I think review blogs are well worth the effort. I find the insight into the books far more reliable and eloquent than Amazon style reviews.

I also find the act of reviewing books(although I only do this at Booker time, but am considering extending myself) adds a new dimension to my reading appreciation. I tend to engage more closely with the book when I have one eye open to what I might say about it.

That’s pretty much it. Having good vistor stats may help as well.

That’s the thing though most publishers do respond - the publicist’s are very busy people and might not respond straight away or at least have no more time to do anything but send out a review copy. They are dealing with a lot of books and only front list new releases. Also I might get a better level of response as I only request debuts but I never get the feeling that I’m dealing with black hole.

But as you can see from around the literary blogs - most publishers talk with bloggers. And get good coverage because of it.

But this UK publisher in particular doesn’t seem to - at least from the quick survey of UK bloggers I’ve done - and it’s either because it sees no financial benefit in doing so or is very behind the times.

I’d hope that I’m putting in the time reviewing as it adds to peoples To Buy Lists as you’ve said and I know it does to mine.

As I’ve said if I was a writer with this company I’d be hassling my editor to get some copies of my book into the hands of a few bloggers or start sending some out myself. I don’t mean me. Any of us. As the more good reviews that appear the more I want to buy something.

It’s got to be good promotion hasn’t it? Or as I’ve said this blog reviewing thing could just a be a waste of bandwidth?

I cant see why publishers wouldnt want to. The quality of writing of these review blogs is so high, they get good readership and I add so many books to my To Buy list from these recommendations.