Charles Tan has posted a great essay on using book review blogs for promotion. This is really well thought-out and reasoned. For example:
People in general (unless they’re your die-hard fans or you’re Oprah) don’t value your opinions about your own work. That’s why writing a review of your own book is frowned upon. Or why the opinions of a hundred strangers in Amazon have more bearing than your own, no matter how talented or knowledgeable you might be compared to them. Or simply why blurbs are used in promotion, and why they don’t come from yourself or your mom.
This generalization is what fuels book reviews and interviews (whether print or online). It’s one thing to be featured in your own site, it’s another to be featured elsewhere. This also prevents most authors from conducting interviews with themselves (it’s not quite taboo and some have actually done it but for the most part, it’s not practiced).
If you’re a novelist with a book you’re trying to promote, I heartily suggest you give this article a read.
