Posted by Here’s the link to the database!!!
Sign-ups:
There are some things that just don’t lend themselves to forms, and I’ll have to add this stuff in manually.
Reviewers: You can leave a comment here for your preferences that don’t fall under genre… magic system vs mysterious magic, character-driven vs plot-driven, male/female characters, multi vs single pov, etc.
Authors: You can leave a comment on this post to add your bingo information!
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The Overall Concept
A huge obstacle indie authors have to conquer is getting a decent amount of reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads. From what I’m told, there’s an algorithm in Amazon where an authors book starts to get recommended to people after X amount of reviews – some have said these start at just 15 reviews, and get kicked into high gear at around 50 reviews.
Lots of very talented traditionally published authors have started out in self-publishing (Michael J Sullivan, Becky Chambers, Josiah Bancroft, Andy Weir for example), and what I’d like to see is more high-quality indie stuff. A part of getting more of that is getting their work read so they get that cash money, so they stay motivated to keep writing and being able to afford editing services, cover design, etc.
So, why not crowdsource reviews? It doesn’t matter if you have your own blog with a ton of followers or someone who has no blog and just posts an Amazon review. To Amazon, a review is a review and it helps books authors visibility.
You get free books, they get reviews!
I have now included a giveaway/prizes at the end of the year, anyone who participates will be eligible, and if you go the extra mile and post a lot of reviews, you could win the bigger prizes.
Update page here: Updated Prizes
Matching You With Your Perfect Author
Right now my preference page is still in the works, I may add things periodically to help narrow things down and get better matches. So far, I have a sub-genre preference and an “about the reviewer” section for authors to click on to get more critical info. Just because the subgenre is right, doesn’t necessarily mean the book is going to click. Looking into things like character-driven vs plot driven, overall tone, length of the book, cursing vs clean writing, or hard magic system vs mysterious magic preferences are all important too.
Ideally, reviewers and authors will go through each others info thoroughly and look for high matches, with multiple preferences checked off for each of the books being recommended or requested.
The Guidelines
Although the idea is to get reviews, I absolutely will not be hounding people for reviews, I’ll be working off the honor system. There are multiple reviewers here who are ‘mood readers’ and will get to the book when it strikes their fancy, and that’s fine. That said, if a few authors alert me to someone who looks like they are just in this to get free books without putting out any reviews, I’ll put that person’s info on hold status until some reviews come out. If at any point a reviewer doesn’t want to do this anymore, or are busy and need to catch up, all they need to do is DM me on Reddit, Twitter, Goodreads, or my blog and I’ll either take down their info or place them on ‘hold’ status.
Also, authors, please do not send book review requests for anyone who has a ‘hold’ status, even if they sound like the perfect match for your book. Hounding the reviewers will get them to quit, and this whole thing won’t work anymore, and I’ll be sad.
As a tip for authors looking for reviews in general – when you send a request don’t use the copypasta technique I used for getting this all together. When I get a review request from someone who’s personalized it and obviously gone through my preferences thoroughly, I’m way more impressed. I received a review request that said, and I’m paraphrasing, “My book ________ is self-published and I’d love to get a review from you! It’s a Victorian steampunk romance with a love triangle that will tear your heart out! I know you’ll love it!”. This person did not go through my preferences… they were selling me a book that on every level I wasn’t interested in.
Also, authors, if you get someone requesting your book from outside of this database, it’ll be up to you to decide whether or not to send the book. You can contact me and see if I just haven’t updated it yet, I’ll be trying to keep it as updated as possible.
The Extra Mile
None of this is required, but if a lot of people participate it would make this thing a lot cooler:
- Send me a link to your review when it’s done so I can compile them all in one place. I have a review tab on the database so people can click through and see what everyone else thinks of the book.
- Have a rating on your review so I can add that to the database next to the title name of the book.
- Leave as many reviews as possible, Amazon, Goodreads, Reddit – and if you have a blog, that too. Only one review is ‘required’ though, and if possible, Amazon I think is the most helpful. (If you don’t want to make your own thread on Reddit, there’s review Tuesdays on Reddit where you can leave a short paragraph.)
Thanks so much to everyone who’s gotten involved – the bigger the reviewer base the better this will work!
Well done for doing this, Brittany. What an excellent (and helpful) idea. I’m sure I’ll make use of it in the not too distant future. 🙂
This is fantastic!
You are a star! And quite a bright one at that.
Brilliant. You’re the high priestess of indie publishing, Esme!
Great idea! Should there be a sword and sorcery category box?
What an amazing initiative. Thank you, again, for all that you do for readers and authors alike. Here, I’m going to hug your blog while it’s on my monitor.
What a great idea! Thank your for your support of the indie writing community. I won’t be putting any of my self-pubished books in, but that’s not because I don’t support the idea…I just don’t want to bleed off any reviews that could be better served by those still trying to “come up through the ranks” but I’m in full support of what you are doing!
Thanks, appreciate it – I really hope this turns into something useful for people 🙂
You’re also welcome to be a reviewer if any of these catch your interest 🙂
Great idea.
Add ‘dystopian’ as a category?
Love, love, love this idea, Esme! You’re the patron saint of self-publishing at this point!
Bingo info for “Servant of Rage”:
Self-published fantasy novel
Fantasy novel published in 2018
Novel with fewer than 2,500 Goodreads ratings
Thanks so much!
I was tipped off to the existence of TBRindr by a new Twitter user with no photo who commented on my tweet about looking for reviewers for my dark epic fantasy novel. Very random, but very appreciated! I signed myself and my novel to the author list, and I’m looking forward to connecting with readers to whom The Blighted City may be a fit. Thanks for creating this! 🙂
Haha I’m glad the word is getting around, in just 2 months we’ve produced almost 175 reviews! I hope you find it useful!
That’s a damned good result in just two months. Fingers crossed!
Hello! *waves* An indie author friend of mine told me of this amazing idea and place. It’s wonderful! Thank you so much for doing this. I have signed up and hope someone might like to read my new book, Slipping Through.
Oh heyy! Happy to have you on board! Hope you find it useful!
So glad I stumbled on this blog today – will be telling my indie author friends about it. Esme this is such a wonderful idea – you deserve big hugs. Looking forward to connecting with potential reviewers who might be interested in The Day Of The Martians, my audiobook sequel to The War Of The Worlds, complete with music and sound effects.
Bingo info not included on the submission form: Novel featuring a mountain setting, Novel featuring a protagonist who is a writer,
What a wonderful idea! I will have to check this out!
*Wonderful* idea (and thanks to Timy Takács for forwarding me a link!)
Hello! I was just referred to here by Jason @ Off the TBR, and this is just what I’ve been looking for! I signed up to be a part of the database, and am looking forward to connecting with reviewers. My novel, Red and Black, is a superhero story that features a romance between a hero and a villain.
Thank you for thinking up such a neat idea!
Thanks so much for doing this, Esme! Just wanted to add to my info that I’m looking for beta readers right now and expect my book, Fortune’s Fool, to be released in spring 2019. (Author name: Angela Boord)
Love this idea – and I was given the site address by a friend of a friend of a friend. Slightly worried now (after reading the comments, etc) that I just filled in the form as it was – where was the part where I could say, Hey! This is a great series for readers who love Victoriana, Time Travel, and Jack the Ripper? Anyway, it’s done now and if anyone is interested I can send a copy.
Thanks again.
Glad you found the review service – I’ll make sure you got added to the list!
Hi, Esme! I know you’re focusing on your personal life rn so don’t feel pressured by this comment.
Just wanted to ask if you can take my email out of the form and put my review request page instead, please? (https://bookwyrmsgalaxy.wordpress.com/for-authors/), and if you can put me on hold for the moment? I’m trying to catch up to my backlog… I’m the Arina right at the bottom.
sure thing!