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Guidelines for Submitting Book Reviews

All of the MBR's reviewers are volunteers who retain all rights to their reviews. Reviews are submitted by email. Just type the review (or "copy & paste" it) into the body of an email message. Never send it as an email attachment. Reviewers submitting one review in a given month are clustered together in the column "Reviewer's Choice". Reviewers submitting two or more reviews in a given month are provided their own bylined column (e.g. "Klausner's Bookshelf", "Cindy's Bookshelf", "Taylor's Bookshelf", etc.)

The cutoff date for submitting reviews is midnight on the 25th of the month; reviews submitted after this point may or may not be held over an extra month, at our sole discretion. Reviewers are notified by email when their reviews are published in one of our book review magazines.

The following should be a part of every review submitted:

Title
Author
Publisher
Publisher Address
Publisher Phone Number (especially an 800 or 888 if they have one)
Publisher Website Address (if they have one)
ISBN
Cover Price

Your Name
Reviewer

Here are some guidelines that may be of help in creating an engaging review:

1. Why did you select this particular book for review? Perhaps it relates to your work, hobby, avocation, a particular area of interest, your expertise, or just for fun.

2. How well does the author write, use language, illustrate his/her points, develops characters, clarity of instruction, aptness of examples? Use brief quotations from the book itself to illustrate your observations, opinions, and comments. When doing poetry reviews include a poem, with cookbooks include a recipe.

3. Who is the book intended for? Scholarly reference, non-specialist general reader, devotees of the genre, wide ranging readership, specialized audience, age range, economic or political orientation, etc.

4. Does the book succeed in what the author is trying to accomplish? Entertain, instruct, persuade, inform, train, teach, alarm, etc. Are there suggestions you'd offer the author for his/her next time around in print?

5. What is the author's background or credentials? What other titles does the author have?

6. Are their related or relevant titles that a reader might be interested in?

7. Type your reviews in single spaced paragraphs with double spacing between the paragraphs. The review can be a few paragraphs or a few pages -- take as much space as you feel is necessary to say whatever you want to say.

8. Above all else, have a good time putting your thoughts and opinions down. The best reviews are those that you yourself would like to listen to while driving along in your car or chatting with friends over lunch. If a book is badly written or not worthwhile -- don't bother with it. Select another one that you think deserves the publicity that your review as showcased by the Midwest Book Review would afford it.

James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com


James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com


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