As a travel or place-based writer, you’re not limited to telling personal narratives about the places you’ve been. The popularity of travelogues and memoirs continues to expand, and more publications, both print and electronic, are including book reviews among the content they offer readers.

As an established or emerging travel writer, you can request review copies of recently published books directly from publishing houses or authors’ agents. Publishers and agents are eager to stimulate book sales through reviews, and you can expand your own library while adding a new skill to your writing repertoire and resume.

Below, you’ll find a sample e-mail/fax that you can use to contact publishers to request review copies. First, though, a few pointers:

*Do not request review copies unless you (1) actually plan to review the book and (2) have a publication that has agreed to publish your review. Publishers are willing to send you books for free, but they want to be reasonably assured that you’ll write the review in exchange.

*Do direct your request to the correct publishing house representative. Each publishing house has an individual or department responsible for handling review copy requests. Once you’ve learned about a book you want to review, visit the publisher’s website and perform a keyword search for “review copies.”

*Do be specific–and honest– about your publication credits and the credentials of the publication in which you expect the review to be published. Publishers and agents want to know: (1) your publishing history, especially of book reviews; (2) the name of the publication to which the review will be submitted for publication; and, (3) most importantly, the circulation or total readership of the publication in which the review will appear. If the publication is electronic, citing the number of RSS subscribers is also helpful.

SAMPLE E-MAIL/FAX:

Hello-

My name is ______ and I am a writer for ______________.
I am writing to request a review copy of [author name] [book title], for which I plan to write a review for [name of publication]. My contact information and information about the publication appear below. If you require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you in advance,

[Your Name]

Contact Information: [Your Name]
[Your Address]

Phone:
E-Mail:

Publication Information: [Name of publication] is an [online/print] travel magazine that [is published with what frequency]. [Name of publication] currently has a circulation of [number of suscribers; if online, mention RSS feed and, if available, number of unique daily visitors who are not subscribers]. The most recent book review I published was [author name/book title], published by [name of publisher].