In my last post on services for sapphic fiction authors, I talked about I Heart SapphFic. Another great place to market your sapphic books is The Lesbian Review.
What is The Lesbian Review?
The Lesbian Review (often shortened to TLR) is a website dedicated to reviewing sapphic fiction and occasionally other media that they think is awesome.
With about 2000 reviews on the site, it can be overwhelming to find exactly the right book. So TLR has a built-in range of tools to help readers find exactly what they want to read next.
They also feature paid-for advertising on the website and hold book-related events to which they sell tickets.
TLR is also actively creating a safe community for folks who enjoy sapphic fiction. They have Facebook and Discord groups where they discuss sapphic books. They host free events on Discord such as monthly author readings and launch events.
They also have Twitter and Instagram accounts where they spread their love of great media.
TLR started as a website and grew into a brand that offers folks safe spaces and great recommendations.
What free services does TLR offer authors and publishers?
All TLR reviews are free.
Any author or publisher can submit a review request using the form on this page.
That page also explains the review process and lets folks know what the TLR reviewer need a heads-up about.
They also offer free New Release listings to all black, indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) authors in the sector.
And they offer a free reading on Discord once a month. You can do it as a voice-only reading and TLR hosts these on the first Saturday of every month.
Getting reviewed
The Lesbian Review gets a lot of review requests, way more than the capacity of the team, even though they are putting out three to five reviews a week.
Whether or not a book or audiobook gets picked up for review is entirely dependent on the team at the time. The synopsis and info are sent to the team. They decide individually whether or not they want to try it.
There are also external factors at play like who has space in their reading pile; what they feel like reading at the moment; and whether or not they have the emotional capacity and desire to take on specific topics.
The synopsis is your biggest selling tool when it comes to the team. You want a synopsis that is so good that even if the team doesn’t pick it up initially they keep thinking about it so that if they have space they pick it up later.
If TLR picks up the book, they will ask you to send them an ePub copy, which can be read on any reading device or app. The TLR reviewers are spread all over the world and don’t accept print books.
Length, price and genre don’t generally matter all that much. The team is diverse in their likes, and some of them like long books.
They accept review requests for old and new books and generally only look at fiction. Non-fiction, poetry and colouring books are not accepted.
What paid services does TLR offer authors and publishers?
TLR has monthly New Release listings and on-site adverts that are paid for. They also do some special advertising events and promotional opportunities throughout the year. These change annually, so check out the updated information.
New Release listings to all BIPOC authors in the sector are free.
New Releases are restricted to sapphic books, audiobooks, boxed sets, and movies which are no more than three months old at the time when the ads go live.
Adverts can be for anything that is relevant to the sector; there are no timeframe restrictions on those.
Stay up to date: If you want to stay up to date with TLR promotions and advertising opportunities, sign up to their author newsletter.
