Upcoming Changes to the Early Reviewers Program

Hello All! I have some exciting Early Reviewer developments to share!

We have been making some changes to how our digital giveaways are organized and distributed, in order to improve member happiness, as well as delivery and reviewing rates.

1. Going forward, all digital giveaways will have a one week delivery period (rather than four weeks). We believe that this will improve delivery and review rates, both because the books will arrive closer to the time members are notified of their win, and because the shorter period will highlight problems sooner, allowing us to more quickly resolve any instance of non delivery.

2. We are limiting the digital formats that can be given away through Early Reviewers, in order to simplify the process, and provide a more consistent experience to members. Ebook formats which will be accepted include: EPUB, Kindle, MOBI, PDF. Acceptable digital audiobook formats will include: Audible Audiobooks and MP3.

3. We are also making some significant changes to how we handle giveaways that involve download links, in order to cut down on non-delivery to winners of publisher, author and publicist emails. (The black hole in the email ether is a real thing!)

Going forward, all download links except for Kindle editions (which must be sent through Amazon) will be sent to winners by on-site LibraryThing message, rather than by email. These messages will be sent automatically by LibraryThing immediately after members are notified of their win.

4. Finally, we are limiting the download sites that can be used in connection with Early Reviewer giveaways, owing to a number of problems reported by members, in downloading their books. There are many download options available online, but a number of them are not in line with our policies, when it comes to the use of member contact information.

What Does This Mean for You?

1. You can now report digital books as Not Received after one week rather than four, and reach out about replacement copies at that time.

2. You will receive almost all titles being delivered via download link through LibraryThing message, meaning you will not have to worry about whether they will arrive in your email inbox or not.

3. You should have an easier time downloading your books, as we will be testing out links beforehand, and will no longer be accepting some of the sites which have caused problems.

Please note: These changes go into effect for our April batch. The March batch is still governed by our prior policies.

>1 AbigailAdams26: Thank you for the digital copies via Kindle since I've had problems downloading ebooks in the past and haven't been entering because of this.

>2 sweetbabyjane58: Of course! I should note that giveaways involving Kindle copies which will be sent to you via email will be marked this way. So it is still important to look at the format being offered, and the delivery method to be used, when entering digital giveaways.

As an offerer of eBooks via LibraryThing, I'm curious how this change will impact claims of non-receipt when the eBook file is sent THROUGH LibraryThing's messaging system. If LT can see from their end that the book is in the recipient's on-site messages, will the recipient still be able to claim non-receipt?

>4 thriftyloco: No. Going forward, winners will not be able to mark giveaways as Not Received, if download links were sent through LibraryThing message.

Previously, it was the author or publisher using LT message to send download links, so there was always the possibility that they were not sent, or that what was sent was non-functional. Now however, we are requiring links to be submitted ahead of time, and are testing them out, as part of the giveaway approval process.

Given that this is so, and that we ourselves will be sending the links immediately after winner selection (usually the day after the batch closes), we can know with certainty that the links were received.

April batch not loading for me.

>6 DKnight0918: It looks like this is an issue a few people are having, for some reason. It's possible members are seeing a cached version of the page, depending upon their web browser. I will PM you, to get specifics.

Thanks for cleaning things up! Although I don’t read ebooks, but do listen to recorded books and appreciate that Library Thing is consolidating the audio options, too!! I use audible, and using it has been effortless.

I remember when you had more publisher offered books in the Early Reviewers program. Any chance you'll have more in the future?

>8 Caspaulding: We hope these changes will improve the overall experience for all kinds of digital giveaways, whether ebook or audiobook!

>9 MM_Jones: We'd definitely like to see more publisher participation, in general, and are always working on that.

Will this mean they wont be able to send links which require you to subscribe to their newsletter to download the ebooks? (like book funnel)

>12 Xengab: ? I got a link through bookfunnel, and I didn't need to subscribe to any newsletter, and got the book through bookfunnel easily transfered to my googlebooks.

>12 Xengab: It should. We will be testing out the links to be sent, before approving giveaways.

>13 annus_sanctus: Sites like BookFunnel and StoryOrigin are perfectly fine, provided the author or publisher uses the direct / simple download option. These sites give the person creating the link options, when it comes to whether they collect information like email addresses or not, and whether they require downloaders to sign up to newsletters.

To clarify: it is against our policy for any download site used in conjunction with Early Reviewers to automatically sign the downloader up for any author newsletters. That said, it is not against our policy for such sites to require your email address (some sites do this to ensure the downloader is authorized), or to create an account with them, provided said account is free. I believe both NetGalley and Edelweiss+ require downloaders to create accounts.

>13 annus_sanctus: usually that was the same for me,, but this last one I had to tick a box saying I wanted the newsletter before I could get the ebook. I'm sure it is something the author agreed to or put in place. Just was annoying as I will seek out authors to follow if I like their books.

>5 AbigailAdams26: it makes sense, indeed!

>1 AbigailAdams26: Helpful improvements... THANK YOU! Thanks in particular for addressing the issue of download problems. Perhaps I am not alone in my concern over having to sign up for extraneous accounts just for the privilege to review books. It would be very helpful to members if at the TOP of listings for E-books if the specific format (e.g. Kindl, Mobi, PDF) were shown in bold print, this way members can make quicker and wiser choices in requests, particularly when they have a specific need or preference for a particular format. Thanks again!

>16 .mau.: Great!

>17 silverquille: Although not currently at the top of the giveaway, you can see the formats available for any specific digital book, as well as the delivery method, by clicking on the little "i" icon that appears next to either "ebook" or "digital audiobook," in the media field. The media field is the top field, underneath the book description, and is visible on the main ER page, which shows all the giveaways. This means that you don't have to navigate to the giveaway detail page, to discover that information.

I am trying to use the new form to submit another giveaway. I am going to provide a link to an HTML page on the Publisher site.

I see that there is an "Optional Download Link Message," but on the next page of the form you have an "Optional Giveaway Message".

So which field should I put my message to the requestor?

Also, I can sorta understand why you are saying messages can't contain links or email addresses or requests of only positive reviews.
On the other hand, it seems excessive to say that the publisher can't include offers of other books. (As a matter of fact I almost always include a bonus ARC download whenever I send the ARC -- usually a backlisted title from my press and occasionally an ebook from a fellow author.)

The URL I created for the ARC on my publisher site often will contain some of these verboten things ( several links, my email address, bonus ARC, images, a newsletter signup link and (sometimes) social media contacts.

I assume that Librarything is not restricting the content that can appear on a landing URL for downloading the ARC?

It's probably reasonable to say that publishers and authors shouldn't automatically sign up a LT member for a regular newsletter when they sign up for an ARC. But I should be able to provide this information (and anything else) on a download/landing page which I control. Does Librarything agree?

Hello. Thank you fo this good news

>20 rjnagle: The "Optional Download Link Message" field on the first page of the giveaway form is the message that will be included with our own default message, when the download link is sent to winners, after the giveaway closes. Entrants do not see this message, only winners.

The "Optional Giveaway Message" field on the second page of the form is a chance for you to give more information about the book, or to convey something not covered in the Book Description field. This message is included in the giveaway itself, and can be seen by all entrants / anyone who looks at the giveaway detail page.

Our policy regarding offering additional books in the giveaway is a long-standing one, and predates these recent changes. We do not allow authors and publishers to offer extra bonuses, be that gifts, additional books or anything else, as part of the promotion of their giveaway. Any such offers would have been deleted from the giveaway in the past.

That said, if you wish to offer a second book, as a perk to your winners (rather than as an inducement to entrants), you are welcome to do so. You can mention this to them, in the "Optional Download Link Message" field, or you can just have it available, with a little note, on the download page.

It's fine to include everything you mention—links, your email address, an invitation to subscribe to your newsletter, social media contacts, additional books—on the download page, as long as these things are all optional, and at the discretion of the winner, in terms of availing of them.

We cannot control the content on download pages, obviously, as they are third party sites. That said, if such a page were to go against our policies—such as a BookFunnel page that automatically enrolled downloaders in an author newsletter—then we would reject the giveaway. Testing out the links provided will now be a regular part of the approval process, as LibraryThing itself will be sending them, at the conclusion of the giveaway.

I hope that this information helps. As a recent Early Reviewer author/publisher, you should have received an email containing all of this information, sent out at the beginning of March. My apologies if that didn't get through. Please let me know if you have any further questions, by emailing me at: abigailadams@librarything.com

>22 AbigailAdams26: Abigail, thanks for your reply. I definitely did not see that email from March 5, 2024, although I definitely did receive it (I just read it now!)

Thanks for the explanation of the fields. Everything is clear now! I can now follow the rules!

Major improvements! I hope this cuts down dramatically on "not received" books. The half dozen I never received over the decades make me sad every time I look at my wins page. Seems like it should improve things on the book provider's side as well.

>9 MM_Jones: I have been thinking the same thing. There are fewer publishers and fewer better-known choices. I love finding a new favorite indie but would love to see more traditionally published offerings.

Hi All: Based on some feedback I have received from a few members, I think there may be some confusion around the subject of delivery method for our digital giveaways.

I want to clarify that some digital editions will still be delivered via email. It is only the giveaways involving download links that will be sent via LibraryThing message. Giveaways involving an attached file will still be sent via email, as the LibraryThing message system currently has no means of attaching files.

We are looking at ways to continue to improve delivery, in this regard, but please do be aware of this caveat.

Bearing the above in mind, please do let me know if you are being sent download links via email, for April and subsequent batches, as this would be against policy.

Of course, the good news is that the new time frame is now one week for all digital giveaways, regardless of delivery method, so those ones sent by email can be followed up on after seven days.