About

Readers:
There is a tidal wave of books being released into the marketplace these days. According to Bowker, in 2008 there were 85,468 ISBN issued for small press or self-published books. In 2013, there were 458,564. A press release by Bowker in 2014 reveals that the growth trend for self-published books is continuing steadily, if in a more healthy than frantic pace.

Diamonds in the Dust
Amidst all these books there is a plethora of badly written or hastily edited work, with quite a few well-written books mixed in, but relatively invisible amidst the mountain of slush and froth. Many of these may contain offensive material, but there isn't much for a parent to go by to make an informed decision on what might be in the book their teen wants to buy. What this blog intends to do is offer the parent (Christian or not) information on the content and quality of books available on the market, specifically from small-press and independent sources.

If a book is reviewed here, you can expect the quality and content to be sufficient for human consumption (at least ours, your mileage might vary), or know the reason why not. We will post clearly in our review the general quality, the amount of violence, language, sexual and spiritual content.

Note that we usually receive a digital copy of the books on this site, for the sake of an honest review.

Authors:
Self-published and small-press-published authors often find it difficult to get their books noticed. As time permits, we will accept submissions for review. We will accept non-fiction or fiction books, in any genre except erotica, in eBook (MOBI) or ePub format only. Do NOT send your book to us unless we accept your request. If we like what we read, we will post a review on the following venues:
Here
Amazon
GoodReads
(possibly other venues, on request)
If we cannot give a three-star or better review, we will contact you and tell you why. If you still want the review posted, notify us, and we will post it for you on those venues. If for some reason we can't get through the book at all (time constraints might be a factor) we will let you know.

Oh, and also, I'm getting about 20+ review requests per month, and can only plow through about a book a week. If you do the math, that means I'll not be able to review every book I get a request on. 

One last Admission on this, and a Sincere Apology:

I've been a bit checked out as a Reviewer, as those of you who have submitted books on the front page list can attest. I just NOW reviewed a book I accepted for review in 2017. (Sorry John A Heldt. I did enjoy it). I have a current queue of about 23 books to review from here, and a growing pile at other sites like Reader's Favorite. (which I do recommend). Life interrupted as my kids got graduated and married, and I've been cranking out my own books too (I am up to 24 now). Two Million Words in print takes a while to generate, as I'm sure some of you know.

Still, a promise is a promise, and it's been a very long time coming for some of you. For the rest of you, I have a mountain TWO THOUSAND requests tall I'll have to weed through, to add any more to my stack, and those will probably go in order of 1) what I like to read, 2) what attracts me by cover, 3) if you spelled my name right (see below) and 4) if you've had very few reviews, as I'm not sure you belong in my stack if you have 50+ reviews, and my feedback might get lost in that noise. (It's doubtless you found other sources for reviews, care to share and help a brother out?)

For those who have been waiting for years for some sign I didn't keel over and expire, my deepest and sincerest apologies. As I said above, life interrupted, writing got in the way and will remain a principle activity, and now I have grandkids, so they get some priority too. Bet all of those sound like excuses, and they are, but here I am now, trying to clear the decks, so hope you'll find it was worth the wait.

On to the PROCESS of getting a REVIEW for FREEEEEEEEE:

The process is simple:
Step 1:
send an email to chris [dot] solaas [at] yahoo [dot] com detailing the following:

GUYS, PLEASE PLEASE Spell my LAST name right. Misspelling that will not ONLY insult your potential VOLUNTEER Reviewer, it will, frankly, ensure that your email NEVER arrives at my hobbit door.

That's two AA, not two SS. :-) It's Norwegian, for those who care.
Subject: Review Request for <your book title> by <author name>
Your name
Book Name
Genre
number of pages (an estimate is fine, or word count)
Venues you'd like to see your review posted in (from the list above please, request if there's another place you want it)
- NOTE: Smashwords will only post a review if the book is purchased there, so you'll need to give me a coupon code for a free book...
- Nuther NOTE: Note that I bolded the Subject. If your Subject isn't formatted this way, yahoo in its infinite wisdom gathers together ALL emails titled 'Book Review' into one thread, which confuses it and me, and ends up in the recycle bin. I added the author name to the subject, this will really speed up my review process. I copy these by subject to a pending folder, then sort to an accepted or rejected pile, as noted above.
All emails that are NOT formatted this way get lost in the Land of Spam, an interesting place to eat occasionally, I suppose, but not a healthy place for your email.

Elevator pitch/back cover blurb.
Link to your book on Amazon/Goodreads. If your book is in the process of publication and you are looking for a pre-release review, let us know. These will hopefully bubble to the top of the queue as there is a time constraint on them. Make sure you allow 1-2 months for the review to be posted before your release date. If you want to quote a portion of our review on your back cover/front matter, please ask first).
Release Date.

Step 2:
We will contact you back, and let you know if we can accept your book for review. If you don't hear back, it could be because we had an ADD moment, or we haven't gotten to your email yet, or you are one of the 4 out of 5 books we can't get to in the month. No hard feelings. Oh, also, as I've got quite a queue, it might actually be months before I send a request for a MOBI.

Step 3:
If we've accepted your book for review, send us the book in electronic form as requested. We'll put it in the queue and read it. I need a MOBI or ePub. I can't process a PDF or paperback.

Step 4:
Wait. We're working on it. If life happens, and we can't we'll let the pending authors know about any major delay, unless we have died and there's nobody left to notify you. Or if the rapture happens, and we're gone as well. But in that case, hopefully you'll be 'gone' with us, and I'm not sure how much of it's going to matter after that... :-)

Step 5:
We contact you back, with links to your reviews, reason for delay, reason why we can't review or finish the book. Please don't take it hard if that happens. I'm an author too, and understand that our books are our 'babies', a part of us. But our Lord demands and our craft requires that we put our best effort into the work. Prov 22:29, 2 Sam 24:24