Review Guidelines and Standards

 

Here are the review submission guidelines for authors, promoters and publishers.

  1. We publish bimonthly, so keep that in mind when submitting a review proposal. For example, for the November/December issue, the reviewer will usually need the book in hand by September 15 to assure enough time to read and digest the book. (Our reviewers have day jobs, and write reviews for the love of the book, not for money.)
  2. Don't just send the book, because I probably will want you to send it directly to the reviewer instead of to me.
  3. A book may not be reviewed. Sometimes there simply is not enough time or space, although we try very hard to review every book that comes to us.
  4. A review is seldom completely positive, and may in fact be negative. Tastes vary.
  5. You, as the author, publicist or publisher, are not given the right to quote the review in toto. You may use no more than fifty percent of the review, and on any web site or other Internet citation, we request that you point readers back to the review on the Crime and Suspense site to allow them to read the full review.

 

Here are the guidelines which all our reviewers should follow.   And if you are reading a review, these are the things you should keep in mind about what the reviewer was trying to do.

Reviewers have these responsibilities:

  1. To give the author of the piece a fair shake by actually READING the piece.
  2. To form their own opinions and give them honestly, rather than using someone else's ideas about the piece.
  3. To review every piece fairly and honestly, whether written by friend or enemy, unknown or literary superstar.
  4. If the piece has problems, to tell what the problem is specifically, with examples.  Conversely, if there are places where the piece shines, to make note of those places as well.
  5. To state in clear, jargonless terms what they think of the piece.  That means a "Joe Everyman" sort of review, not a literary review about the deep philosophical symbolism of the empty inkwell and the death by strangulation with the victim's own argyle socks.
  6. To write a review that falls between 250-400 words in length.

 

 

 

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