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10 Reasons Why #BookBloggers Refuse to Review Indie Books #MPBooks

My Peacock Books & Living60 Comments

Before anyone gets upset by the above title, I’m not having a go at bloggers or trying to upset any indie authors out there. Instead I want to write a post to explore the reasons why book bloggers might refuse to review books, and this is especially the case sometimes with indie titles.

Not all book bloggers refuse to review books, not all book bloggers refuse to review indie books, but sometimes they do. And when a blogger does, there’s no point in being upset, if you’re an author, as there are always reasons behind it.

Below are 10 random reasons, some by own, others I’ve found online, for why bloggers might, and I stress might, refuse to review a book. If you’re an author, especially an indie author, it might be worth reading this, and if you are a book blogger, do you agree?

The following reasons are all addressed to an unknown author, so please don’t get offended by the way it’s written -it’s just written this way to get the message across (remember: not all reasons are my own)

“Why I refuse to review all indie books”

No, no, no repeated over and over
No. No. No. -Image from Pixabay.com

So you’ve checked out a blog and seen a ‘closed to all review requests’ or ‘closed to all indie review requests’ on someone’s blog. This may really upset/annoy some authors but it’s important to remember there are reasons…

1. I’m too busy

It may sound ridiculously obvious but the most common reason for blanket ban on all review requests is simply: We’re too busy. I know that authors are busy writing, editing, marketing, selling books, etc. and that you have to make a living out of such things but guess what?….So are bloggers. Book bloggers devote a large amount of their free time to their blogs, reading and reviewing books all takes time and beyond that, most of us, have offline lives happening too, so don’t be too upset if a bloggers is closed to all reviews. And if they seem closed to just indie books then maybe the blogger can only handle the books their getting through a publisher, without adding titles they didn’t expect to their list.

2. Indie books aren’t popular enough

Yes it stings but a lot of bloggers won’t review your work because indie books aren’t very popular or well known. I recently found a discussion about this and having taken a look at my stats, I know from personal experience of running this blog versus my old one (which had more indie book reviews than this one) that indie books just don’t have the same popularity as traditionally published ones. While an indie book review may net a large amount of hits on the day of the post, and a few days later, I rarely get any hits at all for my reviews of indie books, but there’s often a random search engine hit from someone who had been looking for the review of a book by a well known publisher.

3. I’ve been spammed by indie author requests before

Too many indie author requests at once, especially when it’s clear you haven’t read my review submissions policy beforehand, will guarantee a blogger burn out eventually. Bloggers who’ve been burnt by indie authors who don’t seem to care how they treat us might just decide enough is enough, and stop reviewing indie titles altogether. This may seem unfair, especially of you haven’t done anything bad and are always a nice and fair person when approaching bloggers, but unfortunately some indie authors out there aren’t so well meaning and you should blame them, not us.

4. You won’t give me a hard/physical copy of your book

Some of us like to read physical books. Yes we know you authors can’t always afford to send us hard copies, especially if we live in another country from you, but there are plenty of book bloggers that’ll be happy to review digital texts so you’ll have to find one of them. There are always reasons why some bloggers can’t read digital books, from personal preference to, in my case, not being able to due to reoccurring eye problems and headaches, and these reasons, whatever they are, should be respected. However there are some rather unpleasant authors out there who love to complain about bloggers even going so far as to suggest that we want the hard copies in order to sell them on for profit. This is a rare thing that happens (if it even does) and the majority of us will either keep the copies or maybe share them which means more exposure for you and your book.

“Why I refuse to review your book”

Finger pointing at you
Not You! – Image from Pixabay.com

So, you’ve found a blogger willing to review indie books but after requesting, they’ve turned you down (or maybe never even contacted you back!). This may leave you feeling upset, especially if you see them reviewing other indie books, but there’s always a reason why they turned you and your book down. And if it isn’t one of the above reasons, it could be one of these…

5. You got my name wrong

I really, REALLY don’t like being called ‘Kent, Reviewer, Blogger, Mavis, etc.’ My name is clearly on my about page and it only takes you a few minutes to find it and address me by my name in your email. However plenty of authors still get our names wrong and the above are ALL names I’ve been called before (apart from Mavis) – Kent being the most insulting as I’m clearly not male and that was my location in the UK! If you don’t know a blogger’s name just leave it out, or say “Hi” in your email instead. It’s better not to mess up this part of your email to a blogger, or they might not even bother to read the rest.

6. I don’t review your genre

Well it’s obvious you didn’t read the submissions policy as I clearly stated which genres I will and will not review. This has happened to me on numerous occasions on my old blog, with authors contacting me with book review requests for genres I didn’t review. It’s important to read (and then re-check if necessary) a bloggers submissions policy, or their contact/about page if isn’t one, before contacting them as any genre preferences will be listed there. Some authors try to contact reviewers anyway, but all you’re doing is wasting a bloggers time as we won’t read and review books in genres we don’t like.

7. You didn’t contact me via my contact page

I don’t know how many bloggers agree with this one but it’s very annoying to get a review request via twitter, facebook, etc. My social media has links to my blog, as it did on my old one and it doesn’t take long for you to find the submissions information on the blog and see that I like to be contacted via email. But plenty of authors, on my old blog, tried contacting me with review requests via twitter without ever checking out the blog, this was even more annoying as it was often for a book which I really didn’t want to read!

8. You hate reviewers/complain about reviews

As much as some authors hate negative reviews you have to live with them and there’s no point in arguing about it on Amazon or Goodreads by leaving comments. Still some authors choose to do this and it is off putting, especially when those comments are clearly nasty/ranty. Another thing that puts me off personally is that some authors, I won’t name names, complain non-stop on their blog about their negative reviews. While a short rant about a particularly horrible negative review may be valid and understandable, some authors I’ve known go so far as to suggest that all reviewers are horrible and we take great pleasure in giving negative reviews. Believe it or not as a book blogger I check out your blogs and websites when I learn your name and if I see a ranty author who hates reviewers, do you really think I’m going to review your book?

9. You apparently love my reviews but have never read one at all

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with saying that you enjoy reading my reviews, or a specific review I’ve written, in fact it makes you more friendly and I’m more likely to say yes, however if you’ve never read my reviews or only skim read one, don’t go saying that you’ve enjoyed reading my reviews. Worse still are the authors who tell me that they’ve been following my blog/reviews for a while now and enjoy reading them…Okay, that’ s great, but would it kill you to ‘like’ a review every once in a while, or post a comment on my blog to make me see that you care and that you do indeed read my posts?

10. I just don’t want to read your book

Sometimes there’s no reason other than…’I just don’t feel like it’. Sometimes there’s no specific reason a book blogger refuses to review a book other than they just don’t feel a vibe for the book or just don’t feel like doing it. Just like sometimes you may not feel like going for a run, eating healthily, writing, editing, etc., us bloggers sometimes just don’t want to read your book, and sometimes we just want to stop reading for a while, full stop and if that happens when you’ve requested a book, well, that’s just unfortunate timing.

Ok, so I hope no authors were offended as no offense was meant by this post. There are plenty of reasons why a blogger may refuse to review books, I’m personally not open to most requests at the moment due to the high amount of books I already have from publishers. But whatever the reasons that a blogger may have, there’s no point in grumbling, mumbling about it and being upset. Just move on and find another blogger to ask for a review as there’s always plenty who will say yes, you just need to look for them. 🙂

Are you a book blogger? Have you come across some of these issues? Do you agree with the reasons for why we refuse review requests? What other reasons can you come up with? Or…

Are you an author? Have you had trouble getting reviews? Do you agree with these reasons? Are you guilty of any, or have you come up with additional barriers when trying to get reviews? Let me know I’d love to hear from you 🙂

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60 thoughts on “10 Reasons Why #BookBloggers Refuse to Review Indie Books #MPBooks”

  1. Cool post! Totally agree with all points you made. I’ll be interested to see the author responses to this especially as some seem to think that it is OK to ask for reviews when we are closed, get our names wrong and ask us to review genres we don’t even read.

    God yes, I hate twitter requests especially when it’s a request from someone you don’t follow and you check out the DM and it’s an author hawking their book, gggrrr!

    For me, I just don’t want to read the books just like I don’t want to read a vast majority of published books, I don’t read fast and I read what I want and will hopefully like. Indie authors often chime about we miss out on hidden gems and their work due to being indie but that also applies to published authors to as I don’t have the time to read all the published books I would like without adding indie books to the list too. It’s no offence to them, it is just how it is.

    Best I don’t ramble on about this subject as it’s not my blog but ya know, if authors do get annoyed that a blogger doesn’t want to review their book and/or is closed to requests then they need to unbunch their panties as bloggers have lives too and we are not required to review a book just because they want us to. It’s not our sole job as a blogger to do it, nope and they need to realise that when they are offered guest posts, excerpts, etc instead that they should be grateful as a lot of blog/bloggers don’t even have indie authors on their blog.

    I do think at times though that there have been quite a few issues of indie authors hassling bloggers and this puts other bloggers off from having them on their blogs. We don’t do this for the hassle and while I am happy to throw down with nonsense a lot of bloggers aren’t so I think indie authors should at times look to their peers why some bloggers don’t want to review books.

    I like this post idea and might have to steal it for myself! 😉

    Liked by 4 people

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    • Lol, i love a good long comment so ramble on 🙂

      Good point that other bloggers can be put off by indie authors acting bad on our blogs. Some newbies might get completely scared off and it’s certainly made a bunch of reviewers I know from Amazon even refuse indie books.

      Haha, steal something eh? Well maybe I’ll have to steal some of your posts too as my blog’s not got enough discussion posts at the moment, although inappropriate book covers might not be the vest subject on my kid friendly blog haha! But if ya don’t mind linking back to my blog then please do….i need all the hits I can get, your following is way above mine lol

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  2. Great post, Cat, although the people it pertains to will likely never read it, let alone heed what you are saying here. Unfortunately, too many indie authors have what I’m going to call the “21st Century disease” of being so self-centered and self-absorbed that they believe “they are unique and the rules don’t pertain to them”, only to those other indie authors! (This attitude, of course, is not just unique among indie authors, but in a large part of society in general, those who flout the rules, simply because they think “they” don’t have to follow them.)

    All of your points above are very valid and, even though some indie authors might not like them, your blog and review readers will know they can depend upon you to give them good, honest, unbiased reviews of books that you have seriously vetted beforehand. And it’s really those readers who read your reviews that you should be concerned about pleasing – not the authors trying to convince (or bully!) you to review their books!!

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    • One more observation … You are offering a very professional service in reviewing on your blog, Cat, and you have listed a professional set of rules for everyone to follow. Why would indie authors expect to be allowed to act in anything less than a professional manner themselves?

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      • Thank you so much for your kind comments and for your input. I do agree there’s an attitude these days where people feel that rules don’t apply to them, perhaps it’s an attitude that’s always existed but somehow there’s been a rise in the number of people who feel that way and it’s easier than ever with such easy online communication to be rude with others.
        Thank you so much for the reblog too, I’ve had an amazing number of views since posting this up. I am always unsure if such posts will bring about the wrong sort of comments from people who feel upset by what I write but that’s never my intention and it’s great to have such positive comments and to bring up these sort of issues. I wasn’t aware until reading another blog post (though I’m stupidly didn’t save the address link after reading it) that some bloggers don’t review indie books because their are unpopular for example, but it’s interesting to bring these up and have a discussion and see if people agree or disagree.
        I also hope that posts like this ultimately break down the barriers that I feel there are between bloggers/reviewers and authors. While some people are lovely and don’t put a barrier up, there is clearly a view that we are two separate parties and I’d rather we all get along as we’re all equal, just do different things. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Great post! I still receive emails every day for reviewing indie books, even when it’s on my about page that I’m not open for requests. I decline all unless it’s really exceptional. I started out reviewing more indie books than others, and even when I told I only read paperbacks there were still authors kind enough to send them their novel. Unfortunately I have read quite a few bad books and it made it difficult to write an honest review. Also, even though the authors were happy with an Amazon review, once the review is up there’s no more interaction, retweets etc. You’ll never hear from them again 🙁 I’m not saying all authors are like this or there are no hidden gems to find but I only read one book a week, I’d rather take my chances with a book I already heard good things about.

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      • Lol, perhaps being sadistic does help with reviewing bad books 😀 I had trouble at first reviewing bad books, I didn’t want to hurt the author and it does feel worse when dealing with authors directly rather than through a publisher/publicist, especially when you don’t know that author at all and if they would be ok with the bad review or be one of those who might turn on you and rant, complain and attack with their comments!
        I think more reviewers should be confident to review those books that are bad though. After all, if we didn’t like them, we want to warn others who might feel like us 🙂 Thanks for commenting and reading, I appreciate it 🙂

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      • We sacrifice time and if the author cannot deal with criticism, they are not ready to be published. The world does not own them praise.
        On the other hand – of course our criticism should be founded – we should not just write “Worst book I ever had the non-pleasure to read” – but since we have read a little more, we should be able to phrase WHAT we did not like about the book. Character too negative and passive? Whining voice? Disregard of the rules for no evident reason? If somebody does not offer me A) a problem which drives the book and B) a believable solution or a really good reason why the solution failed – or if some writer does violate the rules of logic without any explanation – or if an author fails to do the slightest research (particularly necessary for authors of historical stories) – they deserve to be told off publicly. That is just part of what you do when you write for publication – you test your story’s logic, you probe the stability of it’s arc of suspense, you question your characters’ motives … anything else is lazyness and deserves a bad critique.

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      • Very true completely agree, if authors are prepared to put themselves out there with their work available for others to buy, they should be prepared for any comments on it, good or bad. And as reviewers who do this on our blogs for fun, the authors should know by now that we never just blatantly rant about the stupidity of the work, we write quality reviews with the readers in mind. It’s clear when you read any of our reviews and authors shouldn’t approach reviewers if they don’t like the way they then review.

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      • I agree. I actually got pretty depressed on my old blog as I couldn’t cope with saying no to authors and giving negative reviews. I felt like I was torn between wanting to be nice and friendly, and not wanting to lie about how bad a book was. It’s part of the reason I stopped reviewing indie authors, it’s much easier to read a book sent from a publisher or publicist as they’re not so close to it and usually don’t seem to mind if you say it wasnt’ good 🙂

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    • I agree, it’s hard to keep reviewing indie books if you’ve had quite a few bad ones. I once read a book that I should have given up on but it was so bad I was determined to finish it (it was short in length anyway) as I desperately wanted it to have a redeemable ending…It didn’t. Nearly broke my e reader when I was about to throw it at the wall I hated the book so much it was that badly written 😮 And after that experience I understand wanting to read more trad published books you feel you can trust, it’s one of the reasons I’m leaning more towards them these days too.
      It’s really annoying that those authors won’t stop emailing you. That’s probably the biggest gripe most of us have, if we’ve been open to reviews before we keep getting requests, even after we’ve stopped and said so on out blogs :/

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    • That’s great, I have nothing against people reviewing books and there are plenty of bloggers and author bloggers who will review indie books. I think there is a general burn out though when a lot of authors have clearly not read submissions policies and then gone on to contact reviewers when they shouldn’t as their books aren’t the right genre or another reason. I didn’t have a problem with somebody calling me different names for a long time. But if it keeps happening and along with it you get people requesting reviews when I’ve said I’m closed and asked everyone to respect this and not send in requests for a while, it does start to grate. I was once called the name of another blogger and had no clue which blogger they actually wanted for the review :/
      Thank you for reading and commenting, I appreciate it 🙂

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      • What I’ve found in the past is that people advertise themselves as book reviewers, but then when anybody contacts them the answer is always the same -they’re closed and are not taking any other requests. Therefore the whole of the indie author world consists of authors looking for book reviews, but to actually find a reviewer is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Why keep a review page and a submission form open if a review isn’t possible?

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      • I’m not sure what bloggers you’ve seen but I’ve checked out many and if they’re closed to submissions then they usually state it on that submissions page. They might say they’re closed or closed for a while but most of us keep it there as we may reopen or in my case I have certain people I’m happy to contact me and certain types of books.
        If authors are struggling to find reviewers though I know there are sites like The Book Review Directory, it’s a wordpress site I’ve seen and used to be on last year with my old blog. And I’m sure there are others like that one too, they have lists of bloggers prepared to take indie books and it’s best to start at the bottom of the list as the people at the top are usually overwhelmed with requests and shut down for a time. But people on the list can’t be closed forever, it’s against the directory’s rules.
        There is of course one more reason why people might state they are closed that popped into my head while typing this…Maybe the blogger feels bad turning down the author and uses ‘I’m closed’ as the excuse for not wanting to review for them. Worth considering 🙂

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  8. I guess I am lucky I haven’t had a bad issue dealing with any authors and do review all the time for a few indie authors as there books are amazing.

    I have had a few publicists keep asking what I thought of a book especially when I am still reading the book.

    I don’t like Twitter contacts but have had a few throuhh goodreads nd where very nice to deal with even if I had to turn them down

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    • If Goodreads contacts don’t bother you then that’s great 🙂 I once got a book review request there and I didn’t mind. But it bothered me on twitter as the person hadn’t bothered to visit my submissions page and wanted me to review a book with an erotica theme when I don’t do those books!
      Hmmm, that’s annoying with publicists asking you about the book. Were they from a small publishing house? I’ve found that small publishers are either great or not when it comes to dealing with bloggers. Was planning to write another blog post focused on that soon 🙂
      Thank you for reading and commenting. I really appreciate it 🙂

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  14. I’m quite harsh in that I don’t even read emails anymore that don’t start with my name or the blog name. Reason is, it shows me that the author, publisher, blog tour co hasn’t read my review policy which clearly states, address the email to Stacey. If they can’t do that (or at least the blog name) then I can’t be bothered reading their email.
    I closed our requests for two months at the end of last year and the amount of emails I got asking for a review because they would like me to make an ‘exception’ for their book was laughable. We’re closed means, we’re closed.
    I don’t take requests through Twitter, Goodreads or any other social media platform. I give the person requesting a link to our review policy and ask them to read it before emailing me.
    Another reason for saying no is because I have lots of books in that same genre waiting to be read. As of today we have 110 books on our TBR list. It can become very repetitive if we reviewed the same genres over and over.
    One last thing . After I have reviewed a book if the author can’t even be bothered to say thank you and then few months later they ask me to review another of their books, the answer is always going to be a no. I think it’s rude not to even say thank you. Manners cost nothing.
    I’ll stop rambling on now.

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    • Love a good ramble so don’t mind if you write long comments 🙂 Completely agree, it’s not hard to read a submissions policy or to even address somebody the right way, people are able to do it in real life so you’d expect them to be able to do that in the online world too.
      I can see how the same genres would be too repetitive too, I try to mix my own kids books reviews with adult or teen ones as it would get boring for people who aren’t interested in picture books to only see them show up on my blog.
      Your last point though is the most important though. There are so many authors out there who never say thank you. I once found a wordpress thread where an author said that there’s a new way of thinking that authors shouldn’t thank reviewers, for minimum contact purposes!….I mean that’s just ridiculous and unbelievably rude! Thanks for commenting and reading by the way 🙂

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  15. This post was well-done 🙂 I wrote one today about why I DO review Indie and yours was recommended to me. I commented about hard copies but did not add that sometimes, like your instance, it isn’t just the blogger being picky. Also, I totally get the name thing. My blog is called Ginger Mom and the Kindle Quest. As you can see, my name shows up Megan @ Ginger Mom. I quite often have people saying “Hi, Ginger” like that is my name. It is a huge pet peeve so I can see how it would stop you from accepting a book. Great points in your post 🙂

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    • Thank you, I’ll make sure to check out your post. I can see how being called Ginger is annoying, it just shows a lack of respect by the author to even read you name properly. That’s probably one of the worst things that some authors do when approaching reviewers, just can’t be bothered to do a little reading of someone’s blog first :/ Thank you for reading and commenting by the way 🙂

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  17. What you have said makes perfect sense to me. I do review a lot of Indie books but 1. I like them and 2. I am in a big blogging/Indie author community and I generally know that if I enjoy someone’s blog I will like their book.

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    • Thank you, I agree, I do follow a few indie authors and do make the odd exception to review their work if it’s a book they write which I like the look of. It’s definitely easier if you like the author to start with, their writing and you can tell they are friendly. The problem for a lot of bloggers is they don’t always know what sort of author they are dealing with, whether someone who is fine with criticism or rejection of a review or if its the strange authors who get angry or upset. Thank you for reading and commenting I appreciate it 🙂 🙂

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  18. An interesting post and you bring up some valid points, although I think many of them refer to all kinds of authors, not just Indies. I am reading and reviewing more Indie books these days than trad published books. Generally I find Indie authors very respectful and considerate, and have only had one bad experience with an Indie author after reviewing his book. I too have given the topic some consideration. You can read my thoughts and the ensuing discussion here, should you be interested: https://thebookowl.com/how-do-you-review-an-indie-book/ Nice to meet you! Love the peacocky theme!

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    • Thank you for reading and you kind comments. I’m glad you haven’t had too much trouble with indie authors and are enjoying their work. It’s true, many authors even traditionally published ones can be disrespectful to reviewers and indeed I’ve heard of some instances where this is the case, although I can’t remember the details right now. I’ll certainly check out your post soon. Thank you again for visiting 🙂 🙂 🙂

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      • Mind you, having said that, I did read some abusive comments online indirectly attacking me for a review of an author’s book, claiming I was “evil” and a “Troll” who “crucified his book”! (And that was for a 3-star review, goodness knows how he would have reacted to a 1 or 2 star review!

        Liked by 1 person

      • Wow! That’s harsh. 3 stars on amazon is considered ‘neutral’ but on Goodreads it’s considered ‘good’! Sounds like the author doesn’t even bother to read the review and any issues you might point out. Oh well, there’s always a crazy author out there, try not to let it bother you 🙂 🙂

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  19. [Here via Twitter – you commented on one of Joanne Harris’ tweets and I followed you to your blog]
    As a self-published author who find it difficult to get book reviews, I can only say… excellent post, and very good points! I have a lot of respect for the patience and dedication of book review bloggers – for myself, I find it difficult to find time to finish reading the books I do enjoy, let alone writing something about the ones I don’t.

    Nobody should be putting you in a position where you’re driven to give reasons or excuses for not reviewing a book that doesn’t appeal to you, and I’m very sorry about the badly behaved indie authors who give the rest of us a bad name.

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    • Thank you so much for reading this post and commenting 🙂 It is such a shame about those indie authors who give you and others like you a bad impression. You’re absolutely right, there bloggers shouldn’t be put in a position where we have to defend ourselves, the sad fact is though that so many of us do and continue to have disrespectful emails and comments sent to us. Of course the worst of those authors are still in a minority and I’m happy to say that most indie authors I’ve met are like yourself, kind and courteous but the minority can have such an impact that it can drive bloggers mad lol.
      Thank you again for taking the time to comment and read this 🙂

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  20. This post! Honestly, some authors should definitely check the way they go about things before starting to contact bloggers. Maybe a manual on what to do and what not to do? It would help everyone out, really!

    I hate it when authors contact me on my mail directly. Especially since my blog mentions on TWO pages that I’m currently not accepting review requests. It’s as if they think mailing directly will make me believe they didn’t see that. As if. Also, saying “Oh, I read your review of X and I think you’ll like my book!” when there book isn’t in the slightest like the book they mentioned? Boyyyy, I’m not even replying to that one. Nope.
    Or as you said, asking me to read and review a book completely out of my usual genres. Sure, I don’t mind dipping my toes into something else but.. Preferably not with an indie author’s book? Mainly because you never know where you end up with those and it could end so badly for both parties.

    Writing my name wrong is an immediate “NOPE”. How would they feel if we’d write their name wrong in our reviews? Or even the title of their book? Pretty sure they would NOT appreciate it at all, to be honest.

    Now that my rant is done: I usually always reply to requests, whether it’s with a yes or no. I don’t, however, if they claim to have been on my blog and then send me an email directly to ask for a review. It states I’m not accepting requests, have some respect for that…

    Loooove this post!

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  23. I made a decision not to accept Indie books for review at all, at least not any time soon because of bad experience with some Indie authors. I was never offered a book by a publisher, so I wouldn’t know about that but Indie authors can definitely be pushy and your I’d say that many of your points are very valid. I too suffer from migraines, work around the clock (a full time job and two blogs) plus ebooks really hurt my eye. I’m not very active as a book blogger these days but I get a lot of requests on goodreads and it is clear those authors never bothered to even look at my profile GR page.

    When we write a book review we give it hours and hours of our time. Both reading a book and writing a book review are very time consuming processes, so I don’t understand why Indie authors feel we owe so much to them if they send us a one dollar kindle novel in desperate need of some proofreading. I was even asked to do the proofreading and editing for free! Imagine that. I’m not saying that all Indie authors are like that but some are and if they don’t respect us as individuals I don’t see why we should go out of our way to make them happy.

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