# LibraryThing Giveaway: ZERO reviews for 38 free ebooks



## Natasha Holme (May 26, 2012)

I gave away 38 ebooks on LibraryThing, asking, in exchange, for reviews on Amazon UK and Amazon US within one month. Yesterday the month was up.

I have received one very brief four-star review on LibraryThing only, which is as good as useless, I think, and not what I asked for (Does anyone even use LibraryThing?).

I'm considering dropping a brief, friendly email, individually, to each of the 38 recipients of my FREE ebook to give them a nudge. After all, they've broken a deal, haven't they? 

Should I contact them? (Say YES)


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

No. Run another giveaway. They're really spotty.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

Nothing good will come from joggling a reviewer's elbow. Never contact them again unless they write you first. No matter how friendly or tactfully you word your request, many people will still find it pushy and unprofessional.


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## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

Wow, I'd be peeved too, but have to say - let it go. Try Goodreads, many groups have Read 2 Review threads. You just need to find a group that's your genre. Do you have a Facebook fan page? Ask on there.


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## Natasha Holme (May 26, 2012)

ThePete said:


> No matter friendly or tactfully you word your request, many people will still find it pushy and unprofessional.


Frustrating. This wasn't a request, it was a DEAL. If someone took something from your shop and you went after them for the money, that would not be pushy and unprofessional, would it?

... You're probably all right, though. I'm frustrated because I delayed some of my marketing tactics for a whole month after my book release, waiting for these reviews to come FLOODING in. ...

(I've had one review through Goodreads review requests, and 23 likes on my Facebook fan page! www.facebook.com/natashaholmediaries)


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## Annette_g (Nov 27, 2012)

Librarything can be very weird. I just recently hosted a giveaway there. I offered 100 copies of my ebook and I only got 10 entrants. I'm not holding out much hope for reviews there. There didn't seem to be a section to link directly to your own giveaway, only the main page so people have to scroll through to find yours.


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## Karl Fields (Jan 24, 2011)

Natasha Holme said:


> Frustrating. This wasn't a request, it was a DEAL.


Frustrating? For sure. But a deal? Not really. If I recall, when you post a Library Thing giveaway, there's a little box you can check stating that you're requesting reviews, but that's all it is. A request. No one took anything from you. You gave it to them. And yeah, as Pete says, it's probably not a good idea to email the winners. Way more potential for bad to come of that than good.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

> Frustrating. This wasn't a request, it was a DEAL. If someone took something from your shop and you went after them for the money, that would not be pushy and unprofessional, would it?


After giving away God knows how many thousands of copies myself, I truly understand your frustration. However, most people wouldn't consider this a deal. You _gave _something away from your shop, not the other way around. LT even mentions that there's no requirement to leave a review, it's just a request.

Anyway, this is all a numbers game. You'll get the reviews; it just takes a lot of freebies. Try running recurring, week-long giveaways for three months on LT. You can always directly approach reviewers of books similar to yours with a customized pitch. More time intensive, sure, but the best feedback rate by far.


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## Natasha Holme (May 26, 2012)

Karl, Pete, LibraryThing state clearly that this arrangement is for reviews, that if a recipient hasn't left a review on librarything.com at least, within the specified time, then they are penalised the next time they request a book. 

The penalty only kicks in though if there are more people requesting a book than the number of copies on offer, which doesn't often happen. So, people are getting away with not leaving reviews.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Natasha Holme said:


> Karl, Pete, LibraryThing state clearly that this arrangement is for reviews, that if a recipient hasn't left a review on librarything.com at least, within the specified time, then they are penalised the next time they request a book.
> 
> The penalty only kicks in though if there are more people requesting a book than the number of copies on offer, which doesn't often happy. So, people are getting away with not leaving reviews.


If that's true about the giveaways (not saying it isn't, only that I've never seen it, but never looked for it either), then the solution is simple: run another giveaway. Offer only a few copies. Not saying that the results will be any better. I gave away about 50 review copies on Netgalley and have had only three reviews through it so far (and that was months ago).

Getting reviews is like pulling teeth.


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## MQ (Jan 5, 2011)

A couple of years ago, LibraryThing was _the_ best place, IMO, to get reviews. On each giveaway the request for books was far more than the copies available. But now, not so much.

My advice, do another giveaway and forget about it. There are so many giveaways that your book may be down the line on readers To Read List.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

> Karl, Pete, LibraryThing state clearly that this arrangement is for reviews, that if a recipient hasn't left a review on librarything.com at least, within the specified time, then they are penalised the next time they request a book.


Oh, you were giving them out in the Early Reviewers program? Thought you meant the regular giveaways. Just so everyone else reading this is clear on the difference (LT's site mixes the rules for both programs on the same page):

_As with LTER, LTMG winners are encouraged but not required to review the books they receive. Unlike LTER, not reviewing a LTMG book will not count against your chances of getting books in the future--they can only help._
http://www.librarything.com/er/profile#rules


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

Oh, I did not know that you get penalize for not posting reviews back at LT. My account is full (unless I pony up) so I've been posting them on goodReads and Amazon. Hmmm... That explains why I haven't gotten the last couple of books I've won. Here I am thinking the authors were being unprofessional and not sending them out. I might have to pay for more shelf space. It's a lot of work to delete several hundred books (I imported my books from GoodReads).

Back to OP, I don't think it's a good idea to contact the reviewers. Also a month is not long enough. I think a lot of the reviews are going to come in small trickles over time when readers hopefully finally get to for book. I have friends who load up their kindles with hundreds of free reads. It they flip through their library looking for a catchy title or cover to find something interest. A few paragraphs in... Not interesting? Boom it's gone. I've seem them do this at lunch. Sometimes deleting well over a dozen books before getting to a book that fits their mood.


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

Is it just me, or is there an awful lot of concern about fairness lately? Too much concern.

38 copies isn't a large number. I recall hearing something like one review per 50 copies given away _with the explicit understanding that it is in exchange for a review_ is typical. You're not going to get good reviews if you hassle anybody, so I think the advice has been good. You really have to move on. Try, try again, or go for a different approach.

Sorry this one wasn't a winner. I've never heard tell of an easy path to early reviews.


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## Natasha Holme (May 26, 2012)

ThePete said:


> Oh, you were giving them out in the Early Reviewers program? Thought you meant the regular giveaways. Just so everyone else reading this is clear on the difference (LT's site mixes the rules for both programs on the same page):
> 
> _As with LTER, LTMG winners are encouraged but not required to review the books they receive. Unlike LTER, not reviewing a LTMG book will not count against your chances of getting books in the future--they can only help._
> http://www.librarything.com/er/profile#rules


Ah, Pete. Thank you! I was doing 'Member Giveaways' not 'Early Reviewers.' But if the rules for both were on the same page, then yes, my mistake, I mixed them up. I am instantly less upset now ;-)

Thank you everyone for your advice. I had totally been intending to email all the recipients individually, even if you all said NO. ... But now I won't.

You're all bricks. And thank you for letting me vent


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2014)

I'm sorry LibraryThing isn't working out for you.  I do Goodreads giveaways, and they've always brought attention to my books and resulted in reviews for me.  The problem with Goodreads is that whatever you give away has to be a print book.  I wish they'd change that policy.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

My last two giveaways at LT have resulted in one review. Very disappointing results. 

I'll try again, but I'm hoping my Goodreads Giveaway will have better results!

Rue


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## Just Browsing (Sep 26, 2012)

I did three LibraryThing giveaways--two of ebooks (50), one of paperbacks (25--their required minimum). For ebooks, I got one review from one of them, and two from the other, of which only one was posted outside LibraryThing. For the paperbacks, I did get more--maybe 10 or 15? But almost all of them posted on LibraryThing only. They were also my lowest reviews anywhere--Net Galley, Goodreads, post-free runs, all of those resulted in much higher rankings and happier readers.

Every book is different, of course, but I won't use LibraryThing again.


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## lostagain (Feb 17, 2014)

I used library things once.  I gave out 100 copies.  I followed up on the first email with a second to thank people for reading the book and included the links to where they could leave a review.  Nobody just left me a review after the first email and after the follow up I got 2.  It wasn't worth my time. 

Net Galley is a better way to get reviews.  But it's tough to get them when you are starting out and I empathize.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

I gave up on LibraryThing giveaways a long time ago. Totally not worth the effort.


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## Ronny K (Aug 2, 2011)

My first LTMG netted about 10% reviews (10 out of 100), which from what I hear is about as successful as you can hope for. My most recent one is still sitting at 0% (0 out of 100). But as stated, you're lucky to get any reviews, and the cost of energy is so low to do run the giveaway that every review is like a little gift.

Note that if you run a giveaway for the same book twice, you'll get some of the same people requesting it. I guess those are the people who just request every book every time, and obviously they're not going to be concerned with writing actual reviews. It's unfortunate that the giveaway has to be random, because if you look at user profiles, you can tell who's engaged and who isn't.


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## Jennifer Lewis (Dec 12, 2013)

I don't like to poke for reviews from someone who has the book. If they loved it then they might leave one eventually, but if they hated it I'd just as soon they not bother


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## Leif Sterling (Jul 19, 2014)

Bummer!

Sorry to hear about your experience at LibraryThing. I had been planning to use them, but now I think I will pass.

I can tell you my strategy for getting reviews that has worked quite well, in my opinion.

In my series, Episode 1 is permafree and ends on a cliffhanger. In my backmatter, after the link to the next book in the series, I ask them if they want Episode 2 for free (which, of course, they do because I left them on a cliffhanger). I tell them that I will give them Episode 2 (Which costs $2.99) if they will leave a review for Episode 1.

Then they just got to this URL on my site (go here for an example: Get Nano Contestant Episode 2 for free!), they fill out the form, paste in the permalink on Amazon to their review. Then I get an email in my inbox and reply back with the book as a .mobi file as an attachment.

So far, I am very happy with the results to date (9-24-14):

Published Episode 1 and Episode 2 on September 1, 2014
Episode 1 Permafree Give aways on Amazon: 2,647
Episode 2 Amazon Sales @ $2.99: 77

Mix of 4 & 5 star reviews in 23 days:
Episode 1 Amazon.com reviews: 17
Episode 1 Amazon.co.uk reviews: 5
Episode 1 Amazon.ca reviews: 1

I cannot take credit for this idea though. It completely belongs to Garrett Robinson. He told me about it and then I implemented it and it has been going like gangbusters! Here is his page, where he does the same thing: Get Nightblade Episode 2 Free!

Good Luck!
Hope it helps!

_*~Leif Sterling~*_


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## Maddie_K (Sep 13, 2014)

Argh. I'm running a LibraryThing giveaway right now. I had high hopes, now I guess I'll be happy with one or two reviews.

I didn't realize reviews were so hard to get! I wish all the people telling me in person how much they liked the book would post already. I have a hard time understanding, as I tend to leave reviews on EVERYTHING I read. Oh well.


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## J. Tanner (Aug 22, 2011)

Leif Sterling said:


> I cannot take credit for this idea though. It completely belongs to Garrett Robinson. He told me about it and then I implemented it and it has been going like gangbusters! Here is his page, where he does the same thing: Get Nightblade Episode 2 Free!


Note that Garrett recently appeared on the Self-Publishing Podcast and brought this up. He was quickly informed that it was, as implemented, a violation of Amazon's review policy and US consumer protection law.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

I would not fish deeper.

Either they didn't read the book yet (and won't like the guilt they feel when you remind them) or they did read and didn't like it.


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

FlowersFang said:


> I didn't realize reviews were so hard to get! I wish all the people telling me in person how much they liked the book would post already. I have a hard time understanding, as I tend to leave reviews on EVERYTHING I read. Oh well.


I can't even get any friend or family to post a review for me even those I know a couple (yes, only two) of them have bought my book and liked it. Getting a review is harder than finding quarters on the street.


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

artan said:


> I can't even get any friend or family to post a review for me even those I know a couple (yes, only two) of them have bought my book and liked it. Getting a review is like winning harder than finding quarters on the street.


Ha! I told my friends and family early on (before I was even traditionally published) that they're not allowed to review my books.


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

OP what a disappointment  but now... I can now totally cross Library Thing off my list


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## Ronny K (Aug 2, 2011)

I'm not sure why some would react to this report by deciding that they won't use LT.

The site was not made for book reviewing and no one had ever claimed that it's a review goldmine. It just happens to have a book giveaway service through which an author can request reviews, and if you look around at results, it seems like 5-10% of giveaway recipients actually do review the book.

If that's not worth 30-60 minutes of your time, then shame on you! Every review is worth a lot more than that, imo, especially in the early going.


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

Ooh, shame on me, lol.

I don't have limitless amounts of time, so I'm careful with how I spend it. When I first started publishing, I experimented with many different things. It's tempting to jump at every possible opportunity. But I've learned I prefer focusing on my writing. Marketing, going after reviews isn't my top priority for the moment.  And... based on the feedback in this thread, spending 30-60 minutes to set up a Library Thing giveaway doesn't sound appealing to me.

Does that mean I don't value every review I get? Of course not. I cherish them all.


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## Maddie_K (Sep 13, 2014)

SevenDays said:


> Ha! I told my friends and family early on (before I was even traditionally published) that they're not allowed to review my books.


This isn't even friends and family! I had two readers email me about how much they liked the book. Crazy they went to the trouble to go to my blog and email me comments, but they don't feel comfortable leaving a review on amazon. LOL, ok.


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

I also gave away several dozen books through Librarything and specifically noted in the description and in the email in which I sent the download codes that I would appreciate the reviews by the time of my free promotion on select. Two days before the free run, no reviews, so I sent a nudge email with the promise that it would be the last time they heard from me. The book still has zero reviews.

You did better than me. I didn't even get a review on Libraything.


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

I gave away 50 copies of my novella on LibraryThing, to try it out. I've gotten 2 reviews there, and four or five others have added the book to their shelves. I got three mailing list sign-ups, too. I sent the books out on August 12th and 13th this year. 

I sent each winner a personalized email (just their name) with both .mobi and .epub files attached, which took me an hour and a half or so because I had to figure out how to use templates in my email program. I felt that the results were okay, and I'll probably try it again with my new book.

It's a little discouraging that they tend to only post on librarything, but any exposure I can get is good, at this point. and it only costs time.


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

J. Tanner said:


> Note that Garrett recently appeared on the Self-Publishing Podcast and brought this up. He was quickly informed that it was, as implemented, a violation of Amazon's review policy and US consumer protection law.


The only difference between this technique and LibraryThing is that the reader reviews first, then receives compensation second, instead of compensation first and review second. Is that enough to make it acceptable/legal?

My guess is that LibraryThing passes muster only because it seems patently obvious that you can _request_ reviews from readers, and certainly you can give your work away in conjunction with that, but it becomes a _quid pro quo_ as soon as you _require_ a review in exchange for the ebook.

I suppose if you did get 100% reviews from one of these services, it'd undercut that whole reasoning and make it seem a lot more like wrongdoing.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I've run maybe a dozen Library Thing giveaways and, although the response isn't what it used to be, I still find them worthwhile for some books. I tell people to go in knowing their return rate will be 10 % at best, that it may be weeks or months before winners post their reviews, and that there's a possibility the reviews won't be positive. Not everyone will find those results worth anywhere from an hour to a full afternoon setting up the giveaway and emailing copies to winners. So it's best to know the odds up front and judge whether you're okay with it. Me, I set up the giveaway (takes me five minutes at this point), don't count heavily on the results, and forget it for a month, until it's time to send copies to the winners. The delivery process can be streamlined to an hour, but my process takes an afternoon. Bottom line, it's far from ideal (an ARC list is ideal), but compared to the rate of unsolicited reviews or the time spent submitting to individual book bloggers, it's a (faint) improvement. 

Netgalley and Goodreads giveaways I haven't tried yet, simply because between the ARC list, Library Thing, and organic reviews, I haven't needed to. But I may experiment there too at some point and see if they have better returns for effort.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Jennifer Lewis said:


> I don't like to poke for reviews from someone who has the book. If they loved it then they might leave one eventually, but if they hated it I'd just as soon they not bother


This is exactly how I've always felt about reviews. The idea that even bad reviews can be a positive thing is, to me, counter-intuitive.


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## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

I wish I hadn't gotten any reviews after my last giveaway. Then again, it might be useful to have a couple of low-star reviews that praise the book and only say it wasn't their genre/what they expected, but that won't help me get qualified for ads.   I promised myself I won't do LibraryThing giveaways again.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

> Not everyone will find those results worth anywhere from an hour to a full afternoon setting up the giveaway and emailing copies to winners.


One way to cut down the time investment and get a higher response rate is to upload a .mobi and Epub copy to your own website. Then you just go down the giveaway list, copy/paste a form direct message response thanking people and telling them the link (no sign in/up, just a simple dl link) to download it themselves. Whole list processed in 10-15 minutes. No back and forth asking for their email address and what have you. In my experience, you get a higher engagement rate (15-20%) this way. I'm assuming because they're actively doing something rather than just receiving an email that's usually tossed in their junk folder and forgotten.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

I've only done one giveaway on LibraryThing so far, and I was discouraged by the results. Having read this thread, I guess the results weren't that bad after all, I just didn't have realistic expectations going in. I only had 16 people request a free copy (that was disappointing in itself), and of those who received a free copy only one reviewed it, so percentage-wise that's about right or maybe a little low compared to realistic expectations. However, the review was generally positive and the reviewer posted it on Amazon, LibraryThing, and Goodreads, so review/exposure-wise, it worked out well for only having distributed that handful of copies.

I'll probably try it again with the same book in the near future, maybe in conjunction with the release of the sequel.

As for bad reviews being good, I steer clear of books that have a lot of 5-star ratings and nothing negative. No book is that good, so that smacks of FFF reviews (friends, family, faked). I don't _like_ the one-star reviews on my books, but I can appreciate the authenticity of having some balance to the overall ratings. However, I'd hate to have a 1-star review that was triggered from being too pushy about reviews, so I definitely believe in distributing the free copies and then leaving the recipients alone.


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

Crenel said:


> As for bad reviews being good, I steer clear of books that have a lot of 5-star ratings and nothing negative. No book is that good, so that smacks of FFF reviews (friends, family, faked). I don't _like_ the one-star reviews on my books, but I can appreciate the authenticity of having some balance to the overall ratings.


Me too. I bought one book a year or two ago on the basis of its 100+ 5* reviews and a few 4*s, and it was just dreadful. Since then I'll look at an all-5-stars set of reviews with a very critical eye. No book is perfect.


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

ThePete said:


> One way to cut down the time investment and get a higher response rate is to upload a .mobi and Epub copy to your own website. Then you just go down the giveaway list, copy/paste a form direct message response thanking people and telling them the link (no sign in/up, just a simple dl link) to download it themselves. Whole list processed in 10-15 minutes. No back and forth asking for their email address and what have you. In my experience, you get a higher engagement rate (15-20%) this way. I'm assuming because they're actively doing something rather than just receiving an email that's usually tossed in their junk folder and forgotten.


Okay, now this sounds more appealing to me I could do this through my newsletter too? Or any other kind of giveaway? Is there anyway to assure some kind of security?

Which makes me think... what if you just offered permafrees free on your website? Has anyone ever done that?!? Hmmm... does that call for a new thread

Started one here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,195601.0.html


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

The giveaways I did at LT never yielded very good results, if any at all. Totally not worth the effort. I wouldn't do another one.


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