Do we need a thread for Reviewers Seeking Books?

I've been trying to work through the backlog of messages from when I was ill, politely helping people who have posted in the wrong place and so forth, and I noticed a few that were reviewers requesting free books, or people following up on such requests.

That seems to be the sort of thing that is most usefully gathered into one official dedicated thread like promotional posts are.

What do you all think?

I noticed a few that were reviewers requesting free books, or people following up on such requests.

I would refer those people to the ER and MG programs.

Agreed that MG is a better instrument for this sort of thing than a Talk thread. I've never used MG, though. Maybe a thread about author experiences with MG and how to use it?

I suspect this group is quite low traffic in terms of matching potential reviewers with authors. But "Hobnob with Authors" could include connecting authors and readers in that way. Since we have threads for authors/books, why not a thread for readers to say what they like and invite authors to contact them?

>3 paradoxosalpha: I've put books up on MG a few times and got little interest. I'd be interested in learning others' experiences, though I hope it wouldn't turn into a whinefest.

>2 lilithcat:
I can add something like that to the Read Before Posting thread, I guess.

>3 paradoxosalpha:
From the reviewers viewpoint, Er and MG are probably more useful.

But for the authors, connecting with a reviewer who posts here looking for books might well work out better than MG. (Which, as is pointed out in >4 MHThaung: tends not to be as useful as it looks like it should be.)

I also don't want to give the impression that reviewers aren't welcome here.

...
I have been trying to figure out what exactly to write, and everything I've tried just looks better to me when I include a link to a dedicated thread.

If I just say that ER and MG are a great place to go to get books, it seems to imply that reviewers have no business trying to connect directly to authors here, and I can't really see any reason to ban such an activity, when blatantly promotional posts from authors aren't even banned.

But if I say yes, it's okay to do that here, then it seems better to provide a specific place for it to happen instead of leaving it randomly scattered about as it is now.

A place for authors to trade reviews one-for-one with other authors would likely be a great addition to the group. What do you think?

>6 SDaisy: A place for authors to trade reviews one-for-one with other authors would likely be a great addition to the group. What do you think?

Are you thinking of here or more widely? I gather that eg Amazon tends to crack down on review exchange arrangements (one of several reasons I never review anything there).

>7 MHThaung: I meant authors within this group.

>8 SDaisy: I meant authors within this group.

Here seems like a reasonable place to start, in terms of finding people to swap with. I was wondering more about where the reviews would be posted.

>9 MHThaung: I guess where ever each author felt like posting them. Most likely LibraryThing, would be my guess, but that would be up to each author.

So a Reviewers Looking For Books thread, could also be used by Authors looking for reviews by offering to do review swaps with fellow authors? The thread would probably get used more if it had that dual purpose.

I think I'm starting to actually like this idea. Does anyone NOT like this idea?

>11 LShelby: I'm all for it!

Done!

I hope it proves useful.

But if not, I can just take the link off the Read Before Posting post, and it can subsume into the depths of Talk and be lost for all time. :)

>5 LShelby: Hi Shelby~ I am new here and to the industry. Would you please tell me what ER and MG is/are? Thank you in advance.

Heather

>14 Dreamer2022:

ER is the Early Reviewer program. MG is Member Giveaway, but that has now been incorporated into the ER program.

You can find out more here: https://www.librarything.com/ner/howitworksofferer