Hello everyone. Today is a Guest Post: Rosie’s Book Review Team.
At the beginning of the month, I introduced you all to Rosie @ Rosie Amber in my Book Bloggers Unveiled post. In that interview, Rosie told me that she also runs a book review team. A collection of book bloggers who review a wide range of stories.
I had to know more!
I’ve invited Rosie back today to The BG Blog to tell us more. This guest post will reveal how her team of book blogging reviewers came about. Why she feels RBRT is a great resource for self-publishing authors and smaller independent publishers.
It’s over to you, Rosie.
Rosie’s Book Review Team
I started my book blog ten years ago. For the last eight years, I’ve successfully run a review team alongside my own reading list.
During that time, we have done our best to spread the word about novels, novellas, short stories and non-fiction from self-published authors and independent publishers – to showcase talent found outside the mainstream publishing world.
The team idea came about because I was getting many submissions for books in genres that I was less keen to read.
Also, I wanted to encourage more readers to write reviews. I created a book review challenge project, which was a great success; I then asked several of those who had taken part if they would like to join a team. Happily, most of them said yes!
Each month we are inundated with review requests from authors and publishers alike. Every book that I accept is passed on to my team of twenty readers, which is made up of an international mix of book bloggers, writers, editors, creative writing tutors and the reading public. Most books gain just one or two reviews, but once in a while a gem comes along that piques the interest of several team members and receives highly favourable reviews across the board.
We mainly use e-books which can be sent as .mobi or e-pub file to us. This involves little or no cost to the author. Once a month or so, I send a list of accepted submissions to the team, and they pick which one(s) they would like to read. I ask that they review the book within 4-6 weeks, but I don’t give deadlines.
The reviewer will post the review on at least two sites; Goodreads and Amazon are where most authors like to see a review, but some also post to other sites like BookBub. Most of the team have their own book blog (though this is not a requirement) where they post any team review; they will also send me a copy to post on my blog at a later date, with full credit to the reviewer.
From the author’s point of view, the benefits of submitting to my review team are many.
Often, a book will be chosen by more than one reviewer, which saves them having to apply to multiple book blogs. Once read, an author will have the review of their book posted on up to six sites.
As for the team, I am delighted to say that we all get on so well, and some of us have met up a few times in real life. I never anticipated that running my book blog would make me some great new friends – this was an unexpected bonus!
The team is constantly evolving; over the years members have come and gone; sometimes life gets in the way and a person may not have the time or headspace to review for a while, but obviously, I understand this and there is never any pressure. I am lucky to have a core of supportive, reliable reviewers who have read for me month in, month out, over the years.
To date, the team have reviewed over 2000 books in a wide range of genres.
If you’d like to join our team you can find out more about it here.
Or, if you would like to submit a book for review, then here is the page that you need.
Find team review posts on Twitter using #RBRT (Rosie’s Book Review Team)
Thank you, Rosie, for giving us an insight into your fabulous team of book reviewers.
Before you go, if you missed it, why not read Rosie’s Book Bloggers Unveiled interview now. Find out more about her life on and off the blog.
