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Why I offer reviews:

I’m a self-published author. I understand how important reviews are to getting word out about your books. Word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective methods of finding customers. Customers talking to their friends and followers are how businesses thrive with low marketing budgets. An author is their own small business and reviews are an author’s “word of mouth.”

I want to help other indie authors get the word out about their books. I’ve been rating and reviewing books on Goodreads since 2009. With the purpose of sharing my opinions in case someone was interested in reading what I’ve read. There was no motive except to share my opinions on what I’ve read for others. At the time I didn’t realize it was marketing for the books I like. Now I understand more deeply how people are influenced by other people’s opinions.  I don’t see any reason why I should provide free marketing to big name writers and not also give self-published and indie authors that I might not notice otherwise the same treatment.

Authors want reviews. Readers want reviews. I enjoy reading and giving reviews. Win-Win-Win.

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What you should know:

 

I won’t sugar coat my opinions. Before you send me your book please make sure that it won’t hurt your feelings if I don’t rave about it. If I find an issue with it, I will include it in my review. My reviews are meant to tell readers why they should read a book and what they’re getting out of the deal. If I am not honest about my rating, my opinion becomes worthless.

I do not offer any guarantees beyond I’ll attempt to read the book and share my honest opinions on it.

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Preferred Genres:

Science Fiction

Horror

Fantasy

Romance (Especially with a paranormal twist)

Mysteries

Criminal Investigation stories

I will read anything, but I do not enjoy heavily religious works. If your book is a sermon in a trench coat, I am not the person to send it to.

I like stories that give me a puzzle to solve, the more layers to explore the more I like it.

 

My ratings scale:

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DNF (Did not finish)

honestly can only think of a single book someone asked me to read that I didn’t finish. Someone sent me their book link and it was a completely unedited first draft. I read the first chapter and never opened it again, if it’s not ready to be reviewed I won’t read it.

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One star

One-star books are books that I flat out did not like. I have a single book ranked 1 star on Goodreads if that tells you how rarely I use the ranking. Generally, a one-star book is one that I find offensive, though most of those end up as a DNF. A one-star book generally to me is one that’s been released before it’s finished. Books that don’t have a coherent story end up with this rating. 

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Two stars

Two-star books are more common than one stars. These are books that I didn’t particularly dislike, but I didn’t like them either. Things that get a book a 2star rating include being boring, being incorrectly labeled as the wrong genre, textbooks with errors, all get 2 stars from me.  A couple examples of two-star books I have rated in the past: “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway, “Shardik” by Richard Adams, and “Gulliver’s Travels” by Johnathan Swift.

 

Three Stars

My average rating for books is 3 stars. That’s “I liked it.”

Some of the books I have rated 3 stars in the past include:

“The Scarlett Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (This book was literally my favorite in high school and I still gave it a 3-star rating), “A Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, “Pet Sematary,” and “Duma Key” by Stephen King (My favorite author), and all three books in the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien.

These are books I like, but not love.  

 

Four Stars

Books that I’ll reread get a four-star rating. My four-star rating books are things like “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer, “A journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Vern, and “The Picture of Dorian Grey” by Oscar Wilde. These are the books that make me think. The ones that I want to explore deeper are the ones that get 4-star ratings.

 

Five Stars

A five-star book isn’t just a book that’s captured my imagination, it’s one that’s made me feel. Books that make me cry or stories that make me forget I’m reading are five-star books. (Alternatively, I rate reference books I find extremely useful as 5 stars, if you have good ones send them my way.) My five-star books include “The Bridges of Madison County” by Robert James Waller, “Marley and Me” by John Grogan, and “Rose Madder” by Stephen King. 

Formats

I can read any format you’d like. I have multiple e-readers and eBook software on my desktop and cell phone.

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Review Requests

If you’d like me to review your book, please email me a synopsis of your book. Including: Genre, Word Count, any timeline you’d like to request (example, release date posting of review), and the purpose of requesting a review. It can be anything from increasing the number of reviews available to garnering release day attention, to increasing marketing on an existing book with slow sales. If I have an idea of what you’re looking for going in I can better tailor my approach to help reach those goals.

Include the Subject Header “Book Review Request” to make sure I don’t accidentally overlook it in my inbox.

I will also accept arcs of upcoming releases or review copies of a book already released.

Once your review request has been accepted and we’ve established a deadline you’ll be able to send digital copies to Reviews@TamaraHaddock.com

Physical arcs can be sent to :  

Tamara Haddock

434 Mesa Vista Circle

Mountain View Arkansas 72560