Audiobooks discussion

Netgalley is a source for advance review copies of books. They are adding audiobooks.

http://view.et.netgalley.com/?qs=daa3...

I've already listened to many excerpts hope I get the full audiobook!. I am loving this because I have requested so many ebooks then heard who the narrator was and waited for the audiobook so did not get my review in early.

Faith wrote: "Netgalley is a source for advance review copies of books. They are adding audiobooks."

That's great news, Faith! Thanks for sharing this.

Yeah, this is good.....................................but the result will be that tons of people will listening to the same books b/c everybody enjoys free books. AND it is not pleasant to criticize a book given free of cost. I as a reader at GR prefer those who critically analyze both the good and the bad aspects of a book.

I have received audio books in exchange for an honest review, where I have been critical of them.

I have gotten many ebooks from Netgalley and have been quite critical of a lot of them. However, there is a sort of "halo effect" surrounding early reviews of books.

I get free audiobooks and ebooks from various sources and they ask for an honest review. That's what they get. If the book is awful I say so. If the narration is wooden, I say so. If they want 5 star reviews then they need to write 5 star books, right?
In fact the latest audiobook I finished was a review copy from the author and I gave it 2 stars.
Also, if everyone posts only 5 star reviews for poor books then the author thinks their writing is awesome and doesn't try to improve so they lose sales as people stop buying so we don't do them any favours in the long run.
Free or paid for, if it's rubbish say so, but explain why.

No problem calling them like I see them either. Though once I abstained from reviewing a book I hated because the author couldn't have been nicer. If trying to positively review that book my review would have been "This was indeed a book"

Life is just too short and there are too many good books I know I want to hear. I tried a couple "for review" books and resented the time I spent on them. I applaud those of you who review because it is helpful for both the author and the future readers. I certainly look at reviews and on newer books there aren't always many.

Robin wrote: "Life is just too short and there are too many good books I know I want to hear. I tried a couple "for review" books and resented the time I spent on them."

This. Especially given that the folks most desperate for reviews are usually those first starting out or those who haven't been able to get wide exposure -- which is often because their writing isn't any good!

I have reviewed free audiobooks in the past, and to borrow from the great Lucy Ricardo, some of them were swell, and some of them were lousy.