Dishing Junk: Drowning under Review Requests
Review request inundation. This is not exactly about the books, but the insanity that is my inbox & twitter stream now.
From tweets like this, which I consider SPAM:
@parajunkee New Paranormal ebook “New York Shape Shifter” available on kindle, ibook, kobo, copia, and soon nook Check it out!!!! PLS RT
— Kennedy Pattison (@KennedyPattiso1) February 9, 2013
Or just simple requests->
To review request after review request. Something just exploded in January. I used to get maybe three a week, cold call emails. Authors I’ve never heard of, I would get maybe one weird request for “content exchange” maybe once a month. But, something happened in January. Now I’m getting ten a day on average.
I’m also getting 100 spam comments daily, average. I don’t know what I did, what list I got on…but viola – I’ve stepped foot first into inbox and twitter overload. And it is only getting worse day by day. The spam comments are one thing, but the emails are from authors and other bloggers. With legitimate requests. And I don’t know how to handle all of them in a congenial manner and then manage everything else on top of it.
Yet, this is just the icing. The reason I’m really writing this post, is sometimes I feel that the emails get a bit too pushy. Ever feel this way?
The repeats.
I cannot answer every email. If I did so I wouldn’t read, I would just field emails. How boring. So, if the email doesn’t catch my attention within the subject and the first few lines, I’m sorry to say it is just pushed into a “look later” folder and later — is waaay later.
The latest trend in pushy emails begins very quickly in the first line:
“I am writing to follow up on my previous communication with you regarding my request for your review of…”
Second email. There had been no communication.
Or maybe just three of the same exact email. Each sent within three minutes of each other.
Or emails that just want me to “share” some information with my readers, over and over again:
“Just wanted to follow up and see if you’d like to share…” (second email)
“I hope all is well. I just wanted to get back in touch with you. I had sent you an email before (3 emails) asking for you to review my book. And now I have a new cover. Would you be interested in reviewing my book?”
You would think after the second email wasn’t responded to they either had a bad email — or I wasn’t interested.
“..am writing to follow up on my previous communication..”
“Checking on the last review request I sent…”
“Checking in on the review of [redacted] that you agreed to do…” (never agreed, they just sent the PDF)
Am I going to end up on some author list, like what that wonderful example of authorness, Carrol Bryant did? That is sarcasm…the guy is a fool*. But, really? I guess I’m feeling just an inkling of what agents have to go through everyday. I do not envy their jobs. I see some of their posts about how authors will attach them to “update” email lists…which they do to me.
Hint: Authors don’t put bloggers on your “Dear Friends, please help me sell my books by — 1) liking me on Amazon 2) Unhelpful clicks on all 1 star reviews…” email lists.
Do you guys get these sort of emails? How do you deal with them? The only thing I can do is hit delete. But, I’m scared that by getting in this mentality I’m going to be quicker to delete then accept. Or worse, respond with something very “not so nice” to an author that doesn’t really deserve it…because frankly they are only just trying desperately to get their books read…and they have no idea that they were the tenth person to send me that exact request…
Any advice?
*Carrol Bryant is an author of a few eBooks who thought it was a good idea to post a list of all the bloggers that had “done him wrong” and now he’s taken up on the STGRB hotmess train. His aim has moved from selling books to ousting what he believes to be bad reviewers.
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I so feel ya on this one, I get these all the time its like UGH I can’t read every min. of the day I will go nuts. Some times Authors don’t understand people have lives and get busy as well. And it takes time and we have other people’s books to read as well. I try to respond nicely and then if they keep emailing sometimes I have to just del eat because its too much:( It not a pretty situation. I stopped taking New Indie authors unless I have worked with them before or want to and I dont take ebooks anymore unless I really want to read it and I have to be very selective. Its hard and a pain but I have to keep my self a a steady pace or I will go CRAZY! Good LUck:)
I’m fairly new to the book blogging world and have had only a handful of requests direct from authors to review books so far. It reminds me of writing sites I used to go on, though. Voting for writing got it on the front page, and I constantly received messages where it was clear the author didn’t want my opinion, just my promotion so they could get noticed. These days it’s easy to copy and paste a message to twenty different people, but it backfires, as you’ve so clearly shown. People think they need to do all the work themselves, where if they get a few good readers who really like it, it means a lot more. I’d rather get a genuine recommendation from a friend than a copypasta message from the author.
I agree with you Joana, authors should be happy with a few honest reviews and let their reader-base grow dynamically. I am not new to writing but new to getting my fiction published. I sent several requests to Rachel… never meant it as spam. I have corresponded with her previously as a follower of Parajunkie. After a while, I realized that I needed to approach Lori as she seems to handle the indie reviews. (This anthology is a charity project about cryptids and I thought Rachel and the readers of this site my enjoy it as well.)
I am not the pushy type, just new to the digital social world, including blogging. I love to read, especially paranormal and fantasy and occasionally post reviews on Amazon and other sites and blogs. I do so for friends and for the books I find on Amazon or Smashwords, or wherever. I am honest in the reviews I write and write reviews as I choose.
I guess I should’ve guessed by the amount of Twitter followers I’ve gotten in the last month – I RT much more than I tweet, that many are attempting to use me as a free digital billboard instead of from a desire to interact and be a part of my stream.
I have considered sending in a request to help out the Parajunkie cause as a reviewer but am unsure I could meet the standards as far as length or deadlines.
I do read others but this was the first site I found years ago and is still my favorite. I am sorry if somehow I added to your burden Rachel, as I said it was not my intent.
To all of you awesome and precious folks who do take the time to read and post reviews on your sites, I thank you. I spend almost as much time reading reviews as I do reading books. They are like movie trailers to me.
I hope you all find comfortable solutions to this issue of request bombardment.
Often. I’ve taken to ignoring those emails that don’t follow my submission policy, filing them in the “passing” folder, and moving on. If they’re able to find my email, they should be able to read the instructions on the same page. Same with those that are clearly spam. As for tweets or FB posts, if I’m in the right mood, I’ll respond with a link to the submission policy page.
Maybe you can compose your own form letter and respond with it. Or have a page on your site regarding review requests and then just respond with the link.
I don’t really get a lot but when I do I either just don’t respond because they obviously have nothing to do with my reading tastes or I’ll just I’m not interesed/taking requests etc. and wish them good luck.
I’ve been offering the authors a counter request: answer my completely wacky potentiallyembarrassing interview questions and in exchange I’ll promote heir book.
I’ve gotten a couple awesome interviews, but most of them don’t want to bother with it…so I dont bother with their book.
Great idea! If I had this problem, I would totally use your strategy.
Rachel, everyday when I logged on to my email, I am FLOODED with requests. Even after I say that I am book till May (literally I am) I still get them. Usually, if I am interested I put in my “review request” folder and will get to it if I am bored and have an opening. If not, I delete it and don’t ever respond.
I can only keep my inbox empty for a few hours before it begins to explode. And people think that just because I read fast doesn’t mean I can get to your book right away. I still have things to do during the day (work, take Ben to therapy or doctors, errands) and it gets me angry when people assume.
I will on occasion if the author is gusty enough to send a requests and also send their book already attached, look at the book. If I like it I’ll review if not well you know what happens. I delete it.
Anyways, I do my best to read as much as I can. But sometimes I do feel overwhelmed.
Snark and I don’t get a lot of review requests, but if it is just a generic one sent to everyone I ignore it right away. If it is addressed to us I read it, then Snark and I decided if either or both of us want to review it. If we don’t, we don’t respong. This is only because when we do respond, we get questions about why? and how about only a few chapters to see if you like it? etc.
All I can say is, don’t feel bad deleting or ignoring mails. We all just do the best we can
Oh my gosh, ten a day? Wow, no wonder you hide from email. That IS overwhelming.
I wouldn’t say I’m overwhelmed by requests. Ever since I updated my policy they’ve dropped considerably. But since the beginning of the year I have gotten more.
Mostly they’re from Amazon and they just have no bearing whatsoever on what I do so I just ignore.
I haven’t gotten too many “pushy” ones lately either, with book attached, etc. or the “here’s my book, when can I expect a review” tone.
What I am flooded with are “partnership” emails. Content sharing, article writing, paid promo emails with that same “following up” situation you mentioned above.
I don’t really do cross-promotion unless it’s with a friend and I don’t do paid promotion on anything. As I never know how legitimate they are, I don’t respond, just delete.
What I dislike the most, however, is when I am signed up for a newsletter that I didn’t request and the only “opt out” is to email an author directly and tell them “I don’t want your email” which I’m too terrified to do. But every time I get the newsletter I get all angry.
Still don’t know how to handle that situation….
I am so curious how everyone handles the requests so I’ll be comment stalking as I know hiding from my emails isn’t the mature way to go.
Great post topic, can’t wait to see what everyone suggests.
I decided early on I wasn’t going to respond to every review request, and it has been a life-saver. What I do is have a section of the blog just for review submissions (example here) its also the only way you can request a guest spot unless I have a personal relationship with you from previous events). Once someone puts through a request via the form, they get an auto response politely saying thank you and essentially “we’ll call you if we’re interested”. I have a separate contact page that has a warning on it that all requests must come through the form or they will be ignored. It’s been working pretty well, and even some publishers are starting to use it. All those submissions filter into an email folder so I can easily browse them later. Everything else I ignore. Not enough hours in the day to deal with so many random requests, so if people aren’t willing to do a little research and respect my system, I’m not interested in working with them. Just my “keeps me sane” 2 cents! =)
i think i’m going to have to borrow your idea, because the spam commenting on a post that has nothing to do with their book idea just makes me nuts
Go for it! Anything that helps shave time off your admin is a blessing! Leaves more time for reading… you know, the fun part.
WOW, that form is awesome!!
Thanks, Lexxie!! It took several iterations to get eeeeverything in there!
That is a great idea — I’m going to ping you on twitter about it.
Sounds good! Those form submissions also serve another purpose that helps me display the available books for the review team to select from and is almost completely hands-off for me. We can chat more about that too if you want.
I LOVE that idea!
@Novel, it’s also been really helpful for booking unique (non-mass tour) guest spots, which the indie authors love. I book about half of my promos and guest spots each month based on these review submissions and don’t have to depend on the tours as much. Such a time saver and a great way to meet promising new authors!
Welp I’m beginning to wonder if i do want to become popular in the book blogeshpere, because that is crazy. I get a few emails every now and then, if it’s not to my liking i just ignore it (yeah I got that from you. Otherwise it just gets deleted, some i don’t even read, like if i don’t recognize the email addie or the tagline isn’t specific to me then trash it.
Its not just you, Im sure you get more but it seems since Jan, that my spam is out of control too, I have a particular A-hole spamming me daily on multiple blog posts and Im getting really weird review requests. I just ignore them and there’s always the option of blocking which I had to do with one author cause he wouldn’t leave me alone. I also had my first big author confrontation a few months ago….it wasn’t pleasant but it cracks me up.
Ive noticed that requests are getting more pushy. People have an attitude lately of you will read my book because Im entitled to it because you have a blog…or if you say anything critical I can blast you on social media….whatever Im not government, I don’t give you everything for nothing and sugar coat the truth….(lol)
I’ve recently encountered this problem, mostly via emails. I was struggling whether to respond to these authors or just delete the emails, unfortunately I don’t have the time to read every book out there!
Here’s my approach: If authors/publishers send general requests without reading my policy I tend to just ignore those requests. I think if we as bloggers are taking the time to read and review a book, the least an author can do is take the time and make sure we read their genre and personalize their request.
Getting specific in your review policy helps (at least for me) but I think there will always be some of those random requests in your inbox. Thanks for the great post!
Comment
I get the same vague request to review but I ignore them. However, I don’t get the quantity you do. My first snarky bitch response was to create a vague, generalized, dear friend response: have you read my review policy? Cut, paste and email. I hate the second and third e mailers. If you respond at all with an I’m sorry this is not my genre, I can’t right now; you are only engaging them, like a mall salesperson trying to upgrade your phone. YOU MUST NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT.
Good luck Rachel, hope it works out for you.
Jen
Exactly. Hang-up. Delete email. Makes sense. Thanks that explains it better.
If an author @ me on Twitter to check out their book on Amazon, I block them and report them for spam. I have zero tolerance for spam on Twitter.
And another thing that really ruffles my feathers is when I get added, without my consent, to newsletters. Author newsletters, book/blog tour newsletters, reviewer newsletters, etc. They grab my email address (not my personal one but the one I have specifically for blog business) and sign me up. (Here’s a hint, if I sign up for a newsletter, I use my personal email, not my bloggy one. That’s how I know if I, myself, signed up for a newsletter.) And I report every single one.
I’m not afraid to report spam. I will do it, no problem. #DieSpamDie
I should clarify – I mean an author I do not know, I do not follow. Those are the ones I will report and block on Twitter. Those are the people who don’t know how Twitter actually works.
That up there, is me. Forgot to add my info. Sorry.
Hee hee – you are a total spam killer
The only review requests I get are from here, which means they all filter through Rachel.
Every so often someone will request for my main blog, which I ignore. If they had taken the time to read my review policy they would see that I do not accept review requests of any kind right now. I have too much going on reading, writing, work, and life wise to take on much more. I have noticed that you are sending me a lot more requests a lot more often.
Sorry — and those are the sane ones.
NO big deal at all. We should find a way for the indies to come to me? Maybe that would help cut down on your email overload. Feel free to throw my email up there if you want.
Maybe change your policy. State that if they don’t hear back within a certain amount of time, you are not interested.
?
Good idea Juju. I probably should.
I don’t get submissions much, but I am pretty discouraging on my about me page…
I have gotten a lot of spam blog comments lately, though – even if I haven’t done anything different at all. I wonder how that happened, since I’m not exactly a big blog, and I don’t think my posts are among the first that show up via a google search.
Anyway, I hope you’ll get less unsolicited submissions about reviews, Rachel, I know how it is when you already have loads of books you want to / need to read – no time for e-mails
Great junk-dishing as always
Thanks. And don’t worry, they’ll come.
I’ve been geting tons lately too. There must be some kind of database for authors out there (used mainly by self-pubs, it seems). I have even had a few self-pubs ask me to BUY their book, and then review it (…it’s only $0.99 on Amazon for a limited time, and it would really help me out, if you would considering buying a copy and reviewing it.) I kid you not. For me it comes down to this… My review policy is clearly stated on my blog. If the request doesn’t fit within my parameters, I feel no guilt at all if I ignore the request. If they get pushy, I will shoot back an already-written email with a direct link to my review policy. Fact is that I don’t even have time to read all the books I WANT to read.
Karis @ YA Litwit
Yup. I’ve had them ask me that too. Just twice though, so I didn’t think it was a trend. They also ask to post it on my blog that it is .99¢
I’ve gotten a bunch that ask me to buy their book to review too. Email AND on Goodreads.
Isn’t that just ridiculous? I mean, I don’t mind buying books, but don’t tell me to buy it and then promote it.
It’s weird because I’ve been getting quite more than usual this past month as well! Even though I clearly state in my “review” section that I am backlogged and no longer taking requests :/ I just send them a polite (and now a copy & paste standard) email directing them to my review page in which the later is stated. I’ve also tried to change it so that, when I did accept requests, that I wanted them to only be from publishers or literary agents, so as to cut down on some indie authors… which I’ve found out the hard way, there are A LOT of. Don’t get me wrong, some indie authors have really great stuff, but others really need to find an agent
-NR
I so feel your pain. The best thing we ever did at ATUF was implement a Review Request form (http://allthingsuf.com/contact/request-a-review). It requires very specific information that helps weed out titles that aren’t desirable for whatever reason.
The other thing I would suggest is a special submission form/email for self-pub titles only. I imagine they are the bulk of your requests, so if you could separate them from more pressing, day-to-day emails etc, I’m sure it would help a lot.
The other option would be to stop taking self-pub requests entirely and just review the self-pub titles you seek out.
Your request form is genius! We seriously need a new contact form.
The “nameless” comment is mine. My phone is being dumb again. *sigh*
I’m really glad you posted this. I get all of that for sure! Plus the few random requests that are just out there. But I deal, no big. My complaint is when I’m getting amazing offers from Avon, Ace, Pocket, etc, and they all want reviews/blog tours/guest posts within a week or two.
They aren’t my only review requests and I either have to pass or have to bump other reviews if I want in.
It’s very frustrating because a lot of these are fantastic opportunities and I have to say no.
I guess my point was that it would be awesome if publicists and publishers understood how inundated with requests we all are.
And now you’re drowning in legitimate comments on this post!!
I got a LOT of spam comments a while back (50-100 per day), but somehow, it’s died down now and I get just a few (like, 20 a day or so). So, hopefully this will happen to you too. {fingers crossed}
I don’t get as many email requests as you, but if they don’t start with Dear Judith, I know they haven’t read my review policy.
And if they don’t even start with Dear Leeswammes (my blog name), I know it’s just someone spamming a lot of bloggers at the same time. Why take the time to read their email if they didn’t take the time to find out about you? Delete, I say, without reading on.
Good luck, Rachel!
Oh my goodness… ten a day? That’s insane! I don’t get nearly that many, but I did get one particulary frustrating request last week. It was from a publisher, so I was really excited. But then it was something that I say I don’t review, and I was nice and respectful when I said no – but then they replied asking me for my address and what questions I’d like to ask for the interview.
I didn’t want to be rude – but it just bothered me So much. I mean. Don’t you have to be at least 18 to even buy erotica? I don’t know, but I had to say no again – and I felt really bad. When i know I shouldn’t have felt bad…
And now onto the other point. SPAM COMMENTS. I used to never get them, but now I’m getting them all the time. And it’s not even a small amount that you can ignore. There are A LOT of them..
Great post, as always!
I’ve been getting quite a few requests lately for products, not books, which I find weird. So far I’ve just deleted them… A lot of the requests I’ve been getting say “I got your name from Amazon…” so maybe that’s it for many other peeps.
So *that’s* why our email box has been tame lately! They’ve resorted to emailing you instead! Lol.
I really dislike those random emails co try to take our email off as many lists as possible so that they don’t continue emailing. Otherwise, I file away the ones that have nothing to do with our genre (spiritual, self-help, etc) in the trash bin.
Authors that just email saying, “Hey, can you read and review my book?” Without sending along any relevant info about said book… goes in the trash bin.
We only reply to requests we are really interested in reading and that’s a huge help! For all other requests, we have a folder for them. I’m not sure if and when we’ll ever get around to them. We can’t read everything.
Before I switched blogs, I was getting really weird requests to review books that 1. I had never heard of..or 2. I had no interest in. Often the author/publisher would email me at least if I didn’t respond. I don’t miss those. I accepted one book to review via email and it was awful. It took forever to finish, then I felt like I had to give it a better review than it deserved since the author had put so much effort into contacting me and sending me a copy. I didn’t accept any reviews for YEARS after that. Now I just use egalley, which is really nice. I don’t feel obligated to give overly positive reviews anymore. It’s nice going through a neutral site instead of directly through the author! I get the occasional email request, but they’ve really dwindled down. However, I get a TON of authors requesting to befriend me on goodreads, which is odd. Unless I’ve heard of them, I usually ignore them. Sorry for all the crap you’ve been going through.
*Often the author/publisher would email me at least TWICE if I didn’t respond.
*I didn’t accept any books to review for YEARS after that.
Jeez…I’m such a spaz!
I get a few dozen requests a week and divert them to a folder. Then I go through them once a week (every Thursday afternoon). Those that I’m not interested in I reply with a copy and paste from a txt file
Dear so and so
Thank you for approaching me regarding a review/promotion for your book/product. Unfortunately I must decline the opportunity at this time. I do appreciate your consideration and wish you the best of luck.
I’ve found it stops repeat emails and people appreciate being acknowledged – I often get reply emails saying thanks for letting me know. It takes just minutes and plus it’s polite (an old fashioned concept I know), but consider how much it annoys you when your emails go unanswered.
Shelleyrae, what a great idea to save up the review requests and handle them all in one session! I think your reject text is great (you’ve mentioned it before and I’ve used it myself).
That is a GREAT idea! I’m one of those people who don’t respond to things that I’m not interested in, but I’ve been getting a lot of the “following up on my last email” things lately, so I think I need to change my policy. Plus doing it all on one day would make it super easy.
I seem to have suddenly been getting loads of review requests too, started about mid-way through January, way more than ever before. Maybe authors’ new year’s resolutions and new determination to market books?
Being added to author newsletters and update emails is the most annoying. Would you believe authors actually do this when submitting to short story magazines too? I’m an editor of one, and an author will send me a story to consider. Some will then subscribe me to their author newsletters while they’re waiting for a reply, as if to say ‘look how great I am, don’t you want to say yes to my story?’. And some will even add you to update emails even after being given a polite no.
I’ve also had an author whose book I reviewed, who sent a friendly email asking if I could recommend other book blogs that might be interested in the book, or ways to promote it. I thought that was a bit cheeky – it’s not really my job to search blogs and their review policies for her – but I gave her some advice about how to find blogs herself, suggested giveaways etc. Never got a reply back, not even a ‘thank you’. (sigh)
Hehe, it’s good to have a rant now and again isn’t it?
But yeah, totally understand and sympathise about all the review requests. In a way, it’s worse when you get too many lovely ones, who’ve read your guidelines and send such nice emails, and their books look really good, but there are just too many so you have to say no to some of them anyway. That always makes me feel really bad.
Good luck dealing with them all, and thanks for the great post and the opportunity to vent a bit, lol!
There’s some really good advice in the comments here, might give some of it a try!
I’ve always gotten a lot of spam comments (thank goodness for Akismet!) but lately I’ve been getting a lot of spam emails, too. I don’t mind review requests (even when it’s a request for something I said I wouldn’t review in my review policy) but the ones that’re just “please promote my thing” are SUPER annoying. They’ve definitely been coming in more lately, so idk what’s going on.
Spam has exploded lately on my blog too, and a I know it has on a few other’s as well. It’s really frustrating.
I’ll get the occasional request from Twitter or Facebook or in a blog comment, but I don’t even reply to those. I only reply to requests in my email. Then to narrow it down, I look at the subject lines. I’ll open emails that say “Review Query” because that’s what I have in my policy. I end up not even replying to most of the requests I get. That gets me a lot of “follow up” emails as well, but I’ll mark them as spam the first time I see them. I felt bad about it at first, but now I just get so many emails and I don’t have the time to go through every single one.
Great post!
The reality is these authors that are looking for review requests are looking to make a business out of their writing. They’re selling themselves and their writing as a product and they need to do so accordingly. If they can’t present themselves in a professional fashion they really shouldn’t expect a professional response.
As book bloggers we are not professionals. We’re just people that like to read Just because we aren’t professionals doesn’t mean we should put up with review request inundation and people just expecting us to soak up any book that’s thrown at us. We aren’t professionals but it doesn’t mean the approach should be unprofessional. Sending me your entire book in PDF format in the initial request tis a good way to get deleted (although we do have a tendency of sending those guys to a learning center now . . .) unanswered. If they have the audacity to follow up on that they may just get schooled.
While that particular author may not deserve the impending blow-out as a result of pent-up frustration h/she is a cog in a wheel that caused it. People need to grasp the concept that publishing is a business and it needs to be treated as such. Unsolicited, unasked-for review requests should be treated like they spam they are. If an author wants to get GOOD attention they need to take a step back and learn how to market successfully.
A marketing ploy will usually stick after about the seventh time it’s exposed. Unless it’s unwanted spam and then it’ll just fill up the trash can.
I love this article! It’s so helpful for authors to know what’s going on with reviewers, because some of us (or at least me haha) just don’t know.
I’ll say that I’ve contacted a number of bloggers in attempt to get my book in the hands of someone I feel would enjoy it. I read every review policy, but I’ve missed instructions a few times, and notices about whether or not the blogger is accepting reviews. It’s embarrassing to get a response (like duh – didn’t you read my policies?!?), but I completely get that a lot of authors don’t have the same attitude/intentions as I do.
Personally, I don’t feel entitled to a review from anyone. By even accepting submissions, you’re doing us authors a favor, and I, for one, appreciate it.
It’s about respect, and it’s about understanding, from authors to bloggers. I approach every blogger as I would a friend of a friend: casually, personally, and low key. I’m sure authors can be super annoying, and it stinks because it sort of ruins it for those of us that are genuine.
In any event, bloggers, keep on keeping on. Thanks for putting up with the BS to get to the gems!
I have admittedly flat out stopped responding to any author emails. Why? Because in my guidelines it clearly says that I am not open to review requests, blog tour requests, author interviews, etc. If you can’t do the common courtesy of reading my guidelines prior to pitching me, then I can’t do you the common courtesy of replying to you.
Wow, I sound kinda bitter, but it’s just frustrating seeing it happen time and time again.
Also, I have noticed a HUGE increase in spam on my blog lately as well, I wonder why?
At one point last year, I ended up on the same kind of list, where I was getting a dozen requests a day and my spam box in my blog comments were filling up with on average, 100+ a day. One time, after three days of ignoring the spam comments, I went in to dig and clear out any legit ones, and I had a thousand! That was why I ended up installing Disqus. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I ignore the emails. It’s cumbersome to clean out the inbox every day, but short of being a bitch, it’s all I can do. I respond to the bigger publishers I have a working relationship with (just declined one from Penguin) but otherwise, unless I’m interested, I’m going to delete the email without a response. It’s not like we have assistants or we are getting paid to do this. Soo…no time to decline. Just like they can’t offer a review copy to everyone who wants one, we can’t take or respond to every review request that comes our way.
Gosh! I KNOW EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL!I’ve stopped accepting indies and self-published books for this very reason! >.< But still these authors do not give up.Like just a week ago,I got this email from an author saying that she read the review policy at my blog and then asking me to review a book of hers.I'm like,Hellooo?If you've really read my review policy then you would know by now that A) I do accept indie releases and B)I do not accept review books in ebook format.But I politely decline her request.And from then onwards,she's been spamming my mailbox with similar emails almost everyday!Who does that? O.o