Welcome to a new weekend with questions answered.

The next person to ask us reviewers a question is Susana. Congrats Susana you won a$10 giftcertificate to Loose id

Susana: How do you decide which books to review? Do you get in touch with authors or do authors get in touch with you?

Jen B:

How I decide depends on different things.  Perhaps it is the blurb or cover that lures me in.  There are a few authors I read where I don’t even bother reading the blurb, but I know I want the book.  If the book cannot be obtained through the publisher, I will reach out to the author, but I also have a number of authors who contact me directly.  Some authors send in requests which is how I’ve picked up a number of new-to-me authors and found some fantastic books I might not have otherwise found on my own.

Roberta:

I know that we get author requests and I’m not sure how the publishing houses get a hold of the review site, but we have a list that we can go thru and read what some of the stories are about and choose from there.

Vicki/Tori:

I think we all have favorites that we watch for, and request those books. Which can be hard, when you read so many books by the same author, it’s hard to come up with something new to say about their writing! I do try to pick new authors too, so I don’t get stuck in a rut. As far as how do we get the books, as a reviewer for a blog, we go through Dani, the blog owner. We have a spreadsheet that has new releases and author requests on it, I scroll through there a couple of times a week, and if I see a book no one else has requested, I request it. We can also request books that aren’t on the list, we put them on our portion of the spreadsheet, and Dani sends a request to the publisher or author. As reviewers, we don’t have any contact with the authors directly.

Chris:

Marieke:

We can basically review every book from every publisher Dani has contacts with. We put it on our review sheet and request it at the publisher. Easy as pie.

Dan:

I tend to be the odd-ball. I don’t usually read a lot of books off the publisher lists. I’ve found myself searching out and finding books from self-published authors, particularly new authors, because there are some great books being written and published outside the traditional paths these days. So many publishers in this genre have closed down that many authors go directly to Amazon and other venues. I tend to search out new books on Amazon and then add them to my list and have Dani get me the books. We also have a lot of self-published authors who send requests directly to Dani which she then forwards to us reviewers to decide if the book interests us. With as many reviewers as we have, there are lots of varied tastes, so we usually find reviewers for each.

Marte:

Authors send requests through the blog that the reviewers can do, or the reviewers can make their own request for books that they would like to read and review. Dani will then contact the publisher of that book and request it. As a reviewer, I don’t have any direct contact with the authors.

Donna:

Sometimes authors email us asking someone to review their book, and sometimes Dani emails out requests to the authors.
When two of us want to review the same book, we fight it out in a gladiator style battle that ends in the death of the weakest reviewer. Dani deletes any evidence that they ever existed from the blog and we never speak of them again.

Alexander:

I will either look at the new releases on Audible, look at the Love Bytes author request list, or Dani emails me to ask if I am interested in an audiobook.  Ihave admitted to not reading the blurb and being surprised by what I end up reviewing.

Kat:

For me personally, the blurb on a new to me author is crucial! I have been fortunate enough that authors have requested if I would be willing to read their books. That is a HUGE compliment to me. But, if contacted, I immediately refer them to our fearless leader and they know not to do that again. I trust Dani completely to look out for my best interest.

Tammy:

I read the blurb and if the storyline sounds interesting I’ll put it on my request list then Dani gets the book for us.

Kimberley:

I always touch base with the blog’s leader and she touches base with the authors/publishers.

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