Software for Keeping Track of Reviewers

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 25, 2014 at 01:30 PM

I set up a FileMaker database for exactly this purpose, but I never use it, because it is, as you say, “overkill.” Instead, I’ve been using TheBrain. As long as you don’t want to print out reports, this is a good option. But, if you do need to print reports, you’ll need another app.

With TheBrain, I set it up this way:

You have a Thought for each reviewer… these can be under a single parent Thought called “Reviewers.” Or you can put them under different industries, or whatever. In the notes section, keep the contact information (but beware that you can’t print mailing labels from TheBrain).

You have a Thought for each title in your catalog. You could then create a child relationship from the book Thought to the reviewer Thoughts you send the review copies to. You can use the notes window to record dates, or add the date to the link itself. However, I would add an additional layer, which is to create a separate Thought to represent the interaction of the book with the reviewer. This way you can use tags to designate status and result.

Here’s a screen capture of a simple example:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/155244/Example-Book-Reviewer-Database.png

Just a suggestion.

Steve Z.