Reviewer's Guilt

When Cheryl posts a new lot of queries I always feel a little guilty. In the average week I don’t request any books. At my current rate I review about one book a month (50 since 2006), and about half of those are books I bought for myself. On one hand I feel guilty for the wasted effort that authors put into writing the queries, on the other hand I figure it is good practice and better than having actual unwanted copies of the book floating around.

In some ways it is even worse if I do like the look of a book. I have a job, books to write, blogs to run and a to-be-read pile that doubles as a (somewhat lumpy) coffee table. There is just no way in the world that there is enough time to read all the intriguing self-published books that we are offered. Which, I guess, as problems go—isn’t a bad one. It is not just the volume of self-published books that has increased over the years but also the diversity and the quality.

In the end all I can promise is that I read every query and I seriously consider requesting the book, as—I am sure—do Chris and Cheryl. If your query was unsuccessful this is almost certainly down to a matter of genre, or taste, or sheer lack of time. And if you know of anyone who would like to join our reviewing team, send them along. There is no shortage of books for them!