How do you send review copies of your book?

[Samantha]

Typically, I provide my email address for those who would be interested in receiving a free copy for review. (I set up a specific email address for this purpose as to not overwhelm my personal life one). Then, I send them a PDF or .mobi, which is the e-reader format.

Because I am wary of piracy, I do try to find reviewers who have Kindle Unlimited. They can download for free and I worry less about my work being posted for free elsewhere. Just something to consider if you enrolled your book in Kindle Unlimited. There are Goodreads groups for Kindle Unlimited readers.

Hope that helps!
Samantha

[Christina]

Hi Joseph. There are many waysto do this, the most common beimg to send a mobi,epub,or pdf to the reviewer. There are free programs to make each of these. Word or its open source equivalent, can create a pdf,and you can get a mobi file from step 7 in your KDP product set up by selecting "download book preview file."

If your book is on Smashwords you can create a code to give them to download the file type of their choice.

Some people might request that you gift them the book through Amazon, but note that this seems to only be acceptable if you are giving the book as a prize and not for the sake of a review. The Federal Trade Commision considers this a gift and as such, Amazon has begun to crack down.

And of course, you can offer to mail a traditional paper copy, but that is the least cost effective.

Hope that helps!

[Mike]

If you are worried about piracy, one way to do it is to send the book straight to someone's Kindle. You need the email address of their Kindle and you also need them to put your email address into their Kindle settings so that it will be accepted as non-spam. Ideally you should send a .MOBI file, but you can also send a PDF and put the word convert in the subject line; depending on how much formatting there is in the PDF, this can work very well.

In my experience most people just want a .MOBI, .EPUB or PDF sent to them by email and they send it to their Kindle or e-reader themselves. Sending these files out "into the wild" does suggest a danger of piracy, but I suspect this very rarely happens in practice.

[Christina]

One thing to note: I was going under the assumption that you had offered your book for review. If these are unsolicited requests, be wary. Check out their profiles and see if they often review books similar to yours. You are under no obligation to send someone a copy just because they asked. I don't provide review copies personally, but I get requests regardless. Sometimes it's just someone looking for a free book and they figure there's no harm in asking, but more often than not, it's fishy.

[William]

Sometimes I send an actual copy and sometimes the PDF.

[[deleted user]]

I offer an epub, PDF, or DRM-free eBook.

[Justin]

I usually send reviewers PDF copies as I've been doing lately for my upcoming novel. Every so often someone does ask for a .MOBI version to which I try to accommodate them by converting my book and doing so.

[Tamara]

Joseph wrote: "Thanks Samantha, that's the way I figured to do it. I read somewhere if you send via email just edit the pdf to say "John Doe's review copy" just incase they do decide to be a pirate. If it helps." A watermark is a good idea!

[J.D.]

I send either a PDF or a MOBI file, whichever the reviewer prefers. Some reviewers tell me they have Kindle Unlimited and decide to read my work that way; no additional cost to them, and I get a nice boost in pages read.

[Jane]

I usually send an ePub or PDF, burn I'm careful who to...

[Adrian]

Another good program to send it out in various formats is Scrivener

[Jacqueline]

I made a PDF file with a cover page that said REVIEW COPY on it. For some reason that made me feel better. I sent it by email for reviewers and endorsers who wanted to read it online, but some requested a hard copy. A hard copy can get pricey to print and ship, so I looked up the nearest print shop to them, then sent a copy there and had the shop print it out for pickup by the reviewer. This worked out particularly well for people in other countries (UK, New Zealand).

[Kim]

While we're on this subject, is it a good idea to have pre-publication reviews as an indie-author (debut novel)? If so, how does one go about seeking out a credible reviewer?

[Amanda]

You can also use BookFunnel to send your review copies. I've been using them for six or so months now, and it's really convenient. Reviewers/readers can download either an ePub, Mobi or PDF of your book and they will even provide support if a reviewer isn't clear on how to get the book onto their device of choice. You simply send the reviewer a link. It's not a free service, but their basic plan is $20 per year. (Just FYI - I'm not affiliated with BookFunnel in any way except as a user.)

https://bookfunnel.com/

[Allan]

When I've offered a book for review I ask what format the recipient wants to receive it in. Then I will e-mail the Mobi, E-pub or PDF to them.

[Doug]

I always ask how the reviewer would like to receive it.

[Dorothy]

I don't know how to make a Mobi. I'm on a Mac computer. Is there some trick to this? I work in Word files, and I don't see a "save as" that refers to Mobi. I do know some reviewers that use that kind of file, and I haven't been able to provide them with it. I'm stuck with PDF format, at least that's all I know about doing.

[Roughseasinthemed]

Dorothy

You can also save docs as epub in Pages on Mac.

[C.L.]

Dorothy wrote: "I don't know how to make a Mobi. I'm on a Mac computer. Is there some trick to this? I work in Word files, and I don't see a "save as" that refers to Mobi. I do know some reviewers that use that ki..."

You can use Calibre, or Scrivener, or Vellum.

[Dorothy]

Calibre, Scrivener, or Vellum--sounds like fonts, not file/application types. Please clarify. The folks I'm dealing with want only Mobi files. I don't have Pages in my Mac. I'm trying to figure out how to make Mobi files.

[Roughseasinthemed]

Pages is free on ios and osx these days, so just get it.

You can use kindlegen to convert epub to mobi.

[C.L.]

Dorothy wrote: "Calibre, Scrivener, or Vellum--sounds like fonts, not file/application types. Please clarify. The folks I'm dealing with want only Mobi files. I don't have Pages in my Mac. I'm trying to figure out..."

You can google any of the software programs I mentioned. Calibre is free. Scrivener costs money. Unsure about Vellum, because I don't have a mac.

[Honoree]

I highly (HIGHLY) recommend BookFunnel.com. Another option is Scrivener, which produces .mobi and .epub files. One other option is to use a formatting service, my favorite is 3Csbooks.com.

[Honoree]

Jacqueline wrote: "I made a PDF file with a cover page that said REVIEW COPY on it. For some reason that made me feel better. I sent it by email for reviewers and endorsers who wanted to read it online, but some requ..."

That is such a terrific idea for foreign countries! Thanks!

[Honoree]

Joseph wrote: "Okay, so when someone asks for a review copy on Goodreads how does one send it to them? And when it comes to sending copies outside of this site, what's the norm? Idk if this has been covered elsew..."

Joseph, BookFunnel.com is an option. Another option is to have them opt-in to your ART (advanced reader team) list on your website.

[Julia]

Hi Dorothy,

Word for Mac allows you to save as PDF, .txt, .rtf, .docx. However, it does not allow you to save directly to a .mobi file or .epub

In order to change the file type you need to use a conversion tool. The previously mentioned tools were mostly software.

Online Convert (Free)
http://ebook.online-convert.com/conve...

Epub Converter (Free)
http://www.epubconverter.com/kindle-t...

Calibre (Free)
http://calibre-ebook.com/download

Scrivener (~$40)
http://literatureandlatte.com/

Vellum ($30-$200)
https://vellum.pub/

BookFunnel is a delivery system for review copies once you have your document converted to the various file types. However you have to provide them with the various files types that you want distributed.

[Shoshanah]

Mike wrote: "If you are worried about piracy, one way to do it is to send the book straight to someone's Kindle. You need the email address of their Kindle and you also need them to put your email address into ..."

Sorry to jump in the middle of a conversation.
How does sending directly to someone's kindle reduce the risk of piracy?
Thanks

[Donna]

Kim wrote: "While we're on this subject, is it a good idea to have pre-publication reviews as an indie-author (debut novel)? If so, how does one go about seeking out a credible reviewer?"

I think so. The best source I've found is having your book listed on NetGalley. That's where all mine have come from so far. I go through Xpresso Book Tours' co-op. It's the cheapest route and you can buy a month or three month.

As for file conversions I have a MAC and I used Calibre and it was super easy to format to ePub and Mobi.

[Kim]

Donna wrote: "Kim wrote: "While we're on this subject, is it a good idea to have pre-publication reviews as an indie-author (debut novel)? If so, how does one go about seeking out a credible reviewer?"

I think ..."

Thanks Donna, I'll have a look at the sites you recommended.

:)

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Just a reminder: We don't allow discussion of review swaps in this forum.

[Nancy]

I always use instaFreebie for all my copies. I can see they received it, which really helps when I send to my ARC team. I'm getting ready to do that this week. I set it up using Calibre and then upload to IF.