Often I'm asked to read and provide feedback, or review other writers' work. Unfortunately, my publishing schedule doesn't allow me time to do that, but I know how challenging it is to get reviews for your book when you're getting started. There are two legitimate services my publisher has used that can help you get reader reviews.
Booksprout has several moderately priced tiers for getting ARC reviews.
NetGalley is more expensive, but puts your book in front of their enormous pool of voracious readers.
If you're looking for more marketing help, David Gaughran offers an incredible amount of insight and information into self-publishing and Amazon. He has several excellent books available to help writers market and sell their work, and also provides a great deal of information through his blog and his newsletter. An added bonus is that he's very funny and reading his detailed explanations can be quite entertaining as well as informative.
For six years, possibly more, I wrote (and avoided writing) a book that tells the story of my writing journey and the sometimes excruciatingly painful lessons learned.
Have you despaired under all the advice regarding how to succeed as an indie author, the internal debate over whether or not self-publishing has truly lost its “stigma”, the advice about what it takes to succeed?
This book is for you. It’s brutally honest yet full of hope. It tells you what it’s really like for a writer who isn’t one of the ones who published a book or five and saw them skyrocket to the top of the bestseller charts.
It’s for writers who are wondering if it’s true that the traditional publishing route offers few advantages and many disadvantages over self-publishing.
UPDATE
I published this book in December 2018. Six weeks later, I was approached by a small, innovative crime fiction publisher based in Ireland--Inkubator Books.
This wonderful, hands-on publisher, has done a superb job working with me to develop six domestic thrillers, with more to come. They also re-issued two of my self-published novels. They handle all the marketing of my books, which was the role I struggled, and mostly failed, to master.
I still absolutely believe I made the right choice to self-publish, and Inkubator is a perfect fit because they fully support my creative vision and my continuing self-publishing endeavor.
If you're struggling to make a publishing decision, or just looking for the support that comes from reading other writers' stories, I think you'll enjoy my story.