[Hudson Owen]

On February 16 I signed up for the standard review package ($80) at Choosybookworm.  I know that from the receipt from PayPal.  Nothing happened.  I did not hear from Kevin Lee Nunn aka Jay Lee, owner of the site; so on Sunday the 22nd I sent an email to the info address on the PP receipt.  I have heard nothing from Mr. Nunn or anyone associated with his company.  The only contact information he lists on his site is a postal address in Germany.  So, am I screwed? 

 

[sstaubin]

Their newsletter went out this morning...

 

[Hudson Owen]

Their newsletter went out this morning...

I did not sign up for the newsletter. I get your point that someone is alive there and pushing the buttons.

 

[trublue]

i signed up for newsletter and my book is 2!
however i also have a FB ad so im not sure if thats part of it.

 

[EC Sheedy]

I signed on for ChoosyBookWorm's read and review package in mid January.

Yesterday, I received an email from Jay with a list of 30 potential reviewers for me to contact. So it all seems to be working as indicated, but taking a bit longer than expected. Nothing new there.

I am in process of emailing the potential reviewers now. My plan is to gift the books to them through Amazon, but I'm a bit worried that gifting 30 or so books might be considered odd to their internal algos...  If there is a way to mess this up, I'll find it. 

But to the OP, ChoosyBookWorm seemed to come through for me. Now to see if the potential reviewers do. (This book is my latest release and has zero reviews at this point.)

 

[Hudson Owen]

i signed up for newsletter and my book is 2!
however i also have a FB ad so im not sure if thats part of it.

Not quite clear what you are saying. Sounds like the newsletter put your book number two on some list?

I signed on for ChoosyBookWorm's read and review package in mid January.

Yesterday, I received an email from Jay with a list of 30 potential reviewers for me to contact. So it all seems to be working as indicated, but taking a bit longer than expected. Nothing new there.

I am in process of emailing the potential reviewers now. My plan is to gift the books to them through Amazon, but I'm a bit worried that gifting 30 or so books might be considered odd to their internal algos... If there is a way to mess this up, I'll find it.

But to the OP, ChoosyBookWorm seemed to come through for me. Now to see if the potential reviewers do. (This book is my latest release and has zero reviews at this point.)

Yes, a month seems like a long time to me. Most vendors send you a hello email right away after taking your money. Apparently, not Mr. Nunn. Thanks for posting.

 

[Hudson Owen]

Yep.  About 40 names showed up in my inbox.  Out of the blue.  Wham!

 

[doolittle03]

Is that how it works? You pay $80 and they send you a list of potential reviewers and you have to contact each one on the list to gauge interest and/or send the book? I wonder what the success rate is for that.

I paid Story Cartel $25 and the book was posted on their website where their subscribers sign up to review. When I check in I can see the number of possible reviews I'll get based on the number who took the book. I get the email addresses and apparently it's okay to thank them, etc. but I don't like to contact readers. Feels weird.

I was curious about Choosy Bookworm's program.

 

[Hudson Owen]

Is that how it works? You pay $80 and they send you a list of potential reviewers and you have to contact each one on the list to gauge interest and/or send the book? I wonder what the success rate is for that.

I paid Story Cartel $25 and the book was posted on their website where their subscribers sign up to review. When I check in I can see the number of possible reviews I'll get based on the number who took the book. I get the email addresses and apparently it's okay to thank them, etc. but I don't like to contact readers. Feels weird.

I was curious about Choosy Bookworm's program.

Choosys is labor intensive. You get their name, email address; and it's up to you to handle the names. I got two persons out of ten asking me to gift the book. 4 X 10 = 8 interested parties. Gifting, of coarse, is you shelling out for them.

 

[w5I6r0zh3E5uMz]

Isn't this just another way of paying for reviews? Everytime I see a review where someone says they were asked to review a product or book, I don't read it.

I'm open to argument.

 

[C. Rysalis]

Isn't this just another way of paying for reviews? Everytime I see a review where someone says they were asked to review a product or book, I don't read it.

At least those tend to have useful things to say. I'm more bothered by the reviewers who title literally every review 'five stars' and only put the words "great read" in every single one of them. That's so not helpful.

 

[Alan Petersen]

Isn't this just another way of paying for reviews? Everytime I see a review where someone says they were asked to review a product or book, I don't read it.

I'm open to argument.

I haven't used them, but I was checking out their info and the readers aren't paid. You're paying to access Choosy Bookworm's mailing list of readers. You pay Choosy Bookworm, they email out to their mailing list: "here is Book XYZ if you'd like a review copy, contact the author".

If their subscriber is interested they contact you directly and you send them a review copy. As long as you ask them to indicate in their review that they received a free review copy those reviews should be within compliance of Amazon's TOS.

From their website:

Choosy Bookworm readers do not receive any compensation, other than the free eBook, and they will include the disclaimer "I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review" as required by Amazon.

Source: http://authors.choosybookworm.com/book-reviews/

Seems copacetic to me.

 

[Hudson Owen]

It's an old, old argument around here and I don't pretend to have seen the end of it.  With a slew of one-star reviews to battle against,  gained the old-fashioned way, I earned them, I don't suppose I'd be hurting myself by opening up the title to an wider audience.

 

[Hudson Owen]

I haven't used them, but I was checking out their info and the readers aren't paid. You're paying to access Choosy Bookworm's mailing list of readers. You pay Choosy Bookworm, they email out to their mailing list: "here is Book XYZ if you'd like a review copy, contact the author".

If their subscriber is interested they contact you directly and you send them a review copy. As long as you ask them to indicate in their review that they received a free review copy those reviews should be within compliance of Amazon's TOS.

From their website:

Source: http://authors.choosybookworm.com/book-reviews/

Seems copacetic to me.

The author gets the list of interested readers and does the contacting.