I've seen this meme around the blogosphere and as a part of my New Year's resolution to be more on top of things and just more organized in general, I felt like this was a good place to start. Avalinah @Avalinah's Books started this meme to provide some motivation to finish reading and reviewing ARC's which is definitely something I need in my life! Periodically, I'll be posting updates of the count (probably whenever I do monthly wrap-ups). So without further ado, onto my current state!
For the past four years, I've been organizing my ARC/R&R's in a spreadsheet that I keep updated. Here's a taste:
(Sorry it's so blurry; Blogger is throwing a hissy fit today and no amount of HTML patching will fix it. All the more reason to speed the transition to Wordpress.)
In this spreadsheet, I keep track of the title, the author, the date I received the original request email, the requested or promised deadline, whether or not I wrote notes, wrote the review, posted the review to Amazon, posted the review to Barnes and Noble, posted the review to Goodreads, what I rated the book, whether or not I've read the book itself, and how I obtained the book (from whom). When a book is done, I highlight the whole thing in green. When a deadline is missed, I make the text red (for example, I was late with The Union). After I started receiving physical copies about two years ago, I also started keeping track of their location (on my kindle, on my kindle app, currently awaiting, or physical copy).
I've been keeping this spreadsheet updated for the past four years and while it's great for keeping track of everything, I have no motivation to do really keep up besides what I conjure on my own. I still have books from 2016 (2016!!) that I haven't read or reviewed yet and that is just awful.
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I'm currently not actively receiving or requesting any books from Netgalley or Edelweiss as I receive all of my R&R/ARC copies from publishers or authors directly.
I'm open for review requests during the months of January and July which means that for this entire month, I need to be both playing catch up and fielding requests.
Starting out 2019, this is the status:
Currently, I have a total of 40 unread and unreviewed ARC/R&R's. 39 are past the deadline that was agreed upon (I know, it's awful).
It's not so much a problem of reading them but rather the prospect of reviewing them. I lost a little of my blogging mojo because of how busy I've been with other things but I'm hoping to really get back into it during winter break when I have the whole month of January off from school and I'm just working part-time.
So what's the plan? Read at least one R&R a week (two during January). Publish the books that I receive for review in my next State of the ARC's to keep myself accountable.
How do you keep track of your ARC/R&R's? Do you keep a spreadsheet? Do you receive ARC's or R&R's from different platforms?
Welcome to State Of The ARC! Evelina got me inspired to join in this time last year and it helped so much in keeping me ARC motivated.
ReplyDeleteI have a dummy blog post with all my ARCs listed. I also schedule a Literary Flits blog post for each on its publication/due date so I can see them lined up. Hopefully this means I don't have too many clustered in any particular month
Thank you, Stephanie! I've been continually fascinated by the statistics you publish each month and how satisfying it is to watch your 'unread' numbers go down. I haven't heard of prescheduling posts but that's a really good idea that I might try out! One of my main problems is not keeping good enough track of the deadlines (I usually just put a reminder in my calendar) so then when the deadline rolls around, it's a complete surprise. Seeing the uncompleted posts lined up in Blogger every time I open it could be super helpful. Thanks for stopping by, Stephanie!
DeleteI have seen this meme around and I really need to do it too because I have some long overdue review copies (like, even older than 2016 >.>) but I am mostly trying to cut down my physical TBR! I do have a year abroad though and that's when I am going to be switching to mostly reading ebooks... so maybe at that time I can hop in. I hope this will be able to motivate you to read more of your ARCs and wrap them all up!
ReplyDeleteThat was my thought process! Hey, no better time than the beginning of the year! At the very least, even if I end up not keeping up with the meme, I'll know where I stand at the beginning of the year so I have a plan moving forward. Ooo you're spending a year abroad? That's so cool! I look forward to seeing all of your gorgeous photos :) And hopefully you'll be able to start working your way through you're own pile. Thanks for stopping by, Olivia!
DeleteAhh you're tracking your ARCs the same way that I am, with a spreadsheet and all, though yours seeems a little more elaborate than mine haha :) I hope you'll manage to catch up with everything, you can do this! <3
ReplyDeleteHaha I have to admit that over the years I've been adding columns. I had to add a 'location' column because I kept forgetting if the book was on my kindle (or even whether I had downloaded it yet), or if it was from Netgalley (in which case you have to leave a review there as well), or a physical copy which definitely created a situation a few times :) Imma just take all that confidence and hopefully do something productive with it! Thanks for stopping by, Marie!
DeleteHooray, welcome to State of the ARC! Just when I think I am making so much progress, I go and request some more books on NetGalley. It's like I have no self-control. Good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sarah! I'm hoping this will help me actually reduce my pile a little :) Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI actually use a calendar to track. When I get approved I list it on my TBR for the month I need it read, then schedule the date I will be posting a review, which is always a Friday about two week before, and if I have more than one that date then I spread them out before and after on other Fridays. The calendar is what I am always referencing so its really handy to keep track.
ReplyDeleteThe spreadsheet would be added to my to do list and probably never see the light of day so I am terribly admiring that you go to all that work!! It's so gorgeous, hahaha.
I hope you get out of your blogging slump... its so easy to find yourself in that headspace I know. I have been missing the 50/50 prompts. <3
I haven't ever heard of a system like yours but it sounds really useful! Something I've always struggled with is keeping the dates in my head with the appropriate urgency. I once tried to keep a calendar but I always fell behind. There's something to be said for using too many organizational tools :)
DeleteThank you for stopping by, Dani! I'm going to try out some new posts and hopefully retrieve my blogging cap from wherever it fell during the last year :)
This is a cute meme- I'm afraid to know how many ARC reviews I've let pass me by since 2018 was the year of blog slacking for me. :P At least I seemed to read most of them, but when it came time to give actual, constructive feedback I drew a total blank. Ah, well... maybe this year I'll write some of them. I think I have only slightly less than you in Read and Review books, but I have won a bunch that I feel obligated to review even though they weren't technically ARCs.
ReplyDelete~Litha Nelle
Isn't it, though? I'm hoping it'll help me get a little more on track. I completely understand! Sometimes I'll read a R&R or ARC and have very vague feelings about it and all I want to do is write a mini review but that's not what I promised the author or publicist. I also won a bunch of books (mostly in 2014 that I STILL haven't read) and honestly I don't know if I'll ever get around to reading them! The problem is that new books are coming out all the time and I feel like I can't keep up! Anyway, that's a problem for another day :) Hopefully you'll find some motivation this year to read some of the ones on your list, Litha!
DeleteOkay - the spreadsheets are super cool - you know I do these too! I should expand mine to take in more info for my ARCs! Anyways, the RED LINE is stressing ME out and it's not even my red line! Eep! I hope you manage to get back on track asap! And also I hope you have a great Feb!
ReplyDeleteHaha right, they're so useful! I've been adding columns every time I think of new things and one of the best additions has been the 'location' column because after I started receiving physical ARC's from publishing houses and egalleys from Netgalley, I started to lose track of where the book actually was. Best decision ever - it's saved me hours of searching! Thank you, Di! I'm hoping putting all my dirty laundry out will motivate me to actually clean it :) Best of luck to you too!
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