Book Review Club discussion

Hi,

have you ever thought of a pool for short stories? (~10,000 words or less) Quick half an hour, 1 hour reads?

If you have, what happened to that idea? If you haven't... why not, and what would it take to make one? :)))

Hi Attila

a similar thing has come up before around children's stories (also frequently short reads). I think the problem would be having enough volume of books in the pool and also that it's already quite a task moderating the main review pool.
But I also understand for authors of short stories wading through someone's epic ;-) just to get your book into the pool isn't ideal.
It would be interesting to hear who would be interested in a short stories review pool or if someone has an idea to keep them in the main pool but make it fairer somehow. (and still easy to moderate)

Sara

I'm a web programmer by my first profession, so if you don't mind moving the process slightly off Goodreads, then I can help in creating a backend to help with moderation, and keeping track of everything.

The biggest question is whether there would be enough books to fill such a pool with.

Would there be? Who's interested? Hands up! :))))

Of course this would be best for people who constantly keep adding new books.

Attila wrote: "Who's interested? Hands up! :))))"

Yeah, I'm beginning to see that it could indeed be a problem to fill such a pool... :(

I'm interested to read short stories that have good endings and not too explicit. I don't mind that.

I be interested in participating in a review pool for short stories. I have self-published two short story collections, IT GOES ON and MOST MEN.

i'd be interested in participating in a review pool for short stories. Let me know.

thanks

I have written a collection of short stories called 'Dog Tales and Other Gems - ghosts, journeys and Field Spaniels. There are forty five stories so the book is as long as a novel! I don't know which category is right for this sort of book?

I'd be interested, I write short stories and I think there should be a pool for it!

Hello Sara, Moderator,
Do you think we have enough books to have a pool for Short Story collections? I count at least five authors who have shown interest on this page plus Attila?

I would be willing to run the pool, if that helps.

Although then I would propose at least one change. ;) Since short stories are usually a lot cheaper than full-length novels, we could do verified purchase reviews. Meaning: we either buy the book we want to review, or use Kindle Unlimited to read it. That would help both with the reviews AND the sales rank. If everyone's book is around $1 (is it?) then there's no big price difference, only the sales tax, depending on where you live. If someone has a more expensive short story, we could make a credit system. Two $1 books in exchange for one $2 book etc.

What do you all think?

Attila I think that would run you into trouble with the big A ;-). I'll discuss a short pool with the other mods next week and get back to you.

Out of curiosity when you review on KU - does it show as a verified purchase?

I am talking about a collection of short stories, 45 to be precise and, as it has colour illustrations the Kindle price is over $4. I think the only way I can do this is to send copies in PDF or Mobi format. Is this way still legal under Amazon rules?

Thanks Sara for checking if we can have a pool.

Hi Phyllis

the pool for short stories is more about people not having to read much longer books to get their book in for review, for example, a children's book that is much shorter. I think if a pool is set up it would probably be based on the number of words of the whole book.
Amazon doesn't like friends, relatives etc leaving reviews. Any reviews from reading an ARC are supposed to labelled as such (I received this book... etc). I think a pool set up for verified purchases would be considered as gaming the system and undermining the work amazon is doing in keeping the review system reliable. I'm not saying that such groups don't exist, just not on a public forum, and one owned by Amazon. :-)

Sara wrote: "Attila I think that would run you into trouble with the big A ;-)."

Would it? Thanks for the warning, I'll have to read up on that. So far I've mostly focused on what mustn't be done with free review copies.

One would think that giving away a free review copy in exchange for a review is fine. Hah, no it's not.

But luckily this group's rules are, as far as I can tell, in harmony with Amazon's policies because you can choose not to leave a review if you don't want to.

Hi everyone,

the mods decided we can go ahead and start a pool for short stories. So here we go… :)

I hope I set up everything. If I left anything out, please let me know. :)

Head over to the Short Stories pool: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and read how it works. It's almost the same as the main pool, but I need to make sure we only include short stories, so there's an extra first step.

The first 10 authors can get their books listed without having to review someone else's book first. So hurry! :)

I'll soon be sending a message to the entire group, so if you want to be among the first 10 authors who get a free review from the short story pool, be sure to head over to the new pool in the next day or two.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It sounds like the Short Story Collection review pool is off, but maybe a review pool of shorter books might work, similar to the larger pool but for shorter books of all genres. My two short story collections are less than 51,000 words, around 200 pgs. Is there an interest in a pool for shorter length books?

D.R. wrote: "It sounds like the Short Story Collection review pool is off, but maybe a review pool of shorter books might work, similar to the larger pool but for shorter books of all genres. My two short story..."

I was thinking the same thing, because I like to read those books that take a early morning break for me to read that are like 20-50K range.

I don't personally have a book in that length, but I'd participate in reading.
Kari

DR - your note made me smile. I always end up writing under 50k and am currently trying so hard to pace myself into writing 55k in my current WIP and now you have me thinking - hey, maybe I shouldn't try so hard, I could get it in this pool ;-)

Let me speak to the other mods and I'll pm you.

My "big" book actually fits that category, so I might have some personal interest in that...

Let me know if you need a mod to run the pool. :D

Sara wrote: "DR - your note made me smile. I always end up writing under 50k and am currently trying so hard to pace myself into writing 55k in my current WIP and now you have me thinking - hey, maybe I shouldn..."

Sara, thanks for checking. If they need to be less that 50K, I can always take out one of the stories, or maybe just an ending. :)

I just wanted to add a note to this thread that there is now an under 50k book review pool too. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Thank you Attila and Donn!

I've had several people ask me to raise the wordcount limit a little in the short stories pool. So I did. :) The short stories pool now fits any books with a wordcount up to 25,000.

If you have a book with a wordcount less than, or around 25,000, then come join us in the short stories pool! You only need to read another short story to get a review for your short book.

The pool is perfect for anyone with a book that is not too long.

(And you can also participate in the bigger pools, which gives your book 3 times the exposure!)

So come, join us! :) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hiya everyone! I've written a short story book, and was looking for people to review.

The Unknown Crystals: The Many Journeys to Different Worlds

Adam wrote: "Hiya everyone! I've written a short story book, and was looking for people to review.

The Unknown Crystals: The Many Journeys to Different Worlds"

Hi Adam, welcome!

First you need to post your book details so we can make sure it is really a short story, then you need to review someone else's book. After this, your book can be listed for a review.

Please join us, and read the rules here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...