Another questionable Goodreads reviewer request

Chiquita Banana · Jan 9, 2013

I got a message a couple of days ago from someone who said she wants to review my book and is wondering if I'd send a copy. The message included the link to a blog which looks very nice, but has a grand total of 1 follower. Also, I tried to click to her goodreads profile, but it's set to private. That seemed odd for a Goodreads reveiwer. She didn't address me by name in the message (which I took as a bad sign) but she did mention my book by name (which sort of negated the bad sign).

What do you think? I don't particularly need more reviews. Been working my ass off to get them and I've managed to get quite a few with more to come from reviewers with lots of followers. But I don't want to her to feel snubbed and for her to have a bad impression of me. Then again, just giving my book away willy nilly to everyone who asks for it - is that wise? I've got more reviews than I could have hoped for, but what I need are sales.

Thanks peeps!

Old Hack · Jan 10, 2013

How helpful do you think a review on a blog with just one reader might be to your sales?

Barbara R. · Jan 10, 2013

I'd like to review your old silver and gold jewelry and any bearer bonds you have lying about. Would you send them to me?

sarahdalton · Jan 10, 2013

Perhaps if they agreed to put their review on Amazon it would be useful.

I get a few of these. Some of them include their home address in the message! Some of them request goodies or 'swag'.

My policy is that unless I really want them to review my book I'll send them an ebook but won't spend the money purchasing and posting a paperback. Maybe you could send them an ebook so that it doesn't cost you anything?

Chiquita Banana · Jan 10, 2013

God no. I'd never send a paperback. She's in India anyway, and I'm in the US. I could send an ebook...

I do realize that it wouldn't help my sales to be on her blog. Amazon, maybe but I've already got 30 reviews for the book. One more isn't going to make much of a difference. I suppose I'm just worried about coming off as a stingy author.

meowzbark · Jan 10, 2013

As someone who has a book review blog, this sounds like a fake. I don't know of any reviewer/blogger that has a private Goodreads account and it doesn't take more than a couple days to get more than one follower. She wants a free ebook.

If she's legit, she's doing it wrong.

EDIT: I would tell her that you're not giving out any review copies at this time, but you will keep her in mind for your next book (even if you won't).

EMaree · Jan 11, 2013

meowzbark said:
As someone who has a book review blog, this sounds like a fake. I don't know of any reviewer/blogger that has a private Goodreads account and it doesn't take more than a couple days to get more than one follower. She wants a free ebook.

If she's legit, she's doing it wrong.

EDIT: I would tell her that you're not giving out any review copies at this time, but you will keep her in mind for your next book (even if you won't).

Seconding this. A few of my writing friends have said that they've been receiving an uptick in people adding them on Goodreads just to request review books. It makes me very wary about requests through that site.

I also saw a writing blog on Tumblr (Life In Publishing, maybe?) warning that sending out e-books to any reviewer who asks can be an easy way for your book to end up on piracy sites.

Alessandra Kelley · Jan 11, 2013

EMaree said:
Seconding this. A few of my writing friends have said that they've been receiving an uptick in people adding them on Goodreads just to request review books. It makes me very wary about requests through that site.

I also saw a writing blog on Tumblr (Life In Publishing, maybe?) warning that sending out e-books to any reviewer who asks can be an easy way for your book to end up on piracy sites.

Wasn't there a thread last year about a humongous piracy site that wound up being in India? One of those places where it's very hard to get things taken down, anyway.

Chiquita Banana · Jan 12, 2013

Thank you all so much for the input. Good point about the piracy sites! Egads. And Meowzbark: that's an excellent suggestion of what to say to her. Thanks!!

sarahdalton · Jan 12, 2013

Scary information about the piracy sites. I guess I've always assumed that being a lowly self-published author lucky to sell one book a day that it's never been an issue for me. I think i'll be a bit more cautious about who to give an ARC to in future.

On a side note, if there are still people looking to acquire reviews via Goodreads, I came across this group today: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/60696.Making_Connections which is organised and moderated. You sign up to provide an ARC and then up to ten people then sign up to read your ARC and post a review on Goodreads, Amazon and B&N.

areteus · Jan 12, 2013

You know, like some of the others here, I have never considered the possibility of my book being pirated... that is a scary thought. Of course at the moment on Goodreads I have the opposite problem - not enough reviews (i.e. not a single one...) so I may get onto that group above and submit a review copy...

Requests for swag come across to me as greedy and opportunistic. As a book reviewer myself I never ask for anything beyond a kindle formatted ebook, though I would not say no if anything is offered. Of course, I also have a friend who is a semi professional reviewer for an online magazine (that used to be a print mag but moved to entirely online recently) and he gets paid entirely in review copies.

ellisshuman · Jan 16, 2013

I would be very hesitant about sending a copy of the book to someone who has a low-traffic blog.

gingerwoman · Feb 15, 2013

I would just ignore it completely.

gingerwoman · Feb 15, 2013

areteus said:
You know, like some of the others here, I have never considered the possibility of my book being pirated... that is a scary thought. Of course at the moment on Goodreads I have the opposite problem - not enough reviews (i.e. not a single one...) so I may get onto that group above and submit a review copy...

Requests for swag come across to me as greedy and opportunistic. As a book reviewer myself I never ask for anything beyond a kindle formatted ebook, though I would not say no if anything is offered. Of course, I also have a friend who is a semi professional reviewer for an online magazine (that used to be a print mag but moved to entirely online recently) and he gets paid entirely in review copies.

Google your name and you will see if you book is on pirate sites. I'm no big name, but I have found mine on more than one. I send them Samhain's official take down notice and they take it down.

Amanda R. · Feb 16, 2013

If your book is available as an ebook, it most likely is being pirated (if it is decently popular anyway, if no one downloads your book the torrent basically dies). I have seen torrents with 10,000 books available on them and some Kindle Catalogs (and, no, these are not free books). If someone has downloaded your book they can basically crack it and upload it to these catalogs, same as music, TV shows, movies, and games.

Another questionable Goodreads reviewer request

Chiquita Banana

practical experience, FTW

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Barbara R.

Old Hand in the Biz

sarahdalton

Chiquita Banana

practical experience, FTW

meowzbark

EMaree

a demon for tea

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Chiquita Banana

practical experience, FTW

sarahdalton

areteus

ellisshuman

Author of short stories, novel

gingerwoman

gingerwoman

Amanda R.

She who must be obeyed