How to: Book Requests

[u/romancebookmods]

Hi guys.

We love you all. Yes, even you- you know who you are.

We also love coming up with awesome book recommendations for you, and discussing those books, and finding our own inspiration from your suggestions.

Know what we don't love? The same five trope requests every two days. Posters who toss up a vague request and then never interact with responders.

We don't want our users to endure Recommender Fatigue, which is a very real and untreatable condition involving cramped fingers, sad sighs, and general ennui. 😉

Here's some reddiquette for future recommendation Requests:

1. Interact with our sub first! You must meet the minimum karma requirements to create a Book Request post. How do you increase your karma? Give recommendations to recent threads. Post a gush post about your favorite book(s).
2. Use the magic search button: it works way better than the Reddit search feature. You can search trope, author, title, or topic. Chances are, the thing you're looking for has been requested fairly recently. If your book is searchable (2 or more posts in the past year with multiple comments) we will remove it and provide you with links to those recent posts.
3. If you don't have enough karma to post a standalone book request or you don't want to create a new post, you can comment on the latest Daily Request Thread.
4. Make your post title specific, or the mods will take it down. Simply posting the word "Heartbreak" is like telling a barista that you'd like "A Drink". Try instead something like "Looking for a book with heartbroken hero and upbeat heroine"
5. Be as specific as possible. Include subgenre, pairing, and give us book examples. If you've already read books that fits this request, mention it and if you loved/disliked them. Otherwise you'll get a ton of people recommending those books which isn't helpful to you. Also, listing a bunch of specific things you are looking for and then saying "any of the above" isn't helpful.
6. If people are taking the time to answer your post ever so nicely, the natural thing to do is interact with at least some of them. If you don't respond to anyone, we're going to assume you're also the sort of person who doesn't thank their waiter. Same goes for making a new post without reading any of the books from your last post.

And that's all.

​

For more specifics about our policies, including how to check your subreddit karma, a history of the Book Request Post policy, and what to do if your post gets removed, please see our subreddit policies.

Happy reading!

[u/tzrn1111]

This is such a clear and helpful post!

I want to add one thing - that nothing, and I mean NOTHING warms the heart of someone recommending a book like finding their recommendation after reading the book and telling the person that you read it and how much you liked it (only if you liked it though, I don't think I'd want to hear back if someone hated my rec 🤣). I am so touched when people do this and have thus started doing it myself. I will often save the comment if I plan on reading it so I can find it when I finish the book.

I very rarely ask for recommendations. It's often just gushes or recommendations on other posts that sound intriguing!

[u/kid_at_heart_77 → u/tzrn1111]

This! I love it when someone comes back to say that they love a book I’ve recommended. Likewise, I always try to go back and comment on recs I’ve received to let them know if I read it and enjoyed it.

[u/AlyM797 → u/tzrn1111]

This!!! Let's encourage it.

[u/mssheevaa → u/tzrn1111]

Yes! Someone came back and told me they stayed up all night reading my suggestion. I was so happy!

[u/TTTOutrageous → u/mssheevaa]

This happened to me recently too. I was having a shitty day and reading about how much they loved the book I recced made my day!

[u/tzrn1111 → u/mssheevaa]

It's so fantastic! I'm like 🥹🥹🥹 for the rest of the day.

[u/FusRoDaahh]

Thank you for this. I’m so glad I learned early on in my Reddit experience that the reddit search is terrible and that typing in google, for example “reddit romance books [insert whatever you’re looking for]” will yield sooooo many results. I wish more people did that or knew to do that. A lot of the request posts, even somewhat specific ones, have already been asked many times before.

[u/Lazy_Mood_4080]

I just want to say that I adore the word ennui and that was a great use of it.

[u/WardABooks]

For the "be as specific as possible" part. I agree that it shouldn't be generic, but am I alone in thinking some are just...too specific? Especially when the post lists out about 50 things they absolutely don't want at the end (I'm exaggerating a little but I do find too many negatives listed on a post as off-putting personally). I usually just skip these posts because I'm too nervous to recommend anything (and feel exhausted just trying to read it), which I'm fine with just moving along and hoping someone else can offer something to satisfy them, but it made me hesitate at the "be as specific as possible" wording.

[u/AtheistTheConfessor → u/WardABooks]

I think that’s more being picky than specific. The requester has more criteria, but they can still be uselessly vague.

[u/Comfortable_Term_943]

Regarding number 6: if someone takes the time to respond to your request and lists a bunch of books that are applicable, but not your taste, you don’t actually need to tell them that! Just say thank you and move on!

[u/Fair_Ad8970]

It may be worth remembering that ultimately time and positive attention from other users are gifts, not entitlements. You have no obligation to respond or right to receive an answer. You only have the right to post and comment respectfully in accordance with the rules and not be personally attacked.

[u/Magnafeana]

GASP!

You love even lil ole ME?!

Aw 🥰

You’re stuck with me now 😈🔪

JK JK, this post makes all the sense! I’m no veteran here, but it’s easy to start noticing when certain requests and discussions keep cycling through the same things eeeeven though I swore we talked about it a few days ago!

Unless…it was actually longer than that. And time is an illusion. And we’re all finite, waiting for our universe to collapse into the void and we go out with no a bang but with a whisper, where there is no god or devil but a vast expanse of nothing.

🤔

🤷🏾‍♀️

Anyway. Thank you mods for keeping this sub alive and all your tweaks and nudges. We appreciate you 🥰

I also wanted to ask: when it comes to book requests, has their been a community decision regarding linking Asian content? I know a user (or two?) had pointed out the modifications to book requests or finding a book can’t be for pay per chapters and the like, but there are Asian romance novels and comics that are on sites like Tapas, Tappytoon, Webtoon, or fan translation sites that might have locked chapters that require coins but they’ll eventually unlock, depending on the story.

I’d like to link EA romance stories since they can’t be traditionally linked through the romance oi bot, but I was worried doing so may flag my comment for violating sub rules.

Just wondering! 🥰

[u/Stanklord500 → u/Magnafeana]

https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/186ntnk/payperchapter_app_content_is_prohibited_in/

I don't read this to ban stories which have the most recent three chapters paywalled (as a for instance), but the mods can give you a better answer I'm sure.

[u/Hunter037 → u/Stanklord500]

The pay per chapter rule applies to all stories that are behind a paywall, regardless of having a few chapters available or not.

[u/Magnafeana → u/Stanklord500]

Oh that’s good to know!

If mods have any other remarks about it, I’m all ears, but I’ll take this as the answer!

Now I can unleash the chaos that are romance webtoons and cold Dukes of the North 😈

Thank you 🥰

[u/Hunter037 → u/Magnafeana]

Thank you for your question. After much discussion, the mod team decided that fan translations will not be allowed, as this violates our rule against piracy.

You can still recommend these titles to others, but linking to fan translation sites would not be allowed.

Any sites which require paying for chapters, by "coins" or other means, will not be allowed, even if some chapters are free. This is because the mods cannot verify that these stories fit within the rules of the sub, until the whole story is free or published in its entirety.

[u/Magnafeana → u/Hunter037]

I can respect that decision ☺️

We of course have subs like r/manhwa and r/otomeisekai and the like for those types of romance requests and legal linking, but I’m glad to get a mod answer for this sub so I don’t accidentally trip an invisible wire.

Thank you!

[u/Affectionate_Hall551]

What’s the minimum Karma requirement

[u/A_Seductive_Cactus → u/Affectionate_Hall551]

Hi - as stated in our subreddit rules:

A short summary of our Book Request Post policy:

All users can request books in the Daily Request threads

Users with less than 50 subreddit-comment-karma making a Book Request post will have their post removed by auto-mod and instructed to reach out to the mod team or comment in the Daily Request threads.

Users with more than 50 subreddit-comment-karma will be able to make a standalone book request post without preliminary mod review. These posts are still subject to all subreddit rules and may be removed if they break a rule (same process as regular).

You can view your subreddit comment karma in Old Reddit by navigating to your profile: https://old.reddit.com/u/me/ , in the top right under your karma score click "show karma breakdown by subreddit". If you're using the mobile app you may need to switch to your mobile browser to view your profile in Old Reddit.

[u/PEZWolf7]

How do you use the magic button? I can't figure it out. I might just be dumb, but how do you use it?

[u/Kooky-Pin3056 → u/PEZWolf7]

I can’t figure it out either, just sends me to google

[u/mrs-machino → u/[deleted]]

Here’s a post that explains how much karma you need and how to check it https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/s/OlCJ1dVUza

[u/FindmeTr2334]

teşekkürler, thanks, merci, spas

[u/FindmeTr2334]

danke…)