Hi Reviewers and Authors on the Indie View Reviewers list,
I am Adding some tools using the Indie Reviewers List and need your input
I am going to add some tools using The Indie Reviewers List to make it easier for Authors to make submissions and doesn’t bombard the Reviewers with email. Right now, it takes an author up to 40 hours to go through the list to find just those Reviewers that accept their genre of book and are currently accepting submissions. I should know, because I went through the process with my last book. The entire time I was thinking, it sure would be nice if there was a single form I could fill out (just once) and my book would be submitted to all the reviewers that it should go to. Right now, out of the hundreds of reviewers on the Indie Reviewers List, 61 of them (16%) only allow submissions by their own form. How time consuming it that? Author’s filling out basically the same form 60 times? Ouch. That’s time I could be writing, reviewing, or spending time with the family. And I have other books I want to submit for reviews and am just dreading doing that all over again.
So anyway, I made two online forms. One for Authors to submit books, and one for Reviewers to enter their genres in the database. (Please look them over and tell me what you think or if I missed anything) I poured over the Indie Review list for weeks to find every genre that was represented by Reviewers, and added them to the list. I also tried to include all the data elements that was included by Reviewers that only accepted submission by their own form.
After all the Reviewers have been added into the database, instead of the Reviewers getting slammed with thousands of email a week, each night I will run a program that sends out just one email that lists all the new submissions for that day.
The Author's book will also be added to an indexed catalog of Indie and Self-Published books, so Reviewers who prefer to search for books that were submitted, can do that instead of reading the email I send out.
The Reviewers will have the option of providing the Authors their email addresses, or they can remain behind the scenes and I will simply provide the Author a list of websites that their novel was submitted to. That way the Author can follow up with the Reviewers by visiting their websites.
The Reviewers will also be able to log in and make changes to settings in their account. They can set a flag that they are not accepting reviews and set a date when they will be again. Reviewers will also be able to set an automated message to Authors telling them information like they aren’t currently accepting submissions, or how to send a book to them, etc….
Once I have all the Reviewers in the database, it will be cool because I can then ask Authors to review books in genres where there aren’t many Reviewers. For example, if an Author submits a Cookbook and there are only 2 Reviewers that review Cookbooks, I can then send the Author an email asking if they want to join as a Cookbook Reviewer. Right now, there is no way to quantify how many Reviewers there are in any genre. In the future, I will be adding the capability to create and join groups.
Everything is in beta right now, but it would be cool if you wrote a book and would fill out the Author’s form (so I have test data) and you could fill out the reviewer’s form (again so I have some test data to work with while I code that complex back end.)
I am also going to allow the Authors to do an instant review that the Reviewers can use for their blogs and websites. If you have a list of review questions you like, please send them to me and I will add them.
Let me know if there is anything you think I should add to the Authors’ book submission form or the Reviewers’ sign up form. It’s my hope that this new process saves time for everyone and makes it a better experience for all. Any input is welcomed.
I emailed Simon at the IndieView to see if he had any suggestions.
Sample Form for Authors to Submit their books
https://spirit123.formstack.com/forms/submit_your_book
Sample Form for Reviewers to input their Genres and info
https://spirit123.formstack.com/forms/become_a_reviewer
Best,
Brett Arquette