[CLOSED] No books to review?

[Saoirse200]

I am at level five and I have been a member of this site for a good few months now.What I don't understand is that there are not even any free books for me to review , and paid opportunities are also very rare lately. I was wondering has anybody else had this problem?

[AnaF]

I've been having the same problem. I'm also at level 5 but lately it's been hard to snag a paid review and in the last couple of days, there have been no books at all to review

[Scott]

I am working on this issue. There is a lot of demand from newer members of the review team to have books to review.

[Saoirse200]

Thanks for your help, there are free books available to me now

[Scott]

There should be numerous free reviews available now, and more are coming in every day. I wanted to work on improving the server efficiency and any other errors before continuing to seek out new review opportunities so that now we can hopefully push them through well.

But remember to take time reading the books carefully and giving quality reviews. With so many reviewers wanting to review books, it is a good chance to make sure quality standards are being maintained.

[Cheryl Rendone]

I understand that you, @Scott have been having issues with the free/paid book reviews being available. I am having issues viewing them on my account, but it states that you're working on it. I just wanted to check in with you and see how things were progressing.

Thank you

[soccerstar95]

Hi Scott,

I'm at Level 4 and there aren't any paid/free reviews available. Would appreciate an update at your earliest convenience.

Regards.

[Adonis Maratos]

Hi Scott,

I'm at Level 4 and there aren't any paid/free reviews available. Would appreciate an update at your earliest convenience.

Regards.

there is one at the moment, it's free but it's not very appealing :p check it out

[britt1125]

Thanks.

[Ian]

If a level 4 is getting no books to review,there is no hope for a 0. I think I call it a day on this site. I'm not just going to post for the sake of it.

[Adonis Maratos]

well the reviewer score thing screwed me over and I guess other people too so you have a chance :p

[thankyou]

@ Adonis Maratos - Yeah same here. I was initially level 3 and was going to be level 4 after I had submitted my recent review, but this new system brought me back to level 1 !!!!!!! Now I have to work all over again to reach my previous level. Aaaarrgghhhhhh !!!!!

-- 02 Mar 2014, 11:50 --
@Scott - I do not have a single review opportunity - neither free nor paid. I have already set my preferences suitably.

[jhollan2]

I have not had a single review opportunity for two weeks now. And I had only one or two to choose from for a bit before that. I'm trying really hard to be patient and I'm checking as frequently as I can, but I'm getting frustrated. Is there a certain time that would be best to check for new reviews?

[Scott]

I'm sorry for the shortage of opportunities many of you are experiences. I appreciate your patience.

Please understand that I am trying to think longterm here. I worked on implementing the new reviewer score system first to create a better organized distribution of opportunities so that as new review opportunities and new reviewers come in we do not see the same problems we have been seeing over the last few weeks and intermittently in the past before that.

I have just put through a handful of new review opportunities. More opportunities will be coming, as well as slight adjustments to the review scoring formula and/or levels to ensure distribution matches availability flow.

-- 05 Mar 2014 04:39 pm --

Okay, I have adjusted the criteria and limitations for levels. This will help to ensure those who have earned their place as a level 5 reviewer will continue to have sufficient review opportunities.

I have also made a change that will restrict newer, lower level reviewers from picking another book until their pending submission is approved.

All of these new changes put together should ensure that throughout the future there will be a good selection of review opportunities and that they will trickle down properly to the lower level reviewers.

One of the most helpful changes overall provide more ways for newer reviewers to establish themselves rather than just encouraging them to blow through as many reviews as quickly as possible to reach level 5 which actually only increased the likelihood of a review opportunity shortage. The new system allows newer members to move up the levels in much larger part by working on that which actually makes the authors submitting reviews want them to review their book, such as quality and visibility of the review as well as the reviewer's gravity in the forum/community.

[lemming]

Scott, my review of the new reviewer score system is it would be best for authors and the site if the system gave much mote weight to your editorial rating of previous reviews posted. I am not just saying this because it's one of the only areas in which I have a high score, but you've taken the trouble to have a human moderator rate review quality, so it's only fair to writers to give them the highest quality reviews the site can offer. I think participation in the forums should be rewarded separately (maybe you get a fancy title next to your name in your posts) but it makes no difference to writers if the reviewer has participated in the forums, and I'm not sure you want to reward the kind of "participation" that is measured by sheer volume of posts.

I also believe popularity of reviews is a misleading metric especially when we are reviewing self-published books by unknown writers. My thread about "the giving tree" was at one point the most discussed in its category, not because my review quality was better than other posts I've made with no replies and few views, but because more people wanted to discuss the book.I'm willing to bet the most poorly written review of a new stephen king book would be more discussed and viewed than my review of a self-published book about niagara falls.

my suggestions are what I would do if this were my site. I would like to see the review team succeed as I think it has the potential to be a valuable service for both indie writers and reviewers.