people might receive more emails in a day than I do, but what shocked me was to see that most of them were review requests!
I know, my fellow bloggers and reviewers would agree to this situation, whoever accepts review requests from all over the world without any barrier or judgement. So what to do, how to respond to all these people, is it really possible to make everyone happy and satisfied- all these questions are so hard to answer, if reviewing is your part-time job, like me. If you're a student (school or university), then it's not hard to keep up with the requests, but if you've have a 10-7 job like me, then I must confess that it's not an easy business to deal with and people like us have to keep a lot of stuffs in mind while agreeing to the review requests.
Whatsoever, today in this blog post, I'm going to suggest you fellow bloggers or part-time reviewers, like me, what to do when your inbox is flooded with book review requests! I'll share with you the tips that I generally follow in a situation like this.
Read along to know the simple steps of how to handle a flood load of book review requests everyday!
1. Remember, you're never ever obliged to read each and every book just because you're a bibliophile.
Learn to judge a book by it's genre and it's synopsis. I understand, bibliophiles have a weak heart when it comes to choosing a book for a review. You feel like you want to read all the books available in the world, but remember this
Life is short, so don't try to spend away your whole day in only reading books. Adjust your schedule or if you don't have one, make a schedule or chart in Microsoft Excel with the layout of date, number of pages you're planning to read, thus finalizing a review date. Moreover, if you're not a full time blogger like me, then sometimes cut a little slack in your life.
2. There's more than book reviews if you're a book blogger.
Are you a new blogger in town, and have no idea what to post other than book reviews and author interviews and giveaways, then you're at the right place to know what to do!
Firstly, please don't make your blogs boring like mine! I know I'm strictly a book reviewer, who only posts about book reviews and author interviews on her blog. Remember this, if you want to attract readership in your blog, then you must learn to bring some flair and must learn to curb the monotony from your blog posts, and the only way to do is to spunk up the diversity in your blog posts. Remember this:
there's no harm in talking about your life or talking about your favorite character or talking about the pet peeves or talking about a guy you have a crush on in your blog posts. This is your blog and you have the right to post anything as long as it is not sad, depressing or explicit. Readers love funny stuffs or especially the What to do posts, so invent some topics on your mind and write about it! Trust me on this, the day you post a book review and the day you post a random post about any random topic (useful stuff!!) in the world, your page view count increases by at least 5-10 percent. Try it, you can see the results by yourself. Hence learn to overcome your bloggers block!
3. "My Shelf is Overflowing"- Best Excuse
Now what to do, if you didn't like the synopsis of the book that you were requested to write a review for. Simply, say that your book shelf is over flowing at the moment and politely say that I'll contact you once my shelf gets some space.
Never ever ignore an author. Always reply your emails, that shows that you're keen to review the book, but due to limited time, you can't! I don't believe in putting up a note on your blog saying: Currently, we are not accepting any review requests"
I'm totally against it! Receive the emails, there's no harm in it, but reply them politely.
Okay so try to follow these 3 steps in order to handle your ever growing review request! Get back to me, if it doesn't work and even if it does, you still get back to me to say thanks!
Happy Reading!
