Fellow bloggers, do you have a certain way you organize your review requests? I have always saved the emails from authors and publishers and tried to keep track of pending review requests that way. But, when my inbox started to overflow, I started losing track of which books I was supposed to read, and when. When I'm part of a blog tour, that takes my panic to a new level: I am always terrified that I'll forget to post my tour stop in time.
Today I decided to make a spreadsheet to organize myself. I ended up with columns for title, author, and the following dates: requested, received, publication, when I read the book, and review date. It took me the better part of two hours to discover that I have 44 pending review requests, only 14 of which I have finished reading. ***massive panic attack*** One of the pending books is from July 2012! ***hangs head in shame***
I have resolved to be better at knowing my limits for accepting review requests, and to try harder with new books, instead of going with books that I know I'll love.
Have you ever found yourself in this predicament? How do you keep track of your review requests?
I keep a spreadsheet too. As soon as I get a book, I enter the details in my spreadsheet and I also enter the book in my LibraryThing account with a tag of review. I also put the date the book will be released or my blog tour date in the comments section for the book. I don't enter anything until I actually get the book. It has happened that I will be asked to review, accept the review request, and the book never arrives. If, like me, you accept both print and digital books for review, you might want to have a column for the format of the book. I have a friend who doesn't do that and spends a lot of time trying to figure out if she is looking for a print book, a PDF, or something on her Kindle. Good luck with organizing!
ReplyDeleteI can't hack it. I'm too temperamental with my reading. I prefer not accept many if any and have freedom. Good luck sweetie!
ReplyDeleteYeah I think it's really important to stay organized once you have more than just a couple review requests.
ReplyDeleteI have a Google calendar entry. Every time I get a new book for review, I put the release date on the calendar. So I can easily look at it to see which book(s) I should read next.
But ADDITIONALLY, whenever I added to a blog tour, I immediately schedule the post for my assigned date. That way when I look at my blog in calendar view (WordPress plugin) I can easily be reminded when I have to read that book for the tour and I never forget!
I have a spreadsheet and I use Google Calendar. As soon as I get a book for review in my possession, I log it in the spreadsheet and it stays in the spreadsheet until my review has posted and the source (author, publisher, NG, E, etc.) has been notified of my review. I list the books in order of publication date and try to read in that order. Though I'm not strict on myself with reading them in order. Google Calendar I use to plan all of my posts. So if I'm participating in a blog/book tour, it goes right into my calendar as soon as the date is booked. I also have my Google Calendar color-coded so I know which posts are already scheduled and which still need to be.
ReplyDelete