Please read carefully before sending an inquiry. I don’t review self published work unless you have a background in traditional publishing(see below).
If you clearly haven’t read this before scrolling to the email address, I won’t reply.
This site is for children's and YA books, genre fiction and non fiction on genre themes, eg true crime and films. Just assume I don't do mainstream adult books so I don't have to disappoint you. I don’t do self help books. Any inquiries offering those will not be answered.
I never reply to press releases, except from my regular publishers.
I never reply to press releases, except from my regular publishers.
As of now, after a lot of inquiries from people who didn’t bother to check what this blog is about, I will not be replying to any inquiry that clearly hasn’t checked out my blog to see if their book is a good fit.
Small press, especially Australian, is fine, but I don’t review self published work, unless you have a track record in regular publishing. I’m sure there is a lot of wonderful self published stuff out there, I just don’t have time to wade through the poor writing to get to the treasure. And yes, I know that there is a lot of rubbish that publishers have paid for, but at least there is a filter - and those books will receive a poor review from me.
Small press, especially Australian, is fine, but I don’t review self published work, unless you have a track record in regular publishing. I’m sure there is a lot of wonderful self published stuff out there, I just don’t have time to wade through the poor writing to get to the treasure. And yes, I know that there is a lot of rubbish that publishers have paid for, but at least there is a filter - and those books will receive a poor review from me.
I don’t read or review “Christian” fiction. Or any other religion, for that matter. I might consider a children’s book with a religious holiday in the theme or children who are of a particular religion and dealing with it, but that’s it.
One thing I will never, ever do on this web site is advertise, and that includes sponsored posts of the kind that include links to client web sites. Any such inquiry will be deleted.
If you need to contact me about books or ask questions or just generally talk to me, here's my email address: sbursztynski@gmail.com. If it's about a post you have read, I'd really rather that you put up a comment. :-)
re: book review request by award-winning author
ReplyDeleteDear Great Raven:
I'm an award-winning author with a new YA book out this fall. Ugly To Start With is a series of thirteen interrelated stories about childhood being published by West Virginia University Press.
Can I interest you in reviewing it?
If you write me back at johnmcummings@aol.com, I can email you a PDF of my book. If you require a bound copy, please ask, and I will forward your reply to my publisher. Or you can write directly to Abby Freeland at:
Abby.Freeland@mail.wvu.edu
My publisher, I should add, can also offer your readers a free excerpt of my book through a link from your blog to my publisher's website:
http://wvupressonline.com/cummings_ugly_to_start_with_9781935978084
Here’s what Jacob Appel, celebrated author of
Dyads and The Vermin Episode, says about my new collection: "In Ugly to Start With, set in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Cummings tackles the challenges of boyhood adventure and family conflict in a taut, crystalline style that captures the triumphs and tribulations of small-town life. He has a gift for transcending the particular experiences to his characters to capture the universal truths of human affection and suffering--emotional truths that the members of his audience will recognize from their own experiences of childhood and adolescence.”
My short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. Twice I have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. My short story "The Scratchboard Project" received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.
I am also the author of the nationally acclaimed coming-of-age novel The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel Books, Penguin Group, 2009), winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers (Grades 7-12) and one of ten books recommended by USA TODAY.
For more information about me, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Cummings
Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kindly,
John Michael Cummings