Get Book Reviews at Reader Communities

Book-Reviewer


There is not only the possibility to get reviews from book bloggers and single reviewers, but also at reader forums and book communities – where giveaways and participation in book discussions will help an author to socialize and to meet readers and reviewers.  

Reviews really help book sales, so publishers and authors are keen to offer free book giveaways to entice reviewers.  At some of these reader communities single chapters (or more) can be placed on the members timeline even before the book is finished.  A prominent example is Wattpad, where members then comment on the manuscripts, acting as free beta readers for the author.  Other favorite places for readers, such as LibraryThing, Amazon or BookLikes are helping authors to set up giveaways if their books are in digital format only.
However there are ways to print a handful of books once you have an ISBN – such as digital printing at university copy shops or at Espresso Book Machine outlets – in order to start a print book giveaway, or to cater to reviewers that prefer paperbacks.
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Reader Communities and Forums.
As an author you are most likely on Goodreads, go to your page, click on Community at the upper part, and use the drop-down menu to find “groups”.  Use the search function, typing in “reviews” or “reviewer”, or just use this link:  
https://www.goodreads.com/group/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Reviews&commit=Search

One of the groups is for example this one:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/60696-making-connections

Over 1000 books are listed to Read & Review.  This is a place for Authors, Bloggers, Publishers, Reviewers, Book Tours, Giveaways, and Interviews to make connections, find followers, ask for help with Blog Tours, Interviews, or just need some help with your blog.

GOOD REVIEWS: This Group is only for authors who are looking for reviews and Reviewers who love to read books and share their reviews.
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Print Book Giveaways at Goodreads.
Goodreads only allows print books as giveaways at this point.  They offer all members: “Be the first to read new books!  Pre-release books are listed for giveaway by publishers and authors, and members can enter to win.   Winners are picked randomly at the end of the giveaway.”   The idea is that many of the people who win a free book will write a review of it on Goodreads.   Some people even write reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.
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Library Thing.
LibraryThing was created by Tim Spalding, a web developer and web publisher based in Portland, Maine. There are two different ways of getting book reviews, one is for publishers who can offer an Advance Review Copy (ARC), and the other one is for authors who already launched their book:

  1. Early Reviewers/Member Giveaway program
  2. e-Book Giveaway Offers

Authors can also join the “Hobnob with Authors” group and discuss their work with interested members.

Offer e-Book Giveaways, too.
In terms of features and functionality, both competitors BookLikes and LibraryThing are similar to Goodreads and offer e-Book Giveaways for members. Of course, they do not have the traffic that Goodreads has, so you should not expect similar results, if you have done a print book giveaway on Goodreads in the past. To list your book giveaway LibraryThing, sign up for a free account and click on the giveaway link when you are logged in.  On the next page, there should be a tab at the top of the page in the main navigation that says “Create Your Giveaway.”  Their rules seem to have been almost copied directly from Goodreads, as they appear to be identical. For more questions and answers, go to their FAQ section.  

Best of all, on LibraryThing you can choose to pick the winners of the giveaway yourself!  It is certainly less expensive than donating print books, and you can easily offer a dozen or more copies.  You can either send the winners a (portable document file) PDF, or you can gift the ebook via Amazon and boost your sales ranking at the same time!
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Biblio Connection
Reach a growing audience of book lovers by sponsoring a giveaway. Sponsoring a giveaway is a great way to generate interest in your book and attract new readers to your work.  Bookstores and book collectors, you too can garnish a little exposure and gain new customers.  You supply the book; Biblio Connection will host a giveaway on the site for free!
Biblio Connection also prominently introduces new author members prominently on their website and encourages everyone to read their profiles, check out their websites and social media pages, and most important: to discover their new books.  Inclusion on Biblio Connection’s Featured Author Profiles is an easy and FREE way to promote your brand and gain added streams of exposure.  Publicize upcoming (giveaway) events, or book signings and speaking engagements.  You can even send personal invitations to members/friends using the events feature.
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Here are Twelve Giveaway Tips for Authors:

  1. Enter your first giveaway four to six weeks before your book’s launch (as soon as you have the ISBN, if it is a print book), and then periodically every other month. 
  2. Schedule your giveaway at least two weeks in advance.
  3. Write a compelling giveaway description with snippets of reviews and mentions of any awards the book won.
  4. Use the free-event feature at Goodreads and Google+ to invite everyone of your followers to sign-up for a the possibility of a free copy in the Giveaway.
  5. Always offer autographed books for print versions.
  6. Take notes and follow everyone who applied for the giveaway. These are the people who are interested in your book!
  7. Send a thank-you note to everyone who entered, and offer two or three chapters of your book to the not-so-lucky ones, and invite them to join your e-mail newsletter.
  8. Announce the giveaway at least once a day on your Google+ timeline, Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and share it with the public, with your circles, and extended circles. In addition, use the function “Also send e-mail to your circles” next to the sharing button for your first post and then use it again towards the end of the giveaway period to remind readers.
  9. Post your giveaway article on your website or blog and a link to this article regularly to all your social media sites. Do not forget Pinterest, Instagram or Flickr.
  10. Use any kind of image or graphic that fits the theme of your book, not only your book’s cover photo. Maybe you can even create a short video about this giveaway.
  11. Make arrangements for interviews in local newspapers mentioning your giveaway. Plan well in advance, two to three months at least.
  12. Announce your Book Blog Giveaways in these listings / blogs, too:

http://bookblogs.ning.com/group/bookbloggiveaways

http://cuddlebuggery.com/previous-lbba-giveaways/

http://www.iamareader.com/giveaway-hops

http://bloggiveawaydirectory.com/tag/books/

https://www.facebook.com/freebookgiveaways

http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2014/06/giveaway-book-of-life-by-deborah.html

http://mostlyyabookobsessed.com/2012/09/blog-makeover-and-giveaway.html

Moreover:  Do not start or end your giveaway on a holiday, or the days before.  People are busy with other things around this time, or they travel.  And, do not limit your giveaways to your own country; offer them worldwide.  It means more exposure.  If your giveaway is only one to three copies, it is affordable, especially if you send it as a gift through Amazon.  This will help your ranking, too.  But always include a friendly note, even when you gift it via the online retailer.  If you ship the books yourself, do not delay the delivery to the lucky winner, once the giveaway ended.
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Find more reader communities to choose from at these websites, sign up with them, create an author profile, show your books, and participate in book talks – long before you mention your book giveaways or before you ask if anyone would like to review your books. 
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GooglePlus Reviewer Communities:

Developing a successful social media platform, Google+ built a large community of users online, sorted by interests – for example these communities of reviewers and authors:
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Book promo-review group.
“Writers/readers/bloggers group.  Join if you love to read, write, review and promote books.  There are for example two sections: ‘Books Need Reviews’ and ‘Readers Offering Reviews’.”


MODERN GOOD READS Free Ebooks 4 Review.  
“FREE ebooks available to all, but please leave an honest review.”
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Africa-American Self Publishers And Reviewers.  
“African-American, Culture, Fiction, Review: The idea of this community is to offer a helping hand to Self- published authors to promote their works. Especially, African writers.”
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Indie Author Book Reviews.
“The Place to promote and be promoted. Modelled on the Indie Author Review Initiative on Goodreads, this is the place to write and get reviews for your Indie published books.”
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Book Reviews.
“Book reviews for the rest of us! This is a community for book reviews written by real people like us. Is there a book you just finished reading that you would like to tell us about?”
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Book Reviewers. 
“For readers, writers, and reviewers. This is a place to introduce your books, share your reviews, post giveaways, author interviews, or just simply be creative.”
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Conclusion:
Once you signed up in forums and book communities, contribute and be a part of conversations at book communities.  There are many ways to provide writing advice and book recommendations.  Ask other members for their favored books.  Be engaged – contribute through comments, messages, friending, and active participation in forum discussions.  Your suggestion to read your book will be welcomed more once book lovers get to know you.  Don’t sign in and start immediately talking about your own book.  Other members find out about it from your profile, being more engaged in discussions is the key for success on these places.  And also to write lots of book reviews for other writers …

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