Getting Your Book Reviewed on Good Lesbian Books

This is an update and a reminder on our reviewing policies, as we're getting an increasing number of questions about those.

Firstly, the number of review requests we get has skyrocketed since this site first started. We now get far more requests than we can actually read in a month, even when we're not taking random months off to get over burnout or because we're sulking over blogger updates. If I went and accepted every request in our inbox right now, not only would it take me all day, but it would probably book us up for the rest of the year, and leave us no time to read older books, or random ones (I tend to trawl the free books on Amazon and Smashwords, grab them and then read them whenever I get around to it), or compile lists and reading guides. We're probably going to have to figure out a new way to handle requests - a random draw or something!


Unfortunately, we're still finding and replying to emails that date back to November. Some of them were ones we'd have loved to have found earlier, from free books to guest posts. Us not replying means nothing other than that we are really busy. If it's urgent, or something that's not a review request, feel free to resend it if you don't hear from us.

Also, even if we do review full tilt, we're just going to burn out again. We do want to read all the books. We just can't.

What this means is that we can no longer guarantee reviews. Well, we never really could, but we always tried. We WILL review your book if we have said we will. But otherwise it's potluck. You are always welcome to email us, always, and we thank you ahead of time for considering us, and apologise for any late replies. But if it's urgent? Say so in the header. And no matter how interesting your book looks to us, we'll have a dozen other requests we also have to decide on. We may just randomly read emails, or file your request under "GET TO THIS... eventually!".

If we do reply and say "Yes! We are reviewing your book!", then we will. But whether it will be within a week or a month or - in worst cases - a year, we can't tell you.


So, If You Want Your Book Reviewed:

• Feel free to send us the file for Kindles (NOT ePub, we can't read it, and if it has DRM, we have no way of converting it at the moment at all, and PDF isn't great. MOBI or any of the Kindle-friendly formats is fine). This means that whenever we're actually browsing through looking for a book to review, we can just get started.
• Or ask us for an address - actual physical copies are incredibly hard to resist and are a fairly guaranteed review because free book! Also having a real book lying around is a much better reminder than a random computer file, and are often a bit easier to read. We'll also be donating books that we've finished with to places like the http://www.rainbowyouth.org.nz library (which is tiny and needs more books). This is a bigger deal than you'd think, as a lot of these books never reach New Zealand. The copy you send us may literally be the only one in the country. Which is awesome for you because New Zealander's can buy ebooks, if they decide they like your writing *waggles eyebrows suggestively*
• Read this page, we've tried to write out all our requirements and things you should probably think about first. Some of it's a little out of date, but the general advice still stands (for example - we're NOT going to just buy your book. This site earns us a little money, but not enough for that! We do buy books, but mostly because we actually want to read them independently, and then we aren't indebted to a review, though we usually write one). You can also check out some previous reviews for people - they range from glowing with delight to "excuse me while I set this book on fire".
• Also, DON'T bother asking us elsewhere. We have enough trouble keeping up with our emails, we can't also juggle Tumblr, YouTube and Facebook requests. Your best result is that we'll direct you to our email. Your worst is that we'll just ignore it because we're too busy. You can certainly talk to us, but as you need to send it to our email anyway, you might as well go straight to that.

If You Get Your Book Reviewed

• It may be horrible and mean. Too bad. Our job is reader's advisory, not author promotion. It's nice when they overlap, and we love talking about books we loved, but once you give us your baby, we're going to tear it to bits. Um. Bad metaphor?
• We'll happily take sequels and other books from you. Very happily.
• You're welcome to quote pithy one liners and short summaries from our reviews; it makes us happy to see ourselves quoted everywhere.
• You can certainly comment with corrections and opinions! We review the copy we get, so if there's a mistake in it, too bad, but if we make a mistake, or you correct something later, feel free to say so. And we do enjoy getting comments.

If You Want To Send Us Something That's NOT A Review Request

• We love guest reviews, questions, random contributions, feedback and random emails.
• Please make sure the email title is really clear so that we don't just assume it's a review request and maybe skip until we have more time. 
• We're a bit selective about guest posts - we have turned people down - but we do really, really like getting them. A lot. 
• We'll format and proofread stuff so it fits with the site overall
• We need to know what name you want to be credited as, if you have a website, or whatever, and anything specific like what date it should go up.
• Your own affiliate links are fine.
• As long as it's more or less related to lesbians and literature, we'll take it. It could be a book review, or a general rant, or an analysis of steampunk erotica or a piece of fiction. We're a bit iffy on blatant self promotion, though. 

Our email is goodlesbianbook [at] gmail.com

Useful Links

• The Review Requests page
• Reviews of self published books (not all sent to us, as we picked some up on our own, but it's a good place to start)

Questions? Suggestions?