Private Blurb?

[JanieReads]

I am new to the private review team! I have written three reviews and I have questions about them. It says in the rules not to post about the private review team but I have tried several times to "contact" someone and it hasn't come to anything.

One review was published, yay! Then my other one said "not published but counted as complete" for about a week. And then it changed to "published". Is this usual? I'm wondering what happened there.

My main question is about my third review. I submitted it and it has said "pending" for a week and 3 days. I read on the rules and guidelines that it may not be sent to the reviewers if it requires a private blurb. I have no idea what that is or where to do it. Is that potentially the reason it hasn't been reviewed yet? Is there a way to tell if a review will require a private blurb?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks so much

[bookowlie]

Hi JanieReads and welcome to the forums! I will try my best to answer your questions -

1) The "not published but counted as complete" that changed to "published" status - When a book is submitted for review, the authors have the option to automatically have the review "not published," either at all or if the rating is lower than a specific number. Sometimes they just want private feedback. In the case of your review, it sounds like the author chose an automatic option so your review immediately showed that "not published" status. Once the author received and read the review, he/she probably decided to have it published. For example, maybe he/she initially had an automatic option to not have the review published if the rating was less than 4 stars. Maybe your review was very complimentary (even with a lower rating), so he/she decided to allow it to be published.

2) The pending review - Is this a paid review? All paid reviews require an ending blurb that gets sent to the author for approval. It's basically to show proof that you read the book. There are instructions on the Review Team page about how to write the ending blurb. For paid reviews, the author's approval of the ending blurb is the first step in the review approval process. If the author doesn't respond within a week, then you would click on the link for that review's blurb on your Review History page and request that Scott close/approve the blurb.

If the review is a paid review, after you submit the review, go back to the link where you submitted the review. You will check the appropriate box for the rating and write the ending blurb in the box provided below the rating choices. If this was a paid review and you didn't do this already, write an ending blurb (based on the guidelines) and do it as soon as possible. If you have further questions, let me know.

[JanieReads]

Hi JanieReads and welcome to the forums! I will try my best to answer your questions -

1) The "not published but counted as complete" that changed to "published" status - When a book is submitted for review, the authors have the option to automatically have the review "not published," either at all or if the rating is lower than a specific number. Sometimes they just want private feedback. In the case of your review, it sounds like the author chose an automatic option so your review immediately showed that "not published" status. Once the author received and read the review, he/she probably decided to have it published. For example, maybe he/she initially had an automatic option to not have the review published if the rating was less than 4 stars. Maybe your review was very complimentary (even with a lower rating), so he/she decided to allow it to be published.

2) The pending review - Is this a paid review? All paid reviews require an ending blurb that gets sent to the author for approval. It's basically to show proof that you read the book. There are instructions on the Review Team page about how to write the ending blurb. For paid reviews, the author's approval of the ending blurb is the first step in the review approval process. If the author doesn't respond within a week, then you would click on the link for that review's blurb on your Review History page and request that Scott close/approve the blurb.

If the review is a paid review, after you submit the review, go back to the link where you submitted the review. You will check the appropriate box for the rating and write the ending blurb in the box provided below the rating choices. If this was a paid review and you didn't do this already, write an ending blurb (based on the guidelines) and do it as soon as possible. If you have further questions, let me know.

It was a "free book" review, not paid! I didn't have an option for a blurb when I submitted my final rating. Is it usual for the reviews to take longer than a week to get approved if I'm not missing anything? Thank you so much for helping!

[gali]

Hi JanieReads and welcome to the forums! I will try my best to answer your questions -

1) The "not published but counted as complete" that changed to "published" status - When a book is submitted for review, the authors have the option to automatically have the review "not published," either at all or if the rating is lower than a specific number. Sometimes they just want private feedback. In the case of your review, it sounds like the author chose an automatic option so your review immediately showed that "not published" status. Once the author received and read the review, he/she probably decided to have it published. For example, maybe he/she initially had an automatic option to not have the review published if the rating was less than 4 stars. Maybe your review was very complimentary (even with a lower rating), so he/she decided to allow it to be published.

2) The pending review - Is this a paid review? All paid reviews require an ending blurb that gets sent to the author for approval. It's basically to show proof that you read the book. There are instructions on the Review Team page about how to write the ending blurb. For paid reviews, the author's approval of the ending blurb is the first step in the review approval process. If the author doesn't respond within a week, then you would click on the link for that review's blurb on your Review History page and request that Scott close/approve the blurb.

If the review is a paid review, after you submit the review, go back to the link where you submitted the review. You will check the appropriate box for the rating and write the ending blurb in the box provided below the rating choices. If this was a paid review and you didn't do this already, write an ending blurb (based on the guidelines) and do it as soon as possible. If you have further questions, let me know.

It was a "free book" review, not paid! I didn't have an option for a blurb when I submitted my final rating. Is it usual for the reviews to take longer than a week to get approved if I'm not missing anything? Thank you so much for helping!

It takes around a week or so. Try to recheck your score. If the review is still pending, you should privately contact Scott via the Contact page. Thank you.

[topdan30]

My paid review has been showing "payment approved but pending" for 2 week plus now. What can be wrong? Or does it take longer to be paid? i need answers please.

[bookowlie]

My paid review has been showing "payment approved but pending" for 2 week plus now. What can be wrong? Or does it take longer to be paid? i need answers please.

That's a very long time for the "payment approved but pending" status. If you haven't been paid within approximately one week of seeing the payment approved status, you should contact Scott through the Contact form.

[topdan30]

My paid review has been showing "payment approved but pending" for 2 week plus now. What can be wrong? Or does it take longer to be paid? i need answers please.

That's a very long time for the "payment approved but pending" status. If you haven't been paid within approximately one week of seeing the payment approved status, you should contact Scott through the Contact form.

I just made you of the contact now. Some of my paid review is even up to a month now and still at "payment approved but pending"

[bookowlie]

That's odd. Do you have your Paypal account listed under your preferences? That's how the money is sent so you need to make sure you have that filled out.