How do you usually find the books you want to read? Like, how do you browse?
I go to Barnes and Noble most weekends. In between I often look at the 'recommendations' on Amazon. And I get specific leads from blogs and the AbsoluteWrite forums. I am also offered about 15-20 review copies per week. That presents ample options to choose from.
I also am full of review copies, so I mostly pick what I read based on catalog copy. I like to browse, too, though. Every once in a while I see something at BN that I hadn't seen before and I'm like oooooooh. Discovered Pyr books that way!
What I get is a query, generally. That's all I want as I only read about 1% of what is offered and I don't want the author to waste their money. But some of them just will not follow instructions and send the book.
I try to explain that they do not want the kind of review I would write about a book I am not really interested in....
I try to explain that they do not want the kind of review I would write about a book I am not really interested in....
Ah. I just have big boxes arrive on my doorstep. But from my understanding you're in more of a niche market, and I review pretty widely within childrens and YA.
I wish publishers would only send what I request...I end up donating a lot to libraries and share with my crit group.
I wish publishers would only send what I request...I end up donating a lot to libraries and share with my crit group.
I dropped most of my outside review gigs when it started to become a chore, and lost some more when the magazines slowly went broke through the 80s and 90s. Now I just do some reviews for academic journals and my own blogs. And I still have a pile of $100 science books I don't really want. I drop them off at the community college library whenever I have a box full.