Sounds grand, isn't really. But some clarification. The focus of AustCrimeFiction is "mostly" Australian, New Zealand and books from this general region.
That's not to say that other books are not read and reviewed. Over the many many years I've been doing this now I've found that the way to make sure I know what I'm feeling about a book, is enhanced by all the others I've read. It's also worth noting that reading a book for review is a different undertaking for me than just reading a book for pleasure. There's entries to go on the website, notes to be taken as the reading continues, observations to be checked (rereading in other words), a review direction decided, words to be written, edited, published (then the spelling and grammar mistakes are found). For me, reading for pleasure seems to take about half the time that reading for review does.
There's also a reading / reviewing queue / schedule to be maintained. I'm always behind. No matter how many books I manage to read through a year, I seem destined to never catch up, there are authors / publishers / publicists who are always waiting. There are some books that I simply have to miss because there's only so much time in the day. There are some books that will jump the queue.
Sometimes I may have started a book, found it simply wasn't working for me (sometimes it's a matter of timing), and stepped away from it. I may get back to it and it may work, I may not. Sometimes I'll jump a book to the top of the queue because the author is known / the subject matter appeals / the rumour mill is working. Sometimes something may just appeal and I can't explain why.
I can also simply be craving certain sorts of reading material, and in those cases, books will also jump queues. Increasingly I'm going off piste and diving into the library or buying something that appeals. This is a voluntary effort after all, and whilst I'm absolutely aware of an obligation when I've been generously gifted a book, I'm also aware that sometimes a sense of obligation can cloud judgement.
So the theory is - first in / first served. Unless something else happens. If you've a hard and fast deadline when requesting a review please state that up front - that will give me a chance to know if I've got the slightest hope of hitting it.
Formats Accepted:
- epub (cheaper / easier for all)
- dead tree / paper books
❗PDF is not ideal. They aren't ebooks / don't allow for font size or orientation changes to accommodate ageing eyes. May be accepted if no other alternative available, but could lead to a substantial delay as reading them is restricted to daylight hours or I have to hack the PDF into epub format.