Thank you so much to Waxapplelover for asking us the next question. You have won a $10 store credit to Dreamspinner Press. Congrats!
waxapplelover: I don’t think this has been asked before, but if it has, please point me in the direction. Inquiring minds want to know. 🙂 When a book comes up for review, especially one that may be highly anticipated, how do you decide which reviewer gets it? And what happens if there is a book that no one is really that interested in?
Chris:
Books are first-come-first-serve. Whoever requests the book first is the one who gets to review it. That being said, we do have it set up so that if two people want to do a Duo Review, they totally can. We do try to give reviewers who have reviewed previous books a series first call, but it mostly comes down to either a blood-soaked death match…or, you know, sharing and caring. As to not getting to every book…well it would be physically impossible to review every LGBTQ book that comes out. I know there are a dozen or so of us here, but even with that there is no way we could cover ever book that comes out. That is not even counting going back and reviewing books we’ve missed over the years. Books get chosen mostly by what each reviewers wants to read–because forcing someone to read something is not a great way to endear a book to someone. And yes, we do try to cover as many books, genres, and topics as we can, but we are only human…mostly human. Ok, there are some of us who have to be part cyborg, but I’m totally not spilling the beans on who.
Dan:
We very often have multiple reviewers that want to read a certain book, and have developed a “duo” review format for that very reason. I think the most we’ve had on one review was three reviewers. I personally enjoy doing them, but since I tend to read off the wall and darker books, I don’t get many takers!
Roberta:
Most books that are highly anticipated are requested before we even have a title or a release date!! For example you can usually find requests like THIRDS #9 or “Amy Lane’s summer 2017” lurking at the bottom of reviewer’s request list. Whoever requests it first always gets to review it, but usually there’ll be another reviewer who will ask if they can do it together. Which can work out well sometimes because if you happen to be the ONLY blog whose reviewer doesn’t like a favoured authors new book, you can find yourself at the centre of a shitstorm. (Not that we’d lie and say we liked it if we didn’t, but if another reviewer genuinely did like it, well then no harm no foul.)
Unfortunately we have a loooong list of books whose author has requested a review, but no reviewer is interested. This is only a fairly recent problem – with the increase in self published books the authors are having to reach out to review sites for exposure. We do the best we can to review as many of these requests as possible but there’s no point in picking up a book if you can tell just from the blurb that you’re going to hate it.
Do you like the duo review option? Let us know and have a change to win
A digital copy of JACKED UP by Samantha Kane dontated by Love Swept.
I think the duo review is a good thing. As a reader I like having a sometimes different opinion on a book as it gives me a broader sense as to if I am interested in it or not.
Great question and thanks for the answers. I do like the duo review. It is good to read several reviews of the same book. There are always details that call to the one more than to the other even if the rating of the book is the same.
Thanks for the answers! I do like when more than one reviewer gives their opinion, because often they will pick up on different things to like (or dislike). Glad to hear there’s not some digital rock paper scissors thing going on. 🙂
Thank you for the answers. I like duo reviews, the more points of view on the same book, the better
I definitely like to see duo review but more so if the reviews are one positive and one less positive :).
Duo reviews are nice because it can give you different opinions and in my book that is always a win-win 😉
Duo reviews are informative, and it’s nice to see different perspectives!
Chris and the battle for the books, had me, lol XD Thanks for all the responses. Duo reviews can be fun and I personally like seeing the take away from each reviewer. Everyone has their own preference and what may have been liked by one person may have been an issue for another.
Part cyborg? Now we know how those books get read so quickly! As for duo reviews, I’m totally in. I don’t even mind if they agree because it’s fun to see the different perspectives anyway.
I enjoy duo reviews when there is a difference of opinion, lol. I like seeing the different perspectives.