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Welcome to Kelly's ARC TEAM.

I'm so glad you're here!

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 I'm honoured you chose to join MY team! So for all of you I thought I'd drop some guidelines on what my expectations are, how I run things and how to write effective reviews. You are welcome to bookmark this page and come back to it whenever you need to. If you've been reviewing for a while, have a read anyway, it can't hurt, right?

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How it works! My guidelines

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When I have an ARC ready to go, I'll email you with a download link. This is managed via Bookfunnel and will be available for a limited time - I usually leave it open until the book goes live. (Bookfunnel allows you to download the book in whatever format suits your device.) Then the fun begins - you read my work *gasp* and then leave a review. All very straightforward, yes? Indeed, but I've found I need to instill some rules and some of this will get to sound repetitive (sorry not sorry).

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  1. An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy. Please don't share it around, and please, for all that's holy, do not put it on a pirate site. I've had this happen and believe me, it sucks. ​​

  2. If you don't like reading Paranormal Cozy Mystery, then my books probably aren't for you and you might like to remove yourself from the team (no hard feelings, I promise). â€‹â€‹

  3. There will be a cut-off date to download each ARC. After that, it's gone, finished. Also, please don't email me requesting ARCs for previously published books. The answer is no.

  4. Only leave a review IF YOU WANT TO.  If you do, leavethe review once the book is published - You don't have to say a lot BUT be honest not nasty ;)

  5. I send out an email when the book is live with the retail links for you to leave a review. NOTE: You can't leave a review until a book is live, so if you've received an ARC for a book that is currently on pre-order I suggest you write it out somewhere and tuck it away to keep it safe (or review on Goodreads/Bookbub) and I'll let you know when it's time to leave your review. 

  6. If you want to support me further, and have your review appear as a verified review, you can purchase (or pre-order) your own copy of the book. A big THANK YOU to my lovely team members who do this, I really appreciate your support.

  7. It is no longer necessary for you to state that you received an ARC in your review. 

  8. If you notice any typo's or errors, let me know! My editor and I do try and catch everything but we are human and things can slip past.

  9. And finally, no spoilers! You don't need to write a synopsis of the book in the review, just what you liked about it. Or didn't. Although I really do hope you like it 

  10. While reviewing on Goodreads is fantastic and most welcome, it's not a retail store, readers don't buy books there, so I will ask that you also review on an online store like Amazon which is where my books will be exclusively.

 

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Reviewing.

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Only review if you WANT to.

 

Review where you can. If the book is available in Amazon and thats where you buy, go for it. If it's somewhere else that's great too.

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That's it and thank you so much for reading and reviewing my books! 

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What to write in your review!

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Right. Let's get into the nuts and bolts of reviewing. In a perfect world, authors wouldn't have to contend with trolls writing fake reviews, and I don't mean genuine negative reviews. If it's a genuine review, it's not a troll review but I appreciate those who are aware what we are up against and review honestly and accurately to help us overcome that.

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So I'm going to do my best to explain what a review is - and isn't.

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a) It's not a book summary or synopsis of the book.

b) Make sure you understand the rating system (more on this below)

c) Don't use the rating system negatively (i.e. 1 star) for technical glitches

d) Most readers don't have a clue how much editing goes into a book but like to be the typo police and act as if the entire book is one hot unedited mess. Don't be this person.​

e) Don't one star a book and then say you haven't read it. If you haven't read it, don't give it a rating or review. Simple.

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An explanation of the review system

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Next time you're about to leave a review, take a second to hover over each star. You'll see that it translates as:

one star *I hate it*​

two stars *I don't like it*​

three stars *it's okay*​

four stars *I like it*​

five stars *I love it*​

 

What to write in your review – finding the words!

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Now that we’ve got the ranking sorted, what should you say in the review itself? I’ve already said not to give a synopsis of the story, but what do you say instead?

 

Here are some ideas to help you out.

  • First rule: no spoilers!

  • Give a short summary of who would like the book (people who love paranormal romance etc)

  • What did you like about the book? Why?

  • What didn’t you like? (How could it have been better?)

  • Would you read more of the author’s work?

  • Did you struggle to put the book down? If so, why? What made you want more?

  • Were you able to forget you were reading?

  • Did the book have action, romance, suspense etc?

 

And my final words of wisdom when it comes to leaving reviews (not just for my books but for anyone’s books) is don’t be mean or nasty. Don’t put in your review not to buy the book, because that can ruin another’s experience, or potential to buy the book. Not everyone is going to like the same books as others, and that is what makes readers so unique and not boring. So don’t spoil it for others. If you didn’t like a book, fine, state why, but don’t diss the author.

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