Category: Site Announcements

Maintenance and General Fiddling

I’m going to be experimenting with some new themes and such here on The Mad Reviewer so if things are wonky/glitchy for a few hours don’t be worried.  I should be finished all the tweaks by 8:00pm (that’s Saskatchewan time).  If there are still glitches after then, please let me know and I’ll try my best to fix them.

Your Open Book Recommendation Thread

I’ve been having a trying week, so let’s do something a little more light-hearted today, shall we?  If you’re reading this blog, you probably like books.  I like books.  My other readers like books.  But sometimes finding good books is hard and that’s where you come in.

Have you read a good book recently?  Share it with everyone else!  Why was it good?  Is it a standalone or part of a series?  Why should other people reading this blog want to read your recommendation?  Basically, if you’ve read a good book I’d like to hear about it.  And if you want to add links to the Amazon, Goodreads and/or Barnes & Noble page(s) go ahead!

There are only two rules:

1.  You cannot be the author of the book you recommend.  (If you are then your comment will be deleted.)

2.  Don’t trash other people’s recommendations.

Have fun!

Calling all Authors!

In my first post about my Reading & Reviewing challenge I mentioned that I would be initiating an open call for writers to submit books.  Well folks, here it is!

If you’re an author I would like you to provide the gift of 1 free ebook for my reading and reviewing challenge.  It doesn’t matter if you’re traditionally published or self-published, a writer who stays in one genre or  someone who writes in multiple genres.  I want all types of books submitted because the people participating in my reviewing challenge are all unique in their reading tastes.

I know what you’re asking now: what do you stand to gain from providing a free book?  There are two main things:

1.  Publicity

I will be publicly listing and thanking all of the authors who provide free books for my challenge participants.  The Mad Reviewer is not a big blog by any means, but I will promote the heck out of my thank you post.  It’s a great chance for exposure because if your book sounds interesting to me, I might just request a copy for myself.

2.  Reviews!

Reviews are a huge thing for authors.  Although I can’t guarantee that if you submit a book you’ll get a review, you stand a much greater chance of getting a review than if you have a ‘free’ day on Amazon.  Why?  Because your book will be going into the hands of someone who has already proven they are an avid reviewer.  Every single person in my reading challenge has to write a review for the books they’ve read to prove they have read them.  Some people aimed for the top level of 104 books read and reviewed, others achieved the 12 books read and reviewed.  Either way, your chances of getting a review are much higher because depending on how many submissions I get, the winners of my challenge will be picking the books they would like.  If you’re interested in a book to start with, you’re probably going to enjoy it and in turn, review it.  It’s a win-win for authors and reviewers.

If you would like to submit a book as a prize, please comment on this post with your name (or pen name), the title of the book you’d like to submit, a blurb and a link to Amazon and/or Goodreads.  I’m keeping a spreadsheet of all of the authors who submit their books and I’ll be sending it to the winner and the three runners up.  They can choose which books they like and I’ll let you know if your book has been chosen as well as what format the winner would prefer.

Thank you so much and I hope to be in contact soon.

The Best and Worst of November 2013

I can’t believe it’s December already.  Where did November go?  Obviously it was in a sick, flu-filled haze for me but it still seemed irregularly short.  Now I have to start thinking about holiday shopping.  Ugh.

On a slightly more cheerful note, the good news is that yesterday (November 30th) The Mad Reviewer got its 100,000th view since January 13, 2012.  I almost did a happy dance at that news because it hasn’t even been two years of blogging yet!  In addition to that, in November I received 5,827 views, which includes 3,865 unique views.  That’s significantly up from September, the last month where my stats weren’t inflated by a controversial post.

So what were the best articles this month?

1.  Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal

2.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

3.  The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

4.  How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour

5.  The Giver by Lois Lowry

Meh, none of these are a surprise.  With the popularity of The Hunger Games as a novel study book as well as the popularity of Game of Thrones, it’s not that shocking that these two were vying for the #1 spot all month.  I mean, the Game of Thrones article only beat The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome by 10 hits.  That’s pretty good.

So what were my worst posts this month?

1.  Black Ships by Jo Graham

2.  Firelight by Sophie Jordan

3.  The King’s Man by Pauline Gedge

4.  Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

5.  The Scourge by A. G. Henley

All of these listed here as the worst posts are all about pretty darn good books, especially Black Ships and The Scourge.  It’s not that surprising how such good books get ignored in favour of novel study books or popular TV shows (since the GoT hits come mostly from show-related search terms).  That’s just how the internet is, but it doesn’t make me any less proud of these reviews.

Other than being miserable for two weeks, November was a pretty good month for me.  How was it for you?  Are you excited about the upcoming holidays in December?