The Pitfalls of Book Review Swapping

After a stressful day of pushing papers, herding nerfs, or defenestrating your political enemies, it can lift your little literary heart to read that someone owned up in public to liking, even loving your book. It’s more challenging for indie authors to get that review sugar, since most of the standard review-type publications—unless we are willing to part with some buckage—give us Ye Olde Royal Snubbing. So I understand the temptation to swap book reviews with other authors. Indie Land is a mostly supportive and lovely community, and we want to support and love each other, well, in that platonic, pat-on-the-shoulder bromantic sort of way. So what’s wrong with a little mutual backscratching to get a little bling of your very own? Well…in some cases, this might not be your best move. Here’s why: Continue reading “The Pitfalls of Book Review Swapping”