I just joined the YABC Community. What do I do now?
Hey, thanks for joining! We’re so happy you’re here! There are many ways to start interacting with the YABC Community. Post a review of a recent book you read, add a book to our database that isn’t there, upload an avatar, send some friend requests, enter our giveaways, browse book listings, check out some community videos. Whatever you choose to do on YABC, we hope you have fun and spread the word about all the awesome new books you discover here.
REVIEWS:
Guidelines:
We do not allow flaming or trolling. Your reviews should be helpful to the book community. You can certainly post a negative review if you didn’t like a book, but you must explain why you didn’t like it in a helpful and courteous manner.
You may only post your own review. Copying and pasting other readers’ reviews from other sites onto a review for your own book will result in those reviews being deleted and may result in you being banned from this site.
Please do not use profanity or post meaningless gobbledygook. Your review will just be deleted.
Do not flag a review unless it has inappropriate content. Our staff must personally assess each flagged review, and flagging for the fun of it just wastes time for everyone involved.
Negative or harassing comments on reviews will not be tolerated. Your membership may be revoked and your comments deleted. Again, it’s just a waste of time.
Reviews that YABC’s management suspect are paid reviews to try to boost a book’s rating will be deleted.
Submitting a Book for Review:
We accept review requests from indie authors (small press, independent press, and self pub) and traditionally published authors (mid to large-sized press, such as Candlewick, Harper Collins, Entangled, Scholastic etc). We have a dedicated review team for both. (All reviewers must pass the same application and receive the same training. This is simply how we divide our work load.) All books received will be featured in one of our monthly Book Hauls (either for paperback copies or e-copies). Please read our review policies below.
If you are with a small press, an independent press, or are self-published, please send a pitch letter to [email protected] for consideration. If you are with a mid to large-sized press, please send a pitch letter to [email protected] for consideration. A pitch letter should include the book’s title, genre, publisher, link to Amazon listing (if available), release date, synopsis, and contact person’s name and email. If we think our staff reviewers would enjoy your book, we’ll contact you with where to send it. Please do not send multiple pitch letters for the same book, and only pitch one book (or series) per pitch letter. Only pitches whose books we decide to request will receive a response.
Traditionally Published Review Policy: We do not guarantee reviews. All books received at our office go into our monthly Book Haul to introduce the title to our staff and give them a chance to request books for review. Any book not requested goes into the subsequent month’s haul. Any book not requested at that time moves to our prize shelf for use in YABC giveaways or donations to local charities.
Indie Review Policy: We cannot guarantee reviews, and unfortunately, we are unable to respond to review status inquiries. You will receive an email notification if/when your review is posted. All books received go into our monthly eBook Haul to give our staff a chance to request books for review. Any book not requested goes into the subsequent month’s eBook Haul. Any ebook not requested at that time will most likely not be reviewed. When sending your ebooks, please include the following information: Title, author, publisher, release date, available formats (MOBI files or download links are preferred but we do accept EPUB or PDF files as well), also include an email address where we may contact you if and when a review posts. Books MUST be listed on our site to be considered for review. When your review copies are received and your book is not listed on the site at that time, the book will not be sent to our reviewers.
IMPORTANT: Do not contact our staff reviewers directly with review requests. They will not respond. Repeated contacts will result in your email being blocked. .
What’s the deal with the review books at YABC? Do publishers pay you?
The short answer to that is no. Publishers and authors do not pay YA Books Central editors to post reviews. Click here for the full disclosure. That said, trade publishers are the main supporters of YABC. Their tireless marketing efforts drive continuous traffic to our site, keeping YABC alive. This allows us to grow as a reading community.
COVER REVEALS, ADS, INTERVIEWS, SOCIAL MEDIA & MORE:
Interested in scheduling promotion with us? We offer a wide variety of services, including cover reveals, Instagram giveaways, Twitter and Facebook posts, interviews, newsletter ads, site ads, and more. Contact: [email protected] for the most current prices and scheduling availability.
CONTACT INFO:
General Inquiries about our blog, reviews, advertising, or social media: [email protected]
Indie book info: [email protected]
Due to the overwhelming amount of inquiries we receive daily, it may take up to a week or more to receive a response. Please do not email more than once. If your question is answered on this FAQs page, then your email may not be answered at all. We hold regular office hours Monday through Friday.
GENERAL INFO:
I don’t agree with a book review I saw on this site! What can I do?
That’s great! If everyone thought the same way, this would be a boring planet. Please submit a book review of your own so you can share your opinion with others. But remember, no personal attacks or flames. YABC reserves the right to delete any review for any reason.
I noticed inappropriate content on the site. What can I do?
If you notice something inappropriate in a review (such as profanity or gobbledygook or personally identifiable information like a phone number or email address), you can report that review by clicking on the exclamation icon at the bottom right of the review. The review link will then be sent to us so we can take appropriate action (either editing or deleting the review). If a reader has inappropriate content on their community profile, or they are using their community profile to harass another user, you can click the “Report this user” icon at the top of their profile page.
I have a paper to write. Can you write it for me?
You’re certainly welcome to search the site for the info you need, but the whole purpose of going to school is learning things yourself. Having someone write something for you or hand it to you on a silver platter kind of defeats the purpose. Not to mention we’ve got lots more fun things to do, like read new books.
Where can I find out what’s new on the site?
The best place to go is the home page of YABC. All the latest staff reviews will be showcased there, as well as any important announcements we may make. You can also check out the YA Books Central Blog, and follow the blog to stay informed. There you’ll find a listing of all the latest stuff posted to the site, announcements, interviews, giveaway news, and things like that.
Hey! I submitted a review and it wasn’t posted! What gives?
Well, it might be because your review didn’t qualify for posting. A review MUST contain some merit. Just saying “I love it” or “I hate it” isn’t enough, and repeating the exact same thing for more than one book definitely doesn’t count. Reviews must also be over 250 characters long and less than 8000 characters (though most people never come close to the limit). Check out How to Write a Book Review for some hints on what a good review contains. You don’t have to have all of the elements by any means, but it will give you an idea what we’re looking for.
Can you publish my book?
Nope. YABC is not a publisher.
Giveaway not received: [email protected]. Please allow a reasonable time for the prize to ship, but please don’t wait over 6 months to contact us.
I love the site! How can I help make it successful?
Thanks for asking! There are a number of ways you can help out:
- Most importantly: Get the word out! Tell your friends, your neighbors, your enemies! The more people that visit, the better. If you have a website, please add a link to the site. You can also add an awesome YABC badge to your site! Pick out your favorite one here: YABC Badges
- Enter the giveaways!
- Participate! Enter the contests and giveaways. Submit reader reviews! Chat with others in the YABC community! Leave a comment on a review! Start a discussion! Start a fan group! Read other people’s reviews! Check out our blog!
- Advertise on the site! (We will, however, only accept ads that are family friendly and on-topic.)
Hey, I won a prize. Do I have to pay for shipping?
Nope. Free really does mean free on YABC!
I’ve written a book. Can you help me get it published?
No, we can’t. But we did put together a page of hints and tips to help you get started.
What is the book listed as “Indies”?
The Indies subcategory highlights the book is from a small press or self-published books added to YABC. Readers are always asking us for great Indie suggestions to download on their e-readers, so we developed this subcategory makes it easier to locate awesome, affordable Indie books with one click.
I’m an Indie author. How do I list my book in the Indie section?
All small press or self-published books must be added to YABC through our Indie section. If you are the publisher/publicist/author, simply go to the “Add a Book” link in the top menu bar, then select YA Indie, Middle-Grade, or Kids Indie when adding your book to our database. There is a one-time $3.99 fee for each Indie book added to our site. Payments are handled via PayPal. Once paid, your listing will appear in our database after being approved by our listings manager.
Please note our cover policy: Because YABC is used in school classrooms and libraries across the country, from elementary to high school, we do not allow covers with excessive nudity, gore, or provocative poses on the site. Our management team reserves the right to refuse a listing if we decide it falls into one of those three categories. We also do not allow profanity in the title, description, or review because once again this website is used in schools and libraries and we do not want the site filters to block access to our site.
