Book Haven discussion

If you have any questions about the group or website... Post them here. We will try to respond ASAP. :)

Hi J.D. & Nissie,

I was wondering if my book could be considered.

Thanks so much.

M.G. Wells

LightMasters: Number 13

MG wrote: "Hi J.D. & Nissie,

I was wondering if my book could be considered.

Thanks so much.

M.G. Wells

LightMasters: Number 13"

We do "Book Haven Author" Group Reads twice per year. :) This way its fair to the group readers and authors. When we do the Author group reads, I separate the authors into 3 polls. They go up against similar authors and the group members vote for the 3 they want to read. Those 3 are them read for that month. ;)

Am I missing something? Where are the group reads for October? I see Sept still up and Nov coming up next.

Is appropriate to post book review requests here?

Thank you,
Donna McDine

Hi, I would like to post this:

Hi,

Here's a link for an exclusive Interview with the author of The Sulphur Diaries, Georgina Kamsika.

http://rfcoles.com/wp/?p=1264

You are invited to leave a comment.

However, I thought I'd ask the moderator permission first, and for her or him to choose a suitable place for the post.

Thank you.

Robert F. Coles

Rfcoles wrote: "Hi, I would like to post this:

Hi,

Here's a link for an exclusive Interview with the author of The Sulphur Diaries, Georgina Kamsika.

http://rfcoles.com/wp/?p=1264

Hi, the best place for that post would be in either the folder titled "Authors" or "Promotional Discussions" and I appreciate you asking. :)
I have an author friendly group so long as when they are mentioning anthing promotional, they put it in the areas I made especially for them. :) I'm considering making a folder for bloggers too. Not sure yet though... We have over 3000 members now, which means there must be a lot of bloggers here by now...

Question: Are we allowed to start discussions ourselves on any book we happen to be reading?

Nyssa wrote: "Question: Are we allowed to start discussions ourselves on any book we happen to be reading?"

Of course! :) You can start as many threads as you would like. Just try to make sure it's in the correct folder. :)

J.D. wrote: "Nyssa wrote: "Question: Are we allowed to start discussions ourselves on any book we happen to be reading?"

Of course! :) You can start as many threads as you would like. Just try to make sure it'..."

Okay. Thanks. I just wanted to be sure. :)

Nyssa wrote: "J.D. wrote: "Nyssa wrote: "Question: Are we allowed to start discussions ourselves on any book we happen to be reading?"

Of course! :) You can start as many threads as you would like. Just try to ..."

No problem. :)

What's the policy on asking for a review from a group member in exchange for a copy of your book? Is there a forum for that? Or is it preferable to contact them privately?

Treading carefully in learning this New Member Two-Step. :-)

Jonathan wrote: "What's the policy on asking for a review from a group member in exchange for a copy of your book? Is there a forum for that? Or is it preferable to contact them privately?

Treading carefully i..."

There is a folder called "Authors" and another titled "Giveaways" if you would like to post it there. Otherwise, contacting them privately is preferred. However, many members dislike getting those types of emails. I suggest posting the thread in the author section. That way if someone is interested they will reply, but you won't be sending emails to people who dislike getting them. :)

are there any current group reads/discussions? I post a lot in the what am I reading folder and am trying to find members who are currently reading the same book as I am so to have an "as reading" discussion to share thoughts on the book. Any ideas where a good folder to post this into would be? I really am looking for more interaction with this group. :)

What is the policy of an author continually opening a folder for one message to promote her books. Other groups have one or two folders for this purpose so I'm wondering.

I posted this in a different thread, but maybe this is the one I needed to use. I was wondering if there is going to be any more books chosen as the group read? The last one was for March 1st - April 1st and none since. I really like the idea of a group read to discuss.

Is there a moderator for this group. I think not so maybe somebody should step up to the plate. JD the moderator listed hasn't answered a question since March. I wonder how one goes about becoming a moderator. Maybe we need to ask a moderator of a different group.

I think that is a good idea Nancy. I think that maybe this group has been left to itself. I have no idea about becoming a moderator. Once it is found out maybe a new thread on who would like to become a moderator would be good. I am in another group, maybe I can find out how it is done.

I messaged J.D. to see if she was still the moderator of the group. Will let you know her answer.

Hi everyone. I just received a message from J.D. and she is still moderating the group. She said she has had a lot going on lately and will be back soon. So that is good news and I hope she returns soon.

I don't want to post in the wrong place or do the wrong thing, so I would prefer to ask the moderators directly...
I am an independent author who has just won a silver medal in the fantasy section of the 2012 Readers' Favourites Book Awards with my novel A Thousand Glass Flowers. I'm wondering if there are book bloggers who might like to conduct interviews or similar.
Thank you so much.

J.D.,
Is it appropriate to promote upcoming free Kindle versions of one's novel on this site?
Sincerely,
David

Hi,
I am a new member of this group and newly active on Goodreads. Even though I joined a year or so ago I have been too busy to participate much. I am also an author. My book is being released in August, although it is available as a pre-order on Amazon.
Just getting my feet wet here and trying to learn my way around. BTW, thanks for starting a group for people who like many genres!
Jan Krause Greene

Hi is everyone here aware of the 'tightened' up ToS re writing reviews and naming shelves?

No, I am not aware. Please explain!

Thanks,
Jan

Jan wrote: "No, I am not aware. Please explain!

Thanks,
Jan"Goodreads Feedback discussion

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Announcements > Important Note Regarding Reviews

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message 1: by Kara, Director, Customer Care (last edited Sep 23, 2013 02:54pm) Sep 20, 2013 07:08pm
Kara | 1516 comments Since our inception, Goodreads has lived by a few simple principles with our reviews. You can see our full policy in our review guidelines, but at a high level, we believe:

1. Reviews should be about the book. If you think a book is a masterpiece, tell people why. If you hated the book, say so. If it had potential but fell short, share your perspective.

2. Members are not permitted to harass or threaten other people. We have always dealt with this promptly when it has been brought to our attention.

We have done our best to uphold these tenets, and they aren’t changing. But we recently recognized that we can do a better job enforcing them, particularly in the small number of situations where tensions start to run high. We took a long, hard look at our guidelines and how we moderate Goodreads and identified some areas where we can be clearer and where we can improve. I wanted to share with you some of the changes we are now making:

**Make it easier for anyone who feels concerned about content on Goodreads to get help from Goodreads staff. We have now improved the visibility of our flag button, and have added the ability to flag inappropriate friend requests. Of course, people can also reach us through [email protected]. If you see any inappropriate content or behavior on Goodreads, please use these options. We’re here to deal with this so that individual members don’t have to.

**Better education for authors about Goodreads and our review guidelines. It’s clear that some problems have come up because some authors who are new to Goodreads don’t know what’s appropriate on Goodreads and/or take matters into their own hands rather than flagging content that they feel is inappropriate. We’ve therefore revised our author guidelines to make them clearer. We’re also working on improving how we introduce new authors to Goodreads.

**Delete content focused on author behavior. We have had a policy of removing reviews that were created primarily to talk about author behavior from the community book page. Once removed, these reviews would remain on the member’s profile. Starting today, we will now delete these entirely from the site. We will also delete shelves and lists of books on Goodreads that are focused on author behavior. If you have questions about why a review was removed, send an email to [email protected]. (And to answer the obvious question: of course, it’s appropriate to talk about an author within the context of a review as it relates to the book. If it’s an autobiography, then clearly you might end up talking about their lives. And often it’s relevant to understand an author’s background and how it influenced the story or the setting.)

We recognize that not everyone is going to agree with our approach. People have different - and often quite strongly held - viewpoints about what should and should not be allowed in a review. We’ve had suggestions that no GIFs should be allowed, reviews should be limited to 300 words only, reviews should only be allowed if you have read the book to the very last page, etc.

What we try to do is provide room for our members’ own personal approach within our overall principles rather than set rigid guidelines. We’ve found it has worked well for the community overall so far and is something that readers value.

By the way, to put things in context, every day we have more than 30,000 reviews written on Goodreads and, on average, only a handful are flagged as inappropriate. That means 99.99% of new reviews are happily within our guidelines. (Funnily enough, we get way more flags from people asking us to add a spoiler alert to a review than any other type of flagged review.)

We think we have something special here with the Goodreads community and we want to support and protect that. Thank you for being part of this. As always, we welcome your feedback on these changes and on how to make Goodreads a better place for readers and authors.

Jan this has caused a lot of concern, there is an on going thread over on the Goodreads Feedback Group.....

Thanks, Adrienne. I will check it out.
Jan

Hi I am just join and was wondering how the group worked and what are some of its rules and guidelines?

Could you consider my books to be added to the group? I have one YA fantasy adventure entitled The Secrets Of Yashire. Here is a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Yashire...

And a women's mainstream fiction book entitled Breaking The Silence:
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Silenc...

I hope you find them to be a good addition to the group! Thanks a bunch! :)

Hi, I'm new to here and I've looked around and said hello on the newbie's thread. I would like to offer a FREE copy of my new book for early readers, but I'm not sure what thread to put it into.

It's a dark thriller and its getting some great buzz and reviews from the community here. There seems to be loads of threads here with giveaways, but I'm not sure where I'm supposed to put the offer and I don't want to break any rules. Thanks for your help. The book isDeadly Messengers. Great group name: Book Haven. Love it!

I'm just curious why a post from 2012 is still on the front page xD

I would just like to introduced my new novel The Beekeeper's Daughter, which was published in late November 2016. It crosses genres from dark romance, historical fiction and gothic thriller. I didn't know where to post this:

The Beekeeper’s Daughter is a romantic supernatural thriller. It is a story of the passion and unwavering love between Annabel, The Beekeeper’s Daughter and Jevan, the blacksmith’s son.  After she meets Alex, the self-assured and arrogant heir to the foreboding Gothelstone manor house, Annabel begins unravelling the dark and sinister secret of the Saltonstall legacy.
 
As Annabel and Jevan struggle with events beyond their control, she must risk everything to stop a wicked plan from being fulfilled, destroy a powerful adversary and save the man she loves.
 
This dark and intriguing tale is primarily set in the Victorian era, on Exmoor in South West England.

Hi Mods.

I'm always on the look out for bloggers that will post about new releases cover reveals and discounted books.

Where can I find them and how or where can I ask for them?

Many thanks.

I was wondering I recently was awarded book of the month and I would love to be consider or maybe get feed back on my book is that something you guys do here.

My Story is kinda tough

To Introduce myself I have a tough story but I love reading and writing.

This is very hard to write, but when I was in the 3rd grade I was bullied so badly I wanted to kill myself. All because I was shy, quiet and awkward. I was thrown in the boy’s bathroom by these 3 particular kids who would punch and kick me as hard as they could. I could barely walk as everyday they would abuse me over, and over again. The other kids in school would just laugh at me and no one helped. In fact, those same kids who watched and knew about my abuse would just join in, tease me, and they even threw food at me during lunch. My mom came to school so much to fight for me, but it didn’t help. I had just about given up living in this world. Somehow God saved me and I found writing. It was an outlet to take me away from the pain I was going through in this world. I wanted to create different characters, and a different world just to escape. Writing really saved my life. Now at 42 I just released my first novel. My Dead Blue Caterpillar. I live in New Jersey with four kids and my beautiful wife I have overcame many odds and I would love to meet new friends and talk about books...

You have lived through hard times, R.D., and I'm glad to see things are different now. Those hard times have given you a rich seam to mine characters and situations. Charles Dickens, one of our greatest writers of course, had hard times growing up and look how he used those experiences and look how successful he was.

You have stories to tell and you probably can bring out some good themes and give each story a moral. Good luck.