Hi there,
Welcome to another BookRoar newsletter. I’m not sure about you, but it’s roasting hot where I am right now and I’m sweating my kecks off. How is a young (ish) author supposed to work in this heat, right? I suppose I should emigrate to Australia to make the most of their winter, and then come back home when it cools down. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? I could do my job all year round, all while wrapped in a big jumper. Bliss! Probably not very good for my Vitamin D levels, though!
Anyway, I need to stop daydreaming if I want to get any actual BookRoar work done. So without further waffle from me, here’s this month’s news.
A Summer Lull
It’s time we came clean with you all! The last couple of months have been a little slower than we had anticipated on the BookRoar front. Our web traffic has taken a knock and we have had a harder time reaching out to authors and readers and bringing them to our site. It seems that not everyone is a summer-phobe like me.
This obviously has a knock on effect for each and every one of you, as it is likely that you have waited longer than usual to be selected. If this is you then please bear with us — we are launching a new recruitment drive soon and hope to be welcoming back a number of members who have been working on other projects over the summer.
But why not use this time to stack up some Credits and better your position for the near future? There are plenty of books available on BookRoar, so if it feels like you are seeing the same ones over and over again then try playing around with the genre filtering system (top right of the Review Pool). You may find a book more suitable to your preferences or find one that is a bit cheaper to your biting point!
Oh, and while I am on the subject, don’t forget to make sure that the pricing of your own books on BookRoar matches the pricing on Amazon (in US Dollars). Our analytical tools show that some people linger on a book for some time, but then skip to the next one after a few minutes. This is likely due to them finding the BookRoar book on Amazon and noticing it is more expensive than originally advertised, resulting in them begrudgingly moving on. If you have someone interested in your work, then having accurate pricing is a surefire way of being chosen.
Long Processing Times on Amazon? Try This?
We’ve all been there. You’ve read the book, submitted the review, and then refreshed your emails to find nothing from Amazon has appeared. Oh no, you’ve been randomly selected to enter the dreaded queue for someone at Amazon to manually read and approve your review. We all know what that means — Amazon will take FOREVER to process it.
We understand your frustration with this, we truly do, and it is one of our biggest bugbears. But seasoned BookRoar member Amber and her Bookstagram friends have come to the rescue and found a clever little tip to cut down on those long processing times.
It appears that if you submit the review through Amazon’s Kindle App, it is processed much quicker than usual, and as an added bonus books read through KU also get the Verified Review status which they lack on submissions through the actual Amazon website. We’ve been trying it out this month and so far it seems to work perfectly, with the confirmation email coming through for us in less than fifteen minutes! Give it a go and see how you get on.
We owe a big thank you to Amber for this tip and if you have any hacks of your own then please share them with us and we’ll share the knowledge with others in future newsletters. Amazon’s Kindle App is available on Smartphone/Tablet for both Android and iOS and is free of charge. You just need to sign in to the app with your normal Amazon login details and you’re good to go!
Blacklist Extension
A couple of months ago, we launched the BookRoar blacklist, giving each of our members the ability to prevent review swaps by telling us who they have reviewed (or have been reviewed by) on another platform. This simple tool makes it so you are no longer shown each other’s books when you scan the Review Pool.
Well, this month we are taking it one step further and asking our members to let us know if they want any particular reviewer added to their blacklist. So if you feel that a reviewer was not the right fit for your book and don’t want them to review any more of them, then please let us know and we’ll add them to your blacklist. You can then use your Credits to find a different reviewer who may be more suitable for your books, and may give you a higher star rating. Easy peasy!
BookRoar Turns One!
Ahh, look at that young whippersnapper BookRoar. Toddling about the place, pooping its nappies, learning to walk before it can run (and falling flat on its face a number of times)! Our little website is growing up so fast!
That’s right, we at BookRoar are celebrating our first birthday in August, and we are currently reflecting on the road which got us here and the road left to travel. Those of you who have been around a while may have remembered our launch and may have seen the improvements we have made since, and while it may have taken some time to get there, we are working hard to make BookRoar as good as it can be. We want to thank each and every one of you who has supported us over the past year and hope we can carry on delivering results for you in the years to come.
I feel that we need to find some way to celebrate properly in next month’s newsletter. Maybe a Credit giveaway or something? Maybe a birthday cake for our small and cramped office? At the moment, BookRoar is run solely by volunteers who dedicate a lot of time and energy in delivering something we hope will benefit many authors from around the world, so your support and encouragement is invaluable to us.
Competition Results
Our competition from last month will be closing on the 5th August, so if you have any reviews to submit then please make sure you get them in to us before then (any review submitted counts. Iit doesn’t have to be ‘authorized’ by the author to count towards your tally).
To remind you of the prize, one lucky winner will receive double Credits for all the reviews they have submitted throughout July (i.e. if you submitted three reviews, you would get three bonus Credits). We’ll contact the winner by email first, and then if they are happy, publish their name on our social media pages. Good luck!
I think that’s it from me this month! I look forward to seeing all your lovely reviews coming in throughout August. But for now, catch you on the flipside, homies!
The BookRoar Team
