Great Middle Grade Reads discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
AUTHORS' CORNER
>
Can we frame an Indie Pick as Book of the Month, one month in the year?
date
newest »
newest »
I, personally, am not thrilled with the idea, but if the author would provide a code for the ebook for free, and s/he would understand that not all of us will give reviews here on GR, and if the book interested me, I'd try to participate.It does seem fair, so on objective (rather than personal) grounds, I do support the basic idea. Details can be discussed by more motivated members.
Mod
There, wasn't that nicely unhelpful? :D
I see not many people have commented on this thread and I wonder if it's for the same reason I haven't until now. I'm so torn with this topic. I want to say it's a great idea because I know there are a lot of great indie books out there. But then I feel it could be a circus if we could all nominate our own books. But then it would be so hard for me not to nominate my book.I'm also conflicted with the thought of would the discussion be genuine if we knew the author was in the group reading our candid responses. One of the things I love about this group is hearing everyone's raw feelings on the different books. If someone really didn't care for the book, would they feel comfortable saying so?
Is anyone else experiencing these feelings or is it just me?
J.S. wrote: "I see not many people have commented on this thread and I wonder if it's for the same reason I haven't until now. I'm so torn with this topic. I want to say it's a great idea because I know there a..."J.S. wrote: "I see not many people have commented on this thread and I wonder if it's for the same reason I haven't until now. I'm so torn with this topic. I want to say it's a great idea because I know there a..."
There's an easy fix for part of this. Nobody gets to put forward their own books. No book written by anyone in this group gets to be included.
But as far as everyone being able to find the books, that's another problem. Since she's right. They probably won't be available through libraries.
There are things I've seen other groups do to prevent abuse of the BOTM process:1. Require members to have 50 substantive posts. (NO promotional posts and "LOL", "I agree", don't count.)
2. Must have participated in a substantive way in a BOTM discussion within the past 6-12 months.
3. They do not send an email out when they take nominations.
4. They freeze membership during the nomination and voting process- that way people don't create fake accounts or ask others to join the group just to vote. (I think they do this by taking the group private for a few days.)
5. The winner is randomly picked.
6. They allow authors to nominate their own books, but they must agree to provide copies for free. (Ebooks)
Gretchen wrote: "No book written by anyone in this group gets to be included...."Oh, now, to me this doesn't seem fair or right at all. As I imagine it, the point of the proposed "Indie Month" is to highlight books by member authors and other sp authors.
Bella makes good suggestions, imo. Either 4 or 5 would help discourage sock puppets.
And I think 1 and/or 2 would help us reader members feel more comfortable sharing our candid opinion, despite knowing the author might be reading over our shoulder.
The Time Travel group seems to manage to both promote indie/ sp books by member authors, and have lively discussions by member readers, if you want to see how it's done.
Mod
Authors would need to be willing to NOT jump in with explanations and defenses over what people say. Maybe not to participate at all, unless asked a direct question?
I like Bella and Rebecca's ideas. Like Rebecca, I also value feedback of any kind. I prefer to hear what wasn't like about our book then to have a reader just say, "It was okay."
Mod
Funny--I was talking to a class of middle schoolers last week and that's what I told them--I'd rather have someone hate my book than give me a "Meh, it was okay." :)
I read more than a book a month, and if we could get the indie book free or even for 99 cents on kindle, I'd love to see both the book of the month and an indie book of the month available, and of course I'd love people to read my books but I read and review a lot of indie middle grade books and would love a more focused way to find them too. I agree the author should be someone with time in the group and probably not participate in the discussion unless asked a direct question. Maybe there could even be the agreement that if you had author questions those be sent as a message to keep the comments in the thread from going defensive.
Or perhaps a 'readers only' thread and also an 'author interaction' thread.
Cheryl wrote: "Or perhaps a 'readers only' thread and also an 'author interaction' thread."I think that's a good idea. I belonged to a group that did that when the author participated. I think they also told the authors that they could not respond to comments, questions, etc. in the "Readers Only" thread.
Mod
Excellent idea, with Bella's instructions. I think we can make this work!
These are great ideas! Maybe to qualify a book also should be relatively affordable online or as an ebook? Just to help solve the distribution problem.
I like the ideas discussed in this thread and appreciate the moderators for being willing to consider this undertaking.
Mod
Or would you prefer to have a little longer to consider the idea?
Mod
I support the idea of nominating an Indie book - Indie authors can use all the help they can get and there are great books out there that deserve the attention. I think if we nominate an Indie book other than our own would keep be best - would keep it fair. If feedback is given honestly and respectfully it would be helpful to the author and potential readers. Just my thoughts.
I just joined the group and read this thread.. I think this is a great idea. Authors should be able to nominate there work as well. Random pick or poll any option is good.
Why not? How else will the next new Picasso, or Bob Dylan of the written word be discovered? Why should we stick to the books that already have the tens of thousands of fans? Where's the adventure in reading the same old titles already marketed to the masses?Aren't we here to discover new books? New voices? Yea, the majority of indie titles are subpar, but I have to believe that there are dozens of masterful authors waiting to be discovered.
I favor this. Nay, I implore this.
Charles wrote: "Why not? How else will the next new Picasso, or Bob Dylan of the written word be discovered? Why should we stick to the books that already have the tens of thousands of fans? Where's the adventure ..."Great Thoughts Charles!
Mod
1)We will try an Indie pick for April, with nominations during a limited period in March (c10 days including two weekends) during which only members will be able to post, and we will freeze new members joining (send the group private).
2)Anyone can nominate an indie book (must be shelved as MG on Goodreads), but not their own book.
3)Any nominations which appear to be from sockpuppets will be deleted. If you don't know what a sockpuppet is, you don't need to know or find out!
4) Nominations from members who joined after I post this will be scrutinised to see whether they are valid/active members.
5) after nominations close the BOTM for April will be drawn at random - each will be given a number and I'll use a random number generator to pick.
6) We will ask the author to provide a given number of their ebook free or at a very low price.
7) We will have two discussion threads, only one of which the author can participate in (could include an author interview to start)
Have I missed anything?
Jemima, I think that sounds reasonable and complete. Thank you for taking on this project!
I'm actually ok with it if a long term member who is very active posts their own books. (Note: this doesn't benefit me in any way)
Mod
I think we'd better stick with the single rule.
Do people feel okay with 99 cent books, or should we stick with free? I'm game either way.
It'd be nice if they offered some free and then .99 for a day or two for the group to purchase.
I don't think .99 is too much to ask, but maybe say "PM me if that's difficult for you and I'll send you a free one." Most ppl who are on GR probably can afford a tablet, e-reader, smart phone (and if they can afford the machine they can afford a book)... but some may be using library terminals to participate in discussions and don't have time to read a whole e-book while at the library.
Mod
So don't worry if the book you want to nominate is more - you never know what the author might agree to ;)
And if they don't and it's pricey, then maybe I'll draw again.
As a newbie - group member - I've held back from pitching in here but I have to say it's a great idea. And it does need to be policed. I think requiring the chosen author to be a longstanding member is both fair and sensible. If someone has been a member for a while a degree of trust will have been established. Readers will trust the chosen author to back off and authors will trust readers to be honest and considerate.I'd be more than happy to make free pdf files available to group members but can see the sense in asking people to pay even a nominal fee out of respect for any authors's efforts.
Also it doesn't matter how old a book is. Once it's published it has to stand or fall on its own merits.
Good luck with this.
Mod
Just to keep the numbers down!
Mod
Just to keep the numbers down!"
Good idea.
Mod
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
When one of the themes suggested last month was Time Travel, I was even more frustrated because I know lots of excellent MG books involving time travel that could really deserve an outing as BOTM. To me, setting that as a theme without those books would be just, well, tying one arm behind our backs.
I belong to other Goodreads groups, and one of them has three books of the month, one of which is an 'Indie Pick'. The way they work it is that the author has to be willing to offer the ebook free or virtually so (and do an interview). They also do a random draw of the nominations, rather than a poll.
So over to you, authors and BOTM readers alike, but keep it in author's corner please.
- would you like an Indie pick month?
- what restrictions if any would you place on nominations?
- would a poll or a draw work better?
- what other issues need to be covered?