David Escobar asked Paul F. Murray:

Hi Paul! I noticed that you seem to have some experience with reviewing through Readers' Favorite Reviews (and based on some great comments you posted), and I was wondering if you had any advice for how I can find some people to review my book? I'm pretty new to the Goodreads community, so any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Paul F. Murray Hello David, Thank you for your question. I think Readers' Favorite Reviews is probably one of the best platforms for reviews because you can get a review for free, although it may take awhile, perhaps a few months before it's finished. (You can get a book reviewed there within 2-3 weeks for paying a small fee.) But it will be an honest review, based on how well the plot and description of events were constructed, how good the cover art is, and how good the grammar is. Plus they only publish the review if it was four- or five-stars. Books that receive a five-star review can put the five-star seal on their covers. I recommend staying away from reviewers who routinely charge money for reviews. Experienced readers can tell when a book has been reviewed by a "service" and therefore the review, glowing or otherwise, may not genuinely reflect the quality of the novel. I can also recommend checking out free reviews on Amazon. (Do a google search to get to their website) Amazon reviews carry weight with readers because they are free, thus not subject to manipulation, and can put books directly in front of interested readers. I guess it goes without saying that it would not be the best use of your time to try to get reviewed by major sources (e.g. the New York Times, etc.) unless your name is James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Nora Roberts--that crowd. As for the scammers, I have had a few people contact me offering to review my novels, but when I try to send them an email or respond to their emails just to find out if they are legit, I have so far gotten nothing but "Your message could not be delivered" responses from yahoo.com. Right away my suspicions are up. An honest review, done for free, is worth far more than any number of quickie reviews that have been paid for.

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