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UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Agony Aunt
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Authors sending paperbacks
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It has to be your choice, Katy, and I doubt anyone is up to no good, but I only give my address to friends I already trust. If you call yourself ebook reviewer somewhere on your blog you can signal your intent not to accept paperbacks. I certainly wouldn't take any form of gift as it takes away your neutrality.
Good place for the question and a fine question it is.I'd err on the side of caution and not give out my address, Katy.
I suppose it depends on how well you know and trust the other person. I'd be very wary about giving out my address to someone I didn't know. Is there a neutral address that you could give, where you could either pick it up or have it forwarded? Say a place of work or college?
The post office does PO boxes for this sort of thing, but I think they are very pricey. Don't know how you would do a one-off.
Thanks :) I was very wary of giving out my address so I thought I would ask.
It says on my blog that I only accept ebooks, so I'll continue like that :)
I'm fortunate that I can use my work address, as I'm wary of giving out my home address. I wouldn't want to accept gifs though.
Especially those gifs that Geoff posts in Vanessa's thread, eh?
Patti (baconater) wrote: "Especially those gifs that Geoff posts in Vanessa's thread, eh?":-)
Some workplaces might not approve of them either
Yeah, I never check that thread when I'm at work.
Geoff is definitely NSFW!
From an author's perspective, I much prefer to send out an ebook if I can, since it's cheap and pretty much immediate. I do get a few extra proofs/ARCs printed of the paperback in case anyone particularly wants one, but they're quite expensive to get printed, and even more expensive to post. What I don't send to reviewers I usually give away in compos and raffles.(If you enter a raffle where a paperback is the prize, I will naturally assume you agree to tell me your address if you win)
That's interesting, Tim. A lot of the authors that have contacted me said that they would prefer to send me a paperback so I can't distribute it!
I meant a lot of the authors asking to send me paperbacks, not a lot of the authors asking for reviews. Most are perfectly happy with sending me Ebooks :)
Hmmm. I'd certainly bother to put myself out for an author who would question my integrity.
Yer, bit of a cheek, that!
That's why I've refused to read books by those people :) I'm pushed for time as it is without people thinking I'm dishonest! Makes me laugh as they're all 'yes I'd like an honest review please, but I don't trust you'
All my ebook issues & revisions are numbered, which means that if one ever did appear somewhere it shouldn't, it wouldn't be too hard for me to figure out where it came from. (most likely to be an Amazon download or one of those suspicious refunds) probably very little I could do about it, but at least I'd know.Usually it just serves to tell me that Amazon is actually selling the latest version!
But don't you reckon it's petty for an author to approach someone for an honest review yet assume they're going to pirate their book, Tim?I can understand the concern, of course. But if someone is that concerned, I reckon they shouldn't offer a copy in the first place.
Or am I completely wrong?
Cheers, Kath but playing devil's advocate, they are sending off their months sometimes years of toil into the great unknown.Must be difficult.
But they asked. If they don't trust a reviewer, with no evidence, they are a bit daft.
On the few occasions that I have sent out a paperback version of one of my books (usually as a prize or some such) I have always asked the recipient to let me have an address to which they are happy for me to send it, rather than ask for a home address specifically. I'm not a dangerous stalker (honest guv) but I feel that people should have the right to protect their home addresses from someone they only know in a cyber sense.
Patti (baconater) wrote: "But don't you reckon it's petty for an author to approach someone for an honest review yet assume they're going to pirate their book, Tim?I can understand the concern, of course. But if someone i..."
Absolutely.
"Please, kind reviewer, will you review my work? I have strived for months to scribble my thoughts into a cohorent lump and would be enormously grateful for any kind of free publicity... (you thief)"
Thinking on, I've had a couple requests over the years from group authors who wanted me to reccie their books but would only give me smashwords codes. This was early days, mind. Nothing recent.I still get requests for reccies. Almost daily. What's really funny is that they offer to to reccie my books in return.
I had a PM on Facebook at the weekend from someone asking if I'd like a 5* review of my book in exchange for a 5* review of theirs. No suggestion of reading it or anything!Naturally I declined.
Obviously, they did their homework then.
I'd say it was up to you whether to give out your address. If you don't feel comfortable then don't. I'm not sure Brits can make gift vouchers on Amazon but that would be one way around it.I had a PM on GR offering me a review for $5. First person I've reported. I've had a couple of review swap requests. I declined.
When I read a book I'll probably review, but I read what I want and when I want and when I review I'm honest. I'd much rather someone reviewing my books to be honest, even if it is a lower rating.
I dropped my PO box because the local sorting center kept getting my mail confused with another box.My address is easy to find for business reasons, but I certainly wouldn't give it out easily to just random people.
Katy wrote: "I meant a lot of the authors asking to send me paperbacks, not a lot of the authors asking for reviews. Most are perfectly happy with sending me Ebooks :)"
See, I'd have thought it'd be easier to share a paperback than an electronic copy, but it does grate a bit that they have thought that
To many people get rabidly angry about being pirated.It's a nasty fact of life, and we authors just have to live with it
I suspect you're right there Will. If you could afford to actually do something about being pirated, you're earning so much it shouldn't worry you
Best thing to do is make sure you have lots of links to your books, in case they like it and want to go out and buy legit copies.
I wasn't quite sure where to put this, but thought Agony Aunt was the best place. Feel free to move it, Patti!
I wanted to ask your opinion on giving your address out to authors to send you books.
Since starting my blog, I have had authors either wanting to send me paperbacks to review, or wanting to send me gifts. I'm not sure I feel comfortable giving out my address and a P.O box is expensive.
What do you think? Should I give my address? Or should I keep doing things the way I have been - only accepting ebooks to review.
Thanks :)