At its core, blogger outreach involves partnering with influential publishers and posters in the book community, including bloggers, reviewers, and social media influencers. These groups have already built up the trust and loyalty of the audience you're looking to reach. By getting reviews, guest posting, interviewing, or getting mentioned on their networks, you too can tap into their audiences and enjoy third-party validation (which often works better than direct, salesy-sounding self-promotion to help you sell more books).
To correctly target and approach bloggers, you'll need a definitive plan in mind. You can't just send spam messages out to anyone and everyone. Instead, you'll want to strategically plan and personalize your outreach with a keen focus on relationship building.
Rather than look at it as a one-off promotion, blogger outreach should be viewed as an ongoing investment. It will start well before the publication of your book and continue long after launch. Over time you'll be nurturing a network of fans who can advocate for and share your current and future titles. This guide explains how to do exactly that, step by step.
What exactly is blogger outreach and why is it important?
First, we'll tell you what blogger outreach is not: It's not sending out a massive email to every book blog you find. Instead, it's about finding the voices that closely align with your genre, audience and author brand. Book influencer programs — where authors and social media personalities work together to help drive awareness and credibility — are proof that when done right, outreach can be tremendously successful.
Essentially, by getting reviews from respected bloggers, you're borrowing their authority and credibility to introduce your book to new readers, which can help you gain more exposure and trust well beyond trying to do it all yourself. Beyond just snagging a book review, bloggers will often provide you with several other opportunities including:
- Guestposts that let you share insider insights, create tutorials, or backstory bits that intrigue the blogger's audience and encourage them to learn more about you.
- Interviews and Q & A sessions that help new readers connect to you as an author while being invested in your writing journey and your story.
- Giveaways and contests that give incentives for engagement such as email sign-ups or social shares, which can boost your exposure and reach organically.
By making these components a part of your outreach campaign, you're not only tapping into a wellspring of enthusiasm from readers who are interested in your genre and story, but you're also demonstrating real value such as sharing exclusive content or experiences that they won't get anywhere else.
How to plan your blogger outreach campaign
Before you ever fire off a single email or DM, you'll need to take a step back and plan how you want to reach out. The best blogger outreach campaigns have clear objectives. For example, do you want to generate early buzz for preorders? Drive launch-week sales to hit best-seller lists? Create long-term visibility?
This is where it pays to set SMART goals, as in Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, if you want to do an outreach campaign for ongoing visibility, you might plan for quarterly outreach points rather than doing a massive two-week blitz.
Next, outline the different phases of your outreach campaign:
Preparation (2–3 months before launch)
- Compile a spreadsheet of target blogs, contacts, and general timeframe windows.
- Design your press kit, cover images, author bio, book description, and sample chapters.
Pitching (6–8 weeks before launch)
- Send personalized outreach emails and let the blogger know what's in it for them and their audience (exclusive excerpts, guest post ideas, giveaway copies).
Follow up (1–2 weeks after initial pitch)
- Politely check in, offer additional materials, and confirm their interest (without sounding spammy).
Content delivery & amplification (launch week)
- Coordinate with bloggers on publish dates, share links on your social channels, and tag involved parties to maximize visibility.
Ongoing engagement (post-launch)
- Thank the bloggers, share performance details, and keep the relationship going for future potential collaborations.
Identifying and researching relevant bloggers
It's understandable to want to cast as wide of a net as possible to capture every potential blogger whose audience may possibly be interested in your book, but that would waste a lot of time and energy unnecessarily. Instead, target your bloggers with greater precision by categorizing them into different levels:
Level 1 - High impact bloggers. These are blogs with large, engaged audiences and strong domain authority (you can check domain authority for free three times a day with a tool like Moz)
Level 2 - Niche blogs with smaller, but still very active readerships.
Level 3 - Micro influencers including emerging bloggers or Bookstagrammers that have focused followings.
You can find book bloggers who accept guest posts by doing a Google search with specific search operators, like this:
site:example.com book promotion guest blogging
Social media is also a great place to find micro-influencers who enjoy sharing new reads. Check out Instagram, TikTok, and X for up-and-coming bloggers worth following.
You'll likely get quite a few results, so it may be a good idea to create a small spreadsheet to contain all the details and prioritize them accordingly. Once you've done that, it's time to focus on your pitch. Rather than sending out a generic “one size fits all” template, take the time to personalize each email. Here's how to craft a pitch that gets attention (and gets replies).
Writing your pitch so that it gets a response
In order to formulate your pitch so that it has the best possible chance of getting a response, you'll want to personalize your outreach, for example:
Reference their recent content – “I loved your review of ‘Book Title,' specifically the point you made about (some specific insight they made).”
Offer clear value - Share exclusive materials such as a pre-release chapter, a cover reveal, or a giveaway copy that matches the blog's format.
Keep it short and sweet - You're not the only author out there pitching to bloggers. Some receive dozens, if not more, pitches every day. Keep your message short and sweet — around 2–3 paragraphs with bullet points that clearly state what you're offering and what they get out of it.
The most important thing to keep in mind is to be yourself. Your passion for writing and your interest in the genre you're writing for will flow right into your email pitch. When you share that passion through your work, bloggers are much more likely to engage with you than if you have AI draft up a robotic-sounding pitch.
To gauge the blogger's interest, end your pitch with a clear call to action, such as:
“Would you be interested in featuring an exclusive interview with me around my upcoming release? Can I send you an advance reader copy for your honest review and feedback?”
This not only opens the door to a deeper dialogue but also shows that you respect the blogger's time.
Managing blogger relationships like a pro
Once a blogger has shown their interest in working with you, reinforce the professionalism you showed them at the initial stages. That means delivering your materials quickly including a formatted ARC — advanced review copy — files, high-resolution images, and clear talking points.
It's also important at this stage to clarify deadlines and confirm publication dates as well as any other requirements. Offer support and be available for interviews. You can also take this opportunity to provide additional media assets or create content together like graphics or pull-quotes.
In cases like these, it can help to maintain a shared calendar to track your commitments and deadlines. After the interview or guest post is published, always be sure to follow up with a thank-you note and a social share of their post. Share any performance metrics, such as referral traffic and social engagement, and keep the door open for future projects or bonus content.
The good news is that you don't have to invest in massively expensive tools to pull this off. Simple CRM spreadsheets or even dedicated outreach software can help you track communication history and avoid sending out the same message to everyone or missing follow-ups.
How to use blogger content for maximum impact
A single blog post can feed into several different marketing channels. For example, share quotes, graphics, and important insights from the review on your author pages. Highlight excerpts in your newsletter and link to where your subscribers can read the full review on the blogger's website. Create a “praise and reviews” page on your author website and link to the blogger's coverage of your book.
Not only does following these steps keep your marketing pipeline full of fresh content, but it also keeps you front-of-mind with influential bloggers and helps you maximize that sustained visibility for your book.
How to measure the success of your campaign
So you've done the outreach, now how do you go about measuring how it went? You can use a free tool like Google Analytics to give you the insights you need to know on how your blogger outreach performed. In particular, you'll want to look at:
Referral traffic: Use UTM parameters to see which blogs drive the most clicks to your book's landing page. UTM parameters are special tags that you add to the end of a URL so that Google Analytics can tell where your traffic is coming from and how users are interacting with your marketing campaigns. They look something like this:
https://www.example.com?utm_source=…&utm_medium=…&utm_campaign=...
You then fill in each piece with the details such as the source (the blog), the marketing medium (guest post), the specific campaign name, and so on.
Conversion rates: Monitor how many visits translate into preorders or sales.
Engagement signals: Track social shares, comments, and email sign-ups that result from each piece that gets published or each interview you do.
You'll also want to check in regularly on these different data points to see which bloggers are driving the most traffic. You can also use this opportunity to refine your pitch and timing based on what your conversion rates tell you. You may also find that offering different types of valuable extras has different results. For example, readers may enjoy guest posts rather than ARCs or interviews instead of guest posts. Test and learn, as every audience is different!
Best practices for the best possible results
If it's your first time doing blogger outreach for book reviews, here are a few tips to help the process go smoothly:
- Be authentic - Genuine enthusiasm and personal anecdotes resonate more than salesy language
- Offer reciprocity - Share your platform, too. Promote bloggers to your audience through social posts or newsletter shout-outs.
- Switch up content formats - Mix reviews with guest posts, interviews, and live Q&As to keep readers engaged and enjoying your posts.
- Respect embargoes: Honor agreed-upon dates to maintain trust and professional reputation.
- Scale thoughtfully: As you grow, consider automating parts of the process — but never at the expense of personalization.
Over time, taking these steps can reinforce your credibility as a professional author and partner that bloggers will recommend to others, helping you secure potentially even more posting and interview opportunities.
How BookBaby can help
BookBaby can support every step of your blogger outreach campaign through a combination of planning and consultations, promotion and marketing, optimized metadata, and marketing assets, all from one complete platform.
Strategic action plan and consultations
The first step in shaping what will become your outreach “battle plan” is BookBaby's marketing consultation services. These services connect you with leading book promotion experts who can help you create a powerful blogger outreach strategy. Together, you'll map out your timeline, develop your pitch, integrate your social media, and optimize your book to display on Amazon and other online retailers.
Direct-to-reader promotions
BookBaby can help you launch targeted promotions through a two-pronged marketing plan that includes:
- BookBaby Bookshop Promotion - Through BookBaby's Bookshop, your book gets its own product page in front of 60,000 indie book buyers. We can promote your book via homepage features, email blasts, and social media posts. Bloggers often monitor these announcements, which helps generate buzz for both your book and their blog.
- Ads for Authors - Our Ads for Authors program creates and manages display campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and across the web, placing your book's cover and core messaging front-and-center in a way that reaches eager blog audiences at scale.
Metadata optimization
Metadata optimization helps make sure that bloggers can find and preview your book easily. With our metadata optimization services, every field is carefully optimized and detailed with relevant keywords, title and subtitle, description, BISAC categories, and more so that your book appears in retailer and online platform lists. This makes it easy for bloggers to find and review your work before you even have that interview or publish that guest post.
Free guides and templates
BookBaby offers a number of proven frameworks, checklists, and templates. Check out our Free Marketing Plan for a Book Launch guide as well as our Promote then Publish guide to build your author presence and network. We also offer free templates for cover design and more to help your book make the best possible first impression with readers and bloggers alike!
Creative assets and goodies
Eye-catching materials are a must-have when doing blogger outreach. From custom bookmarks and posters to professional cover design, with the right creatives and even giveaway goodies, you'll greatly increase the chances that bloggers will feature your book prominently on their pages!
Not a graphic artist? Not a problem! At BookBaby, we work with highly skilled and talented book cover designers across every genre to give your book a professional look that sets it apart from the competition while still conforming to genre expectations. Be sure to check out the work of many of our published authors and share your vision with us to create a cover that's nothing short of astounding!
Distribution and availability
Beyond metadata optimization, you'll want to be sure that your book can be found on all major platforms worldwide. Our distribution and availability services include worldwide eBook distribution, which places your eBook on popular platforms including:
- Amazon KDP (Kindle)
- Apple Books
- Barnes & Noble
- 50+ other retailers
This distribution service makes sure that your eBook is available in your readers' favorite format using the apps and devices they already know and love. If you haven't yet converted your book into an eBook, we also offer services that can help with eBook conversion, too! From interior formatting to testing your book on various e-Readers (including Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and more), you can be confident that your eBook loads and looks perfect on a variety of different screens.
If you'd like to keep advance review copies available without the upfront inventory cost, you'll be glad to know that BookBaby also handles print-on-demand while keeping logistics simple and straightforward. This is a must-have for bloggers who prefer to receive an advance print copy of your book!
Community and partnership opportunities
Last but not least, we invite you to take advantage of our expansive promotional network. The BookBaby author newsletter & blog will keep you informed on the latest promotion and marketing tactics while keeping you connected with a community of like-minded indie authors and bloggers.
You can also become a publishing partner with BookBaby and incentivize other authors or bloggers to work together while earning you a commission! Many authors who have published using our services wholeheartedly recommend us to others — why not get paid for it?
Getting started with your blogger outreach campaign
Now that you have a better idea of how to get started with a blogger outreach campaign, as well as a step-by-step timeframe and what to do when, all that's left is to take that next step! When done right, a blogger outreach campaign does more than just give you a spike of initial sales; it creates a network of author advocates who can support your brand and help you grow month after month.
By taking steps now to set clear objectives, research, target the right kind of blogs and readers, and creating a personalized pitch, you'll be doing what most other authors don't: taking the time to nurture and fortify relationships with the very people who have already amassed an eager and engaged audience of your ideal readers. In this way, you turn a handful of features, guest posts and interviews into a multi-channel marketing machine.
Don't forget to measure, course correct, and refine your approach based on what the data tells you. When you reach out to bloggers with genuine interest and enthusiasm, you become the most important element of your book marketing plan. Plus, with BookBaby's full suite of services at your disposal, you have all the expert support and guidance you need at your fingertips.
Start planning your blogger outreach and marketing campaign today and watch as you begin to cultivate powerful, sustainable partnerships who can help amplify your story around the country and around the world. To learn more about BookBaby and our comprehensive book publishing, printing, and marketing services, contact us today or get a quote on our website.