Attention authors: I do accept books for review, and I will do my best to give your book an honest review. if it is a good book, I'll say so. I'll tell all my friends to read it, I'll ask my local library to buy it, i'll post a five star review on every website i know. If it isn't a good book, i'll say that too. I am not a garunteed 5 star amazon reviewer. if you have the talent to write a book, then you certainly have the smarts to have it properly critiqued and edited, right?
that said, from here on out, I will no longer be accepting self published books for review. no more "authors online", "lulu", "athena press" or any other vanity publishers. if you paid a cent to have your book printed, i am not the reviewer for you.
why the tirade? life is too short. i don't have time for that shit.
see here . and here. and here. Ok, that last one wasn't technically "self published", but the small press publishing house is co-owned by the author, and that's close enough for me.
my apologies to all you authors who didn't like what I wrote about your books. maybe I was being too critical. it's not my fault, I've become jaded, thanks to authors like Kim Stanley Robinson, David Brin, Tim Powers, Charles Stross, Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Adams, Barbara Kingsolver, even Amy Tan (i love her, but her stuff gets really repetitive!).
bitch session over, I have book news!
Last Call, by Tim Powers - not his best book, but very entertaining. dragged a bit at the end. I wish I knew more about Poker and Tarot cards.
just picked up Charlie Stross's The Family Trade. only about 100 pages in . . . and it's really fun so far!
official book reviews of those an others, hopefully coming soon. by "official" review, i mean something more than 2 sentences.
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2 comments:
So, just a question (you obviously can do whatever you like with your time) is it the fact that you did not really like any of these books, the fact that they each failed to rise to their potential, or some other reason that has turned you off to self-published books?
Just curious (as another, sometime reviewer).
"is it the fact that you did not really like any of these books"
Yes.
"the fact that they each failed to rise to their potential"
or reach much of any potential.
"or some other reason that has turned you off to self-published books?"
it's complicated. or maybe really simple.
i believe it boils down to the self published authors (or at least the few I know) attitude towards publishing. when i read their websites, blogs, myspaces, etc, i come away with the feeling that they think they are above rejection letters, above waiting for an answer from a publisher, above honest editors. that for whatever reason, they shouldn't have to deal with all those things.
i'm sure i'm getting the wrong impression of these people. but it's the impression i get, and it annoys me greatly.
also, the books were awful.
i just got a new ARC in the mail from one of my book review sites. published from LuLu. great.
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