Half of the struggle I faced when I first started becoming a book reviewer, was searching for books to review. As a reader, I tend to purchase older titles and wait for a few months after a book is released before getting my hands on it and as a reviewer, I felt like it was necessary for me to be able to keep up with the market.
That’s when I found some groups on Goodreads that connects the readers to authors.
It isn’t easy to get others to notice you, especially when you’re just starting and need to build up your blog. I absolutely loved having a third party getting me out there to indie authors that were looking for reviewers for their books. Since we were both struggling to find contacts on our own and it absolutely simplifies the process. Hence, I did more research on similar websites and services.
Over the past year of writing reviews, I’ve found some great websites that provide a platform for readers and reviewers to purchase books for a cheaper price or for free in exchange for a review. As a reviewer, this is exactly what I was looking for - books in exchange for reviews.
I’ve had first-hand experiences with the few websites that I’ll be sharing about and will give a little review of it.
1. NetGalley
By far my favourite amongst the websites that I’ll be sharing. I had the best time with NetGalley as it not only allows you to request books to review, it allows you to link the review on your website to the feedback that you give to the author/publisher as well as auto-updates it on your Goodreads! Hence your review appears on three different websites and you save time for not doing it manually.
NetGalley offers a wide range of books and recommends it according to your preferences. From Art & Photography to True Crime, there’s plenty of books that will feed your thirst for adventure, non-fiction or even hobbies or knowledge. The best part is that NetGalley doesn’t have a strict deadline for when the review should be posted however it is recommended that feedback should be given before the book is archived. These are Advance Readers Copies after all! There is no limit to how many books you request either!
2. Goodreads
Goodreads was where all of this began.
I’ve joined some groups where there’d be a ‘middle man’ connecting the authors with readers who would be interested. They would share the book title, blurb and the deadline for writing the review and in most cases, you’ll be able to contact the author directly for more information.
The only downside to this is the lack of choices when it comes to books. Most of the time, there’ll be a small selection of books under the reader’s preferred category and it may also not be updated as frequently.
3. BookBub
BookBub is a email subscription to daily ebook bargains. Every day, they will curate books from sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobels, Kobo and some others that are on sale for $3.99 or less, sometimes even free! I’ve only used BookBub twice but I had quite a pleasant experience. It is important to note that these books aren’t new on market but are quite old so please keep that in mind!
4. Prolific Works
Prolific Works works similarly to BookBub whereby they send you emails for your favourite genres. For example, they send a list of free science-fiction ebooks every Wednesday and Teen & YA ebooks every Thursday.
There’s no deadline to when your review is required to be published either!
I hope you’ll go through these websites and support these authors by writing reviews of their work and getting it out there to the public! Thank you so much to Elira for having me on her blog!
Joanna C.
Hello! Thank you so much to Elira for having me on her blog!
I’m Joanna, a book reviewer under the name Skavansieur on Instagram and I run a blog under the same name too. I’ve been blogging for a little over a year now and decided to share some of my tips with the readers! I’m thrilled to guest blog for Elira and I hope there’ll be some takeaways from my writing.
Follow and get in touch with Joanna C.
Instagram: @skavansieur
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