THE Group for Authors! discussion

I am looking for people to review my book "Fall of the Citizens". Its a dystopian story with elements of horror and suspense. Think Hunger Games mixed with the Fight Club POV. Its more adult than Hunger Games, so please 18+. There are plenty of curse words, scenes of violence and some sex scenes.

Here is the Synopsis:

A pharmaceutical company obtains a lucrative government contract for a vaccine currently coveted by the entire U.S. population. They set the price at $60,000 per shot, putting the vaccine out of the reach of all but the wealthiest of Americans. The situation creates a class warfare powder keg that only needs one thing to ignite, the words of a man.

This man is known simply as Max, a man who believes revolution is the only remedy to the disparity between the haves and the have nots. He sets to work at gathering a talented, highly motivated group he calls “The Citizens” and tasks them with recruiting all those who feel like the world stopped being on their side a long time ago. Together they record a message to the American people with Max’s moving words “I refuse to be your slave. I refuse to let you distract me with fear and promise me a tomorrow that will never come. I refuse to let you drain me of hope so that I am docile, broken and clinging to the absolute minimum. I refuse to live my life as a reaction to your choices.”

I will give you the book for free, just let me know what format you need it. (iTunes, Amazon, B&N, Kobo) But if you get it for free, please read it and review it.

Please let me know! Thanks!

I would love to read your book, Eric! It sounds like an adventure and I am really into reading dystopian/communist societies/governments right now. I would definitly read it and review it on goodreads. I have a good amount of followers and plenty of friends who add books I have read it their to-read list, just because I read it. Message me and I'll give you an address to send it to me. And either the Amazon or B&N is good for me. I look forward to hearing back from you and reading your book. I wish you good luck in all that you do.
-Hannah Andronic

Oh my gosh D: Am I too late to get it? I just read the reviews for it after I saw that you wanted people to read it...and well...I WANT TO v.v. Is there a kindle format? Or paperback? QQ

Please bare in mind that FTC rules state that anyone recieving compensation for reviews, including receiving the item, has to report this in their review as does the writer giving away the copy for review...

Nick, just because someone receives the book, does not mean they are going to give it a good review. I am reading Eric's book and I found a few things that I do not quite like about it. I will mark this book as a freebie though. Just bare in mind that those reviews still have credit.

Hannah,

It does not matter to the FTC if the review is good or bad. What matters to the FTC is full disclosure that the reviewer got compensation for the review. And a free product still has a value placed on it, thus they received compensation.

I don't make the rules folks, but in this case I do agree with this rule about reporting that we received a book for review. This is the only way consumers can make a judgement for themself on if the review has merit or not.

This is another example that self published writers need to understand all the laws that commercial publishers deal with on a daily basis.

And no, I am not against self publishing, I just want the writers going this route to understand what they are getting into.

Still, it does not mean that those reviews do not have merit, even if someone was given a free copy. Goodreads allow authors and others to give books away all of the time and some of those reviews get quoted on the back of released books.

Hello Eric, I'd like very much to read your book. I've read all the Clancy books. Yours sounds like it's in that catagory. I'm reading O'Rielly's "Killing Kennedy", presently, but almost finished. I might attract a differen't age group with my comments when finished. I read on Kindle.
JoAnn Hill

Hannah wrote: "Still, it does not mean that those reviews do not have merit, even if someone was given a free copy. Goodreads allow authors and others to give books away all of the time and some of those reviews ..."

Hannah,

I never said the reviews did not have merit.

I am only stating what the FTC requires and all reviewers should disclose if they received the book in exchange for a review. Many book bloggers are already posting notices in their reviews if they got the books for free in exchange for a review. They don't want to get caught by the FTC and have their blog taken down, or worse, pay a fine. Goodreads is no different, nor does it exempt anyone from posting a disclaimer...

There is also a little IRS rule about reporting products you received as they are taxable, but we will leave that for another thread.

Just trying to educate both the reviewers and the writers getting the reviews.

Well, if that is an IRS rule, I guess H&R Block is going to get sued real quick or go under "investigation" because I doubt people report to their tax representative that they got free things. Free things are supposed to be aka FREE. Oh and BTW, it is HANNAH, just to let you know.

Hannah,

Drop the attitude, I am not against you, the reviews or even a secret IRS agent. You may not like the message, but please don't shoot the messenger.

H&R block or any other tax preparer would not get into any trouble if the client does not report. I could give you examples, but like I said, lets save it for another thread...during tax season.

I am not the one with the problem. I have a problem with being addressed with a misspelled name to be precise. Actually, one last thing on the topic of H&R block, if you do do your taxes there they do have the responsibility to ask you if you recieved anything for free and I just talked to mine and he said recieving free things as promotional deals or giveaways is not something that needs to be reported. Like you stated, he did say that recieving something for free for a service inreturn is part of your taxes because it is like contracting yourself out. If there are no strings attached and write a review, there is no harm done and that is the last I will say about this subject. I'm sorry if I you think I'm having an attitude, but the internet always wipes out tone and allows the reader to fill it in as they see fit. Also, I don't believe in shooting messengers. I am just having a peaceful conversation with one.

As your taxman said, and that is all I am talking about, if you receive a product in exchange for a review, then you do owe taxes on the product. I never said anything else did I?

When members on Goodreads ask for a review in exchange for a book, then the reviewer is taking compensation. This is covered by both the FTC and the IRS.

As to the misspelling of your name in the second post addressed, it was a simple typo, we all have them from time to time. I did correct it once you pointed it out.

Good luck to you Hannah...

As to you, Nick.

I have two books out. No lullaby for Tommy and The Curse. Take a look at them. My third book, Conquest is on its way.

Personally, I'm more interested reading about the 'Chronicles of Hannah and Nick', the new suspense thriller available exclusively on Goodreads.

Nick wrote: "Please bare in mind that FTC rules state that anyone recieving compensation for reviews, including receiving the item, has to report this in their review as does the writer giving away the copy for..."

Nick,
I just found out about this FTC rule recently. I have a blog where I review books of debut authors. I didn't know that I needed to do this, but when I found out, I put the information in my "about" page on my blog. Is that sufficient, or does it need to be specified on each and every review as well? When I read the FTC page, that wasn't really addressed. Thanks!

Specified on each and every review in which you are given a copy vs a review of a book you bought...

By disclosing this information, you allow the reader to judge the merits of the review, no matter if its good or bad.

Martin wrote: "Personally, I'm more interested reading about the 'Chronicles of Hannah and Nick', the new suspense thriller available exclusively on Goodreads."

I have dragons and magic...

And I have faeries and charm...
Your post gave me a laugh Martin. Thanks!

Hannah wrote: "And I have faeries and charm...
Your post gave me a laugh Martin. Thanks!"

Ahhh, faeries, you when...

Nick wrote: "Specified on each and every review in which you are given a copy vs a review of a book you bought...

By disclosing this information, you allow the reader to judge the merits of the review, no matt..."

Thanks, Nick! That clears it for me. I will do that. It is scary the things you find out down the road.

Ill review it, it sounds like my cup of tea....I need it in amazon format please

Great news Eric! I downloaded your book for free on Amazon in the kindle format. I will review it because I want to and I'll actually read it faster now that I have it on my kindle fire.