Snowdrop Dreams: Policies

Why I blog:

I blog to share my thoughts and ideas, mostly about books and bookish things, but sometimes about my daughter and family.

I will only be working with one book tour company from now on and I will not be participating in as many tours. I found that as much as I wanted to read the books for the tours, I have a hard time sticking to a time line for reading books. I'm a mood reader and can't force myself to get into a book just to make deadline on a tour. I feel like that affected my reviews sometimes and hope that by reading when I can and what I want that my reviews will be better written, more thoughtful and not forced. Also, after becoming a mother and going back to work, I find that my schedule is not as forgiving for participating in blog tours.
The frequency of posts will be random. I am not setting a schedule for myself. No specific rule of how often or what types of posts. I will, however, still participate in some of the memes in the book blogging world (such as Top Ten Tuesday, Book Budget, Stacking The Shelves).

Review Policy

Why do I review books on my blog?

I love reading and talking about books with other bookish people, so it naturally progressed to sharing my thoughts online with other book lovers (as there are not as many people in my life who want to talk about books ALL THE TIME like me). My reviews are just my thoughts on the books that I read and books for tours that I participate in. They are NOT paid reviews, just my personal thoughts and feelings on the books I choose to read.

What types of books do I like to review?

In the past I spent a lot of time reading young adult (romances, dystopian, post-apocalyptic and fantasy) books for my blog, but in the last six months I have been trying to get back to my eclectic tastes. I have always loved reading romances including chick lit, paranormal, and contemporary. I also love the new adult (NA) genre and am hoping to read more in the future. And as of late, I seem to be leaning towards thrillers/suspense/mystery more than anything.

At this time I am only accepting a limited number of books for review from publishers that I have worked with in the past.

What format do I acccept?
I adore receiving print copies when available, but I can also accept via NetGalley. I also love audiobooks, so I would be extremely happy to review those as well.

I can be contacted via email using the link on the sidebar - please use a subject line that includes REVIEW REQUEST.

How I interact with authors and publishers:

I am always willing to participate in contests, author interviews and giveaways to help promote the current work/past work of the author up for review. If you have any special requests to help with promotion, such as widgets and buttons, I am willing to post them on my blog as well. I am not a big fan of widgets with music, but if they have the option to turn sound off then I am game.

If you request that I do not giveaway an ARC I will follow your wishes, but otherwise they may become giveaways. I promise to never sell an ARC.

What will my reviews include:
My reviews will always include the book cover art, synopsis (either provided or found on Goodreads) along with my review. All reviews will be mentioned on my blog and will be archived under the tag of “reviews”.

My reviews will/may be cross-posted with Goodreads and Amazon. I also promote my blog via Twitter and Instagram.

EDITED: I no longer post reviews with an actual rating - I think the review itself should be enough for people to know if they will like the book.

Additional: I try my best to have reviews done in a timely manner, but sometimes life just gets in the way. There are times when a review is not possible, as I am unable to finish the book or cannot get into the book. I will attempt to find another reviewer for the book so that the book will still be reviewed. I may choose to post a DNF (did not finish) review of the book (though I rarely do) where I can list the reasons it did not work for me, but why it could work for other readers.

Republication Policy

The reviews/posts/articles posted on Snowdrop Dreams are mine (unless they are guest posts from fellow bloggers/authors). You do not have permission to take any material from this blog without my permission.

You may publish a quote of my reviews/articles up to 150 words in length with a link to the original post on Snowdrop Dreams. Credit must be given in a way that is obvious to the reader that the quote came from Snowdrop Dreams and that they can find the original by clicking the link.

Anything longer than 150 words will need written permission from me (Chrystal @ Snowdrop Dreams).

Disclosure and Privacy Policy

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. Occasionally I have guest posts and reviewers that contribute to the content as well.

I take your privacy very seriously and I will not share your personal info with any third parties nor do I store the information collected about you or your visit to this blog other than to analyze the content performance via cookies (ie. stats, page views, etc using Google Analytics). You can turn these off at anytime by modifying your browser’s settings. By commenting on my blog, your name, email and IP are data that I do not willingly share with anyone. If you enter a contest or contact me with your email and/or mailing address, I will only share it with the party (author/publisher) supplying the prize, which is stated in the contest policy below. I do not keep this information, nor will I use it for future contact (I do not have a newsletter).

This blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we will and do accept and keep free products (books/audiobooks). The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of affiliate links where I receive a tiny amount of money for products bought using the links within some of my posts, sidebar and ads. All funds received via the affiliate links is used to host giveaways and pay for postage.

The owner of this blog (Chrystal @ Snowdrop Dreams) is not compensated to provide opinions on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we (me or my guest bloggers) claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

If you follow me via Bloglovin' please check out their disclosure here. And the same for Instragram (SnapWidget) and Twitter.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Copyright?

From Google:

Copyright is a form of protection provided for original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, graphic and audiovisual creations. “Copyright” literally means the right to copy, but has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work.

Contest Policy

By clicking enter (I use mostly Rafflecopter) or filling in a contest entry form on my blog, you agree to the terms and conditions below:
-You are at least 18 years of age. I will never knowingly collect information from someone under the age of 18.
-You understand that the information collected using the contest entry will not be shared or sold to third parties.
-You will be contacted only if you are drawn as a winner for the giveaway.
-You consent to your information being passed along to the author/publisher who is shipping your prize.
-You understand that every entry is verified and if it does not meet the criteria it will be disqualified and removed.
-Your entry is void where prohibited by law.
-No purchase necessary to win.
-Odds of winning are based on the number of entries in each giveaway.
-You consent to have your name shown on the giveaway post that you win. It will show as the name you voluntarily used to enter the giveaway.

-The collection of information will be done via email or a form. I will never ask you for personal information ie: address in the comments section of this blog. So please do not leave your address or email address as a comment.

-I cannot be held responsible for the contest and privacy policies of other book blog sites/publishers/tour host that I may link to in my posts. Each blog/site has its own policies, please make sure to check them out before giving out your information to them.

-Prizes will be mailed from my mailing address or via a book website such a Amazon or Book Depository, unless otherwise stated. If you participate in these contests your name and a valid mailing address are required by email after winners are picked via Rafflecopter – I am not responsible for lost mail due to incorrect information provided to me or for mail being sent out by third parties (ie. authors/publishers).

-All winners will have 48 hours to respond to my email to claim their prize.

-I hold the right to disqualify any participants if inappropriate behaviour is seen on this blog at any time.