Review Group discussion

This is a general group. In joining this group you have agreed TO REVIEW ANY ALLOCATED BOOK within the set 12 week limit.
If you don’t agree to that tell me now so that I can find another member who will do so.
There is no genre filtering.

If you are only willing to review your own preferred genres then sorry, but you’re better off finding a group that specialises in your preference, or joining one of the 18+ groups or a ‘clean’ review round. In this general group you might be asked to review fiction/non-fiction, adults’/children’s books, a religious text, BDSM, or anything in between. Allocation is entirely random and there will NOT be any rearranging of the listing to accommodate genre preference. The ONLY circumstance in which you may duck out of giving a review is if YOU provide a stand-in reviewer.

Let’s be honest here – we don’t all like the same things but we all want reviews. The only way this group can function is if we trust each other to behave honourably. And it IS perfectly possible to give a fair-minded review of a text that does not coincide with our normal choice of reading matter. If you need a few hints/tips, please see this thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Your group moderator will be

Barbara Land https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Author links

1.Mike Robbins https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
2.Sam Astbury https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
3. Ed Morawski https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
4.Darrell B. Nelson https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
5.Elizabeth Rose https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
6.Jeffery Carl https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
7.Michael Scheffel https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
8.Rubin Johnson https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
9. Douglas Spencer-Wallishttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
10.C.D. Loza https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Book links

1.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
2.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
3.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
4.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
5.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
6.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
7.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
8.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
9.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
10.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Ready Steady Go!

START DATE: 17-Oct-14

END DATE: 09-Jan-15

Group 50 Mod:

R1 end 07-Nov-14
R2 end 28-Nov-14
R3 end 19-Dec-14
R4 end 09-Jan-15


As AUTHORS you send your book file to:

G50-01__ Mike Robbins
C.D. Loza for round 1
Douglas Wallis for round 2
Rubin Johnson for round 3
Michael Scheffel for round 4

G50-02__ Samuel Astbury
Mike Robbins for round 1
C.D. Loza for round 2
Douglas Wallis for round 3
Rubin Johnson for round 4

G50-03__ Ed Morawski
Samuel Astbury for round 1
Mike Robbins for round 2
C.D. Loza for round 3
Douglas Wallis for round 4

G50-04__ Darrell B Nelson
Ed Morawski for round 1
Samuel Astbury for round 2
Mike Robbins for round 3
C.D. Loza for round 4

G50-05__ Elizabeth Rose
Darrell B Nelson for round 1
Ed Morawski for round 2
Samuel Astbury for round 3
Mike Robbins for round 4

G50-06__ Jeffrey Carl
Elizabeth Rose for round 1
Darrell B Nelson for round 2
Ed Morawski for round 3
Samuel Astbury for round 4

G50-07__ Michael Scheffel
Jeffrey Carl for round 1
Elizabeth Rose for round 2
Darrell B Nelson for round 3
Ed Morawski for round 4

G50-08__ Rubin Johnson
Michael Scheffel for round 1
Jeffrey Carl for round 2
Elizabeth Rose for round 3
Darrell B Nelson for round 4

G50-09__ Douglas Wallis
Rubin Johnson for round 1
Michael Scheffel for round 2
Jeffrey Carl for round 3
Elizabeth Rose for round 4

G50-10__ C.D. Loza
Douglas Wallis for round 1
Rubin Johnson for round 2
Michael Scheffel for round 3
Jeffrey Carl for round 4

As REVIEWERS you will receive books for review from:

G50-01__ Mike Robbins
Samuel Astbury for round 1
Ed Morawski for round 2
Darrell B Nelson for round 3
Elizabeth Rose for round 4

G50-02__ Samuel Astbury
Ed Morawski for round 1
Darrell B Nelson for round 2
Elizabeth Rose for round 3
Jeffrey Carl for round 4

G50-03__ Ed Morawski
Darrell B Nelson for round 1
Elizabeth Rose for round 2
Jeffrey Carl for round 3
Michael Scheffel for round 4

G50-04__ Darrell B Nelson
Elizabeth Rose for round 1
Jeffrey Carl for round 2
Michael Scheffel for round 3
Rubin Johnson for round 4

G50-05__ Elizabeth Rose
Jeffrey Carl for round 1
Michael Scheffel for round 2
Rubin Johnson for round 3
Douglas Wallis for round 4

G50-06__ Jeffrey Carl
Michael Scheffel for round 1
Rubin Johnson for round 2
Douglas Wallis for round 3
C.D. Loza for round 4

G50-07__ Michael Scheffel
Rubin Johnson for round 1
Douglas Wallis for round 2
C.D. Loza for round 3
Mike Robbins for round 4

G50-08__ Rubin Johnson
Douglas Wallis for round 1
C.D. Loza for round 2
Mike Robbins for round 3
Samuel Astbury for round 4

G50-09__ Douglas Wallis
C.D. Loza for round 1
Mike Robbins for round 2
Samuel Astbury for round 3
Ed Morawski for round 4

G50-10__ C.D. Loza
Mike Robbins for round 1
Samuel Astbury for round 2
Ed Morawski for round 3
Darrell B Nelson for round 4




Please remember the commitment you are making to your fellow group members. If you don’t think you can manage to do 4 book reviews between these dates please let me know now. I will find someone else for this group and you will be able to choose a later group that will be more suitable for you. If you pull out after the start date for any reason it is the other members who will be faced with the problem of finding a replacement, or missing out on reviews, through no fault of their own. Please don’t ask the moderators to chase after replacements as we just don’t have the time.

It is the responsibility of the author to get their book to their reviewer in a format the reviewer can manage. There are no set dates for the start of each round. You can each work at your own pace, within the limits of the round deadlines. All reviews must be posted by .

When you have posted your review on GR please post a link to your review in this thread.

All reviews must be posted to GR, Amazon .com and Amazon.co.uk.

Postings to any other sites are by agreement by both author and reviewer.

If I’ve missed something that results in you being asked to review someone who has already reviewed you, please let me know asap.

You have the next week to exchange your book files. My advice is to use PM to give email addresses to each other (save the chance of spammers getting your addies from this open forum). I'll stay with you for the next week to answer your questions before this group' mod will take over. Happy reviewing, everyone :)

Anyone know how to make a Doc or PDF into a mobi file?

Calibre is a free software tool great for converting files to various formats including .mobi.

It is indeed, and it's free. I use it frequently. It is great with DOC files. It doesn't always work so well with PDFs, though.

You can also use draft2digital, it converts your word doc into mobi, epub and pdf and adds front and back matter.You don't have to publish with them.
Works for me.

Welcome to Group 50!

For those of you who are newbies, here are some links that will help you acclimate to the process:

How it Works:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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

After reading these two articles, you’ll have a good idea how the Review Groups work and what will be expected from you as a participant.

So what is a review and how do I write one?
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

This article will guide you in the steps to writing an effective review for your fellow authors.

Please address direct questions to an individual via PM (private message) and more general questions to the group on this thread.

Round 1 reviews are due November 7, with subsequent rounds at three week intervals. Please remember that you must post a link on this thread to your review after posting your review.

Thanks and good reading!

Here's my first one.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I must say I'm shocked that some of the authors here do not seem to have their books in kindle format (or all formats for that matter).

Don't you guys sell on Amazon? You do know that once you upload to KDP (Kindle Direct) you have the opportunity to download a converted file (.mobi), right?

I didn't really sign up for this group to spent my time converting someone's file to a format I can use. You want to sell books you better be available on every platform possible. Just saying...

Greetings Darrell,

Thanks for posting your review. Did you also post it to Amazon? As I've seen it done, reviewers will usually include all three links (GR, Amazon and Amazon UK) just to let everyone know that the requirements have been met.

Ed wrote: "I must say I'm shocked that some of the authors here do not seem to have their books in kindle format (or all formats for that matter).

Don't you guys sell on Amazon? You do know that once you upl..."

Hi Ed,

Thank you for your comment. In the spirit of supporting our fellow authors here at GR, I have a follow-up question. You said that once you upload to KDP you have the opportunity to download a converted file - I didn't know that. I used Calibre for mine but I was learning as I went along. Can you explain a bit more about how we can take advantage of this?

I think in our hearts, we all just want to write. The marketing part of it presents a steep learning curve for many (and speaking for myself, I was overwhelmed when I realized how much I had to learn in order to try and self-market my book).

Thank you for helping us all move forward together!

After KDP does the conversion from whatever format your file was in, you come to the Preview phase. At that point you are offered an on-line preview. Ignore it, further down you will see Download preview file. Click and download it and presto you have a .mobi file of your book.

I like to write too but I'm assuming if you want reviews it is because you want to sell more books. Every author needs to have their work on Amazon and Apple at a minimum. I clicked the Amazon tab on a few of the books here on Group 50 and there is no Kindle version! Amazon Kindle is by far the largest ebook market in the U.S. & UK.

I am on Smashwords and Kobo but have never sold a single book on either. All my sales are on Amazon & Apple iBook (about the same number of sales on each but different titles).

Kindle is by far the most commonly-read format for self-published books, and I do agree with Ed that people should really have MOBI files available. That said, I have great sympathy for those who do not. As Barbara says, we all really just want to write, and I do get very frustrated with all the other details we have to deal with; I'm sure I'm not alone.

There are a couple of good groups on Goodreads where you can ask questions and get info from other authors - the Goodreads Authors/Readers group is one, and the Goodreads Author Feedback group is another. It's good to potter around in those now and then.

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Well-Oiled-Mayb...
Will post the Amazon UK once it is processed.

Thanks for the quick (and witty) review, Darrell!

Elizabeth wrote: "Thanks for the quick (and witty) review, Darrell!"

No problem

http://www.amazon.com/review/R7JNGKFG...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon UK is still processing it.

Thank you, Darrell.

Ed wrote: "After KDP does the conversion from whatever format your file was in, you come to the Preview phase. At that point you are offered an on-line preview. Ignore it, further down you will see Download p..."

Thank you, Ed, for the explanation. I probably saw what you're referring to when I was uploading my book to KDP and didn't realize what it was. So much to learn.

And you can always go back and get the file anytime. Just click on Edit and scroll down to the preview section.

I'm on to round 2:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R17P7QNA...

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

Again Amazon UK is still processing my review.

So, Darrell, just to confirm, that's Round 1, 2 and 4 completed?

Yes, I'll finish on round 3 later today.

On to round 3:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3T5GAZ8...
And not sure if this link will work:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profil...
My reviews on Amazon UK are showing up, but they aren't sending me confirmation. Is this normal?

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!

Welcome to opening day here at Group 50. And a special good morning to Darrell, who has just completed all four reviews for the Group. Much appreciated, and to answer your earlier question re Amazon UK, no, they don't send confirmations (to the best of my knowledge).

And to the rest of you, I wish you happy reading!

Friendly reminder: please post the three links (GR, Amazon and Amazon UK) for each review here at the Group 50 site as you complete them.

Here are the links (Amazon UK opending) for my round 1 Mind Thief:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R25MPP2Q...

Thanks Ed,
I'm glad you liked half of it.

Darrell wrote: "Thanks Ed,
I'm glad you liked half of it."

The half I liked was very, very good.

Thank you, Ed.

Here's my review of Ed Morawski's Afterlife - an intriguing read Ed.

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/ss/customer-rev...

Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revie...

This was actually my round 2 book - I'll post my review of my round 1 (Samuel Astbury) within the next day or two.

Mike - No worries about reading out of order. Thank you for including the book title and author, as well as the round number (makes it easier to track).

Round 1 (Enemy Combatant: A Soldier's Adventure, By Jeffrey Carl)

Amazon (UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2E7OR...

Amazon (US)http://www.amazon.com/review/R2WMK0MU...

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thank you, Elizabeth.

Here is my 4 star review of Lost in Apple Grove

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1AZ08KI...

(Amazon UK pending)

I have not heard from or been able to contact Jeffrey Carl (so if he reads this please send me your book). In the meantime I'm moving on to Michael Scheffel's work.

Ed wrote: "Here is my 4 star review of Lost in Apple Grove

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1AZ08KI......"

Thanks, Ed!

Hi All- here's my 1st round review for Storm on the Horizon
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BKW825...

Amazon.co.UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revie...
Storm On The Horizon

Ed wrote: "Here is my 4 star review of Lost in Apple Grove

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1AZ08KI......"

Thank you, Ed.

Jeffrey wrote: "Hi All- here's my 1st round review for Storm on the Horizon
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BKW825...

Amazon.co.UK
http://..."

Thank you, Jeffrey.

Here is my first-round review of Samuel Astbury's War Blanket:

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1FW0RVU...

Amazon.co.uk is processing.

Mike wrote: "Here is my first-round review of Samuel Astbury's War Blanket:

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1FW0RVU......"

Thank you, Mike.

Hi All,
Here is my second round review of "Well Oiled"
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revie...


Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3J52EKE...
Well Oiled: A Mayberry Multisport Adventure

Here is my Round 1 review for Well Oiled

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZZH9YN...

Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R19J1B...

Jeffrey wrote: "Hi All,
Here is my second round review of "Well Oiled"
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revie......"

Thank you, Jeffrey.

Michael wrote: "Here is my Round 1 review for Well Oiled

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZZH9YN......"

Thank you, Michael.

Here is my Round 2 review for Futile Deceptions

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3SJX6RJ...

Amazon.co.uk
I tried to post the review and got a message stating I have already reviewed this book. Not sure what happened.

My review of Enemy Combatant:Enemy Combatant: A Soldier's Adventure

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
http://www.amazon.com/review/RGBWENL4...

I'm glad you enjoyed it Michael, would you like the next book 'Just Recompense' for the fun of it?
Douglas

Michael wrote: "Here is my Round 2 review for Futile Deceptions

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3SJX6RJ......"

Thank you, Michael

Ed wrote: "My review of Enemy Combatant:Enemy Combatant: A Soldier's Adventure

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
http://www.amazon.com/review/RGBWENL4......"

Thank you, Ed.

Here is my Round 1 review of Life Everlasting
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/RCVD9QZY...
I have posted on Amazon.uk but have had no acknowledgement.