[Pauline Creeden]

Has anyone used this service with success?

http://www.bookrooster.com/for-authors/

It seems like NetGalley but at $67 instead of $399 - obviously it's not as wide reaching as netgalley, but I thought it might be worth a shot.

Have you tried it?

 

[Patty Jansen]

You should never pay for a review.

There is a thread somewhere here where people complain about the lack of service from Book Rooster.

Short version: don't.

 

[Pauline Creeden]

Hi Patty,

This isn't paying for a review - it's for putting your book in their database to be chosen by their reviewers - like netgalley does - from what I understand...

 

[Judi Coltman]

Patty is right - I was just looking for the thread where people discuss the lack of value in Bookrooster.  It's here somewhere.

 

[Judi Coltman]

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,126457.msg1873529/topicseen.html#msg1873529

 

[Patty Jansen]

Hi Patty,

This isn't paying for a review - it's for putting your book in their database to be chosen by their reviewers - like netgalley does - from what I understand...

You're already putting your book out in front of a collection of reviewers much bigger than they could ever manage. It's called Amazon. And B&N. And Kobo.

 

[MegHarris]

Ethical debate aside, people have tried it and they haven't gotten many reviews. See also this thread:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,74950.0.html#.UT3MxBxUe6U

 

[Guest]

The difference between Book Rooster and NetGalley is that NetGalley pre-screens its reviewers and bloggers for quality control. NetGalley doesn't just accept anyone and everyone. I was a reviewer for a short while. They want to see samples of your reviews. They ask about traffic to your site. They ask about your credentials (publishers can restrict access to their books to certain professionals only). Book Rooster takes anyone and everyone. NetGalley provides you access to known commodities, so to speak. With Book Booster, you are paying for "access" to random people with little or no known ability to construct a complete sentence, let alone write a review.

You would get better results, for free, using LibraryThing or Goodreads.

 

[JHall]

Does NetGalley pay its reviewers?

Nope

 

[Hudson Owen]

I blasted BR on a thread here within recent memory for awful reviews, several in the "drive by" category--that is, lazy, cheap shots at your book, couldn't-be-bothered-to-read-it kind of reviews.  Other authors in the thread complained they never received reviews.  The BR business model makes no sense.  They give their readers no incentive to read your book.  The readers supposedly don't get paid.  So why should they pay attention to your book rather than reading a freebie much more  to their taste? If you are going to pay for reviews, you should have the right to refuse lowball ratings.  Why pay for a terrible review? You can get those without effort or expense on your part.  Beware!

 

[MegHarris]

If you are going to pay for reviews, you should have the right to refuse lowball ratings. Why pay for a terrible review? You can get those without effort or expense on your part. Beware!

Well, IIRC the point of Book Rooster was supposed to be that it wouldn't be like paying people to give you five-star reviews. They were supposed to be honest reviews, which made it an appealing idea to those authors who wanted more reviews, but wanted real reviews, good or bad. The problem seems to be more that people haven't gotten the reviews they paid for. I agree that drive-by bad reviews with no real content are probably not what people were hoping for, either.

 

[David J Normoyle]

So, do people here use Net Galley? Worth it?

 

[wildwitchof]

I have a negative opinion of Book Rooster. I signed up two years ago with my first novel and still haven't received 10 reviews. Those I did get weren't terrible, just unenthusiastic--a wave of 3-stars. I've learned that the natural reviews are much more positive and likely to encourage somebody else to read it, since they 1) bought the book in the first place, and 2) cared enough to write a review.

The best bang for my buck (ie, $0), was to sign up for the thread on Goodreads where you giveaway your book via Smashwords. That had the added benefit of getting me in the Goodreads pipeline, which led to great word of mouth.

 

[MegHarris]

The best bang for my buck (ie, $0), was to sign up for the thread on Goodreads where you giveaway your book via Smashwords.

Where can this thread be found?

 

[Wansit]

Hi Patty,

This isn't paying for a review - it's for putting your book in their database to be chosen by their reviewers - like netgalley does - from what I understand...

BookRooster and NetGalley are worlds apart. BR is not worth it.

 

[wildwitchof]

Where can this thread be found?

Goodreads seems to be down right now, but I believe it was this (it had a different name when I did it): http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/50149-the-indie-exchange-giveaways

 

[David Alastair Hayden]

My experience with BookRooster was the same as Gretchen's. I signed up immediately after I released my first book back in July 2011. I knew it might be a bad idea but thought, why not? If I was going to experiment with something I figured first novel was the time to do it.

I still haven't reached 10 reviews. The one's I've gotten are poorly written for 3 stars. One 4 star. One 2 star that's a 1 star on Goodreads and is the only of them that's written well, go figure. It's also my worst review on any of my books.

I'm okay with bad reviews if they come, but it's clear from reading them that most of the readers don't normally read books like mine and just did it for the free read. All the reviews I've gained naturally have been for more stars and/or are much better written.

BookRooster just wasn't at all worth it. I think it was detrimental, honestly.

 

[David Alastair Hayden]

I did a Goodreads print giveaway and then searched the list of those who entered and targeted the people who looked most likely to love my book. I then sent them a friendly offer for a free ebook edition in exchange for an honest review. About 3/4 of those I gave away gave reviews on Goodreads and quite a few on B&N and Amazon as well. I made sure to tell them it was okay to say no, that there was no pressure, etc. That was far more effective, though time consuming. I wouldn't do it again. But it was good for getting a start.

 

[56139]

The difference between Book Rooster and NetGalley is that NetGalley pre-screens its reviewers and bloggers for quality control. NetGalley doesn't just accept anyone and everyone. I was a reviewer for a short while. They want to see samples of your reviews. They ask about traffic to your site. They ask about your credentials (publishers can restrict access to their books to certain professionals only). Book Rooster takes anyone and everyone. NetGalley provides you access to known commodities, so to speak. With Book Booster, you are paying for "access" to random people with little or no known ability to construct a complete sentence, let alone write a review.

You would get better results, for free, using LibraryThing or Goodreads.

I disagree - NetGalley, although expensive, is the way to go. They do approve pretty much everyone with a decent blog in my opinion - but if you want a crap-load of book bloggers to get your book, NetGalley is the way to do it. And as a publisher, you get to decide which blogs/reviews get the free download - it's not automatic (it can be, but it doesn't have to be).

I get approved for almost everything I request on NeGalley, but I refuse to read uncorrected proofs, and most of the traditional publishers send their ARC's in a form that is almost undecipherable, so I never even read them.

***

Has anyone used this service with success?

http://www.bookrooster.com/for-authors/

It seems like NetGalley but at $67 instead of $399 - obviously it's not as wide reaching as netgalley, but I thought it might be worth a shot.

Have you tried it?

If your book is new adult or young adult romance, it would be worth it to use NetGalley. If it's any other genre, I'm not sure.

If you have a lot of blogger contacts already, you could get the same thing for free by sending out some emails. If you write those genres I mentioned, you could do a targeted tour with one of the bigger NA/YA tour hosts and get 40-50 blogs reviewing your book for $250 and never have to worry about a thing.

EDIT: to say - I saw your Painter series somewhere - with Kathy at I Am A Reader? She's good for reviews. Doesn't she run review tours? She has a huge blogger following.

 

[Pauline Creeden]

Awesome everyone!

Thanks for the tips and the advice on Book Rooster. I'm sorry that I'm re-hashing something someone had talked about in the past - I did a site search and could not find the topic, so I started one.