For Publishers/Publicists

[Amy]

Let's discuss our commitment to publishers/publicists here.

[Ruthie @ Ruthie's Book Reviews]

If I accept a book for review - I WILL review it!

I will be honest with my review whether I liked the book or not.

[Stacey J. Miller]

Ruthie,

Sounds great. What types of books to you like to review?

Stacey
[e-mail]

[Ruthie @ Ruthie's Book Reviews]

I tend to read more towards urban fantasy, paranormal or horror, but I like true crime books, some memoirs and stuff of that nature.

[Anysia]

My commitment is the same as Ruthie's. In fact, I put it in my request e-mail when I contact publishers/publicists.

[Warren Kelly]

If I request a book, I'll review it and notify you when and where it is reviewed.

If I do NOT request it, and you send it anyway, I will review it IF I have the time and interest. Thankfully, I've only gotten one of those so far, and I have yet to read it; it's a teenage girls' devotional book, and I'm not a teenage girl nor do I have any yet ;) .

[Miss Remmers]

I love that subtle 'yet'. :)

[Christine Bode]

My commitment is the same as Ruthie's as well. I'm currently a student, work part time and run my own business part time on top of that so sometimes it takes me a while to get reviews completed. However, if I said I will read and review it, I WILL!

[Norm Goldman]

Bookpleasures.com has a policy that any books our reviewers request, the reviewer must review it. However, there are some exceptions where a book is so awful that we will notify the requester if they still want us to go ahead.
Norm, Bookpleasures.com

[Debbie]

If I request a book or agree to review a book that has been pitched to me in an e-mail, then I will review it. I strongly prefer not to have unrequested books sent to me, but I will review them if they look interesting, I have time, and they fit one of my book blogs.

I will be honest with my reviews, though I try to state things in a way that isn't hurtful to an author if they drop by (and several have so far, which is fun).

Since I'm still building readership on my site, I try to make my reviews more valuable to publicists by also posting them on Amazon and Goodreads (where I have friends who actually do sometimes read a book I've posted a review for).

One thing I'd like to say to publicists: If I request a book and, for whatever reason, you can't/don't want to send me that book, I'm totally okay with you simply saying, "We received your request, but unfortunately we can't fulfill it." If I hear no response, I'm not sure if I simply didn't get my request through to the right person and I should try again or if the answer is "no."

I'm not sure how other book bloggers would react to this, but with me, feel free to say why you're saying "no" to my review copy request as long as it's said nicely: "We have a high demand for those review copies and aren't able to fulfill your request" or "We'd love to fulfill your request, but your book blog doesn't get much traffic and it really needs to be higher for future requests to be fulfilled" or "It doesn't look like this is the type of book you normally review, so we're worried this book wouldn't generate interest with your audience" or "Thank you for your interest in that book, but we only send out review copies for books that have been released this season or will be released in the next season." (Some smaller presses are thrilled for their older in-print books to get reviewed, so it took several publicists saying-no-by-giving-no-response before I figured out that last one. It would have saved everyone's time to just tell me that outright.)

[Miss Remmers]

This is something I've run into also! A publisher continually sends me emails and I email back which ones I'd like to read. Some come. Some don't. So everyday I'm running to the mailbox to see if I have a book ... and more times than not I find myself disappointed. I figure if I'm polite enough to tell them "Yes, please" or "No, thank you" - it would be nice for them to email me back whether or not the book will be sent. It makes getting the mail very anti-climatic.

[Cinnamon]

If I request a book or agree to review a book, regardless of whether I love it or not (and I'm usually easy to please) I will finish and review the book. The same doesn't necessarily hold true for my personal tower of books to read at home.

As far as unsolicited books go, I haven't received any yet. I don't have a mailing address posted so requests come through my email first. I have, however, worked closely with a few publicists and these individuals do have my mailing address. If they were to send an unsolicited book to me, I would trust their judgment as we've worked together in the past. Chances are, if I liked a book they sent me in the past, I'll probably like future ones.

[haley mathiot]

basically, if I request a book, I'll attempt to get all the way through it. I'll review it, too. I never guarantee a positive review, but I will guarantee a review at some point in time. If it's horrific, It'll get a poor review, but a review nonetheless.