Today I see iUniverse Book Reviews saying in an irreverent manner: "We do things the old-fashioned way here at iUniverse Book Reviews. We don't need no stinking pdf's." (LOL). So, anyway, I thought I would address this issue from the POD People perspective.
I certainly understand preferring the submission of physical books. As a reader, and like most readers, I happen to prefer paperbacks to ebooks. And I say that as a person who is published almost entirely in ebook form (with the exception of zines, a few anthologies and an upcoming small press POD novel).
My thinking in preferring electronic submissions was this. I have no idea how much a review at this site achieves in terms of promoting a book. Would it be enough to break even on the costs of printing and mailing a review copy? Probably not. Self-POD is largely a low volume business and I am happy to try and maximise the author-publisher's profits, whatever they may be. This may be why review sites accepting ebooks are swamped with submissions and those that do not, are not.
I have in the past had one author prefer to send a print copy and have been happy to oblige, securing a reviewer and passing on the mailing address. And so I would like to try a little experiment which I hope will not be too annoying to Dawno who is the one that actually coordinators books and reviews leaving me to prattle on here and neglect the website which is now meant to be my main concern.
If you are a self-POD author willing and able to send a print copy please feel free to contact us even outside of our normal submission windows. Mark your submission clearly as a PRINT COPY QUERY. It may be that our other reviewers also quite like books they can hold in their hands. So if the writer is willing to make that investment and the reviewers like to have something to put on their bookshelves, I am willing to facilitate a happy confluence of motivations. But bear in mind that, as ever, the reviewer in no way promises to give a positive review, regardless of format.
3 comments:
I assume you realize that the opening lines of the review you have quoted are a movie reference and a double entendre meant to convey the message that IBR seeks out high-page-count works by serious authors. Any disparaging reference to electronic formats is meant to convey both the image and the intent of my blog, which is to attract more mature authors releasing nonfiction works, as well as deeply researched fiction such as the book being reviewed. Your listing in the upcoming reviewer ring chart shows that you do, indeed, accept paper submissions. Thank you for the reference to my blog, at which there is only one reviewer and no slushpile, only the wonderful iUniverse books you read about there.
I certainly didn't mean to imply a criticism. I quote the line because it got me thinking, and I thought it was amusing.
As far as annoying Dawno - nope, won't be a problem :-)
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