A few months ago, we began an experiment. We offered a free book to anyone who agreed to post a 200-word review on their blog. We started with The Faith of Barack Obama [affiliate link] by Stephen Mansfield. We had almost 200 people request books and almost 70% of them posted book reviews.
We were so pleased with the results, we decided to do it again. We offered Through the Storm [affiliate link] by Lynne Spears. However, this time we required bloggers to post their review on Amazon in addition to their own site. We had slightly fewer requests and reviews, but we were still pleased with the results. Almost all the reviews were positive.
Regardless, I challenged Lindsey Nobles, my Director of Corporate Communications, to create a Web site specifically designed for bloggers who are interested in reviewing our books. As a result, we launched the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers (BRB) site yesterday. I am especially proud of what Lindsey and her team accomplished in less than six weeks.
If you are a blogger, this new site has at least three benefits:
- Free copies of our best books. We will send you a free copy of the book you are interested in reviewing. In addition, after you have requested a review copy, we will email you a PDF of the first two chapters so you can immediately get started. Meanwhile, we will drop a physical copy of the book in the mail.
- Content resources for your blog. We will provide you with free resources to use in your review. These include things like cover art, video or audio clips (when available), external links to other related items, etc. Frankly, this is the part of the site that we need to expand upon the most.
- External links to your blog. We will provide a link back to the your actual review of the book. As you may know, external links are what drive up your blog’s ranking on Google. In general, the more links the better.
What do we require? Bloggers must agree to write a 200-word review—good, bad, or ugly—and post it on their blog and on any consumer detail page for that book (e.g., Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, BooksAMillion.com, Borders.com, ChristianBook.com, etc.). Obviously, the review can be longer, but we wanted to set the bar low in order to encourage participation. I think this is a case where if the products are WOW, they will generate enthusiasm and buzz. If not, then that will also help us create better products in the future.
My goal is to recruit 10,000 active bloggers, categorized by subject areas. That’s aggressive, I know. But, why not? Like they say, “Go big or go home.”
Then, when we want to get the word out for a specific book, we can distribute 1,000 or so review copies at a time and use the reviews to jump-start the most important component of any marketing campaign: word-of-mouth.
To get started, click here.
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@Lauren: The good news is that you can try it. If it doesn’t work for you, you just stop requesting books. I don’t think there’s any real risk.
@All: It’s official. We changed the requirement, effective immediately. You can post your book review on your Web site and ANY other consumer Web site that has a detail page for the book, including Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, BooksAMillion.com, Borders.com, Christian Book, etc. I have changed the actual blog post above to reflect this. Thanks.
This is great. I look forward to this program!
Since you’ll have a lot of reviewers posting to Amazon would you like me to post reviews on sites targeting my own country (Australia) or do you want them directed at American sites?
One small fix it needs is a place to enter country on the sign up page. I put it in with state, hopefully that will be OK.
Hey Michael,
FYI, there’s a misspelling (“labelled”) on the Application Received page: http://brb.thomasnelson.com/blogger/applied#form
@Joanna: You’re home country is fine. Thanks for the heads-up on the sign-up page.
@Holly: Thanks also for catching the misspelling.
Hey Mike,
This is fantastic! As I work with international accounts here at Nelson, I think there are some ways for the site to better serve them:
-Encourage the blogger to post the secondary review to Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk or equivlanet in their home country
-Include a few Spanish titles in the rotation
-Include a ‘country’ section in the mailing address portion of the details page
Just realized Holly had addressed some of these concerns already. Thanks.
Just realized Holly had addressed some of these concerns already. Thanks.
Mike,
Great program. It exposes me to some books I might not have read but find interesting – almost like college days and required reading because once signing on, there are responsibilities ;-). As far as “tangible reward”, I find a free book a gracious incentive. It also gives me the opportunity of using illustrations from, or encouraging individuals to read a book that would be helpful to them — an added benefit to the ministry to which I have been called. I trust that this will be a beneficial program to Thomas Nelson as well.
It’s unlikely you’d have a book I wanted to read. But if you did, the stipulation about also posting on a commercial site would prevent me from taking up your offer.
Attention, bloggers!
Are you trying to launch the next best place in the blogosphere? Hoping to attract a few new readers? Or perhaps just experiencing writer’s block (blogger’s block?) and looking for some new material? Boy have I been there. That’s why…
I want to know that since I am from India, can I sign up too for this program? Also I suggest you to put note or something like FAQ to answer some common questions, like this.
@Debabrata: Yes, you can participate from India. We are compiling an FAQ which we hope to upload shortly. Thanks.
I completed my first review, yesterday, and posted it as agreed. I looked at the next group of books and was disappointed to find that none of them appealed to me. I’m not big on “thrillers” or MP3, but I may decide to go back and select the children’s book.
I was hoping that, if a brb did not see a book that piqued his or her interests, at least three alternative selections might be available. Of course, five books from which to choose does seem, on the face of it, to be sufficient. However, two of the current five are of the same genre.
So I checked my profile, to see if I needed to change my preferences, and I realized “Biography” is not even listed. That surprises me, given that Billy: The Untold Story… is a biography.
So I respectfully suggest that you add Biography as a category. I further second the motion for breaking down Fiction into subgenres.
Thanks so much for launching this innovative program! I have shared the opportunity with several of my blogging friends.
Q: Are we limited to publishing our reviews on only one commercial retail site, or may we post them on, e.g., Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com?
This is my last comment on here; I promise. At least, for today.
I went looking for a theater where I might go see Billy: The Early Years. Sadly, while it is “in theaters across the country,” many states are omitted–including my own. I also saw an article saying that the film was not doing well at the box office. If it were shown in more states, more people could see it!
Will it likely be available on DVD, at any time?
@Vicki: Thanks for your comments. First, yes, you can post to as many sites as you wish. Second, we are working to beef up the selection. This will vary from month-to-month, depending on our publication schedule and available resources. Finally, we are not associated with the Billy movie, so we have little influence over the distribution or DVD. Thanks.
Just discovered your program and waiting on the confirmation email. I think this is a great program and I look forward to begin reviewing.
Sounds like an awesome program! I’m in! I’m with Josh…waiting for the response email…but I’m sure this program will do lots of good for all involved.
Michael, thank you for replying. I saw the addition of Rex to the offerings, yesterday, and I’m waiting for my copy. I clicked the link to download the first two chapters and got some kind of error message; sorry, but I don’t remember what it said.
As for the movie…oops! I confused authors with publisher. I’ll just hope.
Thanks, again, for the program and for your reply. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Hi, Michael … I’ve enjoyed your blog, it is on my “Must Read Daily” list in my RSS feeds!
I signed up for a book through the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers program and have not yet received the book, who can I contact at Thomas Nelson to receive my book to read for review?
@blehew I am sorry you have not received your book yet. You can email me at lnobles@thomasnelson.com or brb@thomasnelson.com.
When the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers program began, we used USPS’s Media Mail. We realized after several weeks that this service was not working for our needs. We had no way to track requests and it was SLOW. We now are sending books UPS and the turn-around time and the accuracy has greatly increased.
great idea
This is a great idea. However, one of the problems recruiting reviewers is that initially they are very enthusiastic, however, after a few reviews, they drop out.
My web site, bookpleasures.com, has been around for over 4 years and we have posted over 3000 reviews. One of the main problems is recruiting reviewers.
Good luck!
Norm, Bookpleasures.com
What a great idea. I already review books on my site, and because I love to read, I always want more. I see plenty of comments from authors I admire. GREAT!
Is it just me or is anyone else having trouble with the sign up link? I just tried on another computer and it's a no go. It's just not doing anything when I click on the link. Any ideas?
'Cause I'd really like to sign up. Sounds like an excellent prog.
This is awesome! I really want to join, but the site is taking error-length time to upload . . . if I can't sign up via this site, keep me in mind, please!
Great idea. Looking forward to my first book.
- Harwinder
http://deepfriedbrain.blogspot.com/
I have been a Thomas Nelson reviewer on my blog for a while now…have done 6 reviews and I love this program. Not only do i get to read some great new books but I get to share my thoughts to those in my readership on my blog and those in my life!
Awesome!! :) I'm in!
Hey Michael,
what a great idea! I love this. I'm sure this will generate a lot of buzz for many new releases. Just one suggestion: I'd recommend that you encourage bloggers who receive books under the BRB program to mention that fact in their reviews. You don't want casual blog readers to think that Thomas Nelson is trying to "buy" favorable reviews. I know it sounds ludicrous, but I've seen people jump to such conclusions when reviewers aren't open about this sort of thing.
On another note: Will BRB be open to international bloggers too? I know I'd love to enter!
You're very upfront in your expectations and that is great, but I think you should take it one step further and provide a standard disclosure statement to be included in each review. Maybe just a short sentence (Like "Reviewed for Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers program") that would link back to a clear full disclosure on your site.
Love it or hate it, I feel it would be unethical to post a review that I was paid for (you're paying free books) without disclosing that relationship. Adding to the transparency will add to the credibility of the program. And by linking back to a full disclosure, you may actually recruit more bloggers.
I love the idea of the "common people" reviewing great books that their peers will want to read. Thanks for letting us be a part of this grand scheme!
My recent post Reading Is Everywhere
This is really cool! I'm looking forward to getting my first book!