ARC-how to go about it?

Jazen · Mar 28, 2014

Ok forgive me if this is the wrong place of if this has been covered before.

When I'm looking for new books to read and I go through the comments, I find some comments by people tagging at the end they were given an ARC in exchange for an honest review of the book.

1. How do you find these people to do the reviews?
2. Do you think these reviews help or hurt you? Do you think paying customers are more likely to buy your book if (in the beginning) all your 5 or 4 star reviews (if that's what's given) are from people who received this free copy?

I'm preparing to self-pub my first book next month so I was curious about this.

Mclesh · Mar 28, 2014

Hi, Jazen. One way to get your book in the hands of reviewers is to offer ARCs on Goodreads. I've had pretty good results. The reviewers on GR are by no means a guaranteed good review. You take your chances just as you would with any other reviewer. I think ideally you'd have a mix of reviews from people who purchased your book and are listed on Amazon, for instance, as a verified purchase along with reviewers who state that they were given an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think it helps to have a number of reviews people can browse through. Being able to look inside the book and read a sample is the most important thing for me as a reader/buyer.

LibraryThing is another way to offer ARCs to readers. I haven't done this personally, but it might be something to look into.

Good luck!

Jazen · Mar 28, 2014

Thank you! I will bookmark both of these links.

I like to read a few different reviews before I decide on a book so having a good mix is helpful. I do plan on allowing the free look inside that I see offered on other books.

Thanks for your reply.

Mclesh · Mar 28, 2014

You're welcome!

Another way would be to book a blog tour where the different blogs who sign up would read and review your book. They'll often post the reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads. (This will depend upon your budget, if any.

)

Jazen · Mar 28, 2014

I will admit to being very confused on the whole book blog tour thing. That is something I've been trying to figure out and read up on, but something just isn't clicking with me there. (I freely admit to being slow to understand somethings)

My budget is pretty low to none. The husband likes me to keep things out of the red as much as possible

Mclesh · Mar 28, 2014

Jazen said:
I will admit to being very confused on the whole book blog tour thing. That is something I've been trying to figure out and read up on, but something just isn't clicking with me there. (I freely admit to being slow to understand somethings)

My budget is pretty low to none. The husband likes me to keep things out of the red as much as possible

Yeah, I hear ya on the lack of budget.

I've done a couple of blog tours. One resulted in quite a few reviews for my YA novel, but no sales to speak of.

Some bloggers, however, are really popular. If you get in with a popular blogger in your genre, that could help generate word of mouth and sales. So that dovetails into sending review requests to book bloggers/reviewers in your genre. That does take a bit of time, but if you get some interest it could really pay off. And you'll save money by not booking a blog tour.

Torgo · Mar 28, 2014

Jazen said:
I will admit to being very confused on the whole book blog tour thing. That is something I've been trying to figure out and read up on, but something just isn't clicking with me there. (I freely admit to being slow to understand somethings)

Me too, and I'm in the business.

A blog tour is great if it means your book is going to be talked about on legitimate high-traffic blogs. But the nature of legitimate blogs - i.e. review blogs that real readers trust for book recommendations - is that you can't buy space on them. They are editorially-driven.

As an example: BoingBoing. Huge traffic. A place I visit daily and pick up all kinds of tips from. I've pressed books on Cory Doctorow in the past in the hope that he'll post about them. That's all I can do: I can't pay him to write about books, can't choose the stuff he likes. When he does write about something I gave him, it's a win, but it depends on the book, not on my marketing budget.

I am really wary of services that sell blog tours. We have seen such businesses in the past that seem to create and farm their own blog networks. This is of no use to anybody, because who visits a spammy ad-blog on a daily basis?

Mclesh · Mar 28, 2014

Torgo, I agree with pretty much everything you said. The blog tours are a way to generate the reviews, but if they don't help sell your book, then are they worth it? After doing them for my first two books published with a small publisher, I didn't bother for my SP book. I was disappointed when I visited some of the sites and saw that most of the commenters seemed to be other book review bloggers who were promoting each other.

But I have heard a few success stories, so I hate to discount them completely.

Jazen · Mar 28, 2014

Mclesh said:
Yeah, I hear ya on the lack of budget.

I've done a couple of blog tours. One resulted in quite a few reviews for my YA novel, but no sales to speak of.

Some bloggers, however, are really popular. If you get in with a popular blogger in your genre, that could help generate word of mouth and sales. So that dovetails into sending review requests to book bloggers/reviewers in your genre. That does take a bit of time, but if you get some interest it could really pay off. And you'll save money by not booking a blog tour.

I do follow a few blogs that are geared towards my genre. I read to new book options to read. Some of them do have links where authors can request they read their book, free of cost just to get the review.

I don't understand the idea of paying to have your book reviewed on a blog. I have a blog and it doesn't cost me anything to run it, so what am I paying for exactly?

Torgo said:
Me too, and I'm in the business.

A blog tour is great if it means your book is going to be talked about on legitimate high-traffic blogs. But the nature of legitimate blogs - i.e. review blogs that real readers trust for book recommendations - is that you can't buy space on them. They are editorially-driven.

As an example: BoingBoing. Huge traffic. A place I visit daily and pick up all kinds of tips from. I've pressed books on Cory Doctorow in the past in the hope that he'll post about them. That's all I can do: I can't pay him to write about books, can't choose the stuff he likes. When he does write about something I gave him, it's a win, but it depends on the book, not on my marketing budget.

I am really wary of services that sell blog tours. We have seen such businesses in the past that seem to create and farm their own blog networks. This is of no use to anybody, because who visits a spammy ad-blog on a daily basis?

Glad I'm not alone in being lost on the whole blog tour thing. I do follow a few blog places like Rock Stars of Romance and True Story book blog. These are free review sites and they seem to put out honest reviews of the books they read.

I'm going to check out the one you mention. I'm always looking for places to get more tips on making it in this business.

Thank you both for your replies.

Mclesh · Mar 28, 2014

Jazen said:
I don't understand the idea of paying to have your book reviewed on a blog. I have a blog and it doesn't cost me anything to run it, so what am I paying for exactly?

You're paying for the organizer to set up the tour and get reviewers to sign up. I don't know if the individual bloggers are paid for their time, or if it's just the participation and the fact that they get free books.

Jazen · Mar 28, 2014

Mclesh said:
You're paying for the organizer to set up the tour and get reviewers to sign up. I don't know if the individual bloggers are paid for their time, or if it's just the participation and the fact that they get free books.

ah, ok so basically I'm paying for 'marketing' of sorts of my book for the tour. Sort of like a promotion manager type person. Thanks

Old Hack · Mar 29, 2014

Some blog tour organisers DO charge for the reviews they organise, and/or do arrange reviews on blogs which expect payment for those reviews.

I get a lot of ARCs, mostly (these days) from people I've met on Twitter, even though I hardly tweet anymore. I get a few more ARCs by publishers who have seen the very few reviews I've written online.

If I were interested in building a list of people to send ARCs to I'd look for people who consistently write thoughtful, witty reviews of books which are similar in tone to mine. Is it possible to look at Amazon reviews and contact the reviewers whose work you like?

Jazen · Mar 29, 2014

Old Hack said:
Some blog tour organisers DO charge for the reviews they organise, and/or do arrange reviews on blogs which expect payment for those reviews.

I get a lot of ARCs, mostly (these days) from people I've met on Twitter, even though I hardly tweet anymore. I get a few more ARCs by publishers who have seen the very few reviews I've written online.

If I were interested in building a list of people to send ARCs to I'd look for people who consistently write thoughtful, witty reviews of books which are similar in tone to mine. Is it possible to look at Amazon reviews and contact the reviewers whose work you like?

yeah I don't want to pay for a review, something about that seems odd to me. I don't tweet at all, guess I might have to look at getting more of a social media presence but right now I just want to get the book done and out.

I'm not sure about being able to contact Amazon reviewers. I think I could contact ones on Goodreads if I read reviews in the genre similar to mine.

Thanks

Polenth · Mar 29, 2014

This list has a lot of book bloggers who'll take self-published work. Some are inactive or closed to submissions, but you should be able to find a few.

http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/

Literateparakeet · Mar 30, 2014

I just did a couple free days (Kindle Select) and have gotten eight reviews from that--wahoo!

I have done the LibraryThing giveaway a couple times, it was okay.

NetGalley--I joined a co-op and did it for just a month. I got a couple reviews on Goodreads out of that. The drawback to that is that readers are "penalized" if they don't give reviews (authors/publishers can see if they routinely accept books and then don't review them...and they can then chose NOT to allow them a copy) this leads to review like this: 2 stars "I thought this book would be different that it was. I don't even like this genre. I didn't read the blurb, just looked at the cover." (No, that wasn't one of my reviews, but I heard about it and did receive similar.) So be warned.

Old Hack: Is it possible to look at Amazon reviews and contact the reviewers whose work you like?

Yes some reviewers make their email, or website address public so that people can contact them. So you find books that are similar to yours and look at the reviews and contact these people. Trouble is--that is a painstaking process that takes hours! I tried it and gave up because it took too long. Then I discovered Author Marketing Club. I paid the fee for one month ($25-$35, I can't remember exactly). And they have software that does the work for you to find those Amazon Reviewers that don't mind being contacted. It was well worth the money to me! Author Marketing Club had other features as well. For me I can't see the benefit in a full-year membership (my budget like is tight), but I thought the one month was totally worth it. I got some reviews out of it and one of them was an Amazon Top 100 reviewer! So that was awesome!

I haven't done Goodreads because my first book is only in ebook (for now), but I will definitely give it a try for my next book.

As of today, I have 27 reviews (and I am thrilled!), I think contacting Amazon reviewers and the free promotion (Kindle Select) have helped the most.

Regarding the question does it matter if the reviews say "I received this book free for an honest review"? I don't think so. In fact when I see a book that has only a few reviews, or all five star reviews, I'm suspicious that they are all from friends and family. I would consider it good to see "I received this book free in exchange for an honest review" because then I believe the review is honest and they aren't all from family and friends.

Mclesh · Mar 30, 2014

LP: I had a good result from my Kindle Select promotion also with a nice amount of reviews coming in the couple of weeks after.

Another thing I thought of. (Lol.) I've known a few authors who've set up their own blog tours by reaching out to bloggers who fit within their category. It's a bit of work, but it's free! These may not result in actual reviews as much as the book, blurb, and buy links being featured on several blogs within a certain time period.

Jazen · Mar 31, 2014

Polenth said:
This list has a lot of book bloggers who'll take self-published work. Some are inactive or closed to submissions, but you should be able to find a few.

http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/

Thanks so much for the link!

Literateparakeet said:
I just did a couple free days (Kindle Select) and have gotten eight reviews from that--wahoo!

I have done the LibraryThing giveaway a couple times, it was okay.

NetGalley--I joined a co-op and did it for just a month. I got a couple reviews on Goodreads out of that. The drawback to that is that readers are "penalized" if they don't give reviews (authors/publishers can see if they routinely accept books and then don't review them...and they can then chose NOT to allow them a copy) this leads to review like this: 2 stars "I thought this book would be different that it was. I don't even like this genre. I didn't read the blurb, just looked at the cover." (No, that wasn't one of my reviews, but I heard about it and did receive similar.) So be warned.

Yes some reviewers make their email, or website address public so that people can contact them. So you find books that are similar to yours and look at the reviews and contact these people. Trouble is--that is a painstaking process that takes hours! I tried it and gave up because it took too long. Then I discovered Author Marketing Club. I paid the fee for one month ($25-$35, I can't remember exactly). And they have software that does the work for you to find those Amazon Reviewers that don't mind being contacted. It was well worth the money to me! Author Marketing Club had other features as well. For me I can't see the benefit in a full-year membership (my budget like is tight), but I thought the one month was totally worth it. I got some reviews out of it and one of them was an Amazon Top 100 reviewer! So that was awesome!

I haven't done Goodreads because my first book is only in ebook (for now), but I will definitely give it a try for my next book.

As of today, I have 27 reviews (and I am thrilled!), I think contacting Amazon reviewers and the free promotion (Kindle Select) have helped the most.

Regarding the question does it matter if the reviews say "I received this book free for an honest review"? I don't think so. In fact when I see a book that has only a few reviews, or all five star reviews, I'm suspicious that they are all from friends and family. I would consider it good to see "I received this book free in exchange for an honest review" because then I believe the review is honest and they aren't all from family and friends.

That marketing club sounds doable. My budget is also very tight.

I've not joined the netgalley or library thing as of yet, but I do have the sites bookmarked. The 2 star review like that is terrible, but hopefully people will read that and take it for what it's worth.

As for goodreads, can you not do the same thing even with it being only an ebook? I thought there was a way to send the file or something to the people doing the review. I'm not good with anything technical, but I would imagine you can link them your ebook somehow. Hopefully someone will better explain that process.

Where the review is concerned, guess that could be true that if they only have top reviews, it could be from friends or family.

Mclesh said:
LP: I had a good result from my Kindle Select promotion also with a nice amount of reviews coming in the couple of weeks after.

Another thing I thought of. (Lol.) I've known a few authors who've set up their own blog tours by reaching out to bloggers who fit within their category. It's a bit of work, but it's free! These may not result in actual reviews as much as the book, blurb, and buy links being featured on several blogs within a certain time period.

I don't mind the promotion of the book via those means.

Hopefully people that see it and buy will leave a review.

The kindle select is that 90 day exclusive rights with only Kindle right? I looked into that program, but since I'm a Nook owner it's not an option for me.

Thanks everyone for the input. The closer I get to release day, the more I'm trying to learn about how to promote.

Literateparakeet · Mar 31, 2014

Mclesh, yes, great idea about the do it yourself blog tour. I did that and it was helpful. It is a bit of work as you said.

Jazen said:
That marketing club sounds doable. My budget is also very tight.

I've not joined the netgalley or library thing as of yet, but I do have the sites bookmarked . . .

As for goodreads, can you not do the same thing even with it being only an ebook? I thought there was a way to send the file or something to the people doing the review. I'm not good with anything technical, but I would imagine you can link them your ebook somehow. Hopefully someone will better explain that process..

Netgalley is VERY expensive unless you join a co-op. To find a co-op try google. I'm pretty sure that's how I found them.

LibraryThing is free and they allow give aways of print or ebook.

Goodreads has a much larger aurdience than LibraryThing, but they only ALLOW giveaways for print book. So the issue is not whether or not you can, it's what they allow on their site.

Jazen · Apr 1, 2014

Literateparakeet said:
Mclesh, yes, great idea about the do it yourself blog tour. I did that and it was helpful. It is a bit of work as you said.

Netgalley is VERY expensive unless you join a co-op. To find a co-op try google. I'm pretty sure that's how I found them.

LibraryThing is free and they allow give aways of print or ebook.

Goodreads has a much larger aurdience than LibraryThing, but they only ALLOW giveaways for print book. So the issue is not whether or not you can, it's what they allow on their site.

Thank you for clearing that up about Goodreads! I was very confused on that point.

There's so much to learn, I'm trying to take it all in without making my head explode in the process.

Again thank everyone for the input! I really appreciate it.

merrihiatt · Apr 1, 2014

Through the Making Connections forum at Goodreads you can make an ebook available free to anyone who would like to read and review it. You give them the formats (Mobi for Kindle users, epub for Nook and others and pdf if folks want to read on their computer). They give you their email address and preferred format. The author then contacts the reader via email, attaching the file to the email. I always make sure to put Goodreads and the book title in my subject line so they know it isn't SPAM.

Jazen · Apr 5, 2014

merrihiatt said:
Through the Making Connections forum at Goodreads you can make an ebook available free to anyone who would like to read and review it. You give them the formats (Mobi for Kindle users, epub for Nook and others and pdf if folks want to read on their computer). They give you their email address and preferred format. The author then contacts the reader via email, attaching the file to the email. I always make sure to put Goodreads and the book title in my subject line so they know it isn't SPAM.

Ah, cool. Thanks for the info. I joined the ARC forum on Goodreads, I'll go check out the making connections one as well.

Filigree · Apr 6, 2014

Thanks! This is invaluable info. I'd just about resigned myself to not being able to do ARCs at all.

Jazen · Apr 29, 2014

Filigree said:
Thanks! This is invaluable info. I'd just about resigned myself to not being able to do ARCs at all.

I was the same way. My next worry was how to convert my file into the proper format but that was easy. Once I uploaded on KDP I was able to download a preview file. I was very excited about that. And once it was ready on Smashwords I was able to download a .epub file so now I should be covered for both Nook and Kindle users.

I made a post on the Goodreads ARC forum and got some interest so I am very excited about.

Thanks again to everyone that gave me feedback.

RhodaD'Ettore · May 2, 2014

I have met quite a few blogging authors between this forum, goodreads, and facebook. I bascially did my own blog tour just by asking bloggers if they would post my info. Some blog tours do nothing more than post your links, excerpts and your bio. Other allow you to stay online and answer questions. Most companies do not guarantee you a set number of reviews. The bloggers receive your free ebook, and the companies usually ask you to raffle a prize for the bloggers. $10 in amazon gift card, or something like that.

I thought about it.. but i havent paid for anything this far, so why start now?

Jazen · May 5, 2014

RhodaD'Ettore said:
I have met quite a few blogging authors between this forum, goodreads, and facebook. I bascially did my own blog tour just by asking bloggers if they would post my info. Some blog tours do nothing more than post your links, excerpts and your bio. Other allow you to stay online and answer questions. Most companies do not guarantee you a set number of reviews. The bloggers receive your free ebook, and the companies usually ask you to raffle a prize for the bloggers. $10 in amazon gift card, or something like that.

I thought about it.. but i havent paid for anything this far, so why start now?

Yeah, I've seen a few posts on the 'paid' blog tours and things like that and members have varying feelings about them. I've decided to stay away from the paid tours and see how things go contacting free blog sites.

ARC-how to go about it?

Jazen

Mclesh

It's too hot

Jazen

Mclesh

It's too hot

Jazen

Mclesh

It's too hot

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

Mclesh

It's too hot

Jazen

Mclesh

It's too hot

Jazen

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Jazen

Polenth

Mushroom

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie

Mclesh

It's too hot

Jazen

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie

Jazen

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Jazen

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing

Jazen

RhodaD'Ettore

Jazen