Urgent Request from Tony Burton owner of The GenReView

I am Tony Burton, the owner of The GenReView, a review website that specializes in genre fiction: science fiction, romance, horror, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and so forth.  In the past year or so, my cadre of reviewers has shrunken from over a dozen to only two.  Two reviewers, honestly, cannot keep up with the usual number of requests.  

At the present time I have six requests for review, and three in progress.  But because of the shortage of reviewers, I recently decided to shut down the site.  It is very frustrating to me to have requests for review to come in, and to be forced to tell the publicist, publisher, or author, “Sorry, I don’t have a reviewer available.”

My good friend Kevin Tipple, who has his own review site with a broader focus than my own, graciously offered to put out the word for me that I am looking for reviewers because I simply don’t want to let the site go down the tubes.  I believe a books review site, especially for small press books, is very important.  The number of “traditional” review venues has shrunken so much, and continues to shrink—and the number of books being published each year continues to grow!  These two trends are not compatible, so I’d like to help by keeping the site up and running.

Here’s the way it works.

1. Any reviewer must agree to accept at least one book per month, if offered.  The truth is, sometimes I am covered over, and some months I only get one or two requests.  But I need people I can rely upon.

2. Generally I send out a request for review to all the reviewers, and the first one to respond by email gets that book.  (Of course, if the person who responds first already has a book in their clutches, they are disqualified.)

Past that, the reviewers have these responsibilities:

To give the author(s) of the book a fair shake by actually READING the book.
To form their own opinions and give them honestly, rather than using someone else’s ideas about the book.
To review every book fairly and honestly, whether written by friend or enemy, unknown or literary superstar.
If the book has problems, to name the problem(s) specifically, with examples.  Conversely, in the places where the book shines, to make note of those places as well.
To state in clear, jargonless terms what they think of the book.  That means a “Joe Everyman” sort of review, not a literary review about the deep philosophical symbolism of the empty inkwell and the death by strangulation with the victim’s own argyle socks.
If you think you might be interested, drop by the site: www.thegenreview.com .  Take a look at some of the books we have reviewed there, look at the requirements for a book to be reviewed, etc.

If you are STILL interested after that, contact me at beirdd@gmail.com and let me know.  But do it soon—as I said, I have people waiting to have their books reviewed, and I’d rather not tell them that I’m going to shut the site down.

Thanks much!

Tony Burton