Early copy reviews and your follow-through
For readers and authorsUpdated 3 min read
An early copy review follows one extra rule, honesty; your follow-through counts reviews (or honest set-downs) and on-time reviews, never how kindly you rate. Set a book down from My early copies rather than going silent; ask for more time before the deadline.
The short answer
Reviewing an early copy
Review the book on its page like any other (Writing reviews); the review carries the early reader badge. From My early copies, Update progress (on a downloaded copy; a copy read on Booklabria reports its own progress from the reader page) and Review take you there, and Your rating is shown once you have rated.
One extra rule: honesty. Critical reviews are welcome and never penalised. Nobody, including the author, can reward stars, and asking for good rather than honest reviews is a guidelines violation on their side.
What follow-through counts
Your follow-through is always shown to the authors you request a copy from, beside your request, and to you under Your follow-through on My early copies. On your profile it shows only to the audience you pick in Settings › Privacy › Follow-through: Only authors I request from (the default), Followers or Everyone. Over your approved copies:
- follow-through: reviewed, or honestly set down, against copies that went silent past the deadline;
- on time: reviews written on or before the deadline (an approved extension moves the deadline).
The score is 60 % follow-through and 40 % on time, smoothed so that one miss cannot zero a new reader. Under three resolved copies you are shown as New early reader rather than a number. Ratings never enter the formula.
Setting a book down
If you cannot finish, press Set down on the copy in My early copies. A set-down copy is follow-through, not a miss: it counts for you, and it ends the review reminders for that book. You can choose whether your profile shows that you set the book down. Silence past the deadline is the only thing that counts against you.
Release-day reminders
On a book's release day, if you have an approved early copy from a campaign and no review yet, we send one note, in the app and by e-mail: the book is out today, an honest review is welcome at any rating, and you can set the copy down from My early copies if you did not finish. If a week later you still have no review and have not set the copy down, there is at most one more note, and it says it is the last. Giveaway copies and copies from a delivery link get neither. A reader whose held review goes live on release day is told that instead.
Turn them off in Settings › Notifications › Release-day review reminders, or with the last line of either mail, Turn off release-day review reminders. That switch covers these two notes only: deadline reminders stay under early copy.
Asking for more time
Before the deadline, Request more time on the copy: pick the new date and give a short reason (optional). The author decides; one request at a time. An approved extension is the deadline follow-through is counted against.
What authors see
Your follow-through and your open copies, never your ratings' positivity, and never anything about other campaigns' content. See Early copy delivery and tracking for their side.
Where this lives
Related
- Requesting an early copy: When an author runs an active campaign, the book page shows Request this copy and the **Early copies** page lists it under **Free early copies** with the reasons it fits you; a request carries a short note, waits for the author's decision, and can be cancelled while pending. There is no waitlist.
- Reading or downloading your early copy, and how the file is protected: The author chooses per campaign how you receive an approved early copy, and may offer more than one way for you to pick from: you read it on Booklabria (the file stays on the server, you open it from My early copies, your progress is saved as you read), you download a protected copy through a link that expires fifteen minutes after it is issued (five downloads per approval, every one logged, every EPUB watermarked), or, if the author offers Send to Kindle, we e-mail the watermarked EPUB to your own Kindle address (five sends per approval). If a link expires, ask for a fresh one; if you reach a limit, write to the author or support.
- Writing reviews: A review is a star rating (press a star for a whole one, or use Exact rating for any quarter step) with an optional title and a body of at least 20 characters, plus a spoiler flag; edit or delete it from the book page. You can also say how the book felt, up to three moods and a pace; the book's page shows what most readers found once five have said. Reviews of early copies carry the early reader badge and one extra rule, honesty.
- Your profile's look: Profile Studio, themes and dark mode: Profile Studio (Settings › Profile › Studio) sets your profile's theme, accent, layout and banner and the order of its modules, with a preview at phone and desktop width; nothing changes for visitors until you publish. Light and dark follow your system.
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