Submission Guideline Update

A direct link to the most recent Submission Guidelines post has been added to the blog home page; however, the rules have not changed. Note: All self-published POD imprints (except Lulu) are accepted as of 4/1/08. Any author who wants a review on this blog is expected to put forth a little more effort than that required for a review elsewhere. From this point forward, submitting an iUniverse book for review is going to get just a wee bit easier. Links to all the previous posts relevant to submissions are listed in this post. Note that minor changes in the rules have been instituted since the beginning, so the information in the later posts takes precedence. You can still request a review by saying so in a comment to any post, but now you can also send a direct request to ice9 at nctv dot com. Whether or not this information is posted in a more blatant manner in the future, I cannot say. Due to the direct promotion of my own books in past years, the spammers just love me to death! This has been the main reason submission requests have had to be a bit difficult in the past. We'll see where this goes in the future....

Introduction to the blog with the first Submissions Guidelines

First Submissions Guidelines Update

Making a Submission Comment

Interview with the Reviewer

Submission Guidelines Update

The Truth & Nothing But the Truth

Many of you may be thinking that I must be nuts, trying to attain credibility as an honest reviewer while apparently heaping all my praise on the same couple of authors. Reading the newest review over at POD Critic has inspired me to come clean concerning the whole issue. His review of Ciao! Miami has reminded me all too clearly of what has most certainly been the weakest book reviewed in the history of this blog, and the weaknesses of both books are virtually the same. Bear with me a bit while I explain the close relationships of the subjects stated above.

I cannot tell you why POD Critic chooses to review any particular book, but I can explain my own choices. The most important factor you must understand is that I receive very few actual submission requests, and the time I allot to each submission is probably a lot greater than that expended by any other reviewer. Practically all of my computer time is spent doing research. When I am reading a book for review, I read it only at the times I would otherwise devote to reading any other book, and I love big, fat books. I buy my reading by the pound, and you will never intimidate me with the length of a book. Most of the time, I actually prefer to read paperbacks simply because they are not so heavy to carry around. If I spend several weeks reading a 500-page book, so be it. I have yet to turn down a request for a review. Exactly three of the submissions I accepted by a whisker. If Susan Higginbotham's title and subject matter had been Edward II, I would have rejected it as a cheater, no matter how good the book may have been, and we all know that it is one of iU's shining stars, in both quality and sales. I accepted Dead On for review because I am a big fan of Brian De Palma, and the genre seemed to skirt his style, which it does. I also wanted to know if most of iU's optional praise and support for some books is bullshit. Guess what? It is. When Portraits in the Dark, another quick read, was offered to me right after Dead On, it offered me a chance to test another theory I had about iU's bull puckey. Guess what? The bull took another dump. At least I still had my dignity and credibilty intact. You see, I don't just heap praise on any book submitted to me!

Before I go on to sing the praises of Al Past, Lorrieann Russell, and a number of others, let's revisit a tiresome, old problem: proofreading. In short, most of you iUniverse authors out there are obviously shirking the drudgery. Your duty to your readers has been ignored because that part of the job just isn't any fun. Yeah, I know the old lament that you were just in a hurry to see your masterpieces in print, but give your loyal readers a break. They have usually paid more to read your excessive error count than they would have for a traditionally published book with a lot less errors by a well-established author. Just so you know, I am not the pot calling the kettle black, either. When I count errors, I give you every benefit of the doubt that is reasonable. I edit my own books and I have read my own books, not just in the manuscript form I spent endless time working on, but the final, published books, and I counted errors in those final reads. Some of the best storytelling ya'll have submitted to me have error counts that are easily eight to ten times the error counts of each of my books. I do my own proofreading. Ya'll can do it, too. Once and for all, enough said?

Ya'll can complain that I just review the same authors over and over with the same glowing reviews if you want to because, in the near future at least, that trend is going to continue. I'm writing this now while I listen to Sandy Nelson's best album. It was killer music when it was released in 1962, and it still makes me want to jump for joy. Quality never fades away, and that's the very point of this paragraph. Al Past takes me into a Spielbergian fantasy with Ana Darcy and her loving husband who have adventures that will bring your apple-pie emotions to your face. Lorrieann Russell reminds me why I like misfits and witches. Susan Higginbotham shows me how someone can spin a spellbinding soap opera that even I like. Tim Phelan reminds me that bathroom humor is funny. Several other authors have presented some very special nonfiction subjects to a waiting audience. Before I became a reviewer, I didn't even know what Sudetenland was, or that yankees had heartwarming adventures on the baseball field, too. Yes, of course that's a joke! I certainly didn't realize that the submarine had been initially perfected to whup them yankees, and no, that's not a joke. Believe it or not, I wrote the reviews I thought each book deserved. The only little secret I want to share now is that, in the case of a few of them, there may have been somewhat more of a problem with the plot, characters, or composition quality than I indicated. I may have leaned toward criticism of the editing and proofreading in those cases, just to ease the pain for the author. This applies to those books at the bottom of the spectrum, not the top.

I am almost through with the reading of Lorrieann's sequel, which of course will be the next review. Alan Draven's Bitternest is supposed to be the next one after that, but I have not received it yet. I expect it any day now. Since it had to be sent from north of Yankeeland, Bitternest will be the first book I have reviewed after another member of The Ring. Since this is Nothing But the Truth, I must confess that in no way could I have beat PODler to the draw on that one since Lorrieann writes big books, and the rule on this blog has always been first come, first served. It even looks as if Al Past's Reincarnation will be third in line. Whenever ya'll get tired of the Al Past / Lorrieann Russell fan club, ya'll can always send me some more submissions. Maybe one of these days, I'll even turn one down.

Interview with the Author

Lorrieann Russell
Author of My Brother’s Keeper and In the Wake of Ashes

Lorrieann Russell resides in the small town of Merrimack, NH, outside Nashua, just north of the Massachusetts border. She is currently awaiting the release of her third novel in the series, actually a prequel, due out later this year.

Tabitha: What inspired you to write My Brother’s Keeper?

Lorrieann: I had been researching my family genealogy and found one entry with a single line: William Fylbrigge, Married 31 August 1597 to Mehlyndia Walford, Died 2 October 1597 in Aberdeen, aged 20 years. That was all it said, no elaboration or other details. I looked into the history of Aberdeen and found that particular year to be one of the most prolific for witch burnings – particularly in Aberdeen. A seed had been planted in my imagination and I began to wonder if William had been part of that horrible event. The story grew from there. It is complete fiction.

Tabitha: Is there a particular, actual person who inspired your lead character?
Lorrieann: Yes, and there are clues throughout – snippets of song lyrics worked into dialog that only other sharp-eyed fans would recognize. (Page 111, paragraph 2 for example.)

Tabitha: We have always been advised as authors to show, not tell, the characters and storyline to the reader, and you have apparently taken this concept to heart. Did you simply begin composing in this manner, or was it a concerted, learned effort?

Lorrieann: I wrote the story as I saw it in my head. I know that as a reader, I tend to become bored with too much narrative, and find myself skipping to the dialog, which is usually where the action happens. When it came time to write my own, I just naturally relied on the dialog to push the plot.

Tabitha: The characters in your books seem to come to life as I hold the books in my hands, reading their conversations. Have you envisioned what a movie version would look like?

Lorrieann: Yes! And I ‘cast’ the parts as I wrote them. I will not share who is on the list, however, as I think the readers should do that for themselves—though I have written in clues that only people who know me will recognize. It may be interesting to know that most of my cast is comprised of people who are no longer living.

Tabitha: I understand that My Brother’s Keeper was originally released by Xlibris before you selected iUniverse. That puts you in the catbird seat to tell us about your experience with Xlibris. Can you describe that experience for us?

Lorrieann: When I started with Xlibris, I should note, that the POD industry was very new, and there were a lot of quality issues yet to work out. When I received my first copy of my book to hold in my hand, I was devastated. The quality was horrible. The binding cracked, the pages fell out and the ink on the cover was so thin it came off on my fingers. This was the issue ordered directly from Xlibris! I was told it was a quirk, and they would replace that book. The replacements were just as bad. Interestingly, copies ordered from Amazon were better. I called Xlibris, and was told that quality all depended on whichever print house produced the book. That was not a good answer. I wanted to be certain that no matter where someone ordered my book they would get a quality copy. Xlibris told me basically, that there was no such way to ensure that. They sent me yet another replacement, and when I opened that one, not only did the pages fall out again, but the entire middle section of the book was upside down, and the epilogue came from another book entirely. I pulled the book from Xlbris and moved to iUniverse. I’ve not had quality problems since.

Tabitha: How satisfying has your experience with iUniverse been?

Lorrieann: I have been quite happy with the ease of use and the quality of the product. I do, however, wish they would do more to help their authors, and guide us in marketing. When In the Wake of Ashes received an Editor’s Choice, I thought that meant they’d take a little more interest in my success. All it did was make it possible for me to “purchase” more things from them. One of the ‘bonus’ offerings was a list of newspapers and contacts in my area – which is something I gathered for free on my own. Not terrifically helpful.

Tabitha: What is the most significant thing you have learned as a POD author? Do you have any advice to offer to new or prospective POD authors?

Lorrieann: It’s hard to be taken seriously as a writer, but it is possible. Be patient, and learn the craft and take your time. I rushed to press twice, for reasons that had nothing to do with the book itself, and I wish I had taken more time to polish.

Tabitha: Tell us about the faces that have been carefully integrated into the book covers. Whose face is it? How do the faces key into your intentions for the focus of the books?

Lorrieann: The image represents William. The eyes that are almost invisible in the flames above the castle came from a photograph of a friend of mine, who was the inspiration for the Sean character. He is up there in the flames looking on from a ‘guardian’ sort of perspective. The face lower down, you see the green eyes peering wide-open, belongs to William, and came from an illustration I made of him as I was writing. He is engulfed in the whole chaos around him, yet he does not close his eyes to it.

On the cover of Ashes, once again, I have William and “Sean” and the fire that is a theme throughout. Again, it is an illustration of the face I saw while I was writing. That was actually the last portrait I did by hand. I’ve moved on to digital media since then. The cover for By Right of Blood also features William and Sean, however they look more photorealistic.

Tabitha: I understand you have also published some poetry and a few short stories. Have these been in a print or online-only format? Where can we find these other works by Lorrieann Russell?

Lorrieann: I have been a featured contributor to The Writers Post Journal, published monthly out of Pittsburgh PA. (http://www.writerspostjournal.com/) I have also been featured in Layers, a local college publication, and in other local periodicals. I also have a personal blog where you can read some of my best short stories, and sneak a peek at a couple of works in progress: www.lorrieannrussell.com/blog. I once wrote a deliberately dreadful poem about celery and sent it off under the pseudonym of Abigail B. Wartybutt, that Poetry.Com told me was a finalist in their national contest – though I don’t usually list that in my credentials.

Tabitha: Do you think these publications have helped establish your status as a writer or increased interest in your two books?

Lorrieann: Yes, definitely. I’ve sold more books after people have read my short stories.

Tabitha: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What genres do you like to read?

Lorrieann: My all-time favorite book is Stephan King’s The Stand. I love the way he builds a character and a scene. I love good storytelling, whether it is horror, drama, science fiction, or fantasy. I do not stick to a genre. I am a Harry Potter fan, and I also like Philipa Gregory, who writes Historical Fiction primarily.

Tabitha: What have you been reading lately?

Lorrieann: The last book I finished was Joe Hill’s The Heartshaped Box. BUY IT! Wonderful story telling.

Tabitha: What sort of educational experience do you have, and is it relevant to your writing or the subject matter you have chosen?

Lorrieann: My educational background is in music. I was trained as a coloratura soprano and pianist. Music didn’t pay the bills, however, and I found that I enjoyed eating on a regular basis. I do, however, still compose piano music, and write songs. I sing mostly by request at weddings, funerals and the occasional family lobster bake.

Several of my songs were recorded by New Hampshire folk singer Thom Fury, who was also my musical partner in crime, and life long friend. He was an unwitting catalyst in jumpstarting my writing, when he presented a piece of music he’d written to the words of a Lord Byron poem “Stanzas for Music”. It was very old-worldly, and the mood sad and longing. As it happens, he presented it to me the very day I found the notation about William in my genealogy. When Thom sang the song, I was still thinking about William. When he finished he asked me what I thought, and I looked up and said, “I think I’m going to write a book.” So I guess you could say, my education influenced my writing – sorta. (You can hear the song at: http://www.fylbrigge.com/thomfury/ click on tearhwithHarmony.mp3)

Tabitha: What about your work career? Has your choice of profession influenced your writing?

Lorrieann: I would say not so much the work I do, but the people I meet find their way into my stories. Some of them may not be flattered to know this.

Tabitha: Your artwork in the computer graphics field can be viewed at the link in the review of My Brother’s Keeper. What would you like to tell us about your artistic hobby?

Lorrieann: I make my living as an illustrator, so it is a bit more than a hobby, though I never consider it to be ‘work’. I am lucky to have a geeky-technical brain that marries well to the artistic side. By day, I render robots, nuts, bolts, and machine parts for a high tech robotics company, and by night the geek turns off, and I render people. Having a technical background helps me use the software to its full potential, and having an artist’s eye helps me to use it to create the exact image that is in my head.

Tabitha: I understand that you have landed a contract with a traditional publisher for your books. Could you tell us how you have accomplished this highly prized milestone in your career as a writer?

Lorrieann: Lots of submissions and lots of rejections. It was through my poetry and association with the Writers Post Journal that I landed my contract. WPJ was produced by LBF Books, which has recently been acquired by Lachesis Publishing out of Nova Scotia.

Tabitha: When and where will the next release by Lorrieann Russell be available?

Lorrieann: I am happy to say, By Right of Blood is in final polish with Lachesis, and is on the schedule for a July release. I’m very excited as this will be my first traditional publication. Hopefully, coming to a brick and mortar store near you, but definitely through Amazon or Barnes & Noble online.

Tabitha: What’s next for Lorrieann Russell, the writer?

Lorrieann: I am working on three other novels, all of different genre. Notably, Passages, which will be the fourth in my Fylbrigge series, and takes place after In the Wake of Ashes. I am also working on The Last Ballad of Amelia White – which is a horror story set in 1960 New Hampshire and Farewell Arcana, which is speculative fiction about a certain archangel who wants to quit his job but must find a replacement first.

Tabitha: Do you have any final remarks to address to your readers or our audience?

Lorrieann: When I set out to write, I only write to please myself. I tell a story that I would like to read, and in the end, I have found I’m very hard to please, which is why my stories tend to be complicated. I was very reluctant to share my stories until my friend encouraged me, saying he’d love to see me in print before he died. That was the rush to press I mentioned earlier. Thom was my biggest fan, and loved reading my stories. He passed away in 2002, and I have since become a much slower writer. I think he’d be pleased that I have another book coming – one I didn’t rush through.

Ode To Celery

Munchy crunchy in my lunchy
Built in strings to floss my teeth.
Snappy happy never crappy
Impossible to overeat
Cooked or hooked or overlooked
Best when eaten raw, of course
Winny mini, keeps me skinny
So I don't whinny like a horse

L A Wieczhalek aka Abigail B WartyButt

Tricks of the Trade

As an author of four iUniverse books, I have learned a few things that you may be interested in knowing if you plan to release an iU book in the future. Some of these hints may also be useful with other POD publishers, but my direct experience is only with iUniverse. I cannot say with certainty that any of these issues exist in the case of other publishers, but I can tell you that the acquisition of this knowledge has allowed me to produce a more professional product. These little ideas that may or may not apply to your book project are presented here in no particular order of significance.

(1) I design my own book covers. They may not look like much to you, but they satisfy my creative juices and personify (at least to me) what my books are all about. If you do not design your own cover, the cover iU designs for you will be composed of elements; i.e., photographs, that are also used on other authors' books. Design your own cover or expect to one day see your cover picture on someone else's book.

(2) You know that you have a zillion font styles and sizes built into your computer, but did you know that iU has purchased the rights to only a comparative handful of fonts? This fact is of little consequence within the book, but the cover is another story altogether. You can request a list of the fonts iU has permission to use on your cover before you get too involved in its design. Then the cover they present to you is likely to be a lot closer to what you designed, assuming you don't try to utilize a font they don't have, anyway.

(3) Take your own cover photos. If the photo is to fit the front cover, as on my books, be sure to take vertical, not horizontal shots. Believe it or not, I use a conventional 35mm camera and send the film to York Photo Labs, who sends me back a set of 4" x 6" prints and a CD-ROM. York has been getting high ratings as a cheap mail-order lab for decades. A couple of 36-exposure rolls and the CD cost only about $14, and together they give you a lot of control for a book cover. The CD version will be 100 resolution, not the 300 iU requests for a cover. The 100 resolution CD photos can be copied into a folder and worked with infinitely until you have selected the shot you want, done any cropping or other quick modifications through a software program of your choice, and decided exactly what the cover photo is to look like. You will also note that the prints you received from York will look more accurately like the book cover than will the CD-ROM versions, so you can refer to the prints as you move through the decision process. If you want the cover photo to fit the 6" x 9" cover, as on all my books, and you want the most perfect picture, you will have to select your prize negative (or more than one if you still want further choices) and send it (or these) off to York or someone else for 8" x 10" print(s). When you get the 8x10's back, you want to scan them into your computer using 300 resolution, and cropping them if desired. You can actually follow the iU instructions to the letter and make your scan the exactly correct size (just over 6" x 9"). Of course you can lighten, darken, or anything else you might have in mind, using your scanner. You can also obviously use far more exotic graphics programs to make a montage or other special effect, but that is beyond the scope of this article. I'm just telling you here what I have learned about producing my own cover designs, which do not involve any program such as PhotoShop.

(4) Did you know that you can add a color photo to the back cover or a black-and-white one in the back matter? You can also pay an optional price for more photos. Personally, I tend to spend my money here instead of on some of the company's bull-hockey, over-priced options. The photos may have cost me cash, but at least I know what I really got for my money.

(5) Use underlining in an iU book as sparingly as possible. Something about the iU or Lightning sytem cannot handle underlining very well. It comes out looking way too heavy, a distraction to the eyes. Yes, I know we all have links we want to use, but you can delete the underlining before you send in the final proof. What are the readers going to do; click the book page?

(6) Watch out for the deadly, high retail price structure! You can make yourself a copy of the iU chart and click the word-count button on your Word document occasionally to track where you are as you compose the book. I watched that chart like the Tazmanian Devil watches Bugs Bunny when I was writing Timeline of America. That book could have easily hit a $35 price point!

(7) In the same vein as #6 above, you can use a smaller font in the book's text, too. After your manuscript is complete, you can play with this feature in Word to get a feel for the price points. For a more professional look, consider different sizes of font for certain elements outside the main book body. (See #9 below.)

(8) I hope you know that iU offers special price deals almost continuously. Be sure to put your name on the company's e-mailed newsletter list long in advance of the release of your book so you can track exactly what deals they are offering. Any monkey can figure out that if your book is a big boy, free copies are a lot better deal than dollars off, but the reverse is true if you are composing a quick read.

(9) Don't just breeze through all that malarky about front matter and back matter in the instruction document. Look at the traditionally published books on your own bookshelf. Do you want your book to hide in the forest with them or look like self-published junk? I thought your middle name was Robin Hood, so give all that matter some thought, and put in whatever might be appropriate for your book.

(10) If you don't do anything else on this list, read the earlier post on this blog entitled The Proof is in the Nitpick. If the methodology described there does not suit your personal situation, please, for the sake of your readers, find an equivalent method that works for you! It's the error count, Josephine, the error count! That's the best way there is, Josephine, to spot one a them Prnt Own Dumand books!

Tabitha & Me

I'm feeling a little silly today, so I thought I would post an actual photo of Tabitha and one of me. I apologize to Tabitha for outing her. She's mad at me for letting the world know that she can read, type, operate a computer, and impersonate an author!

The De Facto POD Review Ring Chart

This is intended as a quick-reference chart of the blogs in The De Facto POD Review Ring. The current eight members are listed in the chart in Date Established Order. Most, but not all, of the members have responded to an e-mail request to enter the data they would like to see stated for their blog site in the chart. The data for the remaining members has been taken directly from the blogs. Please refer to the genre codes at the bottom of the chart. The information is current as of May 1, 2007. Hopefully, this chart will live a long and happy life at various locations on the web, and we can periodically update the information. Thank you to all who are participating in this project.

Name: POD People - http://podpeep.blogspot.com
Blurb: A Review & Commentary Site Devoted to Self-Published Books
Founded: January 10, 2006
Submissions: Open to Submissions as of 9/6/08 & highly recommended
Submission Format(s): Electronic versions preferred - paper copies accepted
Author Interviews: Rarely, and only upon request
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: All
Preferred Genres: Any
Notes: A small team of (currently 12) reviewers run by two writers who are not self-published, but are enthusiastic about quality poetry and prose in any format. We host both a blog and a fixed website. News, promotions and commentary relating to self-POD may be submitted to the blog and will be posted at our discretion.

Name: Leo Stableford - http://www.leostableford.com
Blurb: One Monkey, One Typewriter, Infinite Deadlines - POD reviews for all interested parties
Founded: January 14, 2006
Submissions: Open for Submissions as of 4/27/07, but no recent activity present
Submission Format(s): Paper copies preferred; e-books accepted
Author Interviews: No
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: Generic Fiction
Preferred Genres: FA HO SF TH YA
Notes: Long-time reviewer rated 4.6/5 by peers at Francis Ford Coppola's zoetrope.com online workshop from over 130 reviews given

Name: POD Book Reviews & More - http://podbram.blogspot.com
Blurb: Legitimate Reviews for Deserving Authors and Their Readers
Founded: July 12, 2006
Submissions: Submissions are closed as of 11/7/10.
Submission Format(s): Actual paper copy of the published book required
Author Interviews: Yes
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: All adult and young adult genres welcome. If you don't have two digits in your age, you aren't tall enough to ride this roller coaster.
Preferred Genres: Cheaters need not apply (See posted Submission Guidelines.)
Notes: An exceptional level of personal service from a team of highly experienced authors/critics is offered to those whose books are accepted for review. Reviews are posted on multiple, key websites, too.

Name: P.O.D.lings - http://podlingmaster.blogspot.com
Blurb: Hoping to Help Aspiring Authors with Honest Book Reviews
Founded: August 16, 2006
Submissions: Submissions Permanently Closed as of 5/15/07
Submission Format(s): PDF and paper
Author Interviews: Yes - Also offers Podcasts
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: Self Published & Small to Large Press Novels
Preferred Genres: AA CH FA SF TH YA
Notes: Small-press published author with several novels written

Name: None May Say - http://nonemaysay.blogspot.com
Blurb: Personal Outlay Developed Reviews
Founded: November 23, 2006
Submissions: Submissions Open as of 3/24/08, but no recent activity present
Submission Format(s): Various
Author Interviews: No
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: All POD media, including music and other art forms
Preferred Genres: Feature reviews of free online books
Notes: Reviews of music not on corporate labels

Name: Pub-ioneer - http://pub-ioneer.blogspot.com
Blurb: "To boldly go..." - Self Published Book Reviews
Founded: November 25, 2006
Submissions: Last Post 5/4/07: Site has been removed from blogger.com.
Submission Format(s): Digital formats preferred
Author Interviews: No
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: MF MY SF TH - E-mail synopsis for other genres
Preferred Genres: A taste for dark, edgy, unusual stuff
Notes: No nonfiction, literary, or poetry accepted

Name: POD Critic - http://podbookreview.blogspot.com
Blurb: Where I dissect the books of aspiring writers and publishers who employ print-on-demand technology
Founded: January 30, 2007
Submissions: Closed to Submissions as of 4/15/07
Submission Format(s): Paper copies preferred, but digital files accepted (PDF preferred; MS Word/RTF accepted) - See blog site for latest information.
Author Interviews: Yes, but solely by reviewer's choice
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes, for authors and micro-presses
Publication Dates Accepted: All - Will apprise of any changes
Genres Accepted: AA BI CE FA HI HO LI ME MY RO SF SU TH YA
Preferred Genres: None - Film, Television, & Speculative Fiction subgenres considered
Notes: Experienced book editor fosters and promotes all aspects of quality work: writing, editing, and production.

Name: The PODler - http://podler.blogspot.com
Blurb: Reviews of POD Published Fiction
Founded: April 6, 2007
Submissions: Permanently closed to submissions as of 5/4/09.
Submission Format(s): PDF & TXT files
Author Interviews: Yes
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: ES FA HI MY SF SU TH
Preferred Genres: Any of the above
Notes: Home of the International Print on Demand Book Award

Name: Odyssey Reviews - http://herodyssey.blogspot.com
Blurb: Honest Reader Reviews of POD, Self-Published Books and More
Founded: June 25, 2007
Submissions: Open to submissions as of 12/5/08
Submission Format(s): Paper copies only
Author Interviews: No
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: Any considered except erotica
Preferred Genres: Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mystery
Notes: At least one book reviewed per month. Books will be donated to the local library.

Name: The Slippery Book Review Blog - http://slipperybookreview.wordpress.com/
Blurb: Reviews of Selected Fiction from Small Presses
Founded: October 17, 2007
Submissions: Open to Submissions as of 11/22/07, but not recommended
Submission Format(s): Unspecified - See Submission Guidelines
Author Interviews: No
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: No
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: Any fiction considered except erotica and hardcore horror
Preferred Genres: Only writing, publishing, and marketing subjects accepted in nonfiction
Notes: POD submissions accepted only after the submission of a sample chapter

Name: The Lulu Book Review - http://llbookreview.com
Blurb: Reviews and Commentary on Lulu published authors only
Founded: Launched 2/25/08. First Reviews posted March 1st.
Submissions: Submissions are open as of 9/6/10 & highly recommended
Submission Format(s): Electronic versions or hard copies preferred. Will also purchase copies on our own to support the author. Electronic submissions will go to the top of the list due to easier and quicker access.
Author Interviews: Only upon request, although we may email an author for insight on their book from time to time
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: Consult most of the Lulu Top 100 for the types of books we are not seeking. We do not reject every example within certain genres, but we definitely have preferences.
Preferred Genres: CE, CH, GF, GL, HO, NF, PO, RO, SF, & YAGenres Not Considered at This Time: BU, CR, FA, HT, SF, & WS
Notes: We want to hear from the lesser known Lulu authors who deserve some time in the spotlight, particularly those appealing to a larger audience such as literary fiction and poetry. We are seeking out books of short stories, cookbooks, and books about animals, too.

Name: The POD-dy Train - http://poddytrain.blogspot.com
Blurb: All Aboard The POD-dy Train for reviews of POD books, companies, and other review sites.
Founded: Launched 4/7/09. First review site review 4/9/09.
Submissions: The site was removed from Blogger 5/9/09.
Submission Format(s): Digital PDF's sent to poddytrain@gmail.com only.
Author Interviews: No
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: All
Genres Accepted: Many genres of fiction, but very few of nonfiction. We do not reject every example within certain genres, but we definitely have preferences.
Preferred Genres: AA, BI, ES, GF, GL, HI, HO, HU, LI, ME, MY, SU, TH, & YAGenres Not Considered at This Time: BU, CE, CH, CR, FA, HT, MF, NF, PO, RO, SF, SH, & WS
Notes: Before submitting a PDF, the author must read the submission guidelines and send a brief description of the book and either a JPG of the cover or an online link to it.

Name: The Boogle - http://theboogle.wordpress.com
Blurb: Reviewing books for authors who are proud to be independent.
Founded: 5/23/09
Submissions: Open for submissions as of 5/23/09 & recommended
Submission Format(s): Print Copies Only
Author Interviews: Upon Request
Articles of Helpful Information for Authors: Yes
Publication Dates Accepted: Recent, with forthcoming titles preferred
Genres Accepted: All
Preferred Genres: Fiction
Notes: As an independent author who understands the challenges of marketing without the help of a gigantic publishing apparatus, Mark McGinty has dedicated time to help promote self-published and independent authors by reviewing their books and linking their websites.

Genre Codes:
AA - Action Adventure
BI - Biography
BU - Business
CE - Collected Essays
CH - Children
CR - Christian
ES - Espionage
FA - Fantasy
GF - General Fiction
GL - Gay & Lesbian
HI - Historical Fiction
HO - Horror
HT - How To
HU - Humor
LI - Literary
ME - Memoir
MF - Military Fiction
MY - Mystery
NF - Nonfiction
PO - Poetry
RO - Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Self Help
SU - Suspense
TH - Thriller
WS - Western
YA - Young Adult

Read the Authors Den article about the Review Ring and Chart.

My Brother's Keeper

 
My Brother's Keeper  
by Lorrieann Russell
(iUniverse / 0-595-20642-5 / November 2001 / 540 pages / $25.95)

We do things the old-fashioned way here at iUniverse Book Reviews. We don't need no stinking pdf's. We read real books like real men. We like 'em big, heavy, and long. We live to read 500-page, heavily-researched, carefully constructed books like My Brother's Keeper. We don't care if it was released back in 2001 and we don't care if it looks like a rerun of The Traitor's Wife, either. We readers here at the iU corral care only that this book is butt-kickin' good! You will see this critter on a store shelf somewhere in a couple of years. As far as we know, that's a done deal, not a wish upon a star. Get it now before they change the cover designed by Miss Lorrieann herself. The sequel's already out and you better read that one, too.

The copy editor's name is displayed right in the front of this book, and that notation should be filed in the George Bush Department. Say what? The proofreading of the book is clearly its weakest link, somewhat like The Decider in The White House. Although the concept may not have crossed the author's mind when she wrote this big, fat jewel, especially considering the date of its release, the story will scare you silly with its allegorical connections with the modern theocracy Bush has created.

The tale of historical fiction is set in Scotland in the early 1600's. Deeply set behind the scenes so ably conjured in the novel is a king who has given his blessing to the powers of the church. The local bishop of Stonehaven revels in the terror his band of witch hunters brings down on the local citizenry. Edward, The Duke of Stonehaven, has been living in denial for years while the injustice, terror, and torture has permeated his segment of the kingdom. The duke enjoys a pleasant lifestyle within the walls of Drumoak Castle, at least until the men in black hoods turn their focus on the residents of Stonehaven. The main storyline surrounds a young man who had been orphaned at an early age, raised by his older brother and the brother's wife until the age of twelve. At that time, young William Fylbrigge was brought to Drumoak Castle to continue his education into life by Edward and his staff. The story opens with William's marriage to Edward's daughter, but the plot thickens rapidly from that point. Here are a few clues. William was raised until he was twelve by his new bride's older sister. His older brother is a greedy turd, and William's nickname for his brother's wife is the dragon. Remember, the dragon raised him as his mom. Did she, now? The plot thickens, and thickens, and thickens.

What we have here is an obvious comparison with Susan Higginbotham's The Traitor's Wife, Anne Rice's The Witching Hour (and her continuing stories of The Mayfair Witches), and Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. There are clear elements of all of these quality works within the story of My Brother's Keeper. Ms. Rice writes from the perspective of the witches not as villains. So does Ms. Russell. Mr. Miller's play is completely centered around the legendary events in Salem in 1692, about ninety years past the fictional novel set in Scotland. Ms. Higginbotham filled in the unknown parts of a true story of the British Royal Family. My Brother's Keeper is certainly no better than these works, but it deserves a nearly equal, prominent location on your bookshelf. The prequel to this book is on the way from a traditional publisher. My Brother's Keeper and its sequel, In the Wake of Ashes, are scheduled for re-release at some undisclosed date in the future. Remember, you read it here first at iUniverse Book Reviews!

Lorrieann Russell is also a graphic-artist computer-nerd. She has created representations of many characters and scenes from her novels. You can visit this link to see many of Lorrieann's artistic depictions. She has created not only her own covers, but she does covers for other authors as well.

See also: Interview with Lorrieann Russell
Review of the sequel, In the Wake of Ashes

Interview with the Author

We're going to try to start a new series of posts here at iUniverse Book Reviews. We're calling the series Interview with the Author in honor of my favorite author of fiction novels. The we I refer to is composed of Tabitha and whoever requests an interview. In this case it happens to be the only Texas author reviewed on this site. You can call me a copycat for adding this new feature. Many others in the POD blog force have already been offering author interviews. You can also call me the Al Past International Fan Club, but hey, he was the first volunteer so he gets the first worm.

Al Past

Author of Distant Cousin and Distant Cousin: Repatriation

Al Past resides in the small town of Beeville, TX, south of San Antonio, and he is currently writing the third novel in the series, due out later this year.

Tabitha: What inspired you to write Distant Cousin?

Al Past: Several things. (1) It was a story I’d been mulling over for 20 years. Suppose some people who were taken from here long ago managed to come back? What then? I couldn’t get that out of my mind. (2) As a teacher of writing, I wondered if I could create a story that I myself could stand. In other words, I could dish it out, but could I take it? (3) I retired from teaching and finally had the time. (4) The immediate inspiration was a friend, a world-class harpsichordist and prize-winning author, Rebecca Pechefsky, who urged me to quit dithering and just start, to take it one chapter at a time. She was right. It turned out to be wonderful fun.

Tabitha: Is there a particular, actual person who inspired your lead character?

Al Past: Yes, many of the characters are composites of different people I know. The lead character, for example, was inspired in part by a young mathematician & astronomer of my acquaintance.

Tabitha: When I read Distant Cousin, images of a blockbuster movie such as Close Encounters rampaged through my head. Have you envisioned what a movie version would look like?

Al Past: I have, yes. I can see the scenes that take place at the Olympic Games on the screen clearly. West Texas is quite scenic too, and there’s a fair amount of action. It’s also why the main character isn’t a six-foot guy with bulging muscles. It needed to be an attractive, vulnerable person that people would be drawn to. That worked nicely, better than I had hoped.

Tabitha: Did you consider other publishers before you selected iUniverse?

Al Past: Yes, I did. An article in the New York Times mentioned iUniverse and several other POD outfits, and I checked them all out.

Tabitha: How satisfying has your experience with iUniverse been?

Al Past: Generally good. They do what they say they’ll do and they produce a handsome, durable product. It’s pricey, but I’m happier than I would be with one of those cheaper, pocket-sized paperbacks that soon split and spill their pages. The face on the cover of Distant Cousin should have been more obvious, but since I sent iUniverse the original picture, they had no way to recompose it even if they had wished to. The only way to see how it was going to look was to print it, and then it was too late to change it. Another thing: thank heavens I can write well enough to not absolutely need an editor! An experienced book editor probably could have honed it somewhat, and iUniverse could have provided that service, but it would have cost me over $4000!

 

Tabitha: What is the most significant thing you have learned as a POD author? Do you have any advice to offer to new or prospective POD authors?

Al Past: It depends on what your goals are. My original intent was just to get the book into the hands of friends and maybe their friends and see how it went over. POD was the way to go for that. I succeeded! But if your goals are to make big money and/or get famous, then you need to make a more concerted effort, because iUniverse will give you guidance but you’ll have to do it all yourself. I’m a writer, not a marketer or businessperson. I believe there are lots of people out there who would love the Distant Cousin series, and I will work on getting it to them, but I’m not going to sell the farm in the attempt. Others might.

Tabitha: Tell us about the faces that have been carefully integrated into the book covers. Whose face is it? How do the faces key into your intentions for the focus of the books?

Al Past: The face belongs to a young friend of mine who comes from nearly pure Czech stock who very graciously allowed me to use her image. Since the main character’s ancestors came from Eastern Europe, the classic lines of her face were perfect. The idea of superimposing the face over a galaxy was to suggest that the heroine was (1) a very attractive young woman, and (2) that she came from outside our solar system. The face printed more faintly than I had hoped, however, with the result that a lot of people miss it. When it’s pointed out, they think it’s a wonderful, subtle trick...but it wasn’t. It was a mistake. As a consequence, I overcorrected slightly with the face on Distant Cousin: Repatriation. The face on volume three, Distant Cousin: Reincarnation, will be superimposed over a picture of Earth taken from space, to emphasize that Earth is now her home. I can only pray that it will appear obvious yet at the same time subliminal.

Tabitha: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What genres do you like to read?

Al Past: For me, literature starts with the biggies: Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Mark Twain, in that order. If I were to list the next rank it would soon get out of hand! I also like foreign writers, usually in translation: Andrea Camilleri, Horacio Quiroga, Umberto Eco, Giancarlo Carofiglio...but there’s no point in listing names. I read widely, but seldom by genre, although I do have a love for sea stories (C. S. Forester, Patrick O’Brian, etc.). For recreational reading, I like Robert Parker, Robert Tanenbaum, Tony Hillerman, James Lee Burke, and many others. Shoot, I even read “chick lit” and history, and about music. I guess I’m omni-literate....

Tabitha: What have you been reading lately?

Al Past: A variety of miscellaneous works, like Cuba and Its Music, by Ned Sublette. I liked one recent novel so much I bought a second copy to lend out in case it didn’t come back. I read it twice, in fact: The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Urrea.

Tabitha: What sort of educational experience do you have, and is it relevant to your writing or the subject matter you have chosen?

Al Past: I have a BA in English and a PhD in linguistics. That’s one reason the main character’s language, not heard on Earth for thousands of years, is from the Indo-European language family. There’s no reason the language couldn’t have been Indian, African, or Semitic, except that I don’t know much about those languages.

Tabitha: What about your work career? Has your choice of profession influenced your writing?

Al Past: I mainly taught freshman English composition for 30 years. The one thing I harped on over and over was that it was the writer’s duty to write for the reader, to write to be easily understood. My students were not headed for careers as professors of literature. They were going to need to be able to communicate clearly for business, technical, or the most utilitarian of purposes. I respect authors who have more complex, artistic strategies, but frankly I seldom read them any more. My books are supposed to be fun. They’re entertainment. People shouldn’t have to work to enjoy them. I think I have used a few semi-colons, though, and I apologize to Kurt Vonnegut for that.

Tabitha: I found a photo of you with a large, antique musical instrument on another website. What would you like to tell us about your musical hobby?

Al Past: I’ve played trumpet since fourth grade. For a while I considered music as a career. I made spending money while in high school playing in dance bands and the like. It’s a tough way to make a living, however, and anyway I mostly preferred baroque music. There are more professional poets in the world today than baroque trumpet players. In that picture, I was holding a piccolo trumpet (actually a modern version of an early trumpet), rehearsing some Vivaldi for a student/faculty recital.

Tabitha: What’s next for Al Past, the writer?

Al Past: I’m currently in the final stages of volume three of the Distant Cousin series, Distant Cousin: Reincarnation, which should be out this year (2007), perhaps this summer or certainly this fall. People love the story and the characters (as do I), and they wanted more. After that, who knows? My second daughter wants me to write a mystery novel containing a Puerto Rican disc jockey in Corpus Christi, Texas. I don’t know about that, but I’ve enjoyed the writing I’ve done so far.

Tabitha: Do you have any final remarks to address to your readers or our audience?

Al Past: Well, speaking as a struggling POD author, first I’d like to thank you and the other legitimate reviewers of POD titles. You folks work a lot harder than most people appreciate (for little or no pay!), but you provide a terrific, much-needed service for the world. Bravo! We know that the digital age has been a great boon to indie musicians, film people, would-be journalists, and others, enabling them to get together despite the 800 pound gorillas of the major companies which control most of what is put before the public in traditional ways. I would remind everyone that the one way that never fails to work is word of mouth: if you try a book and like it, tell someone! Give it as a gift! Hell, even contact the author with a pat on the back! The POD phenomenon will be what we all make it. My vote is to make it the great voice of freedom and diversity.

Visit Dr. Past's Website

Coming Soon

The next review will be of Lorrieann Russell's My Brother's Keeper, a novel of historical fiction falling within the genre next door to The Traitor's Wife. There will probably be a lot of similarity to Ms. Higginbotham's successful masterpiece uncovered as I dive deeper into the plot. Both are large, seemingly well researched stories about the events of an earlier period. The main difference is that The Traitor's Wife has the advantage of surrounding a true story of the British Royal Family, while My Brother's Keeper does not. In other words, Susan has a gaggle of obsessors nipping at her heels and Lorrieann lacks this marketing advantage. What I expect to discover is that Lorrieann deserves the same level of attention that Susan has already received. These two books accurately represent the reason I undertook this project. They are proof that some POD authors deserve to be called simply authors.

I have a lot more information up my sleeve about Lorrieann that I may reveal at a later time. My Brother's Keeper was originally released by Xlibris, but quality issues drove her to iUniverse. As I have said before, if you are going to spend a gazillion bucks and hours creating and marketing your masterpiece, why submit it to less than the best? She is a graphic artist and she has created not only her book covers, but many renderings of her books' characters, just as she has imagined them to look. I may have to post one or more of these artistic works, or at least provide links to them. I haven't decided yet. As far as Lorrieann goes, there is much more to come. Remember, you read it here first.

I am pleased to see the family of POD reviewers developing, and I am equally pleased to see the subjects of some of my early reviews popping up on the other sites, too. Susan Higginbotham, Lyda Phillips, Tim Phelan, and Guntis Goncarovs have recently been reviewed on other sites. When is someone going to discover Al Past and some of the other notables?

Some sites seem to be introducing interviews with authors. I assume these have been accomplished utilizing simple email transactions. Do the authors and readers want to see more of these? I'll join up if authors or readers request it in the comments. Does anyone wish to be interviewed? Should the family of reviewers begin to interview each other, or is that a little too much from the redundant Department of Redundancy?

My Back Pages

Bob Dylan released a song named My Back Pages on his Another Side album back in '64. Many of us have become familiar with the memorable refrain, "I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now." I thought I would offer a little personal anecdote about my early compositions, how they matured along with me, and the relevance of it all to the POD phenomenon we participate in today.

I just pulled out my LP copy of Another Side of Bob Dylan to verify the exact title of the tune I wanted to reference. Slipped inside the shrink wrap on the front cover is a pencil drawing of the Bob I always liked best, the one posed on the cover of Highway 61 Revisited. I showed it to my wife and made a comment about how she did not know that I used to be an artist. It wasn't long after 1964 that I ceased making pencil drawings of Dylan and Donald Duck (another favorite) and began writing in a spiral notebook. I traded in my pencil for a ballpoint pen because I hate the way pencil lead smears on your hand, and I rarely planned to erase or change anything I wrote, anyway. I still don't erase or change much of my compositions, preferring instead to have a certain mood come over me in which the words just flow like The Blues Brothers on a mission from God. I have never been prolific, and I never shall be. My compositions derive from special, brief bursts of lighthearted energy. I have no interest whatsoever in writing fiction or developing plots and characters. I just want to tell readers my stories in a manner that closely resembles the writing I most enjoy reading.

When I first began writing, I thought my compositions were truly magical. I thought that surely they must appeal to anyone with enough intelligence to become interested in my style. I was writing in a very special style that was truly unique to me. Who wouldn't enjoy reading my work? I was humorous, entertaining, joyful, and imaginative. I was all the things on paper that I never was in real life. I was so much older then. I knew it all. I was so certain that I did. I knew that one day my work would be published and I would become the acclaimed author that I had always thought I deserved to be.

All I had to do was wait for iUniverse to be founded so I would never have to deplete my bank account and use up all my precious garage space just to be self-published. There has been nothing mentioned up to this point in my story that could not be explained by a dump-truck-load of naivete. The problem is that it would take another forty years of maturity on my part to clearly perceive how naive I really was.

I completed my first book in about 1972. It was never published. It was unpublishable. It was so obtuse in nature that you had to be me to even understand it. It was a very bad book. The concept was brilliant. Remember, I said that, not some reader. The material deserved to see the light of day, but the actual product didn't. Even I knew it. I knew it so well that I did not even release the story to iU as my first book. This story was so special to me that I knew I wanted to practice first, so I released my second composition to a small audience as a series of articles and stories that dribbled into the public consciousness over a period of ten years. Even then, I knew I would one day re-edit the whole project into one cohesive book. As soon as I discovered iUniverse, I began that process. Close to a year later, Plastic Ozone Daydream was released on 12/30/00. My second book was written, edited, and released about sixteen months after Daydream, but its content was far more straightforward in a strictly nonfiction sense. The short version is that Ker-Splash arrived from the shallow water of my brain, but Daydream was a great white shark of imagination! If you happen to be into classic Corvettes, I promise you that Daydream will take you so far into deep space you will wave at Spock as you pass The Enterprise!

This brings us to my third book, The Last Horizon. On Amazon Horizon appears to have been whipped out in five months after Ker-Splash. The truth is more like thirty years! I always knew that one day I would take the time to completely rewrite and re-edit that first terrible book. It was a story I just had to tell. Since the late Sixties, I have been living my life in a pattern I discovered that has enriched my ability to understand modern American social behavior. I discovered what would become my own personal theory of personality. Of course I became a psychology major in college, and of course I enjoyed my psych and sociology courses far more than any other of my classes. Why not? I had formed my own theory of personality long before I took the course, Theories of Personality. I was home. This is who I was meant to be!

Believe it or not, the point of this post is not to hawk my books or tell you my life story. The point is to show you how naive we as authors can all be concerning our own work. Yes, I still think highly of my own books, and yes, I feel as if I have composed my books with a level of quality that even I would enjoy reading. Have I spent a little time editing my books? The second one didn't get a whole lot of time, but it didn't really need it, either. The others deserved the time and they got it. Why do I support iUniverse with my own wallet, as well as through the reviews on this blog? As a corporate, publishing partner, the company does its part. The corporate officers may not care grasshopper spit if an author's book sells well or not, and they certainly do not care why a particular iU book sells or not. They do, however, produce a quality product. As the computer nerds of old use to say, garbage in, garbage out, and that about says it all as far as iU books are concerned. If you give them a carefully edited and proofread manuscript, they will print you a professional-looking book. If you want the cover to be something other than a variation of some other iU book's cover, you have to give them the raw material. If you don't, you will probably see the same photo that has been used on your book's cover also on someone else's cover. You have to give a lot of your personal time and energy to the project or the computer nerds' refrain will apply to your book.

I think Bob was trying to say that he had recently matured at a time after he had thought he already knew all there was to know. That's exactly the way I felt when I began to edit The Corvette Chronicles into Plastic Ozone Daydream. I felt that way again when it was time to totally rewrite The Witch-Mortal Seeking into The Last Horizon, leaving a stinky title in the wastebasket along with the incoherent composition style. You know, I still cannot get through more than a little of Tarantula. I still have my copy from The Sixties. It's probably the only book more than two years old on my entire shelf that is still unread! Do you know why? It was just a contractual obligation that Bob got himself into at a time when both his brain and his marketability were both as hot as a lit stick of dynamite, but he really didn't have the free time to properly complete the project. Bob was totally allergic to punctuation when he wrote Tarantula! That incoherent wad of nonsense still outsells all of my books put together, even after forty years. The moral of this story is: Unless your name is Robert Zimmerman, you better write, rewrite, edit, and proofread the grasshopper's knees out of that iUniverse book you plan to show to the public. Otherwise, you're just embarrassing yourself.

The State of the Blogs

Although the legendary PODdy Mouth has retired from her mountainous slushpile, her vacuous void seems to be filled by the somewhat aggressive POD Critic and others who have rushed into the fray. I refer to POD Critic as aggressive because he sort of comes from the same New York publishing mold of tradition that brought so much attention to the deceased girlondemand. He seems to be saying Bring on the slushpile! in a manner that I studiously avoid. We have very little in common as POD book reviewers, and that is exactly the way it should be in order for us to offer a genuine choice to the horde of authors out there desperate for honest reviews. You can call them honest; or you can call them legitimate, as I do in the header of this blog. Whatever you want to call them, these are reviews presented with the intent of placing deserving POD books on the same shelf as good, traditionally published books. Maybe the percentage of deserving POD books is much smaller than that of traditionally published ones, but we all know that at least a few high-quality POD books have been released. In my humble opinion, the number is much higher than a few.

The higher quantity of deserving books is one of the reasons I have chosen to review only iUniverse books. Every POD reviewer needs to limit the potential onslaught in one way or another. My method is just a little more unusual. If you read certain posts on this blog, you will rapidly discover that I have no connection whatsoever with iUniverse other than four books of my own wearing that nameplate. I am a very anti-corporate person and iU is a corporation just like all the rest. I refuse to feed any of my twelve engines anything but Exxon because they make the best gasoline. When I spend a godzillion hours creating a book, I will gladly pay a little more to the company that I think makes the best print-on-demand books. Unlike many of the other review blogs, I insist on reading the actual, paper book. I am giving you a lot of personal service for free. You can wrap up a copy of your book and trot down to the post office.

Anyone considering submitting a book for review is encouraged to check out the links on this blog. You should be amazed at the choices you really have. Some write really long, detailed reviews, and some compose compact little signatures that capture the essence of your book. Many will review the common fiction genres such as scifi, thrillers, fantasy, romance, horror, etc., but you are, of course competing with many other aspiring authors for those review slots. If you are fifty years old and you have written the nonfiction work of your lifetime, I'm your man. Some reviewers accept Young Adult books, but others do not. Some will place your reviews on Amazon or B&N, but others will not. I doubt that any others will compose separate reviews for you: that's part of what I referred to earleir as personal service. Many of the other reviews are absolutely free. Mine are not, since you must pay for an author-discounted copy of your book and a few dollars of postage. Some reviewers will tell you what a mess you have made. If I do that, it will be via personal, direct email, not included within the review. Most of the other reviewers keep their identities private. Mine is available for any prospective reviewee to discover with a modicum of research. You are encouraged to research anything you want to know about me before submitting your review request. As soon as I receive a submission request from you, I will seek out whatever information I can about you and your book prior to accepting it for review. I don't really have a slushpile, and I think this is the main reason why practically all of the iU books I have read have been quite good. Yes, there have been a couple of turkeys, but unlike all the other legitimate review blogs of POD books, my supply of gobblers has been quite small.

This brings me to mention that other kind of POD reviewer. There are bunches of these out there, and, unfortunately, you have to do a lot of internet research to truly discover their real essence. To be nice, as well as accurate, I call them volume reviewers. Most of them charge real money for their POD reviews, although some try to carefully conceal this biased fact from both authors and readers. Some of them charge outrageous fees, such as the $360 Kirkus charges for an iUniverse review! If you have ever wondered why you have never heard of me directly through iU, this is the reason. Why would any author buy the cow if he knew he could get the milk for free elsewhere?

As I said to POD Critic back when he was just starting his blog, what we need is a known ring of POD reviewers. The ring does not have to be technically set up in any particular manner. It just needs to be easily searchable and available for interested authors and readers. I think it should be limited to strictly legitimate POD reviewers with no volume reviewers allowed. If you read through many of POD Critic's posts, I think you will get the picture. Anyone can churn out positive reviews of bullshit for $70. Whenever you look at a review of a POD book at Amazon, always click on the See All My Reviews link. Yes, I live right down the road from a company that shovels bull hockey on any POD author with $70 to squander on a glowing review! If you request a review from me, I shall click every link you have at Amazon and B&N, and I'll know if your earlier reviews are legitimate or not, even before I accept your book for review. If I want to buy a car, I read the specifications page of the model's road test in Road & Track. Have you read the fine print on an R&T specs page? They tell you everything from the temperature and wind velocity at the time of the test to the gear ratios in the transmission! That's the sort of information I want to read about a book in a review before I buy the product. I don't want to know the plot details, but I do want to know how it compares to other books of its type. A Motor Trend reader might buy a book after reading a review paid for by the author, but I wouldn't.

The only way POD authors and books will gain any genuine, lasting respect is to earn it. If we don't care enough to edit and proofread the hell out of our books, how can we expect readers to truly enjoy reading them? In case you haven't figured it out already, when I review an iU book I'm looking for professionalism above everything else. I want to hold a book in my hand. I want it to be not a vanity-press book, not a Print On Demand book, not a self-published book, but just a book. POD Critic and a few others will shove your plotline, characters, and dialogue through the ringer for you. Certainly I shall do some of that, too, but not as diligently as others will. We as authors, readers, and reviewers are offering our humble services to you. You can take the bait and risk being told what kind of writer you really are, or you can take your credit card down the street. They will be quite happy to tell you whatever you want to hear. Can you handle the truth?