Welcome to September! This month readers have another 4 reviews to look forward to. They are all general books we’ve selected from the “Pick Me” tab.
We are still in search of submissions for October and would like to focus on horror, ghosts, witches, demons, and other Halloween related topics the whole month so if you’ve written such a book, please post a query on the “Pick Me” tab about it.
And speaking of the “Pick Me” tab, we’ve been debating for several months on what to do with it. There are currently 83 posts there and we’ve written 30+ reviews of which the majority came from the queries that authors posted on the tab. So, the “Pick Me” tab is working great. Thank you authors for utilizing it! Our debate comes from whether or not to keep all of the posts there or should we delete them after a while.
After seeking the advice of a few other book reviewers, we have decided to delete the queries from authors who have had their book reviewed here on the main page. After all, the book has been reviewed and the query has served its purpose. All of the book information can be accessed from the review itself, so there is no reason to keep the query on the tab. As of today, all of those posts have now been deleted.
This weekend we will be spending a lot of time giving final consideration to some of the older posts whose authors we have not contacted to date. If we decide that we are not going to pursue reviewing your book at this time, you will receive an email informing you of this and your post will also be deleted.
So, any posts left will be books that do indeed have upcoming reviews, or books that we are still considering, or new posts which we have yet to attend to. Keep them coming!
In a way it’s too bad that the queries had to be deleted (although I do understand the necessity). I am very glad that the successful queries were still on the Pick Me page when I was tossing my book in the ring for review. I read through the queries, both successfully chosen for review and the not yet succesful posts, read the reviews for the successful posts, and used them to help me formulate a Pick Me submission because I was looking for factors that seemed to work as well as those that didn’t. I looked at not only what was successful, but the length of time between Pick Me query and review.
By removing the successful queries upon posting of the review, you have limited future authors ability to research what makes a successful Pick Me post to catch your attention.
Again, I do understand the necessity for developing a purge strategy, I just thought I’d offer a point of view from the other side of the Pick Me tab.
LK Gardner-Griffie
Author of young adult novel, Misfit McCabe