How not to do it

If you are seriously going to go about drumming up reviews of your book, please do not begin your e-mail in this fashion:

"Dear Literary Blogger,

A friend gave me a list of the email addresses of literary bloggers. I'm not even sure I know what a literary blogger is, but I guess some of you must write reviews and maybe even a few of you write reviews of poetry books."

1) Believe it or not, I have a name.  You can even find it by poking about on my blog.  In the future, choose from a) leaving off the salutation, b) opting for something more formal,  or c) personalizing the e-mail.

2) No doubt that "I'm not even sure" bit was meant to be funny.  Indeed, I laughed for approximately .03 seconds.  But, you know, you're asking me to do you a favor, and...you think the best way of selling yourself is to be vaguely condescending in oh-so-humorous fashion? Are you quite serious?

3) Did you actually look at the blogs in question to see if they're relevant?

4) Did you look at my blog to see if I review contemporary poetry? A hint: the answer is no!