Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A Quick Introduction and Explanation of Librarything

So since a lot of the books I've been reviewing lately came from Librarything, I thought I would do a quick post on it.

For those who don't know, Librarything is a book review website. Anyone can sign up (and yes it's free) and anyone can post reviews. Now, here's the best part. Every month they have a batch of books (hundreds of titles) up for grabs (in what they call the Early Reviewers section). All you do is go to the page and then you can request any books you're interested in. There is no limit to how many you can request, but be aware that you may have to review a lot of books if you win them (this is mostly true for the member give ways- more on that in a second). All they ask in return is that you review the book. You have 2 months to do so after you've received it. Reviewing the books will give you more chances of winning books in the next batch, but the content of your review will not. In other words, honest reviews. As long as you follow their guidelines -such as, no bad language, no one word reviews, etc- it won't matter to them if your review is positive, negative or neutral. You don't get paid for your reviews, you just get the satisfaction of a free book and (hopefully) a good read. What more can you ask for really.

Now onto the member giveaway section. It works in much the same way, except this time those giving away the books are members. A lot of the time it will be authors wanting to share their newest books or sometimes it will just be members who want to get rid of books or just want to give back. These books will each have their own closing date, so you can check back regularly for new giveaways. From personal experience I have found that I win more from the member giveaways than from the early reviewers. This is probably just because the member giveaways are more frequent and don't generally last as long.

The format of the books you can win will be either; physical; e-book or audiobook (though these are few). Most of the early reviewers section consists of physical books, but I have yet to win one. That doesn't stop me from requesting them, but I also make sure I put in requests for e-book copies too. Sometimes a book you want in physical form will also be available in e-book form, so you have two chances at winning a copy. Member giveaways tend to vary depending, but I would say they lean more towards e-books. However, for all those out there who are not a fan of e-book (I definitely prefer the physical thing) you have much more chance of winning them than the physical books for one simple reason- numbers. Yes, e-books are generally cheaper and there are no shipping costs involved in sending them out, so publishers/authors can giveaway more copies of that book than those giving away physical copies. So, e-books win that argument I'm afraid.

Anyway, if you're interesting in the website the link is www.librarything.com. But remember, this isn't just a site for free books, you do HAVE to review them.

Librarything is also a great community for book lovers. It is a fantastic way to find out about great books, to meet like-minded people and to meet authors as well. If you have any other queries just ask me and I'll do my best to answer any and all questions. And just for the record, I am not affiliated with Librarything (just obsessed), this is not a sponsored message, all opinions are 100% my own.

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