Things I Don’t Understand: People Who Are Just After Free Books

I have heard sentences like „Your a book blogger, you don’t have buy books“ or „you get books for free all the time“ countless times and it’s just not true.

Book bloggers work really hard to get to where they are. In the beginning we review the books we own and then publishers and authors get to know us and our blog. It’s a lot of work, it’s time consuming, but it’s what we love. I only started getting contacted about review copies after a few weeks and even after that it’s not guaranteed. Of course there are sites like NetGalley, where you can request books, but it doesn’t mean you get accepted. Publishers also ask on Twitter sometimes, I only answer these requests, if I’m really interested in the book though. Publishers post a lot on Twitter and now comes what I don’t understand: When they just post pictures of book people start asking for review copies, or they ask when they see that someone else has gotten one. Most people do it the direct way, other try to phrase their tweets in a certain way. Of course there is always the possibility to email the publisher directly. That’s ok, I would just like to differ between two things:

-       Honest requests from book bloggers, who put their heart into reading and reviewing

-       People who are just after free books. That can be bloggers or random people.

There are lots of giveaways out there as well and yes I enter them as well. However, I see accounts or people who are just after these and enter every single one of the giveaways. Other than that they barely post anything. Don’t these people have any other hobbies?

I buy a lot of books myself, some because I have reviewed them and loved them so much that I wanted the paperback, other because I just wanted to buy them. I don’t receive a review copy for every book I want to read, but I still want to read it and support the author, so I go out and buy the book. I think I’m speaking for a lot of other book bloggers as well. We love bookstore, we spend hours in them and we also spend a lot of money in them. Our goal is not to receive as many free books as possible, we love books and we are here to support authors and to promote their books.

There are even guides out there explain how you can get free books! What I always find funny are these short reviews you find on Goodreads or Amazon. Yes, we receive books in exchange for an honest review, but there are different ways of reviewing. Sentences like “I absolutely loved the book” or “I didn’t like it” are not reviews. First of all it doesn’t help the author, there are no explanation, no examples. Book bloggers take their time to write down their thoughts and write a proper review. It’s not just “oh well, I will write one sentence and that’s it”. A sentence like that doesn’t even require reading the book and it’s just not fair to us.

What is your opinion on that? Let me know in the comments below.