2013.06.16: Just a quick note – I’m finding myself somewhat moire whelmed by work than I really expected, and without time to read even the books I choose for myself, much less books that other people would like me to read. Therefore I’m afraid I have to put review requests on hiatus. If you’ve sent me email about requests, I do apologize. I never really thought so much of my creative energy would be used up in the ol’ Day Job.
Thanks for your interest, and I hope you’re able to find a place to show off the work you work so hard on. Best of luck.
– Chris
I’ve started to get more requests by authors to read and review their books, so it seems time that I put up some formal guidelines on how that should happen. First off, let me say thank you for thinking so highly of my site that you’d like to be seen here – I’ll try to do well by you.
The first thing you should do is take some time to go through the blog and see what kind of books I tend to review and enjoy. While I do have wide interests, my safest havens are probably science fiction and fantasy. If you’re writing regency romances or touching coming-of-age YA novels, I can’t say with certainty that I won’t like them, but they’re not really in my wheelhouse. It’s best for everyone if you have people reviewing your book who are likely to enjoy and appreciate it.
If you’ve gone through the archives and you think your book is something I might like, use the form below to send me an email. Give me your best elevator pitch. If you have some sample chapters on a blog somewhere, send me a link so I can take a look. If it looks like something I might enjoy, then we can get on with the reading!
I have a Kindle app on my iPad, so that’s probably the best way to send e-books. PDFs are fine as well – GoodReader is a thing of beauty. If the book must absolutely be in dead-tree format, let me know and I’ll get you an address to send it to.
A few caveats:
I do have a (slightly more than) full-time job (because for some reason no one wants to pay me an exorbitant amount of money for doing this), so your book will probably not be up for review right away. I will, however, do my best to get it read and reviewed and on the podcast in a timely fashion. If my backlog is too full, I’ll let you know and get in touch with you when things calm down again.
I will note in the review that you came to me, rather than implying that your book was something I just happened across. I won’t make a big deal of it, but my own sense of ethics requires me to tell my readers/listeners how I came to read the book.
Again, ethics – I will neither seek nor accept any kind of compensation for reviews, other than a copy of the book provided for review purposes.
If I feel that I cannot give your book a fair review for some reason, I will contact you and we can discuss the problem. Lemony Snicket aside, I don’t like to rip books apart – Michiko Kakutani has that bit cornered – and I would rather you find a more appreciative audience for your work.
That said, all reviews are final. I encourage discussion in the comments, but unless I have a massive, head-exploding revelation about your book during my morning commute, what’s up there stays.
A lot of words, yes, but as of this writing I haven’t really done this before, so I want to make it work out as well as possible for all involved. I may revise or amend this page at any time, especially when I remember whatever big, nagging thing it is that I may have forgotten to mention.
Thanks, and I look forward to seeing your work!
The Labyrinth Library 