Review Policy

Dear  Publishers, Publicists, and Authors:

The following is our review policy.  These are guidelines to help you decide whether Dear Author is a blog where you might want to submit a book for review.  Please feel free to contact us using the contact form in the navigation menu above or email jane at dearauthor.com.

Type of Query:

If you are an author, please send Jane an email with the Title of your book, the BLURB, and an 1000 word excerpt in the body of the email. Any author submitted review queries will not be considered if they do not follow this format.  The reason for this is because a) we receive at least 10-20 requests a day  and b) we base our acceptance of a book on the excerpt and blurb.  We do accept self published books but prefer that they are professionally edited.

If you are a publisher, we recommended sending us one email a week or a month, depending on your release schedule identifying all the books you are publishing in that week or month and we can then review the list and identify the books that interest us.

If we have a preexisting relationship with you, please continue to do whatever it is that you do.

Form of Review Copy:

We accept galley copies and finished copies of books for review.  We prefer to receive digital ARCS but will read paper form. We post reviews around the time of the release, generally within a week of the release.   We accept digital galleys/ARCs for review. Our preferred method of receiving e-galleys is through NetGalley, where we are a listed Review Organization Accepting NetGalley Titles.   We do not receive any compensation for NetGalley, but it is an easy way for the diverse set of reviewers here to find books that will interest them.

Timing of Review Publication:

Not every book accepted for review will be reviewed.  We review approximately 30-40 titles a month, with two reviews posted every day except for Saturday when only 1 review is posted.  The earlier a book is sent to DA for review, the more likely a timely review will be posted.  If a book is sent a few weeks before the release date, it is generally not going to result in the posting of a timely review.

We will not send you a link for the review.  We do this as a courtesy for authors.  While the majority of our grades are B- and above, around 40% of the reviews we give are C and below.  Many authors do not want to read that type of review.  Further, we believe reviews are for readers and in keeping with that philosophy, we do not send links of reviews regardless of whether the review is positive or negative.

Areas of Interest:

We review contemporary romance books, paranormal romance books, historical romance books, urban fantasy, science fiction, fantasy, and young adult.  From time to time, we will review mystery books but rarely.  The site is primarily devoted to the romance genre.  If you are looking for a review of a non fiction or a memoir, our site is not right for you.

Point of Contact

Jane Litte is the individual in charge of collecting arcs, fielding review requests and sending out books to the DA reviewers. You can reach her at jane @ dearauthor.com or by using the contact form.

Stats

We will provide a PDF of Google Analytics stats upon request.  We believe Google Analytics is one of the best, most reliable statistic compilations out there.  There are others but they often inflate the numbers.

Response Time

Generally, we respond to all review queries within a week.  If you haven’t received a response, I encourage you to email again.

What Type of Review to Expect

We believe that reviews are for readers, particularly a romance reader who has limited amount of time and money to spend and use the reviews to help them cull out their reading / buying list.  The reviews are also the start of a conversation with a reader.  Even though the reviews are written in a letter format to the author, the reviews are still for the reader.  By the time that a book arrives at our doorstep, the time for editing is past. Any critiques or complaints or praise we offer in the review is intended for the reader, not directed at the author.

We post negative and positive reviews, depending on the reviewer’s reaction.  We are not professionally trained but are life long readers who bring with us our own set of biases and preconceptions.   We do our utmost to provide honest, consistent, transparent opinions about why we did or did not enjoy the book we read.

From time to time, we may write a DNF review. DNF stands for Did Not Finish.  You can read more about the concept here.

Grades

Our romance book review grades are our own opinions, obviously, and therefore fraught with subjectivity. You may or may not agree with our opinions, our grades, or anything else.  We’d love for you to comment on the reviews and tell us what you think, whether you agree and disagree. If you are wondering if there is any objectivity in a review, we can only provide you with the information below:

• A: I loved it and would cry if someone took it from my library. I would need lots of chocolate to get over its loss.
• B: It’s good and I would buy it again, given the chance.
• C: Eh. Not bad but I probably would never read it again.
• D: I want my money back.
• F: I want my money back and repayment for the time wasted reading it.
• DNF: does this really need an explanation?

Errors in Reviews

There will be times that we post reviews that have errors.  We encourage you to contact Jane and inform her of the error and we will do our utmost to correct the error quickly.  You can reach her at jane @ dearauthor.com or by using the contact form.