If you are an author seeking reviewers and the bellow snip-it is in your e-mail, maybe you shouldn’t be looking for reviewers.
And by maybe, I mean you shouldn’t.
I can understand rewarding your loyal followers, but making this a requirement in order to receive an ARC is just bad. Many times over bad. Bad enough that I am very tempted to list this Author’s name. I won’t, just tempted.
If you are going to recruit a team and this is your requirement, don’t send it out to just anyone. Do your research. Maybe then those people will not be insulted.
But the point of a review is to REVIEW the book, good or bad. If you are not confident in your novel to do so, then don’t ask people to review your books. That is the first thing that I address when I agree to review a book when an author sends me an e-mail.
I am not promising a good review, or even that I will finish the book if it is bad enough. I make that clear and, if the author is not okay with that, I don’t accept the book. It is really that simple.
If you are a long time reader, you are very aware of how often I give poor or “meh” reviews. By that I mean that, for a specified reason, I did not think the book was good or worth the time it took to read it.
That is the point of this site and my reviews, is to be honest and find books, try to find books, that are ACTUALLY GOOD. So many people are given a free book for a good review, and that just isn’t how it works.
If I am ever able to become a published author, I want the bad with the good. That is how we grow. And not everyone will like what you right. Look at Shakespeare: he is an amazing writer, yet people still don’t like to read his work. Ask some high schoolers.
The other part of this site is to ACTUALLY TELL PEOPLE WHEN A BOOK IS BAD. If you couldn’t figure that out by this entire post.
