R.’s Comments (group member since May 22, 2014)

R.’s comments from the Genre Specific Review Groups group.

Laura wrote: "Since Ihave Amazon prime I often can read books for free or buy them very cheaply. Is it OK to acquire a book that way for review?"

Of course. Authors offer review copies as participants in review groups, but it is always better for reviewers to get the book through Amazon.

R.

Laura wrote: "I would like to be a reviewer I would also like to submit a book for review. How do I become involved as a reviewer and as an author with a book to be reviewed?"

Laura:

Broadcast messages are sent out to all members of Genre Specific Review Groups, when a new group opens for sign up. If your book fits the review group, sign up by posting links to your Goodreads author page and your book's Goodreads page to the review group topic.

If you would like to see a new group started with specific genre or other qualifications, go to the Review Group Requests folder. See if there is a request there that suits your book. If so, comment on that topic. If not, create a new topic describing the review group. (There are plenty there already to give an idea of what to do.) When enough members have commented on a request, a moderator will start the review group.

R.

Ryan wrote: "Just throwing in my 2 cents here, but I've been in a number of groups where someone was assigned to review my book even though I had previously reviewed one of theirs, and viceversa. I understand w..."

For obvious reasons besides Amazon issues, we try to avoid cross reviews. Just make certain that I know about any conflicts, and I will take care of the scheduling. If a schedule cannot be produced without a conflict, we will look for more participants.

R.

Chris wrote: "So this is an open genre the only restriction is YA?"

Yes. Actually, since there were requests for both YA and New Adult, both are acceptable for this group.

R.

Authors:

A YA group (including New Adult works) has been started at https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... Sign up by posting the Goodreads link to your author page and your book's page to that topic.

R.

Authors:

A YA group (including New Adult works) has been started at https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... Sign up by posting the Goodreads link to your author page and your book's page to that topic.

R.

In joining this review group you have agreed to review the books assigned to you on a two month schedule. This group is now in the review phase and is no longer open for sign up.

This is Young Adult Review Group 13. (This group is extended to include New Adult books, as well.) As with other review groups, you will be expected to read and give an honest review of the books assigned to you. Assignments will be made after the group sign-up has filled.

Participants are expected to post reviews to Goodreads. The review should be posted to Amazon (US and UK) as well, if the book is available there. This makes having accounts with both Goodreads and Amazon.com a requirement.

Contact the authors you are scheduled to review to arrange to receive a review copy of their work or, if the reviewer prefers to give the author a sale, purchase it.

Please post to this topic, both when you receive review copies and when you post the reviews. Authors may respond to reviews, but any form of harassment or anger directed at reviewers will be treated as a violation of the terms of service for this group.

If you are going to be late with your review, either post to this topic as soon as possible or message the author and the moderator.

If your book has not been reviewed by the deadline for either round, contact the review group moderator. This is necessary to make certain that the review process is fair for everyone.

Note that any participant who makes no effort to fulfill his or her commitment to this group will have all reviews of his or her work resulting from this group deleted and his or her membership in the Genre Specific Review Group will be terminated.


THE AUTHORS AND BOOKS ARE:

Group 1:

1 Cecily Wolfe - That Night

2 Dele Daniel - Winds of the Forest

3 Jessica Titone - Stolen

4 K.T. Munson - The Sixth Gate

5 Stephanie Flores - To Enter The Path

6 Chris Keaton - The Mosaic

7 Cherie Mitchell - Echoes in Time

8 Robby Charters - Orphans of Time-Space

9 Christy Nicholas - The Enchanted Swans


Group 2:

1 Scott Spotson - Life II

2 Annette Oppenlander - Everything We Lose: A Civil War Novel of Hope, Courage and Redemption

3 T. Norman - Blood-Stained Heir

4 Foster Henderson - The Sunshine Stone

5 Christina Enquist - The Immundus

6 Jacci Turner - Cracker

7 Will Collins - A Darker Shade of Sorcery

8 Ryan Troske - The Rising

9 Sanna Hines - Elvira Wonders


THE ORDER OF REVIEW IS AS FOLLOWS:

GROUP 1:

January 26 to February 26

Cecily Wolfe reviews Cherie Mitchell
Dele Daniel reviews Robby Charters
Jessica Titone reviews Dele Daniel
K.T. Munson reviews Chris Keaton
Stephanie Flores reviews Christy Nicholas
Chris Keaton reviews Jessica Titone
Cherie Mitchell reviews Stephanie Flores
Robby Charters reviews Cecily Wolfe
Christy Nicholas reviews K.T. Munson

February 26 to March 26

Cecily Wolfe reviews Chris Keaton
Dele Daniel reviews Stephanie Flores
Jessica Titone reviews K.T. Munson
K.T. Munson reviews Cherie Mitchell
Stephanie Flores reviews Jessica Titone
Chris Keaton reviews Dele Daniel
Cherie Mitchell reviews Robby Charters
Robby Charters reviews Christy Nicholas
Christy Nicholas reviews Cecily Wolfe


GROUP 2:

January 26 to February 26

Scott Spotson reviews Foster Henderson
Annette Oppenlander reviews Jacci Turner
T. Norman reviews Scott Spotson
Foster Henderson reviews Sanna Hines
Christina Enquist reviews Will Collins
Jacci Turner reviews Ryan Troske
Will Collins reviews T. Norman
Ryan Troske reviews Annette Oppenlander
Sanna Hines reviews Christina Enquist

February 26 to March 26

Scott Spotson reviews Christina Enquist
Annette Oppenlander reviews Scott Spotson
T. Norman reviews Annette Oppenlander
Foster Henderson reviews T. Norman
Christina Enquist reviews Ryan Troske
Jacci Turner reviews Foster Henderson
Will Collins reviews Sanna Hines
Ryan Troske reviews Will Collins
Sanna Hines reviews Jacci Turner

By agreement with the author, my review of "Born of Fire" will be kept private.

I am currently awaiting a response from the author of my first round book.

Scott wrote: "Wow... so many changes from one conflict. Thought tinkering was okay... but every book I'm reviewing and every reviewer reviewing me has changed totally. All right, I'll get this show on the road!"

When we first tried arranging review schedules by human thinking, there were constant errors. In particular, attempts to tweak a schedule almost always failed. So I developed an Excel spreadsheet that automates generating the schedule. This has proven to be more effective and introduced fewer errors. When adding a conflict to the input, we have to run the program again, randomizing the selections.

Tonya wrote: "Can we still review books from authors in the group if they aren't assigned to us and we haven't read them yet?"

The only issue about publishing reviews on Amazon is if it seems to be reciprocal. I believe the theory behind this is that two authors might agree to high-rate each other's books to improve their standing on Amazon. We avoid this by insisting on honest reviews and attempting to keep from having authors review other authors who have reviewed them previously. If you want to read someone's book, you should. If you are going to publish a review, take this into consideration.

R.

Natalie wrote: "Ronit, I cannot contact you, can you change your settings to allow private messages or just send your book, Travel the World with Numbers to natalie.vellacott@gmail.com, Thanks Natalie"

Natalie:

Ronit can be contacted through her Goodreads personal page at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6....

R.

Natalie wrote: "R. wrote: "Authors:

We have another conflict. So hold off on exchanging books until I resolve it.

R."

I've already read my first round book by Tonya..."

Well, we lucked out on that one. You are still scheduled to read Sonya's first book in the first round.

Authors:

The schedule has been redone. I hope all conflicts have been resolved. Let me know if there is anything else I have missed.

R.

Authors:

We have another conflict. So hold off on exchanging books until I resolve it.

R.

Sonal wrote: "What am I reviewing between January 23 to February 6?"

Sorry about that. It was a typo. The error has been corrected.

R.

Authors:

The votes are in, and we are going with option 1. The review schedule has been posted in the initial comment of this topic. Please review it and let me know about any problems.

R.

Authors:

I have worked out two schedules:

1) Three rounds, one book per round. Every author reviews books randomly selected. Most participants are assigned two books from one of the authors. It is the only way this worked.

2) The standard two round review cycle with each author reviewing three books by one author in each round.

Please let me know which arrangement you prefer.

R.

Natalie wrote: "Holly wrote: "If it isn't too late to sign up to review, I'm happy to read and review any of the children's books. I used to teach 3rd, 5th, and in middle school as a science teacher and as a Liter..."

I agree. This is an organized peer review group. Participation is not required, if a member would like to read and possibly review a book on Goodreads without reciprocation.

R.

Authors:

We now have six and are moving on to the scheduling phase. Let me know about any conflicts as soon as possible. Also, I would like to hear from the participants about whether they would prefer scheduling three rounds one for each book of each author or two rounds each participant reviewing all three books by the author assigned in each round. I think the latter option would be better, but I want to know what the participants want before I decide.

R.