By Jenny Blake
Today I am talking about (ACRBA) Australian ChristianReaders Blog Alliance and how it can help you as an author and some of you may
be able to help us.
Firstly A little background on what ACRBA is how and it came
about. Several years back Narelle Atkins and I were talking about blog
alliances and how many were no longer sending books to Australian and New
Zealand readers unless they could get the book as an e-book. As a member of
several alliances I was saying how much as a reader I enjoy being able to
review books and promote authors. We got talking about how it would be nice to
be able to support Australasian Authors and through this the alliance was
formed.
From there we created a blog page and started recruiting
reviewers and then authors and publishers. We do review overseas books as well
as Australasian but first preference goes to books from this area. We read both
print books and eBooks but at present have several members who can only read
print books.
We do not charge for blog tours unlike some alliances the
only cost is the books that are requested. We send out requests to our members
and if they would like to review the book we will then send on the information
to the author or publisher. If you are an author who wishes to tour with us we
have a form on the blog to fill in and submit chapter one, and a blurb of the
book. Publishers can also fill in the form. We also ask if you will send print
or eBooks and how many you are willing to send. We understand it the costs and
want to help authors as much as possible.
For reviewers the requirement is to have an active blog and
to post the information we provide and a review. We also would like reviewers
to post a review on sites such as Amazon, Goodreads and Koorong. We also
encourage reviewers not requesting a book to post the information to help
promote the books. We do encourage bloggers to read at least one book every 3
months. The exceptions are if you are only reading one genre such as children’s
books or non-fiction.
Now to part of the reason for this blog post we need help.
We recently lost some of our reviewers due to a few reasons most being they are
not blogging or don’t have time to read books. We need new reviewers. If you
enjoy reading and would like a free book we are interested in hearing from you.
As mentioned we send out the info on the books and you can request the books
that appeal to you. We do however request you average one book every 3 months.
We also would like you to post the HTML of books you are not reviewing during
the blog tour week to give the authors more exposure. We also have a form at
our blog to fill in.
We also have a category called friends of ACRBA for bloggers
who want to help promote the books and will post the HTML on their blog during
the week we tour the books. This also provides free blog content you can use on
your blog and we even provide the code for the tour. The tour is always the
first full week of the month.
Links:
Submissions: http://acrba.blogspot.com.au/p/submissions.html
Applications for reviewer or Friends of ACRBA: http://acrba.blogspot.com.au/p/application.html
JENNY BLAKE (aka Ausjenny) is an avid reader. When not reading she enjoys watching cricket, in fact you could call her a cricket fanatic, scrapbooking and jigsaws. She volunteers at the local Christian bookshop where she can recommend books to customers. Her book blog is where she reviews books and interview authors. Her goal is to help promote new books and encourage authors. Her blog is at http://ausjenny.blogspot.com and is Co-Founder of http://acrba.blogspot.com
Hi Jenny, I think ACRBA is a great idea - and was happy a tour for some of my books. I can remember looking at joining up as a reviewer a couple of years ago but the requirement at time (from memory) was to post several times a month. I'd love to review for ACRBA on Jenny's Thread and/or Fantasy Trekkers (as appropriate) & reviews on Goodreads, though my blogs may not as active as you prefer.
ReplyDeleteJeanette even if you don't have as active a blog its ok, we are relaxing that requirement too as long as you do post. Even if you just post the HTML would be wonderful which is where the friends of ACRBA comes in.
ReplyDeleteif you go to the form and fill it in would be helpful.
Okay will do :)
DeleteDone
DeleteI enjoy reviewing for ARCBA - it gives me access to some books I might not know about otherwise, and it gives me the opportunity to support Australian and New Zealand authors.
ReplyDeleteThanks Iola
DeleteI may be interested. I used to do this for another group, but then they started to object to sending books to Japan, where I live (but I am an Aussie). Would that be a problem?
ReplyDeleteWendy, Some of our publishers will send overseas (they send to New Zealand) and many do have an Ebook format if that helps. As mentioned if you just want to help us by posting the code would also be a huge help. We do provide it.
DeleteI'm not sure what you mean by "posting the code". Are you talking about a website link?
DeleteWendy do you have a blog? if so there are two options. compose and HTML we post the HTML to paste into the blog to save you having to write your own.
ReplyDelete