***Updated 9/12/14***
I appreciate all the requests I have received in the last year to review your book. However, I have received so many, that it is taking up a great deal of time looking into each request, considering it, and responding to the writer. Going forward, I am only accepting reviews for grimdark fantasy. Before sending me a request to review your book, consider these books and authors-Essential grimdark. If you truly believe the work is in this style, feel free to send the request. If you are still not sure, see this. If you are still unsure, don't send it. Thank you.
I gladly accept requests for book reviews. If a cover and/or book description capture my attention I am willing to give the book a try. Please send along a book description or a link to it with your request. I accept both hard copies and ebooks and don't really prefer one to the other although I have been excessively using my tablet for reading the past 6 months or so. Please note a few things.
I don't give bad reviews. If I don't like a book, I will most likely not review it or rate it. It may end up on 1 of 2 Goodreads shelves, either 1) started but wait on or 2) started but not interested in. I give most books 2 chances before they end up on shelf 2. I am currently 3/4 through a book I passed on the first time I tried it and am loving it, trying to decide if it's a 4 or 5 star book. Sometimes I am just not in the mood for a particular book, which says nothing about the book but rather about my taste or reading mood.
Most of my ratings will be between 3 and 5 stars. 3- "I liked it", 4 -"I really liked it, perhaps loved it", and 5 -"one of my favorites of all time, nothing or almost nothing I did not like". I have given 2 stars a few times in the past, and that usually means "finished, but just barely". I have a pretty high DNF rate because I have too much to read. Some books just aren't for me but may be great for another reader.
I strongly believe that all books have worth, all authors have worked extremely hard, and only a few people will like some books, more than a few people may like another, and many people will like a few, special books. In all my years of reading, I think I have only really hated 1 book and I still remember it. Writers work very hard and are very invested in their work and I appreciate every one of them. No author deserves to be ripped on just because a person didn't like their book. There are no irredeemable books.
If a book needs to be reviewed by a certain date, I need to be informed of this. For ARC's, if I am not instructed of a certain time frame for posting, I generally attempt to post within a 2 week period, 1 week before to 1 week after release. I do prefer to know when a publisher/author wants the review to go live so I can plan accordingly. If I can't meet a time frame, I will decline the book as to give another reader a chance.
I always write honest reviews and I use 5 categories (writing, imagination, plot, setting, characters) at the top of my review for giving objective ratings regardless if I enjoy these elements or not. Following that is "my overall enjoyment" score, which may differ slightly than the score at the top as I like the option to use 1/2 stars. In all my reviews, I try to include mainly the positives about a book. Just because I personally didn't like something about a book, doesn't mean another will not. For instance, I like narrative driven prose rather than dialogue but certainly won't fault a book for having the latter unless it is poor dialogue. I like to tell about a book in my review by saying what I enjoyed, what or who resonated with me, and what did not resonate with me. If I mention something negative in a review, it is usually just a personal reaction, reflecting my taste, not about the author or the book itself, unless there is fundamental flaw, like a major contradiction, extremely poor, amateurish writing (which I have not run across in probably thousands of books), or similar flaw although most is probably editing so I probably won't mention that either. It is not my intent to summarize a book; that is done in a book description or blurb, which I am now including for my readers.
Most of my ratings will be between 3 and 5 stars. 3- "I liked it", 4 -"I really liked it, perhaps loved it", and 5 -"one of my favorites of all time, nothing or almost nothing I did not like". I have given 2 stars a few times in the past, and that usually means "finished, but just barely". I have a pretty high DNF rate because I have too much to read. Some books just aren't for me but may be great for another reader.
I strongly believe that all books have worth, all authors have worked extremely hard, and only a few people will like some books, more than a few people may like another, and many people will like a few, special books. In all my years of reading, I think I have only really hated 1 book and I still remember it. Writers work very hard and are very invested in their work and I appreciate every one of them. No author deserves to be ripped on just because a person didn't like their book. There are no irredeemable books.
If a book needs to be reviewed by a certain date, I need to be informed of this. For ARC's, if I am not instructed of a certain time frame for posting, I generally attempt to post within a 2 week period, 1 week before to 1 week after release. I do prefer to know when a publisher/author wants the review to go live so I can plan accordingly. If I can't meet a time frame, I will decline the book as to give another reader a chance.
I always write honest reviews and I use 5 categories (writing, imagination, plot, setting, characters) at the top of my review for giving objective ratings regardless if I enjoy these elements or not. Following that is "my overall enjoyment" score, which may differ slightly than the score at the top as I like the option to use 1/2 stars. In all my reviews, I try to include mainly the positives about a book. Just because I personally didn't like something about a book, doesn't mean another will not. For instance, I like narrative driven prose rather than dialogue but certainly won't fault a book for having the latter unless it is poor dialogue. I like to tell about a book in my review by saying what I enjoyed, what or who resonated with me, and what did not resonate with me. If I mention something negative in a review, it is usually just a personal reaction, reflecting my taste, not about the author or the book itself, unless there is fundamental flaw, like a major contradiction, extremely poor, amateurish writing (which I have not run across in probably thousands of books), or similar flaw although most is probably editing so I probably won't mention that either. It is not my intent to summarize a book; that is done in a book description or blurb, which I am now including for my readers.
I do not accept money for reviews.
As my reading tastes evolve, more and more I dislike politically/religiously charged fiction books. For instance, if you write a fantasy book that is a parody of Christianity pointing out how stupid it is, I don't want to read it. This goes for all faiths and political leanings. I love historical fiction and historical fantasy but if your books main theme is to be critical/supportive of a religious/political ideology, I will most likely decline to read it. There may be exceptions but they will be few and far between. If I want to read about these topics, I will read a non-fiction book.
If I request a book, it is possible I will not finish it. I will try to find another reader for it. I do my best to only request books I am sure I will finish but sometimes I can't get into a book.
No comments:
Post a Comment