Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Addicts discussion

Hi everyone! Here are the new BOTM/Group Read Rules for 2016! Please read these rules and regulations before nominating a book, as there have been some minor changes!


Q. Can new members vote?
A. Yes. Get your vote on newbies!

Q. I’m an author. Can I nominate my own book?
A. No. Currently we are not allowing authors to nominate their own books. If an author nominates their book for the group read that book will not be included in the poll. If we allowed this practice we’d get nothing but authors nominating and voting for their own books.

Q. How many books can I nominate?
A. Each member may nominate 1 Adult book and 1 Young Adult (YA) book. In the past, we have allowed multiple book nominations, but the polls can get out of control, and with so many selections, we see less group participation.

Q. When are book nominations?
A. Nominations are held between the 5th and 10th of each month. An email will go out to all members when we start accepting nominations.

Q. What books can be nominated?
A. In keeping with the theme of our group, all books that are nominated should be paranormal/urban fantasy in nature.

Also, please make sure to check the group read history to make sure the group hasn't already read a book. Books read more than 3 years ago can be re-nominated.

Q. When do we vote on the nominated books?
A. Polling for our group read will be between the 11th and 16th of each month. An email will go out to all members when the poll becomes active. It can also be accessed by clicking the "Polls" link in the group menu to the right.

Q. Can I change my poll vote?
A. Yes. Feel free to change your vote as many times as you like while the poll is active.

Q. Can I nominate a book after the poll is posted?
A. No. Nominations must occur before the poll goes up.

Q. What happens after the group books have been selected?
A. On the 1st of each month, the winning books will be posted on our group page and a discussion post will be started for each book in the Group Reads folder. You may post, comment and discuss the book here, making sure to hide spoilers.



**Note. Any suspicious activity on polls or vote padding is not permitted.**

-What is suspicious activity or vote padding?
Basically it is when fans, friends, family, ext. create Goodreads accounts, or simply use their Goodreads account, to vote for a book. This skews the numbers unfairly, and authors who were authentically nominated by fans suffer from it.

-How is suspicious activity on polls or vote padding detected?
1. First group participation is looked into. Members comments and activity can be seen by moderators. Of course new members may not have had time to interact besides just introducing themselves yet, and others might be shy. So this isn't as big of a concern.

2. When members join and only vote. Members join regularly, however a huge wave of new members is noticeable. So if members suddenly join during the nominations or polls to vote for a certain book and nothing else this is another warning flag.

3. Inactive accounts outside of Paranormal Addicts & Newbies. We can see how active an account on Goodreads is—from books that have been added to bookshelves, activity in other groups, or participation in other conversations around Goodreads— and when the account was created.

4. The biggest red flag? The number of accounts that hit all of the mentioned warning signs above voting on one book. So say a book has 1 or 5 suspicious accounts that voted for it, that's fine. It happens. However, when it jumps up to the tens it gets noticeable. Twenties the book is looking at getting removed. Thirties there are no questions about it.

Investigation ensues, and if poll padding is evident, the book will be then removed and members notified to re-vote if needed.

- Paranormal Addicts & Newbies is not stating that all authors participate in suspicious activity on polls or vote padding.
-Authors will not be notified if their book is removed from a poll.