Tagged: review requests
An Example of How Not to Write a Review Request
Comment: Dear Sir/Madam,
would you please be able to write the review of the poetry anthology. you can give a look to the profile of the anthology on the links[Several links to the poetry anthology.]
I am looking forwards to work in close cooperation with youbest wishes and regards
[Name redacted]
A few months or so ago this would have made me insanely mad. Now it just makes me facepalm. Why? Because no matter how many articles I and other book bloggers write about the importance of reading review policies and personalizing review requests, people like this man who emailed me won’t listen.
Yet I’m still going to dissect the many reasons why this man went wrong because I’m a little cranky and nitpicky today:
1. He addressed me as Sir/Madam.
Honestly, it’s not that hard to find my name. It’s in the first sentence on my About page, which is along the top of my blog. This is pure laziness and carelessness. He doesn’t care enough to take a few seconds to find out my name, let alone my gender, so why should I even bother clicking on the links in his email, let alone agree to review his book?
2. His grammar is terrible for a writer.
I don’t claim to be a grammar expert; I break the rules of grammar quite frequently here on my blog because a blog is quite casual. A review request is not, however. Review requests are not exactly formal, but they are not so casual that you don’t even bother capitalizing the first letter of your sentences. I get that poets play with the rules of grammar a lot more than bloggers, but to anyone who considers themselves a writer this is completely unacceptable. Even if I had been addressed by my name (or even by my correct gender), I would reject his request for this alone.
If you think I’m being nitpicky about the capitalization, re-read the last sentence: “I am looking forwards to work in close cooperation with you”. Enough said.
3. He didn’t provide me with any information other than telling me to check out links.
If you want me to review your book so badly, you had better include some information to at least get me interested in it. Telling me you’ve written a ‘poetry anthology’ and just giving links makes you look lazy and makes me want to hit the delete button. Again: why should I review your book if you can’t even take the time to copy and paste your own blurb into the email?
4. He didn’t see/chose to ignore that I am closed to submissions until 2014.
This could have been accomplished by looking at my review policy. It’s at the top of it in bold, capital letters. A writer has to know how to read as well as write as far as I know. So why couldn’t he take the time to read my review policy? If he did in fact read my review policy, he chose to ignore the fact that I am closed to submissions for another four months! That, my friends, is massive disrespect and won’t help you get your book reviewed.
5. He didn’t read my full review policy anyway.
You know that part in my Review Policy in the third paragraph that is in bold letters stating what I won’t review? Well, guess what! Poetry is something I won’t review unless you’re Dante, Homer, Virgil or Milton. I guarantee the man submitting his poetry anthology to me is none of the four I mention. Therefore, even if he somehow didn’t see that I’m closed to review requests, he obviously didn’t read the review policy at all. I think we can safely conclude that he was too lazy to read my policy, right?
I know that the types of authors who already do this sort of lazy/ignorant/thoughtless thing won’t be reading this post. If they do, they certainly aren’t about to change right now. However, maybe new writers looking to learn how to write review requests might read this and learn a little something. If nothing else, they’ll learn about why so many reviewers are more than a little frustrated at authors. (Especially self-published authors unfortunately.)
The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
I’ve been book reviewing for one year and seven months now. Comparatively I haven’t been around for very long in the blogging world, but I have been around long enough. What’s ‘long enough’? Well, I’ve been blogging long enough to have trolls try to start flame wars and authors attack me for having an opinion and expressing said opinion. I’ve learned to deal with it because, hey, most authors and commenters are awesome people. I was also blessed with a thick skin as well as an iron-clad commenting policy that I’ve always followed.
Compared to the experiences of some book bloggers I’ve had it pretty good. Some book reviewers have faced far worse than I have, others have faced far less. For the most part I’ve put up with it and have not called out authors publicly because I didn’t think their behaviour constituted public humiliation.
Until now.
How to Write a Review Request
Sometimes I think things are so obvious that I couldn’t possibly need to write a tutorial on them. Review requests seem like basic common sense to me, but judging from the number of requests I’m still getting despite having closed submissions over a month ago shows that some authors have no idea what the heck they’re doing. So in my usual list format I’m going to go through the steps of writing a book review request email that won’t make reviewers want to punch you.
Credit: Eating Y.A. Books
Step #1: READ THE REVIEW POLICY!
Due to the generally family-friendly nature of this blog I am resisting the urge to swear to emphasize my point. Regardless, the first thing you should ever do when visiting a book review blog looking for a blogger to review your book is read their review policy. How do you find a review policy? Well, it’s either under its own tab at the top or side of the web page or is generally under FAQs. If it’s not under any of those, use the search bar. Once you find a reviewer’s policy, ask yourself these questions while reading it:
a) Is this reviewer open to submissions?
b) Is my book in the acceptable genre list?
c) Does my book meet any other requirements?
d) What other information do I need to collect in order to make a request? Continue reading
The Mad Reviewer is Closed to Submissions (Temporarily)
With so many requests coming in as well as my own not-so-great health, I’ve decided to close submissions for reviews from authors until the fall. This will give me more time to focus on my health, but also to catch up on those authors who have been waiting and waiting for months while I’ve only had time to process the numerous review requests I’ve received. If you got your request into me before 8:26am MST I’ll still process it.
There are, however, two exceptions for the closed submission policy:
1. If you’re an author who has a series and I’ve read your first book and liked it, you are free to submit your second book for review. If I like that, then your third book and so on and so on. This is so I don’t forget the characters’ names in a series, let alone half of the plot points before I get to finish it!
2. If you are a publisher contacting me to review an ARC or galley copy as long as it is a print copy I will process your request. This is because I usually have more time to read print copies.
For those of you wondering, I will likely be re-opening for business sometime in the fall.
On Review Requests, Wait Times and Health Problems
First off, let me say that I’m flattered so many authors have been contacting me to request reviews for their books. Not only is it awesome to get free books, it’s always such a great experience working with authors from all kinds of different backgrounds. This is truly one of the joys of blogging.
However, I’m starting to get to where I have too many requests for my situation. I won’t be closing requests, but I will be a lot more picky about whose requests I accept. Don’t follow the guidelines in my review policy and send me a generic email? Trash. It’s that simple, even though in the past I would give most authors a second chance.
Also, waiting times are likely to be quite long, currently sitting at 2-3 months for ebooks and two weeks for paperbacks. There’s a good reason for all this and it’s not my awful procrastination habit either.
I’ve been driving back and forth making eight hour round trips to see various specialists down in the city. You see, I’ve been suffering from chronic back pain for almost three years now and my symptoms are getting worse. The pain in my back is more severe, and I’m starting to get pain in my legs, particularly my knees. Is my condition life threatening? Not likely, thank goodness. But does it keep me from doing what I love? Sometimes.
So far I’ve been lucky enough not to have to make the tough decision to cut back on blogging. Blogging is one of the few things left to me now that I come home from work and collapse from exhaustion and pain. I can’t do all of the physical activities I used to, so in some ways I do get more reading done. However, I also have days where all I can do is sleep because the pain makes it hard to even hold a book.
Therefore you guys probably won’t be seeing as many interviews or giveaways this summer as I have done in the past, but hopefully once I get my diagnosis and get some proper treatment I can get on with my life.