1. What happens if I don't get the book on time? The book tour organizer will be contacting you about 3 weeks prior to the tour to see if you’ve received the book. Feel free to contact us if you don’t receive the book at least three weeks before you’re to review it.
2. Is there a specific time to publish my post on the day I'm scheduled for the tour? Please publish your post before 10 am Eastern time.
3. What do you expect from my book review? We expect your honest opinion. Authors and publishers appreciate more than just a few lines, however. Ideally, your review should be at least 150 words. Here are some handy tips to keep in mind when reviewing a book:
Write your honest thoughts about the book. Did it capture and hold your attention? Did you enjoy the story? What did you like about it? Was there anything you didn't like and why? What about the setting, characters and plot? If you are reviewing a children's book, make sure to comment on the illustrations. The answers to these types of questions will be more helpful and interesting for your audience than simply writing a book report that just summarizes what the book is about.
Be careful not to provide "spoilers" when reviewing fiction. Please don't ruin the story for others by telling key details that unfold or reveal how the book ends. This is especially true when you review suspense and mystery novels.
If you write a long review, please be sure to use paragraph breaks so that the review is easier to read.
Remember that a review is about the book and its content. You may agree or disagree with what the books says or how it is written, but being personally critical of the author doesn't offer your audience much value.
4. What do you expect from your tour hosts?
First and foremost, we look for reliable tour hosts.
Your blog must be at least 6 months old.
As a tour host, you agree to receive email requests to participate in book tours where you can opt in or simply ignore if not interested. In exchange for a free book or ARC (advance review copy) you will agree to post a review (or book spotlight, interview, guest post) expressing your honest opinion about the book.
Your review will be posted on the date you are scheduled to participate for the tour you choose to host. We provide a press release with all the book's information, including the author's bio and photo.
If you cannot post on the date scheduled, you will inform the tour coordinator to reschedule.
Ideally, your review should be at least 150 words.
We love tour hosts who also cross-post their reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and other sites.
We prefer family friendly sites, however if your blog contains material unsuitable for viewers under 18, please indicate this on your blog.
We reserve the right to remove you from our tour host list if you do not reply to our emails, if you do not post your reviews without good reason or write reviews with derogatory or rude comments
5. Would you like me to post my review elsewhere? We would love for you to post a review on other sites such as Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Nobles, Chapter Indigo, Book Depository, etc.
6. What if I don't like the book I'm reviewing? You are not obliged to review a book that makes you uncomfortable. However, we need you to email us to let us know you will not be posting your review. In addition, we will provide you with information on the book, including its content, when we send our request to you. This should help you decide if it’s a book you want to review or showcase on your blog. You are entitled to your opinion (that’s what a review is, after all!) so feel free to mention both what you liked or did not like about the book.
7. Can I request physical books? Yes, but not at first. To protect our authors, new tour hosts are restricted to digital format for their first five reviews. You may request mobi for kindle, epub, pdf, audible download (depending on what digital formats are available for the tour). After you follow through with your commitment and post five reviews in a timely fashion, then you may receive physical books for subsequent tours. Sadly, we have been forced to develop this policy due to a rash of bloggers signing up for multiple tours, only to drop out of the tour or go MIA without posting reviews after receiving several physical books.
Here is the content rating system we use. It is very similar to the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system.
G = For general audience. Depictions of violence are minimal. No bad language, religious expletives, sex scenes, drug use or underage drinking.
PG = No f-words but there may be some mild profanity, and mild religious expletives such as "damn", "hell" and "Oh God!", some depictions of violence or brief sexual content (kissing). No drug use or underage drinking.
PG + M = same as PG but includes mature themes (abortion, suicide, adultery, sexual or physical abuse)
PG-13 = Includes some f-words, religious profanities (such as "God d*mn", "Jesus Christ!" and other crude terms such as "*sshole", "d*ck", "sh*t") non-explicit sex scenes (no description of the sex act or private body parts), and violence.
PG-13 + M = same as PG-13 but includes mature themes (abortion, suicide, adultery, sexual or physical abuse)
R = Includes f-words and profanities throughout, intense or persistent violence, explicit sex scenes, drug abuse or other elements.
7. What information should I include in my book tour post? For book spotlights, we will send you all the info and you need only copy and paste it into your blog post. For book reviews, please include along with your review the information we will provide in the press release: book cover image, author bio and pic and any author links to their social media, if you wish. You may also include the blog tour stops or the link to the blog tour home page. At the bottom of your post please indicate that you received a complimentary copy from iRead Book Tours in exchange for an honest opinion of the book.
8. Can I reschedule my tour stop or cancel if something prevents me from participating in the tour? We appreciate that as a tour host you are voluntarily helping to spread the word about authors and their books. Therefore, if circumstances prevent you from keeping your commitment, we understand. Life is full of surprises! So contact us immediately and we will either try to reschedule or find another tour host to replace your spot. If you do not post without a reason, we reserve the right to remove you from our tour host list. It makes us look bad when an author send you his book and we get nothing in return.
9. How do author interviews work? We will either provide you with Q&A already prepared that you just need to copy and paste on your blog, or you can make up your own questions for the author. The choice will depend on the availability of the author. In the latter case, we ask that you give the author two weeks to answer your questions.
10. How do guest posts work? We will either provide you with a guest post already prepared that you just need to copy and paste on your blog, or you can send the topic for a guest post to the author. The choice will depend on the availability of the author. In the latter case, we ask that you give the author two weeks to write up the guest post.
11. How do book giveaways work? It depends on the author or publisher. We will inform you when organizing the tour if there is a giveaway and all the info pertaining to it. The author or publisher will be responsible for sending the book out to the winner. It’s advisable to have a giveaway policy on your blog. Here is an example: http://libraryofcleanreads.blogspot.ca/p/giveaway-policy.html
12. Do you offer tour host incentives? Yes, we do! We give our tour hosts credits for their published posts. For every 20 credits - can be gained by posting reviews, book spotlights, guest posts or interviews) you will get a $10 PayPal gift card. Posting your review on Goodreads will count as one credit, and posting on Amazon and Audible will count as two credits each, therefore, accelerating your number of credits. All you need to do is submit the links to your reviews. Therefore: 20 credits = $10 PayPal Gift Card! So far we've given hundreds of gift cards to out bloggers!
13. Can I refer your tour host program to another blogger? Yes, of course! We would love that.