Where to Get Review Copies

A friend asked where to get books free or low cost to review.

Lots of places: some require reviews, some just suggest them, some better than others. The selections below are not exhaustive, just the ones I know about. Many of these offer free eBooks rather than print:

Ebook readers for reading on a PC (free):

• Kindle (.mobi files) reader - you can buy a kindle tablet to read these files, but not essential...this is a free software package so you can read on a PC.
• Adobe Digital Editions (.epub files) reader - there are others, but in my opinion this is the one with the least hassle.
• Adobe (.PDF files) Reader

Websites:

★★★★ LibraryThing (http://librarything.com): this website allows you to database your entire book collection, and has two free book sections. (I am a member) The first is the Members section - reviews often requested, but not required, and you can request as many as you like. The second section is the LibraryThing Reviewers - here you request as many as you like although they only will give you one or two (their pick) - and you have to write a review or you won't get anything from the next monthly batch. Some very good indie material here. Highly recommended.

★★★★ BookBub (http://bookbub.com): reviews requested but not required. This is one of the better self-published eBook sites: fewer of the notorious heavy-breathing romance novels than some of the other self-publish places, and some really interesting independent and commercial fiction/non-fiction. Some good reprints, too. NOTE: few of these are free, most are a dollar or two. Highly  recommended.

★★★★ Chicago University Press (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html): this is a real academic publisher, so they have some fantastic offerings (regrettably expensive). They also (astonishingly), offer a freebie every month. No review required. I've gotten free books on the history of Ambergris (the perfume base), the hunt for Nazi spies in Vichy during WWII, and a unique tome on pilgrimages entitled 'Freud's Couch, Scott's Buttocks, Brontes Grave'. (I'm not makng this stuff up.) Highly recommended.

★★★★ Blogging for Books (http://www.bloggingforbooks.org/): these guys will only give you one book at a time, and they require a review before you can have another book. They offer commercially published texts, and I've gotten some wonderful stuff from them: Empire of Sin (a history of New Orleans), The Martian (science fiction about colonizing Mars), Provence 1970 (a memoir about a famous foodie and her memorable writing on French and American food), John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography (spectacular), and an unusual blank journal with question prompts for five years worth of entries. Latest is a novel by Frances Mayes (famous for Under the Tuscan Moon) entitled 'Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir'. Highly recommended.

★ Free Kindle Books : there are numerous services called this, and many contain a lot of junk, but occasionally something good or unusual. Check these out only if you have time to sort through the dross.

★★★★ StoryCartel (https://storycartel.com/): they do nag you for a review, but their ebooks are interesting and you can request multiple ones at a time. Latest one I've gotten is a reference on writing good sentences. Highly recommended.

★★ SweetFreeBooks (http://sweetfreebooks.com/): not all free (some are 1-3 dollars), and mostly tiresome romance novels, but every once in awhile they have something good. (Recently downloaded 'Halal Monk: A Christian on a Journey Through Islam' which looks promising.)

★ The Midlist (https://www.themidlist.com/): another one with the tiresome romance novels, but I'm trying to be thorough here.

★★★★ If you want to download free art books, try the Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications (not clear on this altogether...some are just excerpts, but there are some full texts).

★★★★  NetGalley (http:netgalley.com): a site for "professional readers," including librarians, booksellers, teachers and reviewers, including hobbyist book bloggers. Sign up for free, write a short statement of your interests, and then request multiple books (some to be published in future). Occasionally a publisher will reject the request, but usually not. Reviews strongly encouraged. NOTE: DRM applies to a lot of the books, so they expire after a couple months. I try to get the Kindle versions, which thus far have not expired. Highly recommended.

★ Kindle Book Review: there are two of these with the same name - different organizations, both concentrate on Amazon Kindle reviews. I've signed up but don't have much experience with either one yet. I signed up for both of them, but took down both accounts shortly after. One appeared to be more of a marketing rather than a review organization (they asked me to go to specific Amazon pages and "like" the most positive reviews, even though I had no interest in either the book or the review. I found that dicey.) The other encouraged indie authors to request reviews directly, and the quality of those offerings was very, very low. I quit after the 6th request - only one of which was even marginally worth three stars. The worst one was a cookbook with only 8 recipes, none of which had anything to do with the title of the book (ostensibly weight loss)...when I pointed this out, the author sent me a "revision" with fifteen recipes, under a different pseudonym and title. Not sure what's going on there, but I didn't want to be involved.

• Kindle Book Review (http://www.kindlebookreview.net/)
• Kindle Book Review (https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/)

Kirkus Reviews: this one I'm looking over, trying to figure out whether to apply as a reviewer or not. In 2009, Kirkus Reviews (an established, long-term review organization) went out of business, and parts of it were purchased by someone else who renamed it Kirkus Media. They have a variety of divisions and services.

So, if you have limited time, try Netgalley, StoryCartel, BookBub, or Blogging for Books. (Consider the monthly freebie from Chicago University Press, too.) That should give you more than you can possibly read while the semester is going on.

Gail