Here's the Thing: From Library Thing. Guest Blogged by Annette Fix

Today Annette Fix is guest blogging on a resource that many authors aren't aware of. If you will soon have a book out, for heaven's sake, copy it and save it. ~~ CHJ

If anyone is at the stage where they are ready to send out ARCs for reviews, I highly recommend signing up with the Early Reviewer Program through www.librarything.com.

Library Thing will post your cover image, the back cover copy of your book, and the number of copies you are willing to provide. Their members then have the opportunity to "bid" on receiving a copy. When you sign up for the program, you give Library Thing a list of similar books and their system uses that list to pair your book with the most suitable readers out of the members who bid for the book. Library Thing then emails you an address list of the members who have been selected. Then, you are responsible for mailing out the individual copies to each member.

There were 462 members who bid to receive my memoir, The Break-Up Diet, but I only listed 60 copies available. I mailed the ARCs out on January 28th to the members who had been chosen. And the reviews are beginning to come in! Sixteen, so far. The reviews have been posted on Library Thing (of course), but also cross-posted on Amazon, Facebook (by the readers), and on the readers' personal blogs. You can see how Library Thing posts the reviews here: http://www.librarything.com/work/4670669/reviews

Overall, I think this is a fabulous service that gets your book into the hands of readers, helps spread the word/visibility, and succeeds in getting early reviews posted on Amazon. (So you don't have to bribe your friends to post something! LOL)

My next step is to contact those 402 readers who *didn't* get a copy...

Annette Fix
Author of The Break-Up Diet
www.thebreak-updiet.com
Visit the *new* Break-Up Story Forum
Read. Share. Relate.
www.mybreakupstory.com (launches Valentine's Day)
Senior Editor: www.wow-womenonwriting.com

--------
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.