Space Opera Fans discussion

Greetings Space Opera Fans!

Read-to-Review [R2R] is when an author offers a set number of copies of their books (ebook, paperback, or audiobook) free of charge to a group of genre-readers to be read, and reviewed, within a specific time period (usually two weeks). Readers get a free book at the cusp of all that is new and cutting edge, and in return, the author gets an unbiased review. The author has no control over how readers rate their books, but if their reviewers do like it, that author can then take those star-reviews and submit their book to a book marketing service (which usually requires a set number of 4-star and above reviews) and will rank higher in all book lists, listopias, and natural search algorithms for the big online bookstores.

This is an informal, self-regulated program where Space Opera Fans community members can snag a free book directly from the author in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. I'll peek in periodically to make sure nobody is posting self-promotional book links (first offense - I BAN) but otherwise you guys are all mature enough to police yourselves. :-)

Okay ... here's the RULES (updated 3/3/16):

READERS:

1. If you see a book which sparks your interest, drop your inquiry into the discussion thread along with either 'PM' me to arrange how you want to exchange book files (our recommended method as this is a public forum). It's a good idea to say what format you want (i.e., .epub, .mobi or .pdf) or say what kind of e-reading device you use.

2. You will normally have TWO WEEKS to complete the R2R (unless you arrange otherwise) and post your review on Goodreads and at least one of the major distributors. Reviews must be at least two sentences long (not just a star-rating). All books will be moved down into the ARCHIVES folder, so if you don't see it to post your review link, check down there. We'll just move the closed ones down periodically to make way for the newest stuff.

3. Please post a link to your reviews in the discussion thread once you are done. We ask for TWO short paragraphs with a heartfelt explanation of what you liked or disliked.

Don't know what to write? How about:

Reviews must be at least two paragraphs long (not just a star-rating).

Don't know what to say? How about:

-How did the book make you feel?
-Were the characters strong?
-Was the dialogue crisp?
-Did the plot have twists and turns, and was it full of surprises?
-Was the ending satisfying?
-Did it keep you up at night reading?
-Would you recommend this book to friends?

Most of all, we're not asking for professional-level reviews, just heartfelt ones. Have fun! Reading is supposed to be relaxing.

4. Please don't sign up for a book unless you intend to read it. Authors really depend upon sending out a limited number of copies and having reviews by a certain date so they can purchase advertising. If you don't think you have time, please pass. There will be other opportunities. :-)

5. The author will usually send you a couple of reminder emails directly. Please communicate with them if life starts to get in the way and you think you can't get your review in on time? They really, really, really depend on you guys so they can line up advertising.

6. When you post your review on the distributor website(s), please write I received this book at the Goodreads Space Opera Fans community for free in exchange for a fair and honest review at the bottom of your review (bottom is better). This is required by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and most European consumer protection laws.

7. Critical reviews are perfectly appropriate. However, we will not tolerate personal attacks against an author. I.e., it's perfectly appropriate to say "I didn't like this book because no heroine would do such a dumb thing" but NOT okay to write "the author is dumb because they wrote this stupid heroine." Remember you are critiquing the book and not the person who wrote it.

8. We will not be refereeing this informal program. However, if an author is really pushy or mean (other than the appropriate reminder emails), we -will- ban them from the community. If you have questions, check our author guidelines below where we tell our SOF authors how we expect them to interact with y'all.

WHAT IF I HATE THE BOOK? sometimes you'll start reading a book and realize it's either not for you, or you don't have the time you thought you had when you started it, or it has some structural problem that would necessitate a low rating, but you think the author can fix it. In that case, please PM the author and tell them you would rather withdraw than leave a bad review. Don't take this to mean you can't leave a less than favorable review. It's just a way to back out if something comes up.

*****

AUTHORS:

1. Open a NEW thread in this folder (only) to post your R2R request with the name of the book, the genre, the cover, a brief book blurb, and how long from now you would need the review. Use the flag R2R: in your heading (the part that shows up in the community feed).

i.e., R2R: THE WATCHMAKER (YA speculative time travel) - 10 copies

Don't post your invitation in THIS thread ... it will get lost. Open your own new one.

3. Post an image of your book cover or suitable replacement image (if your cover isn't finalized yet) that will grab the reader's attention. Books that have a good image tend to snag more reviewers than a ho-hum cover. A large image works better than the tiny little Goodreads thumbnail you can pull up by clicking 'add book/author.' To embed a large image, click 'some .html ok' and use the html image code. You will have to host the image someplace else, Pinterest is always good to link to. Be sure to adjust your image width and height settings (up to 400 wide) to get a nice pretty image.



4. TWO WEEK LIMIT!!! We will leave your post up for TWO WEEKS and then reserve the right to delete it or move it down to our ARCHIVE folder, so be sure to back up your list of who you sent what, when, where.

5. ONE BOOK AT A TIME! If you have more than one book that needs reviews, you can post ONE book, and then at the end of the two weeks, once I move your book down into the closed folder you can post your next book. This is to give every author a chance to be seen. Once the offerings page gets longer than a single page, the entire program becomes useless.

6. Keep it 'chilled. Your Space Opera Fans READERS are ordinary people who mean well when they sign up, but sometimes life gets in the way. Do not ask us to chase after people on your behalf. If you want that level of service, you are welcome to sign up for NetGalley and PAY for reviews. Do not tick off our readers by becoming angry if they don't come through or you'll get labeled a badly-behaving author and attract trolls. Just live, and learn, and decline to give a free copy of your book to that person the next time around.

7. ABSOLUTELY NO SELF-PROMOTION!!! Must be a legitimate R2R request and not thinly disguised spam.

8. LIMIT IS 10 COPIES TOTAL. If you offer both ebook and audiobook editions, the total can't be more than 10 (i.e. 5 ebook and 5 audiobook). Please create a list in your original post that you can go back and add reviewer names as you go. This will make it easier for you to keep organized, and for us (your LoP mods) to guess when it's time to clean things up by moving your post down to the archive folder. Also put in your due by date.

i.e.: Number of review copies available: 5

1) Jane Doe
2) Janet Planet
3) Dave Delightful
4)
5)

DUE BY: January 1, 3016

9. By law, you are not allowed to offer any financial compensation EXCEPT to gift or raffle off a free copy of the paperback edition of the book that was just reviewed. We like the List Randomizer at https://www.random.org/lists/ to pick a name out of a hat :-)

10. WHAT DO I DO IF MY REVIEWER DOESN'T POST THEIR REVIEW? Frequently readers take a free copy of a book with the best intentions, but life gets in the way. Be gentle with your reviewers. We are a community here of book lovers where READERS get to interact. This is not a paid review service. It's a privilege to have access to our 2,000+ science fiction genre readers. This is a self-help opportunity and there will be people who take the goodie and don't follow through for whatever reason. All you can do is make note of who that person was and, the next time you offer a book up for R2R, decline to give that person a second book. ALSO keep in mind we will be moving your post down to the CLOSED folder after two weeks, so your reader may not be able to find your post to contact you.

Here is how I recommend you gently remind your readers:

a) Keep a list of the contact information of who you sent a review copy to (via email, or Goodreads PM).

b) At the two week mark, send them a gentle reminder telling them how much you appreciate what they are doing and look forward to their review, plus the LINKS to where they can leave it.

c) If, after a few days, you don't hear from them, send out a SECOND reminder telling them how much you appreciate their efforts and how helpful their review will be to help you line up advertising and make sales, and then ask them if there was a problem that you can work with them with, such as they need more time.

d) If a reviewer writes back and says they can't review their book, we recommend you drop it. Usually that is code-speak for 'we didn't care for your book.' Our experience is if you push it, you'll end up with a nasty 1-star rant.

e) If the reviewer fails to follow through, make note of who it was so you can decline to give them a free review copy in the future, but that's your only recourse. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MATTER HERE. This community is for READERS. We are experimenting with a self-help program because our READERS like it, but if it becomes too troublesome to maintain, we will pull the plug. If 60% of your reviewers come through for you via this program (the Goodreads R2R average), that is a very good percentage, way better than the .0002% of people who leave a review organically (the Amazon average with their reminder emails).

11) TROLL DUNG: You will get some nasty reviews. Learn to live with that fact. It's part of being an author. Take it on the chin and go back to your author support group to commiserate (I'm an author myself ... OUCH! I know how much it hurts). Your SOF MODS first priority is to create a safe place where READERS can interact, even very picky readers who look at all books with a baleful eye. However... we will not tolerate roving bands of bully-reviewers who seek out indie books to decimate their reviews. NEVER FEED A TROLL!!! We have no power to get them to amend or force Goodreads to remove their review (they won't). We can ban them from this community so they can no longer prey upon other members, but know it will take a very clear pattern of abuse before we will do this as our first loyalty is to our readers. Even our very critical readers.

*****

Okay ... we'll tweak from here. Let the book-swapping and reviewing begin!

Happy reading!

Anna Erishkigal
SOF Borg Queen

Is this happening? I think it's a great idea and would love to participate--it's Summer reading time, and I need some books to read!

Robert wrote: "Is this happening? I think it's a great idea and would love to participate--it's Summer reading time, and I need some books to read!"

Hi Robert! According to my MOD-friends who manage R2R programs over on some of the massive fantasy-based communities, you need around 1,000 members to run a viable R2R program. Right now, we are hovering around 575 people. It's a lot of work to get one up and running, and while I've got some great experience MODERATING other communities, this will be the first time I've launched my own R2R program from scratch. Therefore, I've been waiting for our organic numbers to increase to a bit closer to that 'optimal' amount.

What can you do to help? Hang out in the threads and start interesting space-opera related discussions about whatever sparks your interest. Books? Movies? video games? Cutting edge science and NASA? It's all fair game in Space Opera and you'd be amazed at the breathtaking level of scientific knowledge many of our reader-members possess. When people return a lot to discuss interesting things, it makes this community 'rank' higher in a Goodreads organic search, which means more people visit us and join, which brings those numbers up, which means I can launch my pet R2R program sooner :-) I'd very much like to give it a go as I think Space Opera as a genre has gotten the short end of the stick publicity wise.

For now ... we have an informal R2R invitation folder where you can post a query if anybody wants a free copy in exchange for a fair review?

Understood. Thanks for updating!

Will stay involved and hope to see the group exceed the size you're looking for.

-Rob

Awesome! I offer both ebooks in the Thodore Crane series to four readers (eight kindle ebooks total, two to each reader)! The first four people to respond will be given the opportunity.

Keep in mind...

The Acolytes of Crane is best suited for middle grade, yet has elements that adults may appreciate (the book presents a young adult story frame).

The Ghost of Sephera leans more toward young adult, and may appeal more to an adult audience.

First, make certain these ebooks interest you. Let me know.

Justin (indie)

1486 members at the moment. Is that enough?

Greg wrote: "1486 members at the moment. Is that enough?"

Ahh ... the problem is one of TIME. I don't have enough of it and an R2R program takes a phenomenal amount of time to administer. But I keep the self-help folder open in the hopes our interested community members will stop by and peruse the goodies and help each other out.

Totally understandable. This is a great community, and I'm looking forward to having a book available for people to read and review.

Great idea and I'm looking forward to the R2R starting up. I've got a couple of books that might fit the bill. I do have a question though, one of my series starts on a future Earth with some high tech sea battles then it branches out into space. Does that fall cleanly within Space Opera? If that does't have a another book that I know falls in the category.

Ray wrote: "Great idea and I'm looking forward to the R2R starting up. I've got a couple of books that might fit the bill. I do have a question though, one of my series starts on a future Earth with some high ..."

I'd call that near enough and give it a go.

Ray wrote: "Great idea and I'm looking forward to the R2R starting up. I've got a couple of books that might fit the bill. I do have a question though, one of my series starts on a future Earth with some high ..."

I take a somewhat loose definition of space opera. You've got to have a larger than life jaunt across the galaxy or universe (or at the very least the solar system), but if portions of your story are planet-bound that's okay. Even Star Wars started out on Tattoine :-)

Sounds good. Both of my series go from planet to planet in one form or another.

I have a new SHORT STORY set 9000 years in the future. It is about a Japanese generational ship. I have it currently for sale on Amazon for $0.99, but it needs more reviews. I would happily give 10-15 people a pdf of the book for a fair review. My plans are to write more novellas and novels in the universe I created. If you are interested please send me an email 4lisacollins (at) gmail (dot) com with the words REVIEW COPY in the subject. Thank you. The Tree of Life

Lisa wrote: "I have a new SHORT STORY set 9000 years in the future. It is about a Japanese generational ship. I have it currently for sale on Amazon for $0.99, but it needs more reviews. I would happily give 10..."

Set up your own post Lisa within THIS R2R folder (only) and be sure to post the book cover and your book description blurb.

Thanks, Anna.

Just so I'm clear, paperbacks are available? I'm only asking because I currently don't own a tablet at this time.

Sara wrote: "Just so I'm clear, paperbacks are available? I'm only asking because I currently don't own a tablet at this time."

Usually it's ebook, Sara, unless the author specifically states they have some paperbacks to give away. This isn't the same as the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway program, where you can enter a chance to win a free paperback.

This looks great!

Thanks for making this happen, Anna. I just finished my first R2R read (and posted a review). FUN!

Amelia wrote: "Thanks for making this happen, Anna. I just finished my first R2R read (and posted a review). FUN!"

Thanks for participating Amelia! There's lots of goodies there right now because I just opened the program up, so why not dive in for another one :-)

I'm reading two books at the same time right now (and one of them is a monster -- Dhalgren!)... and have been swamped with work as well... but once my plate isn't quite as full, this looks like a cool thing :-) Thanks Anna.

That's the problem with Space Opera ... the books tend to be doorstoppers :-) Lots of worldbuilding to keep you busy.

Anna, the original 2014 directions state to post a link to our reviews to the discussion and also talks about posting to the distributor's website. Are we supposed to do this? Posting to the discussion refers to the thread where we indicated we wanted to review it or to something else? How do I post a link to my review? What is the distributor's website?

I entered my reviews on goodreads and on Amazon. Past that I am at a loss as to what all this means. Thanks.

Lizzie wrote: "Anna, the original 2014 directions state to post a link to our reviews to the discussion and also talks about posting to the distributor's website. Are we supposed to do this? Posting to the discus..."

Hi Lizzie! Just find the post (if you can) where you originally snagged the free R2R book and drop in the link to your review, usually on Goodreads + one distributor. If you can't find the original post you can also just PM the author if you still have that email.

I don't know how to link my review. Directions?

Just post your review, and then copy the link out of the URL bar at the top of the page once it 'posts.' That usually does the trick.

Ideally I would like to join the program. Just as we move closer into Summer I'm getting more lists or work I'm supposed to do the house, plus a wedding that we have to drive to (nothing like spending the better of three days driving).

Then again with 16+ hours of driving an audiobook could get finished.

Alan wrote: "Ideally I would like to join the program. Just as we move closer into Summer I'm getting more lists or work I'm supposed to do the house, plus a wedding that we have to drive to (nothing like spend..."

I post an announcement weekly to encourage people to take a look, see if anything grabs their interest. If you're going to read anyways, why not be a book influencer? All you have to do if a book catches your eye is drop your name in the thread, and then the author will send you the book file. :-) You don't have to commit to anything except the book you asked for.

I like the looks of this, and would like to use it to get exposure for my new space opera. I just have one question: It's a short story serial, in eleven parts. Each story is on average 8800 words. I thought about maybe offering the first three entries to ten different reviewers, but would that break the "10 copies" rule? These are shorts that come together to form a whole.

Hi Eli! This program is still fledgling and I think you're getting ahead of yourself a bit? Why not just offer your first part and see what you get? If people enjoy it, then offer them up the next chunk.

Hi! As a point of protocol, as it were—I have a book that won't be officially released until January 24th. Since the R2R program aims for a two-week window, would it make sense to wait until pretty close to the 24th to ask for reviews? It'd be great to get a few early reviews in, but I don't want to ask for reviews and have nowhere for people to post them. :)

If it matters, I have posted Goodreads reviews from eARCs before the publication date. If the book isn't showing on Goodreads sometimes I even add it myself. It's not hard to do. Can't post the review on Amazon until the book shows up there of course.

Can I as an author offer to GIFT a book from Amazon to a reader for a Review?

That should work too.