Okay, what’s the point of connecting with the book bloggers when we have Booktokers, Bookstagrammers, and Book YouTubers?

Do book bloggers still relevant in the age of YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram?

Heck, forget about the book blog for a moment.

Just take a look at blogging and you realize that Booktokers, Bookstagrammers, and Book YouTubers are in.

Compared to these new breeds of influencers, book bloggers look more like relics of the past.

If that’s your impression of book bloggers, then I highly recommend that you take a look at this amazing post by Emily from Frappes and Fiction.

While the post is mainly about book blogging, I find the post to be eye-opening.

Why it still matters to connect with book bloggers

Pick any of the social media platforms and take a look at the posts that pop into your timeline.

They’re mostly posts that came out a few minutes to a few hours ago, right?

Do you see any old posts in your timeline, perhaps going back months or even years ago?

Unless they’re inactive social media profiles, most of the posts that you see in your timeline are new posts.

And that’s not by coincidence either.

It’s by design since the algorithm tends to favor posts that are fresh and brand new. And the posts will receive an even bigger push if it’s coming from an active social media profile.

While social media tends to bury old posts, that doesn’t seem to be the case with book blogs.

Just ask any blogger and they will tell you that most of the traffic that comes to their blog is coming from posts that were from years ago.

Even I can attest to that, not just for this blog. I even notice the same thing for my fiction author blog as well.

If you want to make it easier for your target readers to discover your book over the long term, then it’s best to rely on something that has long longevity.

And guess what? Book blogs in particular have long longevity baked into them.

The best way to connect with book bloggers

Now that you’re aware of book blogs being more sustainable than any social media platform out there, how do you go about connecting with these blog bloggers?

Believe it or not, connecting with them is as simple as shooting an email to them and asking them if they’re interested in reviewing your book.

You can also connect with them on social media if they’re active over there.

But here’s the thing that you should know about bloggers – not all of them are created equal.

If you want to increase your chances of wanting them to talk about your book on their blog, these are things that you must do before you shoot them an email.

Identify the kind of books that they tend to review on their blog

This isn’t so hard to do. Just browse through their blog and you’ll get a rough idea of what kind of books they usually enjoy reading.

It’s that simple. But for some reason, many authors still fail to do this important legwork. They just contact the bloggers right away without knowing anything about them.

That was what happened to me when a manga artist contacted me. He wanted me to review his manga.

I flat-out turned down the request simply because I make it clear on my blog that I don’t do reviews of any kind.

Yes, most of my posts are about manga, light novels, and nonfiction books that I find interesting.

Just because I read manga, it doesn’t mean that I review any manga under the blue sky.

And even if I pretty much read anything thrown at me, the books that I talked about on my blog are the books that I truly enjoy and are worth recommending.

I won’t mention them at all on my blog if I don’t like the book.

This manga artist can save himself from misery if he takes a few minutes of his time to read a brief description of my blog.

But sad to say, he didn’t.

Get to know them better

You don’t have to invite them for a coffee or anything just to get to know them better. Even a simple thing like leaving a comment on their blog or engaging with their posts on social media will suffice.

But if you can only do one thing, I suggest that you leave a comment on their blog.

Strange but true, it’s rare for people to leave a comment on the blog these days.

And if you engage with their blog frequently enough and you do it genuinely, they’re more likely to say yes to your request.

Believe me, I would say yes to this manga artist’s request if we already know each other beforehand.

I find it off-putting that he sent me an email, asking me to review his upcoming manga without giving me a brief description of what his manga is all about.

He makes it look as if we’ve known each other for a long time. And I seem to know the sort of manga he creates which I don’t.

That’s not the best way to ask someone for a favor if you ask me.

Give them a reason to make them want to review your book so badly

Even if you don’t have the time to engage with them, the least you can do is to give them a solid reason why they should read your book and talk about it on their blog.

It can be that your book is similar to the books that they’ve reviewed in the past.

Or it can be that your book has a theme that they may find it interesting.

I remember that there was this comic book artist who contacted me, asking me to write a review about his horror comic book.

While I didn’t accept his request for the review, I appreciate that he told me which comic books that are similar to his for reference.

If I enjoy any of those comic books, then I may enjoy his comic book too.

That’s how you get people to review your book on their blog.

Give them the name of the books that are similar to the book that you write as a reference.

And they may consider your book since they already know what they should expect from your book.

But I can’t get this particular blogger to agree to review my book

Not going to lie that some bloggers will still decline your request even after you do all the legwork required.

Maybe you get their interest wrong.

Or it can be due to them being swarmed with so many book review requests that they have to turn down your request.

As much as they enjoy getting free books, it can feel overwhelming when they receive so many books that they have to review.

And that seems to be the case when they can’t promise that you’ll see the post about your book anytime soon.

Don’t feel bad if they turn down your request.

The good news about book blogs is that there are tons of them out there.

While some of them will put the ghost cities in China to shame, some of them are still active to this day.

If you’re not sure, just shoot them an email and see whether they’ll be interested in reviewing your book.

They may say yes to your request if you did your due diligence before contacting them.

P.S. It’s a no-brainer here that you can connect with book bloggers on Twitter. But it can be hard to get them to engage with you if your Twitter profile is giving them the abandoned building vibe.

While the remedy can be as simple as being active on Twitter, we all know that Twitter can be a huge time-suck if you’re not careful.

Wondering how you can maintain your presence on Twitter without taking too much of your time? If that’s you, take a look at my Twitter Marketing for Business guide.

You learn everything you need to know about Twitter from setting up the profile to how you can manage your Twitter profile without taking too much of your time.

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