BookRooster.com a good idea or not?

You'd be better off getting physical copies of your book and running giveaways on Goodreads. Book Rooster has a bad reputation, and if word gets out you paid them for reviews, your reputation would take a nosedive. If you run a giveaway on Goodreads, you'll know your book is going directly to the readers, and you'll get free advertising as well.

A search of this forum will show that not many people have had good experiences with Book Rooster. The company doesn't have a good reputation and paying for reviews is never a good idea.

That being said, you have 3 reviews and your book has only been out for a week. I know it's difficult to be patient, but you really need to be patient. Reviews don't generally immediately appear as soon as you've published (unless you're a very well-known author with a huge following who preorder the book, devour it, and then post a review that day.

A lot of people have had success by doing a Library Thing or Goodreads giveaway.

I used them for my firsst book and did not find it worthwhile. They promise a minimum 10 reviews, but no timeframe. It's over a year later and while my book now has 50 reviews, I think only maybe 5 have come from them.

Thanks guys! I had a feeling book rooster was sketchy... I guess I was just looking for the easy way out! I'm not sure how to do a give away on goodreads though... And I dont have any followers or friends on there yet.

I used Bookrooster a while back and had a good experience with them.  That being said, the consensus as of late is that their service levels have really dropped in the last year.

I will say that I wouldn't worry about reputation with Bookrooster.  You're not paying for reviews with their service, you're paying to be matched up with people willing to read and review your book.  There's no guarantee of a good review with Bookrooster.  Some might argue that's semantics, I would argue that there's a world of difference using a service like this and, say, going to fiverr and buying 5 star reviews.  

You don't need to have friends or be established to give books away on Goodreads. You just need paperback copies of your book.

There are many Goodreads readers who will enter to win your book, even if they've never heard of you or it.

I had no platform at all there for my first giveaway and had about 600 people sign up. Also, my book got added to a lot of "To be read" shelves. If you want to have more people enter, open the contest to all countries. The downside is that you may very well have to ship a book internationally, which is slightly expensive, but I've gotten readers and reviews in Australia, Scotland, Greece, etc.

Some people give away large quantities of books at one time, but I really don't think you get any more bang for your buck by doing that. I gave away two books and I am really happy with the reaction I got.

Now, the reviews are another matter! The tend to be lower on GR. My book has 4.8 stars on Amazon and 4.08 stars on GR.

Shawn Inmon said:

I had no platform at all there for my first giveaway and had about 600 people sign up. Also, my book got added to a lot of "To be read" shelves. If you want to have more people enter, open the contest to all countries. The downside is that you may very well have to ship a book internationally, which is slightly expensive, but I've gotten readers and reviews in Australia, Scotland, Greece, etc.

Click to expand...

If your book is in the extended distribution network, then you can order it from Book Depository, which is a UK company that offers free shipping WORLDWIDE. Just let international readers know that it won't be a signed copy (and you won't get to send your discounted author copies), but it's probably a heckuva lot cheaper this way. And no hassle for you -- no trip to the post office involved!

You have to have a print copy for a Goodreads giveaway, but Library Thing allows you to give away ebooks.

I'd also suggest giving LibraryThing a whirl.

I had no platform there to speak of when I started my giveaway, as I only signed up the day before. I offered the max 100 copies of my book for 2 weeks, 61 people requested it, and I sent out the Smashwords coupon yesterday when the giveaway ended. 25 people have already downloaded it. A couple even sent me thank you email replies, which was nice. No reviews yet, obviously, but I'm hopeful.