Money issues, all authors have them. Especially when you’re just starting out. Everyone thinks you’re making bank when you put out a book without realizing how hard it can be to get all the stuff behind the scenes done, cover work, editing, and then marketing.

Be Careful with your Money

I recently received an email from a book reviewer raving about my book. Now I give myself the benefit of the doubt, but the novella is 80 pages long and only been out for three weeks, so I was wary already.

The email was about twenty lines long saying they would love to review my book (red flag 1) and said they were writing a short email to tell me about the “review process.” They would be happy to give me a stats of their website and whatnot. So I clicked on the website, seemed quite legit. Nice high resolution pictures. I see reviews of books like “Gone Girl”and I’m  thinking, “does she really think my book’s all that?” (red flag 2)

So I shoot her my standard reply thanking her, asking what format she will prefer and there’s no talk of money so far. I know for a fact that most reviewers do this for free. Amazon has a strict policy of not paying people for reviews. If you do pay money and get caught, Amazon can kick you off their program altogether.

The next morning I receive a long email, like 50 lines long, with a number of spelling errors, then the reviewer mentions she is running a business, she likes to read, is a mom, and charges 75$ for a review. Holy moly Batman!

75$??? For an 80 page novella?????? She also rambles on about she loves to help indie authors and then sends me stats of her website and how many readers she has and how she can help me sell more books.

I send a reply that I’ll pass because my publisher does not have that kind of budget for a novella that’s available for 1$ and I haven’t made 75 bucks yet, on my own book to spend it.

So why am I writing this? Because authors, I want you to be careful with your money. I understand Bookbub and book blast sites charge money, but reviewers? Don’t be gullible and fall prey to these people.

The emails maybe heart-wrenching and  a convincing sales pitch. But if you were spending money it would be better on ads than on a single review.

Have you had this experience?