Well why not write to the publisher in question? If you offer to review it on your related web site or are willing to test a book is technically correct prior to publication, then they may let you have complimentary review copies of the book you want to provide info or feedback for...

I just wish I knew this sooner - could have saved myself a fortune! Oh well, they were all worth it!

Great idea!

Who all has done that? (Get a book free to review.) Sounds like an excellent idea.

This is kinda' braggin' rights then, huh?

What's a good approach to present this to a publisher/author?

Dave

Hi Tiggy,

That does sound like a great idea; I wonder why I didn't think of it any sooner! The only problem is that they probably would require you to have a pretty popular website before they agree to such a deal.

I would like to ask the same question as DMo224. Has anybody tried this? If so, I would be interested in hearing what happened, and any suggestions you may provide.

I'm glad conker asked that......I was getting ready to ask again.

Dave

I didn't reply as I'm still waiting for my first shipment of books... I started out by writing the first review of a relatively new book I owned and then asking for permission to use exerpts and details. They happened to ask if I was getting the support and listed some of the benefits, even mentioned they were willing to come to an agreement for discounts for site members or prizes for giveaways...

Or course, your milage will very.

I guess it's about time I updated this thread...

This is working out well for me - so far I've had 8 books sent to me for review, ranging in price from $20 - $60 at retail per book. Of course, it is a lot of work to read the books from cover to cover, but it is worth it - particularly if they are books that you are going to use to "better your knowledge" anyway.

It is a win - win situation in my case. I get access to a wider range of books (I don't have to be as choosy as I would be were I paying for them for my own use). I'm no longer limited to the "technical stuff" I would normally go for - I'm looking at more books suited to the beginner now which means I've got a wider range of reviews for my visitors regardless of skill level. Another good thing is that I have more information on a topic readily available to me when I come to write new material for the site.

As for the publisher, they get a review on a site that is targetted towards the people they want to sell to. I can put the idea for a particular book in the minds of my visitors by saying that I've read it and it could be what they are looking for... finally, the publishers are free to use my reviews to promote their books as they see fit - who knows, I may end up getting a quote on the back cover of a 2nd edition of something I've reviewed!

In my experience, the size and scale of the target audience didn't come into play... there were no questions about the number of page views or visitors I had. I think the main reason they were willing to send out reveiw copies is that I could put my reviews in front of some of their target audiences...

If you are thinking of approaching a publisher to try and organise review copies but not sure if it's the right thing to do - I've just one thing to say.

You'll never know unless you try... and once you have a foot in the door, you'll open yourself up to new opportunities.

My site is now starting to pay for itself - even if I barely (if ever) recover the costs of hosting.

wow tiggy that was a really bright idea, hehe imma start 'testing' out all the new star wars books from now on,

Originally posted by Tiggy
If you are thinking of approaching a publisher to try and organise review copies but not sure if it's the right thing to do - I've just one thing to say.

You'll never know unless you try... and once you have a foot in the door, you'll open yourself up to new opportunities.

I've been thinking about it and have finally done it too. Well, I made the offer to review; the answer is yet to come.

Dave

Originally posted by DMo224
I've been thinking about it and have finally done it too. Well, I made the offer to review; the answer is yet to come.
Dave

I hope it works out for you like it did for me... but like they say, you never know unless you try...

tiggy where do YOU go to test out the books?

Originally posted by ghettocars
tiggy where do YOU go to test out the books?

Me? I don't go anywhere - I have the books sent direct to my door. If you want to know what publisher I'm currently getting my review copies from - then a quick look at my last three reviews and a bit of deduction would reveal that Osborne McGraw-Hill are the publishers that are sending me review copies (I've not approached O'Reilly yet, I've still got a lot of O'Reilly titles left that I bought because I wanted that I can review in the meantime)...

From what I've read on the Amazon associates message board, there are several others regularly recieving books from McGraw-Hill for review purposes.

ohh ok, so you send like letters to their companies and ask for reviewing and give them your site URL. not bad, not bad. I got to hand it to you tiggy, that is one smart scheme of yours.

Actually Gettocars, I bought a book of theirs - reviewed it then emailed them asking if it was OK to use their book cover image and if I could list the table of contents (which are full of keywords and useful for Google rankings!)...

They were flattered that I reviewed the book and just wanted to make sure I had all the support (in the way of review copies, discount codes etc) I needed. I just took them up on the offer... I didn't specifically ask for the review copies until I knew they were available to me.

I just wanted to point out to people that there are publishers out there who are willing to provide review copies in exchange for a review... and that is surely worth something to someone.

Great idea Tiggy.

I was just wondering if this would work for other products. If you had a car related site could you persuade ford (or better still ferrari) to give you a car for a week so you can do a write up.

What about a site that reviews wines or holidays or... almost anything?

Might be time to start registering some domain names www.daves-beer-review.com

I would say it but then I guess chief and dave will get mad at me. Its hilarious though.

Nice site-- I did this when I was a medical student and wanted to try out some medical education software I couldn't afford. Set up a website and got $1000's of software. Mind you this was back in 1995, when companies didn't know what to do with the internet but it was fun while it lasted.

Welcome to Webmaster-Talk shockdoc and Nice site