How Can We Improve Our BOTM's For You?

[Danielle (Dannie)]

This thread is the place to post any suggestions, concerns, comments,
etc. on how we can improve our member's interest in our BOTM interactions.

Some of our members prefer to read books in print published form. Some prefer to read in Ebook formats. I would like to be able to incorporate all types of publishing in our BOTM's so that we have more choices for all of our members.

As always, please be sure to keep all comments respectful. No foul language, personal attacks, etc.

Please keep this thread free of all posts except for those relating to how we can improve our BOTM's.

Thank you all for your input!
~Danielle~

[S.L.J.]

Go for Indie books only.

Everyone else goes for commercial books.

[Jill]

I think it'd be nice to have the option for an ebook or a hard copy book, for those of us that have a preference either way (or only have access to one or the other). I think it'd even be considerate to pick books that are available in libraries for people who can't afford to buy the book. There has to be thousands of paranormal books in libraries that many of us have never taken the opportunity to read.

I, personally, think the R2R program is perfect for reading brand new books that the authors in this group have available to share with us. They are also often donating their books for challenge prizes. There is certainly a huge opportunity to read these books for anyone who wants to.

The BOTM seems like a way to have a more classic book club element mixed in with all the indie stuff we have available in this group. Even though Beautiful Creatures wasn't my favorite book, I think it was a great BOTM choice because not only was it readily available for anyone to purchase or check out from a library, but there was even recently a movie, which helped with the discussion.

[Jacqueline]

I second Jill. That way classics and new can be covered.

In that vein, if there are those who wish to discuss the indie books which tend to be more R2R, maybe we can have an area to encourage ongoing book discussions of current R2R books since there are so many that are so fresh in many people's minds. Yet I don't see many relevant discussions about said books. Just reviews then more reviews and on to the next one.

Why aren't we discussing these? Or maybe classic books to R2R without it being a BOTM. There are many classics free from Kindle and other sites since they're public domain. Maybe some aren't the modern version of paranormal, but they're the core of where it came from. Frankenstein, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, The Turn of the Screw...

I wonder how many of our younger members have read the classics? It'd be interesting to find out.

[Jill]

Jacqueline wrote: "Frankenstein, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, The Turn of the Screw..."

I think that'd be neat, personally. I also really like YA, though, so I'm totally fine with a YA book holding the BOTM slot a lot of the time. Some people find classics kinda boring. I know I did when I was 16. Ha! (I'm assuming we have a lot of teenagers here? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems the place.)

[Cristina]

We do have a lot of YA readers in this group. This group is actually classified as YA and we hope to remain that way as much as possible.

I'm all for more grown up "classics", but there is the snooze factor to consider. Personally I hated Dracula and don't think I could read Frankenstein either.

I am intrigued with the R2R suggestion...yes indeedy.

Thank you for your suggestions so far! Keep em coming!!! Good stuff.

[G.E.]

Cristina wrote: "We do have a lot of YA readers in this group. This group is actually classified as YA and we hope to remain that way as much as possible.

I'm all for more grown up "classics", but there is the ..."

I have to agree. I remember having to read at least one of the classic books mentioned in school. This is a voluntary read and I can't help but wonder how many would actually participate if the book was more like one required in school.

For those that like the print version, I think more time should be designated for the reader to get the book. Maybe nominate from the first day of the month, start the vote on the tenth, then close the vote on the nineteenth. That would give those people enough time to acquire a print version and have it shipped to them.

[Heidi]

I don't think it should be exclusively Indie, because there are lots of great commercial YA books out there too! I definitely like the idea of having it be in both paperback and/ or e-reader. Then again that does end up leaving out a lot of Indie. Crazy thought, and would only make sense if there were a lot of people interested, but could we do two BOTM. One that is Indie/ e-book only, and one that has the option for print? I'm not sure how much more work that creates for our fab. moderators either. I know a lot of groups pick three or four books for everyone to read, but I don't often participate, unless a book catches my eye. So... maybe my opinions are kind of invalid? Oh well, there's my 2 cents!

[G.E.]

Another group I'm in does a Small Press (Indies) and one for Big Press. But you need to keep in mind it's sites like this Indies use to show their work. We don't have fat budgets to spend on advertising like the big publishing houses do.

[Heidi]

I love Goodreads for that reason, but if we keep pushing only indie stuff, then we'll drive away people who wouldn't normally pick up Indie books because of their reputation. As it is, so many groups won't let you even comment about a book that is somehow related to you because so many indie authors only talk about themselves and their books on here. If we keep pressing, then we will only be selling to ourselves... which sometimes I wonder if we aren't.

[G.E.]

Add a clause where authors cannot nominate their own works. I have seen other groups doing this and have no problem with something like that in place. It would help reduce the amount of spam where one just throws up a blurb and is never seen or heard from again.

I am an author, but also a reader and I've found a lot of good writers and books through this site.

[Heidi]

That isn't such a bad rule.

[Jacqueline]

Absolutely, G.E. I'm an author too, and while I considered nominating my work (I realize the choices are randomly generated) I would much rather find out someone else loved it enough to nominate it. Maybe if we either alternated indie and commercial BOTM or had threads for both every month? That why we can support our indie authors and still have wide opinions.

I'm a reader and an author and I most definitely don't want to be just 'hawking my books' all the time. I would like to do another r2r when I have more time (crazy busy at work right now) and discuss the good and bad with other r2r readers.

[Kathy]

If I may be honest, we already have 3 books a month that we are reading together, plus the AOTM... if you keep making more and more categories I know personally I'll never get to them. Add to those categories all the R2R and all the challenges and that's a lot of books in one group for one month. I love these groups because you get to read with other people and hear their opinions and share what your loving with them in return, but I just can't see keeping up with everything that's going on and would hate to miss a part of this group that I really enjoy. That's just where my head was going when I read all these messages and threads.

[Danielle (Dannie)]

@ Jill, I like the idea of the book being available in the library, but I don't know how I'd be able to keep track of what books are in the library or not for each month's picks.
@ Kathy, honesty is definitely what I'm looking for in this discussion, so thank you! :) Also, we may add 1 more book for BOTM, but no more than that. Anymore than that would be extremely overwhelming for everyone. I understand what you mean about trying to keep up with all the different things offered .. I can't keep up with them all either. :) The intent is not to add more for confusion, but to offer more possibilities that members can choose from and hopefully create more interaction from our members.

I am seeing a lot of really good ideas from everyone, and some of these are ones we are already considering as well. I want to thank all of you for everything you have contributed so far, and hope to see more in the next couple of days. :) I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's thoughts on this and all of us Mods very much appreciate all of the feedback everyone has given so far, and hopefully more to come! :)

[Lucy]

Reading all of the suggestions I must say I haven't been up to speed much here, but I must say I like the idea of concentrating on indies. The classics will get their attention anyway. It's the indies that could use the attention and what better way to discover a new writer/book than on groups like this?

[Danielle (Dannie)]

Thank you Lucy! That, along with other comments made here, really give me an awesome perspective on everyone's thoughts & ideas for all of this, as well as in other areas of the group! :)

[Danielle (Dannie)]

All of your opinions & suggestions are very much appreciated .... So thank you! :) We have started having 4 books for our BOTM's. We now have an Indie Pick (Author's suggesting their own books), Reader's Pick (Suggestions from all of our Reader members), Mod Pick (We try to pick printed books & not just.ebooks), & our Series of the Month (SOTM).

[Wren]

Do themes (like magic month, vampire month, etc..,)