Guidelines: LE Reviewers

In the beginning, there was only me.  Now, that’s not the case.  Earlier this year, I added a few new reviewers to Literary Escapism to help with the backlog of requests I’ve been given.  What can I say, I love promoting authors (which I’m always saying) and I have a hard time turning someone down.

Lately, Jesse has been on me about putting up the guidelines I have for my reviewers and I’m finally doing it.  So, without further ado, all of LE’s reviewers have agreed to the following:

  1. Be willing to read and review at least five books a month (depending on their length) and be willing to read books on a deadline.  While I understand reading is merely a hobby for many, LE is the only job I have and I tend to treat it as such since I do receive books for review.
  2. Be willing to give me your address so that books may magically appear on your doorstep.  This is one bonus to being a reviewer.  One caveat, they must be a US resident.
  3. Understand that being an LE reviewer means…
    1. free books are not a guarantee and are only available when I have them or requests are sent.  However, reviews can be written for anything you read and your commitment to reviewing five books a month should not be contingent upon receiving free novels.
    2. there is no compensation for this position other than being able to keep whatever books that you review.  However, if the reviewer receives an ARC, they understand that they are not allowed to try and sell it.
    3. successfully complete a 30-day probationary period which will involve reading your own novels and submitting a review.  These reviews will be posted on the site, but this is to prove that this is something the reviewer wishes to do and can do.
    4. reviews should be written in a professional manner.
    5. being open to constructive feedback from both readers and myself.
    6. any review posted on LE cannot be submitted to another review site; however, a snippet may be added to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, GoodReads, LibraryThing, etc (and is encouraged) with an ending tag line indicating the full review can be seen at LE.
    7. helping to promote Literary Escapism whenever an opportunity presents itself.
  4. Upon agreeing to being a reviewer, I expect you to read and review all novels acquired through Literary Escapism regardless if you like them or not – even if that means a review indicating you did not finish the book as long as you state why.  Any review is better than no review from a readers perspective as long as you’re honest (and tactful).
  5. As I receive books, I will add them to an ongoing list and it will be each reviewers job to check which books are available.  I send out five novels at a time (or however many fits in a box) and more will not be sent until those have been read and reviewed.
  6. All potential reviewers should have no ties to the publishing industry, if you do, it must be stated up front.

At the moment, all of the LE reviewers focus on the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre.  That’s not to say we don’t read other genres, but that’s currently LE’s primary focus.  However, I have been thinking about expanding out to other genres – Mystery, Thrillers, Science Fiction, etc – that would blend well with LE’s content, but that is still just a thought.

These guidelines are subject to change without notice and this is not a call for reviewers.

Disclosure:  Some of the reviews posted on Literary Escapism are possible through donations received by authors, publicists, publishers and other third parties.  LE does not solicit review copies and we will always be honest in our opinions regardless of how we receive books.  Biases may be seen (because quite honestly, there are a few series we simply love and they will be talk about), but they are the result of our own feelings, not on how we received them.