While you are welcome to query, I remain pretty much closed to review requests at this time. I am still making the occasional exception for authors I have read and enjoyed before, and will make exceptions on a case by case basis for books that directly relate to my review column at Senior News. However, those are rare exceptions.
I remain buried with several hundred books going back years and don't expect to catch up anytime soon. That fact, and the situations with my own health issues and Sandi's cancer, mean that just isn't possible for me to continue to accept books as I explained a few weeks back. It isn't like this is a paid review site either as I don't make any money reviewing books. I am just one guy doing the level best that he can.
So, that is the way it is. I kept telling people yes I would read their stuff a very long time ago when I should not have been agreeing to things. The backlog is huge and not going anywhere. Our situation is dire on many fronts and is not getting better.
Cussing me out for saying no to a review copy, as was done last night by one self published (indie) author by telling me that it is no wonder Sandi's cancer is back because I am such a selfish bastard just makes you look stupid and foolish.
Kevin
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4 comments:
"Cussing me out for saying no to a review copy, as was done last night by one self published (indie) author by telling me that it is no wonder Sandi's cancer is back because I am such a selfish bastard just makes you look stupid and foolish."
I wonder what this cretin would have said if you'd reviewed the book negatively.
I don't know. Considering the over reaction--just a small snippet I shared here-- I think it would have been ugly. While the majority get it, a couple of times a week I get this kind of reaction.
Not to mention the numerous ones that are for books I would never do such as horror novels.
Until several years ago, I used to occasionally communicate with a very good and tremendously experienced writer who shall remain nameless but whom you also know from at least one other list. He had just published a new novel and asked if I'd review it. I'm not sure at this remove, but I think it had something to do with the paranormal, which is not my kind of reading. I thus declined, explaining that I might not be able to do justice to the work. I haven't heard from him since, and occasional attempts to e-mail him have resulted in bounces.
If he was insulted because I declined to review a type of book I don't generally care for and would likely bring that bias to, how would he have reacted if I'd read the book and panned it in the review? Did he think that because I'd previously read and liked some of his short fiction I'd automatically give him a rave for this particular work?
I'd call reviewing a thankless task, but it's actually only semi-thankless. If you review something positively, the author will love you for it. Give it a negative review and you're an ignorant, semi-literate s.o.b.
Yep, Barry, all true. I probably have offended a couple of folks over the years when I said that their book was not right for me for that kind of reason. But, they weren't.
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