So what is “Ebook Review Central“? I’m so glad you asked.
Every Monday, Ebook Review Central will publish a list of all the ebooks published by a particular publisher the previous month, with links to all the published reviews. Today’s first issue contains all the Carina Press titles for September 2011, along with links to all the reviews as of Sunday, 10/23/11.
In the upcoming weeks I will do the same thing for Dreamspinner Press and Samhain Publishing. I would be interested in hearing from you, the readers, your suggestions for which publisher or publishers to include for week 4. After the 4th week, I’ll cycle around to Carina’s October titles, and back through Dreamspinner and Samhain and “the player to be named later” again.
Why am I doing this? People decide what books to buy based on browsing at a bookstore or recommendations. Ebook-only books can’t be browsed in a bookstore, so we all blog to create more recommendations when we like a book. But each of us blogs about the books we like, and it’s fantastic.
But, when a reader is undecided, where do they go? Amazon or Goodreads, and not all of us post our reviews there. Sometimes none of us. And that debate is for another post someday. Yet an ebook may have tons of reviews.
Also, I’m a librarian by training. Librarians need a place where they can find reviews of ebooks, just like they do print books. Their budgets are tight. They want to add ebooks from ebook-only publishers, but if they can only buy 3 or 5 Carina Press titles this month and 3 or 5 Dreamspinner titles this month, there is no place to go to find which ones were the best. Ebook Review Central will be that place.
A question that will be asked, because I had to ask myself when I created this, is why the one month delay? Why am I only publishing the September titles now, when it’s already mid-October?
It takes about a month for the blogosphere to generate reviews for all the titles. I wanted to put up last week’s titles this week, but when I started my research, half the titles weren’t reviewed yet. When I looked at last month’s titles, almost everything had a review someplace. That won’t always be 100% true, but at least it turns out to be a reasonable way to bet.
One other note: Amazon and Goodreads will not be listed as review sources unless that was the only thing I could find.
If you have suggestions, let me know. If you find this useful, definitely let me know. I will update published lists, so if later reviews are published, or if you have a review that should be listed but I missed (Google is good, but it is not perfect), send email to marlene@readingreality.net.
Don’t forget Ellora’s Cave!
(Said the Ellora’s Cave author.) 😀
Well, I have to shout out for Lyrical Press Inc since my book will be coming out with them. 🙂
One thing to be aware of is that there is a lag time between a book being available for review and the date that review posts. I review for Dark Divas and Jessewave (crossposted to my own site and to Goodreads), and can tell you that there can be 2-4 weeks until posting, and that it’s not necessarily the newest books out that get reviewed.
You might want to consider Amber Allure as your fourth publisher in the rotation: they tend to some high quality reads.
You are so, so right! That’s why I list the September books in October (and November) and I’ll be listing the October books in November and early December. And I will go back and update the lists.
And thanks for the suggestion about Amber Allure! I’ve got a list of publishers to look at early this week. I may pick a couple to make a list of 20ish books.
p.s. I love your reviews.
Thank you!
I’d like to suggest L&L Dreamspell for your consideration, as well. I picked them as my publisher because I fell for their attention to detail. The books are well edited AND well designed. I’ve received great reviews from my books published with them and have migrated my back list to them as well.
thanks for doing such an awesome service for readers, btw! Great idea!