(LAST UPDATED 11/27/16)
At this point in time, we are able to accept ebooks of any format and physical copies.
*If you send us a physical copy we may use it in a giveaway, which is a great way for authors and bloggers to reach a bigger audience.*
**CommonBookSense is on a bit of a break at the moment. We've begun new jobs and full-time school, so we really haven't had time to manage CommonBookSense like we used to....because it's definitely a full time job. We will get back into things as soon as we can. Please feel free to still send in your requests. We'll get to them as soon as we can. We are so sorry.**
*If you send us a physical copy we may use it in a giveaway, which is a great way for authors and bloggers to reach a bigger audience.*
**CommonBookSense is on a bit of a break at the moment. We've begun new jobs and full-time school, so we really haven't had time to manage CommonBookSense like we used to....because it's definitely a full time job. We will get back into things as soon as we can. Please feel free to still send in your requests. We'll get to them as soon as we can. We are so sorry.**
If you’re an author that we’ve already reviewed here on CommonBookSense, please shoot us an email! We’d love to add another piece of you to our blog (like an interview, guest post, or spotlight). Speaking of interviews, my team and I wish to begin featuring interviews on the blog, if you’re interested in an interview, or even a giveaway, please state that in your email. We won’t ask, so it’s up to you to say whether or not you’d like to participate in one!
A few things you should know before sending us a Review Request:
❤ CommonBookSense is run by two people, with three to four additional part-time reviewers, but that doesn’t always mean we can get to reading/reviewing your book as soon as we would all like. We each have rather long to-read lists and, as of right now, only Shell and I are reading requested books full time. Our guest reviewers only read them when they feel like reading. It may take us a bit to get to your book, but we’ll get to it.
❤ We’ll state whether or not we were given a copy of your book. It looks something like
“WE WERE GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THE
FOLLOWING HONEST REVIEW”
It usually comes right after the blurb.
❤ We are always COMPLETELY honest about our thoughts on a book. It’s sometimes not the prettiest, nor the kindest thing in the world, but it’s honest. In the end, that’s what you asked for. Not all books are for everyone, and you can’t change someone’s opinion. If we didn’t like it, we didn’t like it. I’m sorry.
❤ As stated above, there are several members on our team, so, if you send in a review request anyone could read that book. Anyone on our team now, and anyone in the future. We assign books to each person, and there are only a few books that will be read by certain people. For example, Shell will read erotica because she’s the only one who can legally review it (being over 18).
❤ Each person on our team has different genres that they enjoy reading. Between the lot of us, we cover just about every genre...and we’re open to trying ones unfamiliar to us.
❤ If, for whatever reason (there are a few), we don’t finish your entire book, a review will still be posted. We will explain why we didn’t finish it.
❤ We post our reviews on several sites. We do not post the whole review, it’s more like a small snippet and the link to the post. As of March 18th, we post our reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, our Twitter, Facebook account, Pinterest and occasionally Instagram. If you have any specific sites you would like your review posted, please state that in your email. We’re always looking for new ways to connect with our readers and get our reviews out there, so any suggestions are welcome and much appreciated. If you would like your review posted on Smashwords, you have to provide us with a coupon code to be able to post it.
❤ If we don’t accept your review request and you write another book, please feel free to email us a review request for the other book.
❤ Hassling us won’t make the process any faster…
❤ We’re not mind readers! If you don’t agree with something here, please say so. We’ll try our best to meet your requirements, but know that we have our own way of doing things, so it may not always be possible.
❤❤ If you are requesting a review for SEVERAL books, you MUST send in SEPARATE review requests, in SEPARATE emails! If you are sending in a request for more than a single book, it has to be in totally separate emails. We should see your name several times in our inbox. Many people have been hitting reply and then writing the new request..we automatically assume you accidentally sent the same email twice. Someone recently replied to our acceptance email with their mobi copy and said “I would also like you to read my other book ‘x’, so I’ve also attached it.” That annoys us; we accepted the book we accepted, if you’d like us to read more than one of your book, you must send in a request for each book. ❤❤
The subject line of your email should read something like "Review Request: *Book Title*" It helps us tell the reviews apart.
What your email should contain:
❤ The title of the book
❤ The name of the author
❤ The genres in which you consider your book
❤ The Blurb/Synopsis*
❤ All of the links to your social media accounts
❤ Links to where the book is currently being sold (or will be sold)
❤ Approximate release date
If your email doesn’t contain all/any of the required things, your review will be bumped down the list. For example, if you were the 10th person to send in a review request, but you included little to no information about your book, you would go behind all of the people who DID include everything, which could bump you down below ten or twenty additional book requests.
*We get our blurbs from Goodreads, so if you want a certain synopsis/blurb posted on the review, state that in your email.
*We get our blurbs from Goodreads, so if you want a certain synopsis/blurb posted on the review, state that in your email.
Setting up the review takes just as long, if not longer, than the actual reading. You help us out SO much by sending us the links to everything. It makes the process a million times faster.
You don't have to send us a copy of your book before we give you our answer. In fact, it makes us a bit uncomfortable when you do, even though we don't download it unless we give you a definite yes.
If we rejected your book:
If we reject your book, I can assure you that it is with a heavy heart and not personal in any way. We will reject a book if we are not sure we would enjoy reading it...It would be entirely unfair of us to accept a book review request for a book we won't enjoy. To people who would enjoy that type of book, it might be amazing. An book that's amazing by it's own standards doesn't deserve a bad review.
Another reason we might reject your request, although it hasn't happened thus far, is because you offer little to no information about your book. We receive about twenty review requests a week; it makes it much easier for us if we don’t have to hunt down information or click links to the blurb. It’s much easier to turn down a book that you know nothing about...I'm sorry, but it's true.
Turning down requests has been a terribly hard thing for me to do (I usually put it off until my to-email list is impossibly long). Even if your book isn't accepted it remains in our lists! Every single book review request we have ever gotten is listed in the program we use. I make sure that our part time reviewer's first task is to look through the people we've had to turn down. We don't forget about you!
~~
Thank you so much for even considering asking us for a review! We are officially very behind on everything CommonBookSense. With the new school year/jobs, we've both been very busy. We'll try to get to your email ASAP, but it may end up sitting in our inbox for a month or more. We're very sorry. You can email your review requests to commonbooksense@gmail.com.
Happy reading!
~ Kailei & Shell
**By sending us an email you're giving us permission to add you to our email list. You'll receive emails if we are looking for authors to interview/participate in a giveaway.
**By sending us an email you're giving us permission to add you to our email list. You'll receive emails if we are looking for authors to interview/participate in a giveaway.
****All reviews sent in after June 13, 2016 must follow these requirements. Any who don't will be bumped down the list**
