How do authors find book reviewers?
- Four core channels: Goodreads, BookTok/Bookstagram, book blogs, ARC services.
- NetGalley, BookFunnel, Reedsy Discovery are paid services.
- The right channel mix depends on genre.
- Romance leans BookTok; literary fiction leans bloggers and Goodreads.
- Expected reply rate from cold outreach: 5-15%.
Authors find book reviewers in four places: Goodreads (search for reviewers of comp titles), BookTok and Bookstagram (search hashtags matching your subgenre), book blogs (Indie Book Reviews, Book Blogger Directory), and ARC services (NetGalley, BookFunnel, Reedsy Discovery). The right mix depends on genre — romance leans BookTok, literary leans bloggers and Goodreads.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Authors who only use one channel get a narrow band of reviewers. Authors who use all four get coverage across reader segments — and overlap helps: a BookTok reviewer plus a Goodreads reviewer plus a blogger produces more sales than three of any one type. Channel selection matters more than effort.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Goodreads: search "people who shelved X" for your comp titles, target 5+ reviews on recent books.
- BookTok/Bookstagram: search subgenre hashtags, contact accounts with 5k-50k followers.
- Book blogs: directory sites, plus blogs that have reviewed your comps.
- ARC services: NetGalley (broad), BookFunnel (delivery), Reedsy Discovery (paid placement).
- Reviewer database: spreadsheet with contact, channel, reach, status.
- A "reply rate" tracker: response rate by channel to inform future books.
Chapter iii·Example
A debut romance author builds a 220-person reviewer list across four channels: 80 BookTokers (5k-50k followers), 60 Goodreads reviewers active in romance, 30 romance bloggers, and 50 NetGalley readers. She gets 84 ARC reads, 47 reviews on launch day, and the BookTok channel produces the largest sales spike.
Chapter iv·Related questions
WriteLoom’s Market studio builds reviewer lists across channels, tracks outreach status, and learns from your reply rates over time.
See the Market studio