We’re introducing something new, called LibraryThing Early Reviewers. It’s coming out officially on Tuesday, but assiduous blog readers get to start early.

The text at the top of the page sums it up:

“Random House has given us some advance copies of books soon to be published. We’re sharing these with you to read and review. You get free books, and share your opinions with a wide audience. LibraryThing makes everyone happy and keeps everything free and fair.”

So far, like much of what we do around here, this is something of a test. Kudos to Random House for being up to that.

Random has signed up for two batches of book. The first batch includes:

• The River Wife by Jonis Agee (LibraryThing | Random House)
• Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward (LibraryThing | Random House)
• Peony in Love by Lisa See (LibraryThing | Random House)
• Keeping the House by Ellen Baker (LibraryThing | Ellen Baker’s site)
• Away by Amy Bloom (LibraryThing | Random House)

Eventually, Early Reviewers will be open to other publishers.

Members should understand what this is, and what it isn’t. We’re going to talk about LibraryThing Early Reviewers, but won’t be pushing Random House’s or anyone else’s books at you. Similarly, getting a free advanced readers copy comes with NO obligation. Under no circumstances will a bad review change your chance of getting another.

If more people want the books than we have copies, we’ll have to ration them. The basic algorithm is randomness, but other factors come into play. We’re going to try to spread the wealth around. And if you complete a review—good or bad!—you’re more likely to get another. Finally, LibraryThing’s matching algorithm will try to match up books with readers, based on the rest of your LibraryThing catalog. For publishers, that’s the interesting part; we’re anxious to see how it turns out.

I’ve set up a Early Reviewers group, to talk about Early Reviewers and Early Reviewer books. Let us know what you think!

Labels: early reviewers, features, new feature, new features, random house