Review Group discussion

GROUP 5 - moderator K.A. Krisko
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

START DATE: 15 Dec 2012
END DATE: 09 Mar 2012

Please remember the commitment you are making to your fellow group members. If you don’t think you can manage to do 4 book reviews between these dates, then please let the mod know now that you want to wait for a later group when you will have time. If you pull out after the start date for any reason it is the other members who will be faced with the problem of finding a replacement or missing out on reviews through no fault of their own. Please don’t ask the moderators to chase after replacements as we just don’t have the time.

It is the responsibility of the author to get their book to their reviewer in a format the reviewer can manage. When the file is received, please post a link to the book in this thread so that the author has confirmation that reviewing of the correct book has started.

There are no set dates for the start of each round: you can each work at your own pace. The only deadline is all reviews must be posted by 09 March 2013.

When you have posted your review on GR please post in this thread with a link to your review.

All reviews of 3, 4 or 5 stars must be posted to GR, Amazon .com and Amazon.co.uk.

If the rating is 1 or 2 stars, the review must be posted to GR but the author should be asked if they want the review to go to Amazon or not.

If you want to be extra helpful, on the Amazon sites if you liked a book then click Like. Also, clicking on the button for agreeing with the tags for the book will increase the chances of it being found when readers search on those tags (more agreement takes it higher up the listing).

Postings to any other sites are by agreement by both author and reviewer.

In the next post are the listings for the 4 review rounds, the who reviews who stuff.

Happy reviewing, everyone :)

REVIEW ROUNDS

Member links:
Samuel Choy http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10...
David McMullen-Sullivan http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
C. Deanna Verhoff http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Ani Chibukhchyan http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Christie Cay http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Deborah Plummer Bussey http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Echo Heron http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/13...
SJ (Sheila) Hunter http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Cherokee Randolf http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Sean Torres http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

ROUND 1
Samuel Choy reviews David McMullen-Sullivan
David McMullen-Sullivan reviews C. Deanna Verhoff
C. Deanna Verhoff reviews Ani Chibukhchyan
Ani Chibukhchyan reviews Christie Cay
Christie Cay reviews Deborah Plummer Bussey
Deborah Plummer Bussey reviews Echo Heron
Echo Heron reviews SJ (Sheila) Hunter
SJ (Sheila) Hunter reviews Cherokee Randolf
Cherokee Randolf reviews Sean Torres
Sean Torres reviews Samuel Choy

ROUND 2
Samuel Choy reviews C. Deanna Verhoff
David McMullen-Sullivan reviews Ani Chibukhchyan
C. Deanna Verhoff reviews Christie Cay
Ani Chibukhchyan reviews Deborah Plummer Bussey
Christie Cay reviews Echo Heron
Deborah Plummer Bussey reviews SJ (Sheila) Hunter
Echo Heron reviews Cherokee Randolf
SJ (Sheila) Hunter reviews Sean Torres
Cherokee Randolf reviews Samuel Choy
Sean Torres reviews David McMullen-Sullivan

ROUND 3
Samuel Choy reviews Ani Chibukhchyan
David McMullen-Sullivan reviews Christie Cay
C. Deanna Verhoff reviews Deborah Plummer Bussey
Ani Chibukhchyan reviews Echo Heron
Christie Cay reviews SJ (Sheila) Hunter
Deborah Plummer Bussey reviews Cherokee Randolf
Echo Heron reviews Sean Torres
SJ (Sheila) Hunter reviews Samuel Choy
Cherokee Randolf reviews David McMullen-Sullivan
Sean Torres reviews C. Deanna Verhoff

ROUND 4
Samuel Choy reviews Christie Cay
David McMullen-Sullivan reviews Deborah Plummer Bussey
C. Deanna Verhoff reviews Echo Heron
Ani Chibukhchyan reviews SJ (Sheila) Hunter
Christie Cay reviews Cherokee Randolf
Deborah Plummer Bussey reviews Sean Torres
Echo Heron reviews Samuel Choy
SJ (Sheila) Hunter reviews David McMullen-Sullivan
Cherokee Randolf reviews C. Deanna Verhoff
Sean Torres reviews Ani Chibukhchyan

You can contact me at my Goodreads page or at kakrisko@gmail.com with questions. Thanks, Jay, for setting up the group! Group members, if you're ready, dive into Round 1!

Looking forward to this~ I do expect PURE honestly out of everyone reviewing my book if I am to become a better writer.

OK, Sarah, it's not a problem as you've let us know straight away. Thanks for the prompt response. I'll substitute you with another member and change the 2nd post to show the new member of the group. Just give me a breathing space to contact another member!

Sean wrote: "Looking forward to this~ I do expect PURE honestly out of everyone reviewing my book if I am to become a better writer."

That's what we're all after, Sean. The only real 'rule' in this group is honesty in reviewing.

Sarah wrote: "I did not realize... Are we all supposed to be writers? I only review... I don't have a book published or anything."

What I've done, Sarah, is add your name to the list of registered readers. If a group member finds they cannot fulfil their commitment for a single slot (life can throw nasty curve balls at any of us at any time) they can ask you to fill that review slot so the author is not let down. Also, if you spot a book up for review that you fancy reviewing too, try contacting the author and see if they want an extra review.

NOTE TO GROUP MEMBERS: Please don't pester our registered readers with requests. It is their option to contact you about extra reviews, not for you to contact them. If a reader tells the mods of problems with this you might find yourself being removed from the group so be warned!

Hey Jay- I realized I didn't mention. I don't have my first book out *yet* but I expect it to be out during the review period. Does this cause any problems?

okay this may be a silly question that I simply missed in all the pre-nanowrimo insanity, but do we contact the person we're supposed to reviewing or do they? Like I noticed the person I'm supposed to be reviewing first round has 3 books. Does she pick which of the 3 for me to review?

Joelle, you must have your book out by December 15th, the start date for this group. The point is to give reviews on Goodreads and Amazon to published books, and you must have a book for your assigned readers to review. We don't have a Beta Reader thread yet, although that might be in the works. If you can't get your book out in time for this group, please let us know ASAP and we will bump you to a future group that will be starting later.

Thanks.

Joelle wrote: "Hey Jay- I realized I didn't mention. I don't have my first book out *yet* but I expect it to be out during the review period. Does this cause any problems?"

Joelle, I'll move you to Group 6 instead, which will start a couple of weeks later and give you chance to publish. Let me know when your book goes live. And good luck with it!

Jay wrote: "Joelle wrote: "Hey Jay- I realized I didn't mention. I don't have my first book out *yet* but I expect it to be out during the review period. Does this cause any problems?"



I hope that you find someone soon; I am trying to be proactive with distributing my books to the reviewers and who I am to review.

Whoah there, Sean! I appreciate you're being proactive but the group doesn't officially fire up for 11 days.

Jay wrote: "Whoah there, Sean! I appreciate you're being proactive but the group doesn't officially fire up for 11 days."

So is it bad that I am already reading the first book for round 1? Hahaha. I am just hungry for some good reads and it relaxes me during the holidays.

Sean wrote: "Jay wrote: "Whoah there, Sean! I appreciate you're being proactive but the group doesn't officially fire up for 11 days."

So is it bad that I am already reading the first book for round 1? Hahaha...."

I do love enthusiasm except, maybe, after a long day at work and the washing up still to be done. Oh for the days when I had that much energy and enthusiasm...

FINAL MESSAGE TO THE GROUP FROM ME
I hope you all enjoy the reviewing experience with us. Now that the group is set up my involvement with you is at an end apart from as a general member. I’ll be kept busy setting up the next group.

Please read message one on this thread carefully so you know what is expected of you. The basics are the author gets their file to their reviewer, the reviewer posts to GR and pastes the review link in this thread, and also posts the review to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Also read this thread:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

If you have any problems please remember your responsibility is to first of all try and sort it out yourselves. If you are still stuck, your moderator for the life of the group is Kathy. She’s already introduced herself to you in message 3 on this thread. She works full time, she has interests of her own, including trying to get some writing done, and she’s still volunteering her time to help you, so please help yourselves first if you can. You will probably find any of your questions have already been asked - and answered - someone on this forum.

Your position in the group is quite random, purely the order in which I picked up registrations and transferred you to my list. This means there is NO filtering by genre to meet personal preferences. You will probably recoil from the idea initially, but I found it a very interesting experience, reading some really good literature I would never have read in other circumstances. I hope you find the same. So what do you do if you won’t read the novel assigned to you, or cannot due to circumstances beyond your control meet your reviewing commitment? This will give you the answers:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Happy reviewing, everyone :)

Before I realized she was only addressing group 5, I saw the message, "FINAL MESSAGE TO THE GROUP FROM ME," and had a fear that Jay was quitting the actual Review Group.

Thanks for setting this up, Jay. You did a great job.

Thanks, Samuel :) This mod stuff takes far more time than I expected, but it's been great fun meeting you all.

OK, gird the loins, as it were, and on to Group 6. See you on the forum ;)

Thanks to Jay, the Great Organizer. And just a comment on the same lines: the first book I read in this group was one totally outside my prior reading experience. I was like, "Oh, no! What if I can't evaluate this fairly?" I was pleasantly surprised, and was quite able to evaluate it on its storyline, grammar, expression, formatting, etc., without considering the subject matter per se. So please, be open-minded - you might have fun!

Thanks, Jay, for moving me to group 6. Sorry for being such a pain. Thankfully I don't need a final reader- as someone seemed to think in the thread- but I have my book already with a final reader who's doing copy-editing.

Alright, I've sent my book in the format that is preference per each reviewer that is reviewing it, and I've received each book from those that I am reviewing.

Thank you all!

As per message #1, please remember to post a link to the book you've received on this thread. Thanks.

So far I've had no problem finding the stories on amazon/good reads but you are right.

I have not received the book to review for round one (Echo Heron) or for round 3 (Cherokee Randolph). I believe everyone reviewing my book should have received it. Thanks.

I am trying to post my review of Sean's book, Rey de Noches to Goodreads. I have located the book by ISBN number, but cannot seem to find the "link". There is no button for "add to my books" and I cannot find an icon. This is the first review I have done and I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Please help.
Cherokee Randolph

Cherokee wrote: "I am trying to post my review of Sean's book, Rey de Noches to Goodreads. I have located the book by ISBN number, but cannot seem to find the "link". There is no button for "add to my books" and ..."

The answer's in here, Cherokee:
FAQs

Thanks, Jay. I would have arrived 13 minutes later!

Oops! Sorry, Kathy - forgot my own instructions about who deals with a group that's up and running lol! My only defence is that I was 'in the area' doing the G6 thread. OK - I'll butt out now ;)

Jay (or K.A.) I was using the instructions from step 4. There was no "add to my books button' nor was there an icon. Cherokee

Cherokee again. I think I finally got the review posted. Now am I supposed to add a hyperlink in this thread? If so, can somebody tell me how? Thanks

Cherokee: go to your own homepage by clicking on your picture icon in the upper right-hand side of this page. Then find, on the left side, your "read" list (or wherever the book is currently filed in your shelves). Click on that and it will bring up a list of all your shelved books in that category. Find the book you reviewed in your list and click on that link. It should bring you to a page with the book at the top.

If you scroll down you should see a section that says "my review". Click on that and it should take you to a separate page with your own review on it. Copy the url from the bar and post it here.

I'm sure there are other ways to get to that spot, too, but that one should work. Try it & see what happens...

Here's the link to Cherokee's review of Sean's book:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

For some reason it is not yet showing up under Sean's book itself. If that continues, we should probably ask a librarian to look into it.

Thanks, Cherokee!

K.A. wrote: "Here's the link to Cherokee's review of Sean's book:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

For some reason it is not yet showing up under Sean's book itself. If that continues, we should..."

Thanks K.A. I guess the way I tried should have worked, but didn't. I feel much better.

This is the official start date for this Group. Everyone should have the book to be reviewed for the first round at this point. Remember, each round gets up to three weeks, but you can move faster if you want.

Also please remember to post a link to your review on Goodreads here when you are done with each book. That makes it easier to track which reviews have been done, and to go look at the review and give it a "like".

Happy reading - since no one has commented in a while, I assume things are on track.

Have emailed Ani Chibukhchyan and Christie Cay who are supposed to review my book.....no response from either one. Suggestions?
Echo

Well, Christie doesn't review you until Round 2, starting 3 weeks from now, and Ani doesn't review you until Round 3, which starts 6 weeks from now, so they still have time. I would wait a bit and then try again. If we get into their rounds and you are still having problems, we'll see what else we can do. I think some people like to do it one book at a time, rather than downloading all four books at once.

Thank you so much for clearing this up for me. I was confused because the people I am supposed to review all contacted me early on to send their books, so I thought that was what I was supposed to do as well.
Thanks....it takes the pressure off.

I've received three of my four assigned books. Received are:
1) www.goodreads.com/book/show/15765548-... (from Sean)
(I have finished my review of this book, and it is posted on Goodreads here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/480585852)
2) www.goodreads.com/book/show/14413685-... (from Cherokee) (I am currently reading this.)
3) www.goodreads.com/book/show/16002614-... (from David)

I've received my fourth book (thanks, Sam!) and completed and posted my review of Cherokee's book. Amazon has started showing U.S. reviews on the U.K. site, so mine got duplicated there, but I'll wait to remove it in case Amazon does automatically. (They should be able to catch this!)

It can be seen here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/481714049

Merry Christmas everyone! Sheila

I have reviewed Samuel's Book and I seem to have posted the review somewhere, but I still cannot figure out how to add a link to the review on this site. I think the formula is www.goodreads.com/review/show/ and then a number. Is this the ISBN number? Do I just have to copy it or is there a better way?
Thanks, Cherokee

Thanks, S.J.!

Cherokee, try following the directions in message #32 on this thread.

My review of Samuel's Book is at www.goodreads.com/review/show/1481924443
Thanks for your help K.A. Cherokee

Cherokee, for some reason that review isn't showing up under Samuel's book, either, although I can "find" it in cyberspace - it exists out there. I don't know what's going on, but why don't you contact a Goodreads librarian in the Goodreads Librarian forum and tell them what's going on and see if they can't figure it out? It's very weird.

Basically, tell them that although you are creating reviews, which can be accessed through your profile (which is how I've done it), those reviews aren't showing up on the authors' books and the links to the reviews don't work. See what they say...

Cherokee' s review of Sean's book shows up under his book. I wonder if there is something wonky about my book entry.

Here is my Round 1 review for Ani's book:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Here is my Round 2 review for Christie's book:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Samuel wrote: "Cherokee' s review of Sean's book shows up under his book. I wonder if there is something wonky about my book entry."

Okay, it's just taking an inordinately long time to show up, then. At first, hers weren't showing up under Sean's either. Hmmm. Goodreads glitch? As long as they show up and link eventually, I guess...

Thanks for posting your links, C.!

Just to let everyone know, I've started to RE-read all of the stories.

Reason is that I particularity like to let it 'settle' in and read it once more before actually reviewing/rating the story itself. I'll leave all reviews by the 10th of January.

Wow, that's dedication, Sean!

You have until March, though! Take your time!

K.A. wrote: "Wow, that's dedication, Sean!

You have until March, though! Take your time!"

Thank you. It's the least I can do since I've been getting great honest feedback. It's helping me a lot and I want to do the same for the ones that I am reviewing.

Happy New Year everyone!
I've posted my review of Sam Choy's book here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/488424615