Review Group discussion
Finished rounds
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Group 103 Scifi/dystopia Mod Warren
Hey Emma,I'm nearly done with the current group and would like to enter Dymon's Lair for this round.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Hi, I'm an old hand here, but interestingly, four authors here so far I've never had reviews with, so here's my book:Bridge Through Time
I'd like to join in with the short story anthology Tales From The Universe: Tales From The Universe: Ten Amazing Stories From Tomorrow. Scott has reviewed it before, but he's the only author I've encountered in here thus far.
Scott,I have reviewed Bridge Through Time.
This is going to take some sorting out, I can't guarantee everyone will be allowed into the group, as we need to avoid non-reciprocal reviews.Unless there is a single member that is causing the majority of problems, I'll use the 'first to sign up' method to work out who's in and who's out.
This is what I was concerned about with starting genre specific rounds, we are reducing the pool of people to include in rounds.
Also Florian isn't much of a clash as Dymon's Lair is not the book he reviewed for me.
One pair isn't a problem Darrell, its when we get multiple connections it gets a little like a soduku puzzle that doesn't actually have a guaranteed solution to work out. L.N. Pulling out simplifies things.e.g. so far:
Darrell can't review Florian.
Scot can't review Florian.
Leo can't review scott.
And we have five members to find.
I've been in so many review groups I don't mind the moderator asking me to volunteer to give up my place. I guess it depends on the next five applicants. Wait and see!
Thanks Scott, you're a treasure, which is why I hope I can keep you in!
I would like to join - I am somewhere between Scifi and Kids Books with https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Hi Mathew, as long as you don't mind reading 4 full length books in return for people reading your kid's book, I'm happy to include you.I don't suppose the people reviewing you will mind.
No problem at all Emma, the full length books will be helpful in writing my shorter books, other authors always provide ideas. Space Ranger Fred is a great way to introduce SciFi to kids.
Hi, I'm new to this group but would love to join this round. I'd like to offer my book In Vitro Lottery, a dystopian story. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...I've not read books by any of the authors listed currently if that helps! When does the 12 week counter start, by the way?
Hi Ed. The counter starts when we have our ten members and I set up the lists of who is reading who. Judging by the speed at which this one is filling up, it should be a few more days at most.
Your book looks very intriguing.
Was suggested by the lovely mod that my book my fit in here better. My own mutant powers manifest in an uncanny ability to chew through books, so the twelve weeks deadline shouldn't be a problem.I offer book 1 of my own Lynchman's Owl serials, which includes all 5 issues that make up the standalone origins story available on Amazon now.
Haven't been reviewed or reviewed anybody else before here, so should fit in just fine if you'll have me. Thanks!
Links here for author profile and book:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
www.amazon.com/dp/B01GADLOQE
As long as its 'sciency' and not 'magical' it'll fit in here.Welcome aboard B.Y.
Emma wrote: "Hi Ed. The counter starts when we have our ten members and I set up the lists of who is reading who. Judging by the speed at which this one is filling up, it should be a few more days at most.
You..."
Thanks for the info Emma!
I notice you might have some troubles fitting everyone in, Emma - I don't mind stepping out if that's the case. Happy to fit in with whatever you need.
As long as Scott is the only person you have a review connection with, there isn't a problem Leo.
I would like to participate in this group. My new release on Amazon, The Light of Dark (a set of four novellas on one set of Amish siblings) is dystopian/futuristic. It is targeted for young adults and adults, primarily Christian, but anyone who likes end times fiction can enjoy it (though they may cringe at some of the evangelical moments) . Since I am brand new to this review group, I have no previous connections with anyone. I am able to share/receive PDF, MOBI or ePub versions of books.https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
https://www.amazon.com/Light-Dark-Tob...
Welcome Gail. Your guide to writing on the Amish looks intriguing.Only one more needed before you can get going, exciting isn't it!
I'm just waiting for our tenth so I can get to reading...=)
I have just signed up to this group and would normally look to read around a bit more and get the feel of how things work before leaping in - but I see you have only one spot left and are waiting on a final person to fill it. As my book would fit your criteria and all the others on offer look like really good reads, I thought perhaps it might be appreciated if I did just jump right in here. My book is probably best categorised as space opera, but several of those who have read it and enjoyed it have not had much interest in that genre, so hopefully it has a broader appeal as well.
The Fated Sky: Transgressor Trilogy Book One
It is really reassuring to see there are others here new to the process too, so hopefully it won't be thought amiss if any of us need a little extra help to get going - assuming my application to join is accepted.
E.M. you need to claim your author profile. Got to the pagehttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
and 'click this is me' This will make it far easier for people to contact you.
It does say you need to have your profile set up before joining the group, but as everyone is champing at the bit, I'll assume you're going to do it ASAP.
If anyone has trouble contacting E.W. do so via her reader profile above.
START DATE: 05 June 2016 END DATE: 28th Sept 2016
Round 1 – post your review by 26th June
Round 2 – post your review by 17th July
Round 3 – post your review by 7th Aug
Round 4 – post your review by 28th Sep
As AUTHORS you send your book file to:
103-01__ Darrell B Nelson
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 1
Joe Turk for round 2
Scott Spotson for round 3
Florian Armas for round 4
103-02__ Ed Ryder
Darrell B Nelson for round 1
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 2
Joe Turk for round 3
Scott Spotson for round 4
103-03__ Leo McBride
Ed Ryder for round 1
Darrell B Nelson for round 2
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 3
Joe Turk for round 4
103-04__ B.Y. Yan
Leo McBride for round 1
Ed Ryder for round 2
Darrell B Nelson for round 3
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 4
103-05__ D. Gail Miller
B.Y. Yan for round 1
Leo McBride for round 2
Ed Ryder for round 3
Darrell B Nelson for round 4
103-06__ mathew Newham
D. Gail Miller for round 1
B.Y. Yan for round 2
Leo McBride for round 3
Ed Ryder for round 4
103-07__ Florian Armas
mathew Newham for round 1
D. Gail Miller for round 2
B.Y. Yan for round 3
Leo McBride for round 4
103-08__ Scott Spotson
Florian Armas for round 1
mathew Newham for round 2
D. Gail Miller for round 3
B.Y. Yan for round 4
103-09__ Joe Turk
Scott Spotson for round 1
Florian Armas for round 2
mathew Newham for round 3
D. Gail Miller for round 4
103-10__ E.M. Swift-Hook
Joe Turk for round 1
Scott Spotson for round 2
Florian Armas for round 3
mathew Newham for round 4
As REVIEWERS you will receive books for review from:
103-01__ Darrell B Nelson
Ed Ryder for round 1
Leo McBride for round 2
B.Y. Yan for round 3
D. Gail Miller for round 4
103-02__ Ed Ryder
Leo McBride for round 1
B.Y. Yan for round 2
D. Gail Miller for round 3
mathew Newham for round 4
103-03__ Leo McBride
B.Y. Yan for round 1
D. Gail Miller for round 2
mathew Newham for round 3
Florian Armas for round 4
103-04__ B.Y. Yan
D. Gail Miller for round 1
mathew Newham for round 2
Florian Armas for round 3
Scott Spotson for round 4
103-05__ D. Gail Miller
mathew Newham for round 1
Florian Armas for round 2
Scott Spotson for round 3
Joe Turk for round 4
103-06__ mathew Newham
Florian Armas for round 1
Scott Spotson for round 2
Joe Turk for round 3
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 4
103-07__ Florian Armas
Scott Spotson for round 1
Joe Turk for round 2
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 3
Darrell B Nelson for round 4
103-08__ Scott Spotson
Joe Turk for round 1
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 2
Darrell B Nelson for round 3
Ed Ryder for round 4
103-09__ Joe Turk
E.M. Swift-Hook for round 1
Darrell B Nelson for round 2
Ed Ryder for round 3
Leo McBride for round 4
103-10__ E.M. Swift-Hook
Darrell B Nelson for round 1
Ed Ryder for round 2
Leo McBride for round 3
B.Y. Yan for round 4
Please remember the commitment you are making to your fellow group members. 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. Everyone must be able to accept and supply PDF. There are no set dates for the start of each round. You can each work at your own pace, within the limits of the round deadlines.
When you have posted your reviews, please post the three links to your reviews in this thread.
All reviews must be posted to GR, Amazon .com and Amazon.co.uk.
Postings to any other sites are by agreement by both author and reviewer.
If I’ve missed something that results in you being asked to review someone who has already reviewed you, please let me know asap.
To exchange book files, my advice is to use PM to give email addresses to each other (save the chance of spammers getting your addies from this open forum). I'll stay with you until your mod takes over as your group moderator. Happy reviewing, everyone :)
Thanks for this.I do apologise for not having realised it was a requirement for joining a review group and if it is an issue I will, of course, step aside until it has come through.
I did complete the information to claim my page yesterday, but have yet to hear back. Does this usually take a few days? Or should I resubmit?
Hey Emma,I'm a pretty speedy reader, but getting the first one done today is going to be tough.
The other deadlines are fine.
ooh you are such a worry wort Darrell, get to it, chop chop.(Scuttles off to change dates)
This is where I flush bright red with embarrassment and say that I am not sure how to PM to an author's page. Could someone advise me on that, please?Being a total novice to Goodreads, I am still learning my way around the various tools here.
Underneath their picture on the author page, there is a grey box. Next to it is a drop down arrow. Click on it till you get 'send message'. viola.(Don't worry we were all new once.)
Ah, yes - now I see. Problem solved - thank you for that.
You again, Leo? And I was hoping for a nice, quiet round!
Posted requests off to my reviewers for email addresses to send things to.I'm on holiday from the 17th - 26th June so will try and get review #1 done before I go
I have Kindle Unlimited and downloaded 3 of my 4 books. Darrell's wasn't available, but he is sending a PDF. Looking forward to the reads!
Can I ask if it is alright to ask for/give private feedback outside of any review? Or does it have to be left strictly to what goes in the review?
E.M. wrote: "I have just signed up to this group and would normally look to read around a bit more and get the feel of how things work before leaping in - but I see you have only one spot left and are waiting o..."Hi E.M.
You're supposed to be getting a copy of my book to review in the pool, but I think your author page settings does not allow for PMs, if you can msg me to let me know where I can drop off the book that would be great. Thanks.
To PM authors just click the little arrow thing next to the big follow button, and the drop down menu should have an option to message. Don't worry, took me a bit of looking too.
To messrs D. Gail Miller, Florian Armas, Scott Spotson, feel free to PM me so I can let you know where to send your books for review in the pool, Mr Newham, being ahead of the game, has already gotten in touch.Looking forward to sharing with all of you.
E.M. wrote: "Can I ask if it is alright to ask for/give private feedback outside of any review? Or does it have to be left strictly to what goes in the review?"Hi E.M.
Essentially, when participating in these rounds, we submit our books as authors but we review books as readers, so your review should generally be posted without interaction with the author.
The "How it works" thread of the group says the following:
"Reviews should be written with the average reader in mind, they should not be a critique aimed specifically at the author. if you wish to do that, and most authors will appreciate being told about specific typos, please contact the author privately. This does not mean you are not allowed to say a book has errors, as that would be relevant to a reader." https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Other useful information can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
On a personal note, the approach I have adopted is to focus on the positives, thereby supporting the efforts of my fellow author, but without losing sight of my responsibility to fellow readers to point out any serious problems I come across. Minor problems, like the odd typo or editing glitch (we all have those) I tell the author about in a PM.
And it is not forbidden to have fun here, I say, so enjoy reading the books you have been allocated, and enjoy writing the reviews.
Also, feel free to ask questions. Most topics have been covered somewhere or other, and those of us who have been around the block a few times can point you in the right direction very easily.
Another perennial hot topic to be aware of is the "review swap/paid review" saga. You will see quite a few threads discussing this. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... Amazon's rules say the following (and Goodreads has something similar):
"Paid Reviews -- We do not permit reviews or votes on the helpfulness of reviews that are posted in exchange for compensation of any kind, including payment (whether in the form of money or gift certificates), bonus content, entry to a contest or sweepstakes, discounts on future purchases, extra product, or other gifts.
The sole exception to this rule is when a free or discounted copy of a physical product is provided to a customer up front. In this case, if you offer a free or discounted product in exchange for a review, you must clearly state that you welcome both positive and negative feedback. If you receive a free or discounted product in exchange for your review, you must clearly and conspicuously disclose that fact."
My interpretation of the situation is that, when we sign up on Amazon/Goodreads, we agree to abide by their rules. The reviews we post as part of the Review Group fall into the exception, which means that we should disclose the fact that we have received a free copy of the book in exchange for a review. This is why you will see that most of our reviews include a sentence like "I received a free copy of this story in exchange for an honest review."
If a reviewer chooses to pay for a copy of the book he/she has been allocated, or downloads it via KU, then I am of the view that the disclaimer should be left out, as no free copy has been received, and the review will carry the "verified purchase" tag on Amazon.
Thanks for the advice and guidance, Warren, it is most helpful and answers my question well. Warren wrote: "And it is not forbidden to have fun here, I say, so enjoy reading the books you have been allocated, and enjoy writing the reviews."
Well, that is the total joy of the whole process for me, I love reading and this is my genre, so I am certainly enjoying the reading bit already.
Oh, and just so people know, my author page has now been confirmed - I just need to learn how to use it.
E.M.In my experience other writers welcome private feedback. Especially if it is something easily fixed, like a formatting issue. Since we mostly do ebooks here these fixes can still be made. But remember you are a reviewer not a beta reader, (All these books should have had at least one beta reader already). My rule of thumb is if I see a problem the writer can fix in under an hour, I let them know privately. If it is a major problem in the whole book, that might or might not be worth mentioning in the review.
Darrell wrote: "Since we mostly do ebooks here these fixes can still be made."This has to be the absolute joy of epublishing - if you have made a mess of something you can withdraw it and publish a new and improved edition without having to feel that a hundred trees have died in vain.
Thanks for the advice as well, it is much appreciated.
Definitely, I as reviewer love to offer more private advice. I also sometimes check for grammar and punctuation errors. If there's a lot, I won't bother, but note to the author privately (and maybe even in the review if it's rife) about the numerous errors. But if it's pretty clean and there are a few conspicuous errors then I will actually note the chapter and the exact wording and then let the author know privately. We're all indie authors and we're reading every word anyway so why not save the cost of a proofreader (although I do agree proofreaders are well worth it). If I'm inspired by the book and see a lot of potential and it excites me "what could have been" I will email a lot to the author privately while writing a more short and nuanced review publicly. But the option should be the reviewer's, not the author's. It is sort of like asking to stay at someone's house... the reviewer should bring it up privately if he's eager, not the author.
Scott wrote: "It is sort of like asking to stay at someone's house..."A good analogy and one I shall keep in mind.
And one of the great things about being an indie author writing a review for a fellow traveller on that rocky path, is that you already know how hard certain aspects are to get right. So you can target observations to help remedy specific problems in the way that a reader-only reviewer might not be able to do. This is a problem I have found with my beta readers who, for all their enthusiasm and commitment, have zero expertise in such matters as proofreading, epublishing etc.
Review Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Space Ranger Fred and The Shoelace Adventure (other topics)The Other Side (other topics)
The Light of Dark: Leah, Tobias, Bethany, Jesse (other topics)
The Other Side (other topics)
The Fated Sky (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Matthew Newnham (other topics)Florian Armas (other topics)
E.M. Swift-Hook (other topics)
D. Gail Miller (other topics)
B.Y. Yan (other topics)
More...
Allocation is entirely random and there will NOT be any rearranging of the listing to accommodate preferences. The ONLY circumstance in which you may duck out of giving a review is if YOU provide a stand-in reviewer.
Let’s be honest here – even within the same genre, we don’t all like the same things but we all want reviews. The only way this group can function is if we trust each other to behave honourably. And it IS perfectly possible to give a fair-minded review of a text that does not coincide with our normal choice of reading matter. If you need a few hints/tips, please see this thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Make sure you have an author profile set up before you join and that your book is available for sale on amazon (not pre-0rder).
Please let me know as you sign up if you have been reviewed by, or have reviewed another author in the group. It is permissible to review an author more than once if a different book is available, but reciprocal reviews within the group are strictly prohibited.
Your group moderator will be
Warren Dean
Member Links
1.Darrell B. Nelson
2.Ed Ryder
3.Leo McBride
4.B.Y. Yan
5.D. Gail Miller
6.Matthew Newnham
7.Florian Armas
8.Scott Spotson
9.Joe Turk
10.E.M. Swift-Hook
Book Links
1.Dymon's Lair
2.In Vitro Lottery
3.Tales From The Universe: Ten Amazing Stories From Tomorrow
4.the lynchman's owl collection 1: origins (the lynchman's owl collections, #1
5.The Light of Dark: Leah, Tobias, Bethany, Jesse
6.Space Ranger Fred and The Shoelace Adventure
7.The Other Side
8.Bridge Through Time
9.Making Monsters
10.The Fated Sky: Transgressor Trilogy Book One