Two things to say, before we start with this post…
- It’s UK & ROI only (so far, at least)
- I am not being sponsored or paid in anyway to promote this site
Now, I’m sure all of you lovely book bloggers love Netgalley and all the e-arcs it brings, but, what if you could get physical arcs just as easily? No professional email to the publisher required! Well, now you can, with Bookbridgr. This website is essentially Netgalley for physical arc books (however, nowhere near as updated with new books and with less communication on whether you’re going to receive a book or not).
I discovered Bookbridgr a couple of months ago, and since then have received several arc books in the mail, free and for reviewing! These include titles like The White Road by Sarah Lotz and My Sister by Michelle Adams.
Getting up and started on this site is so simple, if you’re a UK or ROI citizen who loves to blog about books, get those book-bums over to this website and sign up!
How it works…
First of all, you need to set up a profile, no surprise there!
Here is what a profile (my profile) looks like on Bookbridgr. When you start, the first thing you’re asked to do is upload a profile picture, link your blog and social media, write a description for your blog, talk about your book interests and blog stats, and your postal address. Then, you need to start “bridging” posts! (Basically, posting your reviews)
This is what “bridging” looks like. It is essentially a page to provide details of the book, as well as your review and blog link. You need to include the ISBN-13 number of each book you post, if you’re reviewing a Netgalley / Kindle book or don’t have that number to hand, you can use the site isbnsearch.org to find it!
You don’t just get the choice to “bridg” reviews, you can also post any Q&A’s you’ve done, competitions and other articles!
Every time you “bridg” something, your star number goes up on your profile. As you can see from earlier, I have 48 stars on my profile. Now, I’ll be real with you here and tell you I’m not 100% sure what these are for, but I can only assume, the more you have, the more likely publishers are to send you their books.
Now you can choose the genres of books you want to be featured on your homepage! Bookbridgr has a vast selection of genres available to request on their site, these are:
- Fiction: Historical, Political, Adventure & Action, War
- Fiction: Crime, Mystery, Psychological
- Fiction: Sci Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Graphic Novels
- Fiction: Contemporary Fiction, Reading Group
- Fiction: Literary, Translated
- Fiction: Chick Lit, Women’s Fiction, Family Saga
- Fiction: Erotica, Romance Fiction
- Fiction: Young Adult
- Fiction: Short Stories
- Non-fiction: General
- Non-fiction: Science & Nature, History
- Non-fiction: Celebrity and Humour
- Non-fiction: Mind, Body & Spirit, Religion & Spirituality
… see! So many different types of books to choose from.
Now, these categories aren’t updated daily, like you get on Netgalley, but there is still a decent choice between them all, and like with NG, you can request and receive books well past their publication date. I always make sure to check the site a couple of times a week, to see what kind of stuff they’ve added.
This is what my personalised genre homepage looks like:
Note: You can always go back into your settings and alter your favourite genres, to get remove or add genres to your homepage, so don’t think you need to say yes to them all, for fear of never getting the chance to read them!
Now you’re all set up, you can start requesting books!
This is what the request pages look like with Bookbridgr. As you can see, they’re very open and easy to get around. They have all the information you’d need about the book, plus a big “request” button at the top. Yes, it really is as simple as that!
A great feature about Bookbridgr is that you can also request to interview the author! Simply by clicking on the author’s profile, or the “request an interview” button!
So there we have it, that’s a very quick and brief overview of Bookbridgr, an arc requesting website!
Remember, not every book you request is going to land on your doorstep! You have to be patient and remember to keep your profile updated.
I hope this post has introduced you British bloggers to a new and helpful site for all your bookish needs 💖
You’re a fountain of knowledge today and I love it, I’m so signing up to this tonight!
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Haha I’m glad I could teach ya something! Definitely do, it takes 24 hours for them to look over your stuff and accept you but it’s worth the wait 😀
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This shall be my first port of call after my gym session tonight. Thanks for this post 😆
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No worries, have fun! 😀
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I’ve registered, but haven’t gotten a response! How long did it take for them to approve you?
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It took about 24 hours for me to get an email through, if I remember correctly!
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I saw this one before (together with FirstReads) but as you said, only UK. Bummer!
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Yep, shame it isn’t spread to the rest of Europe, but hopefully one day!
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Don’t tempt me! Have you registered with ReadersFirst as well? They are a similar site but you go in for draws to win books after posting your first impression. I won 3 just recently.
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Oops here’s the link https://www.readersfirst.co.uk/books
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I literally signed up for it yesterday! I can’t wait to look around and use it a bit more. I might just go do that now!
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Go for it! I think I tried to register with bookbridgr years ago but was refused, maybe because I wasn’t blogging but just posting reviews on goodreads and amazon.
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You should try it again now! Also, when writing your first impressions, what kinds of things do you write? Just to give me a gist of what is expected 🙂
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You get to read a sample chapter online and then tell them what you like and whether it draws yo in or not. Gushing really 😉
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Haha, OK, thanks!
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Just filling out my Bookbridgr now on the bit about describing me blog
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That’s always tough. I just wrote the genres I read and what I use my blog to do lol, sounds stupid but it gets the job done 🙂
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It feels selling myself which I’m not good at at all! lol
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Haha true, it does feel like that!
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Yay I got accepted 😊
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Yay!! I’m so glad 😀
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Me too ☺
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Awesome site! It would be awesome for it to come to the US eventually!
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I’m sure it will try to branch out at some point! Be great if it could 😀
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Aaaahhh! I’ve been looking for something like this for ages! Thanks for the heads-up! 🙂
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No worries! Glad I could be of assistance 😛
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Great idea, too bad I’m not from the UK 😦
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Yeah, sucks that it’s not available to all, but hopefully they will branch out to Europe soon!
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I wish there was one for audiobooks
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That’s a great idea! Shame there isn’t one at the moment (I don’t think!)
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I am signed up to BookBridgr for a year or two now, I think… I never actually knew whether I was only supposed to bridg the books I’ve received through Bookbridgr or everything.. I guess I have my answer now, I better go add some new stuff 🙂
I have received some really good books from Bb… it’s a great site even if not that up to date, etc.
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Sorry, this went into my spam, so I’ve only just seen it! I add all my book reviews to the site, I’m not sure if that’s how it works, but I like the star number going up haha. Yes, it’s not all the updated but it’s pretty good for receiving arcs!
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oh? I may be in spam jail? 😂 ah well…
thanks for rescuing me! 👊
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I just went in to check I hadn’t any missing comments and I found about 8!! What is WordPress doing!?
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whoa! 8 is a lot! I don’t think that has ever happened to me normally spam just has spam… alas, difficult to understand the ways of WP, I think…
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Very odd!
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This sounds like a nifty site! I am from Canada so I am sad that it is not yet available on this side of the world. Hoping that we will have something similar!
Cheers,
Sophie
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Hopefully it will expand or something similar will pop up for you guys! 🙂
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Just found out about this when plucking up my courage to send my first email ARC request to Hodder & Stoughton! Filled out the form, hope they let me in ha ha
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Good luck! I love the platform 😀
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I signed up over a month ago and still haven’t been accepted, but fingers crossed soon.
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Good luck 🙂
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