I Don’t Get It…

Got questions about The Art of Summer Reading Game?

Ask them here and get your answers…

Q: So, I read a book…what do I do next?

A: You log onto our Summer Reading site, sign up for a username and password, and begin logging your books – tell us the title, author, number of pages and a short (but thoughtful) review. You don’t have to come to the library, except to enter the grand prize raffle at our end-of-summer party.

Q: Should I enter pages as I read them, or when I’m done with the book?

A: Don’t enter your review until you are done with reading each book. So, there should only be one entry per book  you read. 

Q. Extra tickets for illustrated books and graphic novels. How does that work?

A. When you submit your review, just put in the number of pages you read. We will do all the math and giving out of extra tickets at the end of the game. (There is a week between the end of the game and the party, and all we do is research and count stuff.)

Q. What if people put in fake books, or wrong page amounts?

A. If it’s a fake book, we figure that out. We are, after all, book experts! As far as pages, if it looks like an honest mistake (a few pages too much or too little) we let it go. If it is hundreds of pages off, we always catch it and delete that review.

Q. It’s not fair that some people only write reviews like ‘I liked it,’ or ‘It was good.’ People should have to write more, right?

A. They should. But we can’t make them. Now, it makes us crazy when people only write three word sentences as reviews when other people are very thoughtful and really work at it. Or when they write a review that is obviously based on the info you get reading a book cover, not the actual book. While we can’t do anything to change the rules this year, we have a few solutions we are batting around…let us know what you think:

Good reviewers from the summer will be invited to review all year long at RightBook, our book blog. And, we will raffle a gift card off three times a year to only these invited reviewers for the best review writing and most popular review based on web hits.

A special prize at the end of this summer for the best written review.

We know it doesn’t make things perfect, but does it help a little? This is the fourth year we’ve done a summer reading game, and we’ve never had a winner who appeared to fake it. Call it karma, or luck, or whatever you’d like…

Q. I can’t make it to the party on August 6th. Can I still win the Fender?

A. Quite simply, no. You have to come to the party to play the raffle. This is the big reason why we also award gift cards every week – so everyone gets a shot at winning something, even if they can’t make the party. However, this year we will have a raffle for one prize –  just for people who can’t attend the party. It will be very, very good. But it won’t be the Fender.

Q. When do you pick the weekly winner?

A. On Monday or Tuesday the following week. But knowing that doesn’t affect your odds of winning – the drawing is done by computer, and it is set to pick a review logged between Monday and Sunday each week.

Q. Last year there was a prize for the person who read the most pages. Are you doing that again this year.

A. Not exactly – they will receive a special gift. Or, we guess, first dibs on a special gift. So, it is still worth it to read a lot.