A site dedicated to movie-like ratings for books? I’ve searched for sites before, but there doesn’t seem to be anything out these specifically dedicated to books on a large scale like ESRB or MPAA. But that might be changing.
I’m excited that Book Cave’s sister site, My Book Ratings, or MBR, is up and running. I’ve had a few good promotions with Book Cave, and I hope that a free permanent listing on My Book Ratings with their dedication to movie-like ratings for books will lead to more exposure for my work.
What is My Book Ratings?
MBR is community site that maintains a database of content-rated books. Authors, publishers, librarians, adults, teens, and pretty much anyone who reads can rate a book for content and add to the database. The site is free to use, though you must login to rate books for content (which I can understand because of the potential for abuse). All books of any rating are accepted, which means, for those of you who might be worried about it, that they are not trying to control or limit content, but just to describe it.
The MBR rating system is easy, at least it is for me. And personally, I like knowing exactly WHY a book received a certain rating. I don’t mind violence, but constant swearing is a turn-off, and while I love roma
nce and kissing, pages of erotic sex bores me to tears. I’m also bored with books that don’t have some violence or passion. So this way, I can find books that have the action I want without additional content.
I also like the idea of downloading a rating icon to use on my website, and you can see I’ve done just that. The search functions and the site itself is still evolving, and I personally submitted a few ideas for consideration.
Purchase links lets me see at a glance where the book is available and takes me to the vendor of my choice.
Movie-like Ratings for Books is a Community Effort
MBR is currently working on putting up all the books previously promoted by their sister site, but that will only account for several thousand titles. With billions of published books, content rating books will be an ongoing community effort. As a parent, book lover, and author, I strongly support this effort and urge you to zip over there and rate a book today.
Authors Can Add and Rate Their Own Books
Authors are welcome and invited to submit their books. Every book is accepted for a permanent listing at no cost. Eventually, MBR will have author dashboards where authors can change blurbs and covers and other important information.
I’ve already added my books and rated them for content—have you? Since at any moment a reader can go onto the site and content rate your book according to their own feelings, as well as leave comments about the book, you want to make sure you’re not underplaying your content.
Official Ratings
MBR does offer official ratings, which will be useful when there is a great disparity among content-raters. Books with the official ratings say “RATED BY MBR” instead of “MBR COMMUNITY.” However, if the book isn’t on the official MBR site with the official rating, then it hasn’t been officially rated by MBR. For most books a community rating seems to be enough.
From the MBR Flyer
“Society’s view of what’s acceptable has changed, but not all content is acceptable to everyone Please visit MBR today and rate your favorite books to share with other people. This is YOUR site and we can’t do it without you!”
I’d love to see the idea of movie-like ratings for books spread quickly. There are so many books out there to read, and I don’t want to waste time on books I won’t finish.
Here are a couple flyers MBR has created to help you spread the word.
Happy content rating! I hope you will join the movement.