How to Request Review Books

A lot of book bloggers want, at one point or another, to receive ARCs to review on their blog. Once you've been blogging for a while, you start to get requests from them or even get unsolicited books in the mail, but of course, that can't happen if publishers don't know you exist.

In my opinion, the best way to start is to send a request to a publisher. What I usually do is read a bunch of IMMs, and if I notice that a lot of people are receiving a certain book I want, I write a request for that one.

When you write a request by email, you want to keep it concise and informational. In your first line, you should write something along the lines of, "I would like to request a review copy of [title] by [author] (ISBN: [ISBN], ISBN-13: [ISBN-13])." Make sure you double-check ALL of this data at the publisher's website, especially the ISBNs.

After that, you should include one or two sentences as to why you think that book would be a good fit for your blog. For example, maybe you love to read light-hearted contemporary and that's the kind of book your requesting, or maybe your blog is having an up-coming event focusing on dystopia that you want to feature the book in.

Next, have a sentence or two with information about your blog. Include the blog title, URL, how frequently it's updated, how many followers, and how many views. You should also add anywhere else you would put up the review - Amazon, Goodreads, Library Thing, etc.

But also make sure not to inundate them with requests!

An important note is who you send it to. You can find email addresses on the publisher's website (usually under Publicity), and you have to make sure to get the right imprint.

Note that some email addresses are hard to find! I have a list of every email address with every major publishing company and imprint, so if you would like a copy, just shoot me an email.

Finally, the subject line should say something like "Review Copy Request: [insert book title]".

That's all! If you have any questions or any other tips to add, post them in the comments!