Review Group discussion

I was wondering if it is worthwhile to participate in a Goodreads Review Group for a sequel (or series.) Typically, any reader who gets a sequel will be very unlikely to have read the previous book(s).

Does it make sense to participate in a review group in this circumstance, or is it better to seek reviews from readers who are already familiar with the series?

I just got a mixed review from a person in this group who may have reviewed differently had she read the whole series. Every issue she had with the first book (and I mean EVERY issue) is dealt with in the second book, which is from a different character's POV.

With that said, I am interested in a review group for series, but I would want reviewers to commit to reading other authors' series...

K

Kilby wrote: "...I am interested in a review group for series, but I would want reviewers to commit to reading other authors' series..."

I agree that a review group for series would be awesome, but I'm not sure how it would work logistically. It would take a large commitment on the part of each reviewer, and then how do you balance someone's trilogy against another author's 6-book series?

Most review groups already have people reading four books. I think we would have to pair authors with similar word count across all of their books (e.g., one author may have a trilogy that adds to 180,000 words while another author has a duet that ads to 180,000). I think we'd have to have people say what their total word count was and try to match them based on that.

K

I'm interested in a series group as well. I have my series in a 4 book box set. Mayne a group for box sets or a way to work in a slow burn series where it's like how it is now, but instead of reading 1 book by 4 different authors, your read 2-4 books by 1 author. It would probably take forever and I have no idea how it would work. We could have authors get burnt out and drop out before they've finished the entire series or just like how it is now where people disappear before a round finishes

We did try an 'epic' group once. It wasn't very successful.
What I suggest is if you want a subsequent book in a series reviewed, give the reviewer a synopsis of the series up to that point.
Either that, or become a review group stalker and put a 'any in this series' instruction in your information.
This works particularly well in the one for one group as the reviewer chooses what really works for them. if your not getting on with an author's style, reading one book by them is difficult enough, having to read 4 or more? Purgatory.
Plus, from the author's POV, if someone didn't like the first one, would you really want them to review all of them?

I've had success in having people review both books in my Sinnesemota high fantasy series (so far), by working hard to ensure each book could be read as a stand-alone. How well that strategy would work as the series goes along, I can't say, but it's my intention to continue in that manner. Ray Feist's Magician series worked that way as well, as I recall.

I've had people review sequels, and provided them with a synopsis of the first work, but I've had reviewers admit that they never read the synopsis and mention in the review that they didn't understand who some of the characters were, etc., so I don't think it works that well.

Not a lot we can do about that, apart from only offering sequels to people who have already read the earlier books.
We do 'meet' the same people over and over again in these rounds.