Anyone else feel lied to

[buttafly74]

I joined this site because it seemed like it was easy enough; post your five and then you can start reviewing books. But I feel like there has been a sort of bait and switch. Now, I have to keep posting so that the week long delay goes down and THEN I can start reviewing, BUT I have to review books for free first, (which is fine really) and then each time I go up a point there's another waiting period. Anyone else feel a bit disillusioned by this site? Or am I just being unreasonable.

[TrishaAnn92]

I believe you are being unreasonable, as a reviewer, as soon as I completed my first review back in November, I have had immediate access to books for review, not paid as those are somewhat rare, but always free books up for review.

[gali]

I agree with Trisha. Free books are available at certain point and posting isn't too much to ask for this privilege.

However I think it was better if it was stated that paid books are rare, in order to avoid misunderstandings or to not to arouse expectations.

[npandit]

Usually after your first few reviews, you get a bigger selection of books to review. But even if you've been reviewing for a while, sometimes there just aren't that many books available, and it doesn't really have anything to do with your number of posts. It sometimes goes in phases.

[AMP76]

I have found that I have immediate access to the free books, which is pretty nice. I am guessing that the paid reviews are few and far between because there are more reviewers than money. It would be nice if there were more paid reviews but a free book is its own payment

[Fran]

If Scott is to stand over the Official Review Process & if authors and members are to have confidence in it then I don't think it at all unreasonable that he would want to read some posts by a new member before including them in the review group, in fact if anything, I would favour a more stringent process.
Without doubt we have some excellent reviewers but I have also read posts purporting to be "reviews" which are barely literate, many that have more than a hint of "promoter hype" about them & even some where I doubt the poster had actually read the book their knowldge of it seems so sparse.
But that is, of course, just my opinion.

[TrishaAnn92]

I tend to agree with Fran on this one.

[gali]

I agree as well regarding posts and such.

[PashaRu]

I don't feel lied to at all. I just joined this website two weeks ago. I had to poke around a bit to find out how it is structured, but immediately found interesting threads on which to comment. After I made about 60 posts, I had a book to review. (I believe on the reviewers' page it states that a minimum of 50 posts are required before a book will be offered for review.) I read the book and wrote the review - it was a 75-page book of poetry, so it was a pretty quick read - and after submitting the review, I immediately had a choice of four more books to read & review. This is as I understood it. Since then, I have done a second review (after submitting it I had a choice of three books to review), and I am now reading my third book.

I think it is good that there is a vetting process for reviewers here, so not just any Tom, Dick, and Harry can register and start writing reviews. Keeps the process honest and of a certain quality.

[buttafly74]

Thanks for the replies. I do think that reading a good book is very much its own reward. But my point is that they should have made it more clear about the paid books being a rare occurrence, AND should have stated that it would take more than five posts to get started. I don't mind have to post on this forum, as there are many interesting topics, but it should have made more clear how it ALL works before choosing to join. I joined this site to make extra money for my family doing something I love doing, and if that's not what is going to happen, then I feel like spending all this time on here is not important, and that I have better things i could be doing.

[npandit]

Oh, I see what you mean now; yeah it definitely shouldn't be treated as a possible way to earn supplemental income. Like Gali said, I think this should be specified more clearly: that the main deal you're getting is free books (which is pretty cool, too), but definitely not to be viewed as a part time job.

[AMP76]

I think Fran is right.

[GypsySpirit]

I don't feel lied to but I agree that the the info page sounded somewhat more promising about the possible earnings (or maybe the highest ranking members are actually getting quite good money?)

On another note: I still think it's a good start to get into the whole how-to-do-reviews thing so I was wondering if I could just review any book I've already read and post it somewhere? Where would I post though? And could I get feedback on the review itself? Would they be counted as reviews or just as posts?

Thanks for your help, I've been browsing around for quite a bit but couldn't find anything but I'm sure I've read something somewhere about reviewing just any book.

[AMP76]

GypsySpirit, I an still pretty new and by no means an expert, but I have posted some quick reviews of previously read books in the forums under new topics, not to count for reviews but to increase post counts and share some great books I have read. Plus, it gave me a little bit of writing practice before doing actual reviews.

[Fran]

@GypsySpirit
As AMP76 says you can post your review/opinion on any book in the "Reviews and Discussions about Specific Books and Series" Forum. You will find there also a number of sub-forums and you should post in those if there is a sub-forum for the relevant genre.
However, do please use the Search option on the Home Page to ensure you don't duplicate existing topics, if there is a topic open for the relevant book you should add your opinion/review to that topic rather than creating a new topic.
It is then up to the general membership whether they want to discuss or debate the book or your opinion of it.