Hi there,
It’s time for our April newsletter. For those who may not have received a newsletter from us before, this is the place where we toot our own horns and ramble on about all things BookRoar. And if you have received our newsletters before, then you’re probably thinking ‘oh no, not this guy again’. Well, yes it is me! I never shut up about BookRoar!
As usual, a great big thank you to our monthly members who donate to us on Ko-Fi. It is your generosity which keeps the site going. BookRoar is currently run by a small group of volunteers who do everything you see for free. We do plan to make this site into a business in the future, however such plans are a long way off at the moment. For now, feel free to poke around and enjoy reading books and getting reviews, all whilst helping fellow authors reach their goals.
Oh, and we have another month-long Credit competition running, the details of which can be found at the very bottom of this email.
Right, this is a lengthy one, so let’s crack on.
Welcome Newcomers
We loved seeing our membership grow so much throughout April. A huge part of this is undoubtedly down to a number of very encouraging social media posts made by some of our members recently (more of this below).
But this section of the newsletter isn’t for the well-established BookRoar elite. It is for the newcomer, the person joining us in the middle of our journey. Many of you are still sitting on the sidelines unsure of what to do or how BookRoar will work, but don’t delay any longer — pick up a book today and start stacking up some Credits today.
Here’s a few tips to get you started:
- Give yourself the best chance of being selected. An attractive cover, a great description, and a low price point are key to attracting an eager reviewer. We suggest pricing your book at $2.99 when using BookRoar in order to maximize your chances and also keeping those lovely 70% royalties. (Don’t forget to update your pricing on BookRoar in line with your KDP Promotions!)
- Wait until your review is ‘Live’ on Amazon before submitting it to us. Amazon can take some time to process your review and will email you when it is done (don’t forget to check the Junk folder). You may be excited to get your first Credit, but please wait until the review is Live before you hit submit on BookRoar.
- Be generous with your star gradings and kind with your words. We are a friendly and welcoming bunch here at BookRoar, and while we encourage our members to leave truthful and honest reviews for one another, we do ask that your reviews are kindly-worded and constructive. We want to build one another up, not tear each other down.
- Our FAQs and Medium page are the fonts of BookRoar knowledge. Here you will find our policies, previous newsletters, author interviews and some very helpful articles. There are some really great hints and tips on these pages too.
- Move your Credits into your book. When you get your first Credit, make sure to assign it to a book so it can be entered into the Review Pool. You can do this by using the Update Credits button on your BookRoar dashboard.
So settle in, grab a book, and let’s get you started on your BookRoar adventure. As always, we want to hear what you like, what you dislike, and all of your thoughts and ideas on how to improve our site. We are always tweaking things based upon user feedback, as we want everybody here to have a positive experience with us.
PSA: The Review Pool is Not Empty
Have you been scrolling through the Review Pool only to end up at the screen which says ‘There are no more books available at this time’ and has a picture of a lost looking mouse? Oof, our bad. A bit of poor communication on our part.
You see, there are still hundreds of books available for you to choose and they can all be found using the Genre Filtering Tool in the top right hand side of the Review Pool. Our standard search only shows a small selection of the books we have available in order to keep our website running at maximum efficiency. Please use the genre filters to delve deeper into our bookshelves and find your next hidden gem.
But that’s not all. We are working on a few improvements to the site which will encourage using the genre filtering system and we will clarify the message at the end of the Review Pool. Look out for these updates soon!
An Outpouring of Love
We’ve been humbled recently by all the positivity we’ve seen from some of our members on social media. It has really touched us here at BookRoar and we thank each and everyone of you for helping spread the word and for recruiting new members. Laura, Tiffany, Kit, Zeb, Nicola, Liane, and anyone else we may have missed: you guys rock!
Someone also sent us a link to this fantastic blog post by T. Atkins, who compares BookRoar with some larger and much more established sites than ours. We are delighted to be compared to such popular sites used by many in the writing community and for us to be doing so well. Check it out to see how we did, and don’t forget to leave the author a comment.
BookRoar’s Formatting Guide for eBooks
We have a number of great books on BookRoar which come from a broad array of self-published and traditionally published authors. But have you ever come across a great book that has been let down by poor formatting? It’s distracting and can take the shine off of what is an amazing read.
Kindles aren’t designed to work well with the standard pre-set styles of most word processors, so your manuscript will need a few tweaks here and there before publishing via KDP to give it a more professional feel. Luckily, our super simple Formatting Guide for eBooks has you covered. It lays out step-by-step instructions on how to amend your manuscript so that it can be best adapted for an eBook.
**COMPETITION TIME**
The promise of some goodies got you reading to the end, huh? Well, hopefully on the way here you’ve soaked in all that juicy BookRoar knowledge and devoured all those helpful tips. But now it’s time to talk about some freebies.
This month, we are giving away a 3 Credit bundle (worth $25) for absolutely free. Entry is simple: for every review you submit to BookRoar throughout May, you will get one entry into the competition. The more reviews you submit then the more entries you get, and the better your chances are of winning!
We will announce the winner by random selection at the end of May. We wish everyone the best of luck!
I have so much more to say but so little space to ramble. Never mind, back in my box I go! There is always next month’s newsletter to look forward to.
Many thanks
The BookRoar Team
