Contest winner, and musings on review policies
I'm late in announcing the winner of my extra ARC for Suzanne Desrochers' Bride of New France. Congratulations to Tiffany, who also recommended Elizabeth George Speare's Calico Captive in her comment. I'll be in touch over email to get your address, and thanks for the book suggestion, too. Hope you'll enjoy the read!
Because I'm overwhelmed with ARCs, I've temporarily stopped accepting review copy and interview requests. I haven't begun to make a serious dent in the books I picked up at the ALA conference, and there are some books I've actually bought that I'd like to get to in the near future. (I reserve the right to solicit books from publishers myself, however.)
This isn't the first time I've closed submissions, and it's not an event I usually announce—my review policy always has up-to-date submissions info—but I'd be curious to get feedback from my fellow bloggers about a related issue. This blog's policy is very easy to find, and my contact details on the sidebar make clear reference to it, but it's become a source of increasing frustration that only a small percentage of the people who contact me about reviewing their book appear to have read it. If you have, and if you've taken the time to query about or mail me a book in one of my areas of interest, thank you! But this has become an all-too-rare event, alas.
For other book bloggers: Is this your experience, too?
For example: I frequently get queries about reviewing e-books. I own a Kindle, but I take a lot of notes as I read, along with page numbers, and I find that reviewing from print works better for me. Writing me a nastygram about this aspect of my review policy isn't going to impress me or show me the error of my ways. Likewise, sending me a 10mb pdf, along with a query advising me how much I'll enjoy reading so-and-so military novel, will result in an immediate referral to the trash bin. I receive several ginormous ebook files every week.
I continue to be baffled by the large number of queries addressing me as Susan, considering my first name is, um, right there in my email address, but that's another story.
My estimate is that 90% of the queries I've gotten are for novels that my policy excludes. In contrast, when I get a pitch letter that indicates the sender has read the policy, I pay close attention. (For the summer publicity intern who sent me an unsolicited ARC in July, citing my interest in early North American settings... I wish you'd stuck around another month to see that I reviewed the book you sent me. Your letter worked, and I hope another publisher hires you full time!) My time is limited, so I can't promise to get to absolutely everything I receive, but I'm grateful to those who take the time to read the directions. That's really all it takes.
Because I'm overwhelmed with ARCs, I've temporarily stopped accepting review copy and interview requests. I haven't begun to make a serious dent in the books I picked up at the ALA conference, and there are some books I've actually bought that I'd like to get to in the near future. (I reserve the right to solicit books from publishers myself, however.)
This isn't the first time I've closed submissions, and it's not an event I usually announce—my review policy always has up-to-date submissions info—but I'd be curious to get feedback from my fellow bloggers about a related issue. This blog's policy is very easy to find, and my contact details on the sidebar make clear reference to it, but it's become a source of increasing frustration that only a small percentage of the people who contact me about reviewing their book appear to have read it. If you have, and if you've taken the time to query about or mail me a book in one of my areas of interest, thank you! But this has become an all-too-rare event, alas.
For other book bloggers: Is this your experience, too?
For example: I frequently get queries about reviewing e-books. I own a Kindle, but I take a lot of notes as I read, along with page numbers, and I find that reviewing from print works better for me. Writing me a nastygram about this aspect of my review policy isn't going to impress me or show me the error of my ways. Likewise, sending me a 10mb pdf, along with a query advising me how much I'll enjoy reading so-and-so military novel, will result in an immediate referral to the trash bin. I receive several ginormous ebook files every week.
I continue to be baffled by the large number of queries addressing me as Susan, considering my first name is, um, right there in my email address, but that's another story.
My estimate is that 90% of the queries I've gotten are for novels that my policy excludes. In contrast, when I get a pitch letter that indicates the sender has read the policy, I pay close attention. (For the summer publicity intern who sent me an unsolicited ARC in July, citing my interest in early North American settings... I wish you'd stuck around another month to see that I reviewed the book you sent me. Your letter worked, and I hope another publisher hires you full time!) My time is limited, so I can't promise to get to absolutely everything I receive, but I'm grateful to those who take the time to read the directions. That's really all it takes.
No comments have been added yet.
