5 5

Join the GraveTells Review Team

Is reading your passion?

Do you love vampires, and fairies, and weres, oh my?!

Do you like to share the books you love with others?

Do you find yourself taking notes on the books you read, or bookmarking pages with snazzy quotes?

Have you looked at our review archive and thought “Hey, why isn’t X author in here? Where is series Y?!”

If you answered “Yes” or “Hellz yeah!” or even “ZOMG HOW DID YOU KNOW?!” to all of those questions, you might enjoy joining the GT review team.  We’re looking for a few new reviewers to help handle the increase in new review requests we’ve had lately, and we want to cover more of the classics of the genre that aren’t currently represented in our review archives.  We know you probably have a few questions, so here’s the answers to a few of them…

[starlist]

  • If you have your own review site or blog, YES you can still join our team. We’ll work out the deets with you before you join to be sure we both know what to expect.
  • If you prefer to only review a specific genre, like YA or UF, YES you can still join our team. Our reviewers choose their own books out of a provided list, so what you choose to review from that list is completely up to you.
  • NO, you won’t have to pay for any of the books we ask you to review – they are provided to us by the authors or publishers free of cost for review purposes.  However, if you choose to review a book from outside the review list, then yes, you’d be responsible for acquiring that yourself.
  • NO, you do not need an e-reader.  A few of the books we receive are available in paperback, but most are digital.  We can convert the digital file to any format you need, including PDF, MOBI, or EPUB, all of which can be read on a computer (with the right free software).
  • NO, we do not require you to do a specific number of reviews per month.  We ask that you do at least one each month, but if you have personal circumstances that require your attention, that takes precedence!
  • YES, you can post your reviews to GoodReads, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, etc after they go live on GT (I encourage you to!).  We only ask that you wait until the review goes live on our site, then give GraveTells a nod in your review.  More info will be provided when you join the team.
  • YES, we are a NetGalley affiliate and get some of our review books from there.  If you choose to review a NG title, you’ll be required to make a NetGalley account and submit your review to them on your own.  We’ll give you the format and any help you need, so no worries about that.
  • YES, you will get your own bio page on GraveTells, where you can post links to your personal sites or promote yourself.
  • YES, you can join our team if you are an author, as long as you can give impartial ratings and write honest reviews (whether negative or positive).  Authors generally have a good eye for quality stories and a killer skillset for writing reviews.
  • You will usually have at least 3 weeks to read and review a book, often longer.  If you know up front that you read slower and will require more time, we can work with that.  =)
  • NO, you won’t get paid for doing this.  None of us do.  (I know, it makes me sad too!)  If you decide to review for GT, you should do it because you love reading, writing, and helping others find books that will fit them.

[/starlist]

 

So that covers the major questions.  Here are a few things we’re looking for in our new review team members…

[diamondlist]

  • You must be able to meet deadlines.  We use email, Google Calendar, and a private Facebook group to conduct most of our business, and you need to be responsive and dependable.
  • You must have excellent communication skills, in both the technical aspects (grammar, spelling, word usage) AND composition.  If you’re in doubt about what that means, go here and read some of these reviews.  New reviewers should be able to meet or exceed this standard.
  • You must be able to concisely give your thoughts on a book without including spoilers.  Yep, that can be a little tough and it’s harder than it looks.  =)  You’ll get the hang of it!
  • You must be able to adapt to the GraveTells rating system.  You may have already reviewed and rated a book, say on GoodReads or your own site, but our rating standard might differ from yours and it’s important to be sure the score you give matches the descriptions shown here.
  • You must be able to write a less-than-positive review without coming off as bitchy or catty.  Authors are people too and this is their work we’re deconstructing.  Our purpose is to give the readers an honest overview while also giving useful feedback and critique to the authors (when possible).

[/diamondlist]

So!  If you’re still reading, interested, think you may be qualified, and I haven’t completely scared you off yet, go here to fill out the application form.  You can also get to it via our top menu, one of the dropdowns under “Home”.  We look forward to hearing from you!