The mainstream mass-market review requests are starting to pick up...
Category Book Reviews
My primary source of books to review has been (and probably always will be) the technical publishing firms... O'Reilly, Apress, Pearson/Prentice Hall/Addison-Wesley, and others. Most of my recreational reading is provided courtesy of the library that's a block away. Occasionally the odd request will come in via email from a non-tech author asking if I'd like to read and review their book. It's a nice break, and it usually gets me to focus on a book that I might otherwise not notice.
As of late, I've been attracting more attention from the mass-market publishing houses as well as from authors who I consider more well-known. Simon-Schuster just sent me an advance copy of Matthew Reilly's latest cliff-hanger adventure, and Harper-Collins has a FirstLook program that has provided some advance copies that have been very well done. And today, I got an email from Joseph Finder, author of Company Man, asking if I'd like to get an advance copy of his newest one before it comes out in May. And it still blows me away when I get an email from a big-name author who found my review online and wrote to say thanks.
Nothing like having your drugs of choice delivered to you for free... :)
My primary source of books to review has been (and probably always will be) the technical publishing firms... O'Reilly, Apress, Pearson/Prentice Hall/Addison-Wesley, and others. Most of my recreational reading is provided courtesy of the library that's a block away. Occasionally the odd request will come in via email from a non-tech author asking if I'd like to read and review their book. It's a nice break, and it usually gets me to focus on a book that I might otherwise not notice.
As of late, I've been attracting more attention from the mass-market publishing houses as well as from authors who I consider more well-known. Simon-Schuster just sent me an advance copy of Matthew Reilly's latest cliff-hanger adventure, and Harper-Collins has a FirstLook program that has provided some advance copies that have been very well done. And today, I got an email from Joseph Finder, author of Company Man, asking if I'd like to get an advance copy of his newest one before it comes out in May. And it still blows me away when I get an email from a big-name author who found my review online and wrote to say thanks.
Nothing like having your drugs of choice delivered to you for free... :)
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Comments
And I'll keep in mind the "happyville" comment. Fortunately, I really *have* liked the books of late. Admittedly, it's much easier to pan a book that you got from a publisher (with no author intervention) than it is to trash someone's book after you've "met" them. In some cases, reviewers who find themselves in that position choose just not to write the review. I haven't done that to date, but I usually turn down books that look like ones that I won't like right off. For instance, the author who wrote Chasing It (I think that was the title) wrote to tell me about his latest "urban lit" novel. Knowing that wasn't quite my forte, I turned it down. Likewise, I ignored a request from a tech author recently who asked why I hadn't given his book a 5 instead of a 4 on Amazon.
And just so you know... I'm currently reading a book about the San Francisco earthquake in the early 1900's. Unless it picks up *real* quickly, it's destined for at most a 3...
Posted by Duffbert At 07:26:49 On 08/12/2005 | - Website - |
Related to what I'm reading, "Torpedo Juice", I saw a poster of the book on tv last night. While channel surfing, I saw Pam Anderson's new show and a poster for my book was on the wall of their bookstore. Weird
Keep up the good work!
Posted by Curt Stone At 07:01:03 On 08/12/2005 | - Website - |
Or perhaps it is just me.
Posted by Ben Langhinrichs At 07:01:48 On 08/12/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by Gregg Eldred At 14:13:44 On 08/12/2005 | - Website - |