August Early Reviewer Bonus Batch

St. Martin's Press is responsible for this month's unprecedented and huge Early Reviewer bonus batch! They're giving out 1,000—yes, one thousand—copies of Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland.

The book is available to residents of the US and Canada, and the deadline to request a copy is Sunday, August 31st at 6pm EDT.

Request your copy here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

About the book: it's a brand new series featuring Elizabeth Phoenix, a cop with extraordinary psychic powers who's hot on the trail of a ruthless murderer- and whose life is about to change forever. Bestselling author Lori Handeland delivers and unforgettable heroine and a pulse-pounding series that you don't want to miss.

And, on their website, you can sign up to receive In The Beginning, the free prequel story to Any Given Doomsday.

August Early Reviewer books

The August batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We've got 56 books this month, and a grand total 1,274 copies to give out.

First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you've already signed up, please check your mailing address and make sure it's correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Sunday, August 17th at 6pm EDT.

Eligiblity:
Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to tons of new countires, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, France, Germany, and the Philippines! Make sure to check the flags by each book to see if it can be sent to your country.

Thanks to all the publishers, new and old!

Algonquin Books	Andrews McMeel Publishing	Ballantine Books
bluechrome Publishing	Cuneiform	Delacorte Press
Delta	F+W Publications	Faber and Faber
Loving Healing Press	McBooks Press	Modern History Press
Open Letter	Other Press	Picador
PublicAffairs	Raven Tree Press	Santa Fe Writer's Project
Solaris	South Dakota State Historical Society Press	Sparklight Press
St. Martin's Griffin	St. Martin's Minotaur	St. Martin's Press
Thomas Nelson	Tor Books	Unbridled Books
University of Illnois Press	W.W. Norton	WaterBrook Press
Willow Ridge Press	YMAA

Bonus batch of Early Reviewer books

We've got three books in July's bonus batch of Early Reviewer books this month, and a total of 200 copies! Two books are from Random House (thanks as always), and one is being given away by Miramax Films (see the blog post).



So, visit the Early Reviewer page to request your copy—the deadline for requests is this Friday, July 25th at 6pm EST.

Remember, bonus batches are treated as entirely separate from the regular batch of Early Reviewer books. That means it's possible to win a book from both the regular batch *and* the bonus batch. Good luck!

Brideshead Revisted giveaway

Miramax Films is giving us 25 copies of Brideshead Revisted to give out as Early Reviewer books! The movie adaptation comes out in theaters July 25th, and I for one plan on going.*

Check out the Early Reviewers page to request a copy.

So, what's your stance - read the book before seeing them movie, or after? Ok, I realize the book was popular long before the movie ever was in the making, but for those who haven't read it yet, what's the plan? (Weigh in here, in "What's better: reading the book first before watching the movie, or vice versa?")

For more discussion on movies adapted from books, try the Made into a Movie group.

*The site for the movie has a link for advance screenings, which is always fun!

More Early Reviewers books and buzz

We have two last-minute additions to July's batch of Early Reviewer books, and some scandalous book news to report.

The new books
The new additions are American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, and Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg. So go run and request them!

The buzz
American Wife has been generating a lot of buzz lately (see Wonkette, Radar). It's a work of fiction, loosely based on Laura Bush's life. This morning, Maureen Dowd wrote about it in The New York Times, saying

"It's the sort of novel Laura Bush might curl up with in the White House solarium if it were not about Laura Bush. It would be interesting to hear how that lover of fiction feels about being the subject of fiction."

Another July Early Reviewer book, The Winds of Tara is also buzz-worthy. The Winds of Tara is the unauthorized sequel to Gone with the Wind—so unauthorized that (according to Wikipedia) copyright holders blocked US distribution of the book and bookstores had to pull it from the shelves. You'll note that it's being offered to Early Reviewers only to Australians, by an Australian publisher, Fontaine Press.

July Early Reviewers

July's huge batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We've got 68 books this month, and a grand total 1,629 copies to give out.

First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you've already signed up, *please* check your mailing address and make sure it's correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Friday, July 18th at 6pm EDT.

Eligiblity:
Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Israel! Make sure to check the flags by each book to see if it can be sent to your country.

Thanks to all the publishers, new and old!

Andrews McMeel Publishing	B&H Publishing Group	Ballantine Books
Bantam	Bethany House	Candlewick
Delacorte Press	Fontaine Press	Frog Books
Gefen Publishing House	Harper	HarperLuxe
Hyperion Books	Leisure	Lifetime Media
Loving Healing Press	Modern History Press	New York Review Books
North Atlantic Books	Other Press	Picador
Picnic Publishing	PublicAffairs	Simon & Schuster
Solaris	Spellbinder Press	St. Martin's Griffin
St. Martin's Minotaur	Steerforth	The Dial Press
Thomas Dunne Books	Toby Press	University of Chicago Press
Vertical	Vertigo	William Morrow
Wizards of the Coast

June Early Reviewers

June's batch of Early Reviewer books is up! This month has 37 books, from 23 different publishers, with a grand total of 1,075 copies to give out.*

What is LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program? It's simple really—we're teaming with publishers to provide advance or just-published copies of books to you, in exchange for reviews. The publishers are supplying the books, you get to read and review them, and we play matchmaker! :) Check out the FAQ for more on the program.

All you have to do is sign up, and then go request the books you're interested in! You can request as many as you like, but you're only eligible to receive one per batch.

The list of books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Monday, June 16th at 6pm, EDT.

Eligibility: Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the US, Canada, and the UK.

Thanks to all the publishers, new and old!

Andrews McMeel Publishing	B&H Publishing Group	Broadway
Candlewick	Canon Press	Canongate Books
Demos Medical Publishing	DiaMedica	Doubleday Books
Faber and Faber	Hyperion	Loving Healing Press
Marion Boyars Publishers	Menasha Ridge Press	Modern History Press
Newmarket	Other Press	Picador
Picnic Publishing	Shadow Mountain	St. Martin's Griffin
Waveland Press	Steerforth

*Tim and I spent several days last week talking to every publisher we could at BookExpo America—I'm hoping these batches of books will just get bigger and better!

May Early Reviewer books

May's batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We've got 51 books this month, and a grand total 1,115 copies to give out.

Some of the big highlights include the new Neal Stephenson (Anathem) and The Given Day by Dennis Lehane! Or would you rather read The Inverted World by Christopher Priest? The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen? Is historical fiction more your thing? Try Hallam's War by Elisabeth Payne Rosen". In the mood for some Norman Mailer? Request a copy of Miami and the Siege of Chicago. On the nonfiction side, how about a little bit of everything, with The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2...

First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you've already signed up, *please* check your mailing address and make sure it's correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Monday, May 19th at 6pm EDT.

Eligiblity:
Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the US, Canada, the UK, and for the first time, Australia! We only have one Australian publisher (I'm sure those 15 books will be coveted), but we're working on getting more for the future.

Thanks to all the publishers, new and old!

Algonquin Books	Andrews McMeel Publishing	Bantam
Berkley	Canongate Books	Clerisy Press
Cypress House	Delacorte Press	Faber and Faber
Farrar Straus Giroux	Fremantle Press	Harper
Hatherleigh Press	Hyperion	LJW Publishing
Loving Healing Press	Menasha Ridge Press	Mirrorstone
Modern History Press	North Atlantic Books	NYRB Classics
Other Press	Picador	St. Martin's Griffin
Trumpeter	Unbridled Books	W.W. Norton
William Morrow	Wizards of the Coast	Zoland Books

Bonus batch of Early Reviewer books from Random House

Random House has given us a bonus batch of Early Reviewer books this month!

There are six titles up, and a whopping total of 470 copies to give out. So go sign up (if you haven't already), and then request your copy to read and review!

The list is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Wednesday, April 30th at 6pm, EDT. These books are only available to residents of the US and Canada.*




*In another country? Don't despair. The May batch, which will be out very soon, includes books for residents of the US, Canada, and the UK and Australia!

April Early Reviewer books

April's batch of Early Reviewer books is up! This month features 66 different books from 33 different publishers, totaling 1,599 copies. It's our biggest batch ever--I know, I said that last month, but apparently we grow fast around here!

Sign up to get a free advance copy, in exchange for writing a review. If you're already signed up, make sure to check that your name and mailing address are correct (here). More help available in the Early Reviewers Frequently Asked Questions.

Then just go ahead and request books to read and review! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Tuesday, April 8th at 6pm EDT.

New and noteworthy things this round:

Audio books. We have our first audio book in this batch, (Elizabeth Berg's The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted). Love listening? Tell us, and we'll try to get more audio books included.

Author Chat. We're about to debut a new feature, Author Chat. To start, Broadway Books is giving out copies of Tell Me Where it Hurts, Nick Trout's new book about a day in the life of an animal hospital. Read it, review it, think about it. Then Nick will be on LibraryThing from April 14th through the 30th to answer questions, talk about his work, etc. More details on Author Chats to come, so stay tuned.

New Publishers. As I said, there are 33 different publishers participating this round. Thanks to all of them, and of course, thanks to the publishers that just keep giving us books!

AMACOM	Andrews McMeel Publishing	Ballantine Books
Beacon Press	Bloomberg Press	Broadway
Canongate Books	Cleis Press	Delacorte Press
Dell	DiaMedica	Egmont
Handsel Books	Lantern Books	Loving Healing Press
Manic D Press	National Geographic	North Atlantic Books
Picador	Picnic Publishing	Random House Audio Publishing Group
Random House Trade Paperbacks	Shambhala	South Dakota State Historical Society
St. Martin's Griffin	St. Martin's Minotaur	St. Martin's Press
Staghorn Press	Thomas Dunne Books	Vertical
W.W. Norton	William Morrow	Wizards of the Coast Discoveries

You'll also notice that a few of the books are already released. A few of publishers new to Early Reviewers decided to include some back-list titles as well as new ones, to kick things off. Though we generally prefer pre-publication books, we decided to allow these less "release-driven" titles into the program.


Make sure to check the flags to see whether you're eligible to receive each book. Most books are open to residents of the US and Canada, several are open to residents of the UK only. Pay attention--only the flags will tell you which is which!

Bonus batch of Early Reviewer books

I love March. It's the beginning of Spring. It's my birth month, and Tim's as well. So, of course, it's time for a bonus batch of Early Reviewer books.

Much thanks to Random House for these two books, which both look amazing.

The March bonus batch from Random House includes Salman Rushdie's new novel, The Enchantress of Florence and Joseph E. Persico's history of FDR and the women in his life, Franklin and Lucy.



Request your advance copy here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

You have until Saturday, March 22nd at 6pm EDT to request a copy.

March Early Reviewers

This is, by far, our largest batch of Early Reviewer books yet. March's batch includes 46 different books from 23 different publishers, totaling 1,172 copies, available to residents in 4 different countries! There's poetry, literary fiction, chick lit, memoirs, mystery, historical fiction, travel books, cookbooks, history, biography, humor books, and non-fiction books ranging in topics from opera to crime to global warming to the Olympics!

Sign up to get a free advance copy, in exchange for writing a review. If you're already signed up, make sure to check that your name and mailing address are correct (here). More help available in the Early Reviewers Frequently Asked Questions.

Then just go ahead and request books to read and review! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Wednesday, March 12th at noon EDT*.

Make sure to check the flags to see whether you're eligible to receive each book. Most books are open to residents of the US and Canada, several are open to residents of the UK only, US only, Canada only, or US or Israel only. Only the flags will tell you which is which!

Thanks to all 23 publishers who contributed books this round.

Algonquin Books	Andrews McMeel Publishing	Ben Yehuda Press
Bloomberg Press	Canongate Books	Collins
Crown	Demos Medical Publishing	DK Publishing
Doubleday Books	Ester Republic Press	FT Press (Pearson)
Gefen Publishing House	Kent State University Press	King Tractor Press
LJW Publishing	New York Review Books	Profile Books
Shadow Mountain	Shaye Areheart Books (Crown)	Three Rivers Press (Crown)
University of Michigan Press	William Morrow

Remember, if your favorite publisher hasn't joined Early Reviewers yet, you can write them a letter and suggest it!



*Daylight Saving Time kicks in on Sunday. If that's not a sign that warm weather is en route to us in New England, I don't know what is...

February Early Reviewers Books

February's batch of Early Reviewers books is up!

Sign up now to get free books in exchange for reviews! Once you've signed up, request any books that look interesting to you. Then just wait and see if you've won a copy to read and review. Questions? Try the FAQ or learn more in the Early Reviewers group.

The deadline to request a book is Tuesday, February 12th at noon, EST.

The list of available books is here: http://www.librarything.com/er/list

We have 29 books this month, (630 copies in total), from 14 different publishers, including a few new (and big) ones - including Collins, Small Beer Press, and The University of Michigan Press..

We even have TWO UK publishers this round—Canongate Books and The Friday Project. Books from those publishers are *only* available to residents of the UK. All other books are open to residents of the US and Canada.

Thanks to these publishers for participating, and welcome to all the new participants!

Algonquin Books AzurAlive Press Canongate Books (UK) Collins Ester Republic Press

Hobblebush Books Picador Small Beer Press Stone Pine Press

The Friday Project (UK) Thomas Nelson University of Michigan Press W.W. Norton William Morrow

Update from Tim: We've removed one book. As a blog comment pointed out, there is said to be controversy over whether the publisher has the right to publish the book. The publisher puts this front-and-center on their website, claiming the consent is "expressed, albeit obliquely, in the book itself." If the controversy is real, it's clearly in violation of copyright. If false—as I suspect—it's an irritating promotional stunt. Either way, we don't want to have anything to do with it.

Bonus Batch of Early Reviewer Books

Random House has once again given us a "bonus batch" of Early Reviewer books. Two books this time, and 230 copies in total.

• Gardens of Water by Alan Drew
• The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari

You have until Tuesday the 22nd to put your requests in:

http://www.librarything.com/er/list

If you requested a book from the big January batch, you'll find out soon if you won a book or not. Go ahead and request one of these too though, you could end up with *two* books this month!

And if free books isn't enough for you, go play with our new Series feature (see the blog post below)!

January Early Reviewers books

January's batch of Early Reviewer books is up! This month has a mix of literary fiction, fantasy, YA fiction, Christian fiction, a memoir, non-fiction, health and how-to books, and more...

Sign up to get free advance copies of books, in exchange for reviews. (Please please please make sure to include your full name and mailing address -- it speeds up getting a book to you if you win one).* More help available in the Early Reviewers Frequently Asked Questions.

Then go ahead and request books to read and review! The list of available books is here: http://www.librarything.com/er/list

This month we have 20 books (495 copies in all) from 10 different publishers:

• Algonquin Books
• B&H Publishing Group
• Bethany House
• Eirini Press
• Hunter House
• Orange Curtain Publishing
• Orbit Books
• Picador
• Shadow Mountain
William Morrow

The deadline to request books from this batch is Tuesday, January 15th at noon, EST.




*The country thing: This month we only have books that can be sent to residents of the US and Canada. I *know* there are interested reviewers in many other countries, and we're trying to find publishers willing to give out books in those countries. I know it's frustrating, but know that I haven't given up yet.

The Somnambulist!

A few days ago, I announced our December batch of Early Reviewer books. One of the books, The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes, immediately shot to the most requested spot. An hour in 200 people wanted a copy. As of right now, 1081 people have requested it—making it by far our most requested Early Reviewer book ever.* Unfortunately, we had only 20 copies to give.

So, I emailed the publisher, William Morrow, and asked if they'd be willing to part with more copies. They readily agreed, and tripled the quantity of books from 20 available copies to 60. So, forty more people will get to read and review The Somnambulist early. Thanks William Morrow!

This batch is shaping up to be popular across the board. I can't stop refreshing the list of Early Reviewer books, it's addictive to see them go.**

On a semi-related note, we also have some cross over between Early Reviewers and our LibraryThing Author program. This month, Spellbinder Press is offering up The Sex Club by L. J. Sellers, one of our LibraryThing Authors! (L.J.'s LibraryThing profile). So after you request her book, go browse through the author's library... We've had several other authors join (or while) their books were up on Early Reviewers. Check out:

• Hillary Jordan / scribblegirl (author of Mudbound)
• Jonathan Trigell / jonnytrig (author of Boy A)
• Paula Bernstein / paulabernstein (co-author of Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited)

*The number kept rising as I was drafting this, and understandably so. It looks fantastic, I plan on reading it myself when it comes out... As one member put it in Talk, "I suspect that's because it's the first thing to show up that has a decidedly fantastical bent to it. The sci-fi fans and fantasy fans groups on LT are two of the largest."
**[Tim's note: If I were eligible, I'd go for The Boat and the Sea of Galilee, about the discovery, excavation and preservation of a first-century boat, something I know a little about from briefly working at the Institute for Nautical Archaeology in Bodrum, Turkey. Unfortunately, I'm not eligible. We need to start getting our own copies, though. Some day we'll want to take a picture of all the books Early Reviewers has released, and we won't be able.]

December Early Reviewer Books

This month's batch of Early Reviewer books is up! Once again, publishers give us advance copies of books, and we give them to you to read and review. Free!

First, sign up to be an Early Reviewer, if you haven't already (and make sure to include you full name and mailing address).

Then go ahead and request the books you'd like to read and review! Check out the Frequently Asked Questions for more help.

The list of available books is here: http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request copies of these books is Saturday, December 15th at noon, EST.

This month we have 24 books (455 copies in total) from the following publishers:

• Aliform Publishing
• Gefen Publishing House
• Leaping Dog Press
• Seasonally Fit Books
• Spellbinder Press
• St. Martin's Press
• Trumpeter Books
• W.W. Norton
• William Morrow

Eligibility: Most of the books are available to residents of the US and Canada. Books from Gefen are available only to residents of Israel and the continental United States. Every book has a flag (or two) beneath the "Request it!" box—check the flag to see whether you're eligible to get that book.

LibraryThing in Hebrew Because we now have an Israeli publisher in the mix, we figured it was time to introduce LibraryThing in Hebrew. So http://il.LibraryThing.com is now officially live and ready for translation. More details in this talk post.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a mash of this month's LTER covers.

Bonus batch of Free Early Reviewer books from Random House

Thanksgiving is a week away and in the spirit of giving, Random House is offering a bonus round of books for LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.

They're giving out four different books (425 copies in total) so it's a big batch!

• Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
• The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block
• Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

The list is here—go forth and request.

You have until noon EST on Wednesday the 21st (that's the day before Thanksgiving) to request a copy. Enjoy!

Free books! November Early Reviewers

The November batch of Early Reviewers books is now up. It's a nice varied list this time. 13 different publishers provided 24 different books, adding up to 600 copies in total.

See all the books and request the ones you'd like to review here: http://www.librarything.com/er/list.

Open to UK residents The big news this round is that we've got a publisher from the UK participating, so one book is available only to residents of the UK! We're still working on opening this up to more countries, so if you don't live in the US, Canada, or the UK, don't give up hope yet!

The deadline to request books this round is Monday, November 12th at noon EST. Check out the rules and Frequently Asked Questions, or talk about the program in the Early Reviewers group.

A big thanks to the following publishers for participating:

Algonquin Books CareTrust Publications Caros Books Demos Medical Publishing

Genealogical Publishing Company Hunter House Hyperion Books Leaping Dog Press Serpent's Tail (UK)

St. Martin's Trumpeter Books W.W. Norton William Morrow

Tim also made up a bunch of new graphics for Early Reviewers—feel free to take them, love them, use them on your blog, proudly proclaim that you're an Early Reviewer. You can find them here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Early_Reviewers_Graphics

We also made the news last week—the Early Reviewer program was mentioned in November's issue of Publishing Trends ("We Won! Publishers Learn That Everyone Loves (to Talk About) a Free Book"), which was also picked up by GalleyCat. Hopefully this will bring more publishers (and thus more free books) our way.

Early Reviewer books on NPR

Two LibraryThing Early Reviewer books have been mentioned recently on NPR, so we figured that deserved some notice here.

The story 'Identical Strangers' Explore Nature Vs. Nurture is about Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein's* Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited.

And Disease, Politics Permeate 'The Air We Breathe' is on Andrea Barrett's The Air We Breathe.


We're still/perpetually looking for more publishers to join our Early Reviewer program—more information here: http://www.librarything.com/forpublishers/

And for aspiring readers/reviewers, we'll announce the November batch of available books soon!

Oh, and Tim wants me to remind everyone about the latest book pile contest (below): Twenty-million books and/or Halloween...

*Paula Bernstein is, incidently, also an official LibraryThing Author.

Free books: October Early Reviewer books

I'm thrilled to announce our October batch of books for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. This is by far our largest batch yet—12 publishing houses, 31 different titles, for a grand total of 578 copies to give out!

Thanks to the following 12 publishers, who contributed fiction, non-fiction, poetry and even children's books:

Algonquin Books Aliform Publishing Bloomberg Press DiaMedica (RES Marketing Alliance)

DK Publishing Hunter House (RES Marketing Alliance) Knopf Nimble Books

Tatra Press William Morrow W.W. Norton Zarahemla Books

See all the books and request the ones you'd like to review here: http://www.librarything.com/er/list.

And here's a mash of all the covers:



The deadline to request one of these books is Wednesday, October 10th at noon EST.

What is Early Reviewers? How do I sign up? Where do I post my review? These questions and more are answered here, in the Early Reviewers FAQ.

There's been some talk lately on how to score a book—so for the record, the basic algorithm is randomness, but other factors come into play. For one thing, LibraryThing's matching algorithm will try to match up books with readers, based on the rest of your LibraryThing catalog. And if you complete a review—good or bad!—you're more likely to get another. Finally, getting a free advanced readers copy comes with NO obligation. Under no circumstances will a bad review change your chance of getting another. More on this in the Rules and Conditions.

Early Reviewers now free to publishers

The short version: We've made LibraryThing Early Reviewers—our program to hook publishers up with LibraryThing members willing to review upcoming books—entirely free for publishers. The response has been huge. We'll have seven publishers and twenty-four titles this October!

The long version: We planned on charging publishers to participate in the program. Publishers were eager to do it even so. Certainly its closest analogue, the Amazon Vine program is charging. (Our sources say "an arm and a leg."). Also, it takes work on our side.

Then we decided: What the heck? Pricing discussions took time and limited the reach somewhat. And we figured out how to automate the process better. When in doubt, we err on the side of openness. More publishers means more books, more books means more happy members, more reviews, and more fun.

We're looking forward to announcing the October batch. So far, we have 7 publishers signed up, with a total of 24 different titles and 420 copies in total. It's a mix of fiction, and non-fiction, with reference and even poetry books on offer. That's a lot of books, and we think it can get even better.

I like to think of Early Reviewers as playing matchmaker between publishers and readers. The idea is a simple one—give free pre-publication books to people in exchange for reviews. But it's surprisingly hard to find the *right* people to review the books. That's where LibraryThing and the whole matchmaker scheme comes in.