Happy Friday!
I’m getting a bunch of questions about the Review Blitz, so I’ll answer the most common in public so y’all know what’s what.
Q. (paraphrased) Are you crazy? You’re just giving away free books for people to review?
A. I’ve always comped copies for reviews. In the right sidebar of the site, and on the contact page, there’s a Review Copy Request Form link. It’s been there almost as long as this site has been up.
And no, I’m not crazy. Reviews are super important for discoverability. Lack of reviews can bar an author from certain promotional opportunities. Giving away free books in exchange for reviews is considered a cost of doing business. Yes, of course, some people will abuse that system, but again — cost of doing business.
Also yes, I am the worst self-promoter of all time. I don’t like prodding people to review product, and I feel like street teams too often take advantage of people’s generous natures. So we’ll try this limited-time-only event to see how things go.
Q. How long will I have to wait to receive my free copy to review?
A. If I’m home, awake, and have access to my office, you should receive files within minutes of the request. Emma (das editor) will try to back me up while I’m at the day job.
Bottom line? Not long.
If you DON’T hear back from one of us within at least a day, email me directly.
Q. What’s this AMA event? When will it be? Do I have to be on Reddit?
A. It won’t happen on Reddit. Depending on how many people qualify (which probably won’t be many), we may just run the event as a series of posts on the blog. This will likely be much easier than trying to get everyone from heaven-knows how many time zones to work out a time and date for a live-streaming event (which I would LOVE to do; I just know the reality of the scheduling headaches).
With all that said, if you have an idea for a prize you’d like to see added to the list, by all means, let me know. Y’all always have better ideas for that sort of thing. Don’t be afraid to speak out!