Reviews not received. Common?

I've done a few giveaways here and on other sites, and I was wondering what the percentage of readers who submit reviews. I gave away 20 books on my last giveaway here and have only received 3 reviews. It has been almost 3 months.

I know that it's always a risk to give free books, but it's disappointing that readers take advantage of it sometimes. I even have told my reviewers to let me know if they chose not to review the book if they did not enjoy it. I think that is fair.

Thoughts?

Reviews are not required. We often see complaints that people have not reviewed. We also see complaints that people have not sent the books.

Not everyone reads a new book immediately. Few people ever review books they read. Members Giveaway is not a review service, but a giveaway service to get books into the hands of potential readers.

Those are some of my thoughts.

I am actually more likely to review a book if I didn't like it. I feel I owe it to other prospective readers to warn them of the things I did not like. And of course to explain the low rating to the author.

>1 LeonStevens:

I've done giveaways on 3 separate books here, got a handful of requests each time, and not a single review, so you're doing relatively well :P

I've also given away maybe 2500 copies of my books via promotional newsletters and got one or two reviews out of it. Probably 99% of those downloads were by by people who will never even open the book. Certainly, as a reader, I've grabbed dozens of books that were on free promotions and found >90% of them not to my taste.

It feels like "winning" a book in a member giveaway should be more meaningful than just picking up a book that happens to be free, but I guess some readers perceive it in the same way? I'd prefer they didn't review rather than have them read it grudgingly, gritting their teeth all the way because it simply turned out not to be their thing.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

>1 LeonStevens: winning an early review book doesn't mean that the requester actually received the book. I find IT difficult to sort OUT which book is sent to me via what platform and in what format. So far I have 6 winners but I only manage to read just 1 of those 6 winning titles.

>7 allthingsgo:

There is a difference between Early Review books and Member Giveaways. It is the latter that the OP is talking about.

Just curious- does anybody start with Member-sharing first and publisher-sharing earlier review later? I started with the 'lower' peer-less rankings first. My 6 winners were member-shared content. They are more perceptive at my opinionated remarks. So there's where I start to sharpen my teeth as a reviewer/critics.

>9 allthingsgo: That's interesting. Although I don't see my reviews as feedback to benefit the author, there's some satisfaction if they seem to take a comment on board. Or at least, a sense I've persuaded them to be "more like me." Hmm, maybe not such a good thing, after all :p

I've always requested books from both ER and MG. Because the ER have more of an expectation/obligation to review, I'm a little more careful about committing myself to the book. That said, I always *plan* to read and review MG books as well, even if I subsequently decide to drop them.

>9 allthingsgo:
I don't know, I've had some Member Giveaway authors reach out to me about what I mention in my reviews. In one case, they updated their ARC and re-sent it to me for an updated review and direct feedback. Another liked my review style and asked me to read and review some other works they had written.

I think it really depends on what the author (or publisher if you're talking Early Reviewer works) is looking to get out the LibraryThing programs...

Also, as I mention in my profile, if people take the time to send me their work, I take the time to review it. I've slogged through some just awful books, but I try to be fair and mention what I find, good and bad. I've learned that you can't always tell how a book's going to turn out when you start it, and I'm stubborn enough to read them until the end, even if it's not that good. Sometimes there's a silver nugget of a line in even the worst books.

If I'm lucky enough to get a book on a Member Giveaway then, where humanly possible, I'll read this in preference to any other books I have planned. I will always review the book on multiple platforms (Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub etc) and also where possible send feedback, which may not be relevant to the actual review, to the author if contact details are provided.

I feel it is the least I can do if the author is kind enough to send me a free copy.

Sometimes if I win multiple giveaways in a short time frame then the reading / review may be delayed but I get there in the end.

I have had a few instances where I've never received the book (despite regular checking of my spam folder for ebooks) so in those cases I've not been able to review it