Review Policy

I am always willing to hear from authors/publishers about books for review consideration here at I Am Not Lost. Here are the basics on what I do and what I look for. Read well, because if you email me I will expect that you’ve read this. Inquiries that make it clear you have not read my policy will not be answered.

  • I am always happy to hear from people! Unfortunately, I’m not able to guarantee anything. My day job is very erratic in terms of schedule, and I’m simply not able to review everything. In addition to that, the multitude of books I already own are glaring at me. I don’t do this for money, just for the love of it. However, even if I can’t accept your request, I’ll always respond.
  • I am willing to appear on blog tours, but again, this is something that is taken on a very particular and rare circumstance. I’ve had too many unfortunate experiences with tours, and the time constraints are difficult. Don’t let that discourage you! I’m still willing to look. Just be forewarned.
  • If you’re looking for who I am and what my voice sounds like, feel free to look at the blog. I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and I have a .com website with some of my personal fiction on it. Come talk to me! I don’t bite. (Hard.)
  • I will be honest in my review. This means that if I truly hated the book, I will put up a 0-1 star review for it. That being said. If you are part of a tour, or are working on getting reviews out for the kick-off of your release, please let me know. I’m willing to delay reviews in those circumstances so that they don’t impact your buzz. Overall, even if I don’t like a book, I want the author to do the best they can, and I won’t stomp on something. You need to let me know, however. I can’t intuit this.

What I Like:

I like all manner of books, though in terms of reviews I prefer fiction simply because it is the genre I am best familiar with. (As opposed to non-fiction or poetry.) More specific ones:

  • Thrillers/psychological thrillers (note: exceptionally high body counts do make me tired)
  • Mysteries (I prefer darker to cozy but I’ll read either)
  • Fantasy–high or urban (I do have a weakness for urban fantasy)
  • Paranormal
  • Steampunk (though I admit to knowing very little about it)
  • Young Adult/New Adult
  • Dystopic/apocalyptic/post-apoc
  • Contemporary romance

In addition to this, I’m willing to read more…niche books? (Thinking in terms of erotica, BSDM, etc.) These are a bit more at my discretion, but I do have some experience with these types of settings in fiction and I’m perfectly willing to read them. As a flip side to that: I’m also all about friendship stories! One of my all-time favorite duologies (though I think it’s becoming a trilogy, yay) is all about an entirely asexual semi-romance profound friendship.

Further Details:

  • You’ll often see reviews that I have marked from The Story Plant. They’re an independent publishing house out of NYC, and I’ve been a part of their “Spread The Word” initiative for a while now. They send out ARCs of the books they’re publishing, and I write honest reviews for them. I am always happy to help them out, and I will always be honest–even if I don’t like the book. That is what Story Plant expects of me, and I think that honesty is better than pandering.
  • I accept books in most fashions. I have a Kindle HD, a Nook Tablet, and eyes to read paper books with, and I’ll accept all of those. .epub, .mobi, and paper books. (You’ll need to contact me specifically if you want to send me a paper book, so you can get an address to send it to.)
  • I will cross-post reviews unless specifically asked not to. (Not sure why you’d want that, but hey.) Commonly reviews will go up on Amazon, B&N, and Goodreads after they go to my blog.

Rating Scale:

I use a fairly standard 0-5 star rating system, but here’s what each means from me:

 

  • Zero stars – I rarely give this out. Genuinely for books I could not finish, or are so wildly bad I can’t even come up with strong enough words to make you avoid it.
  • 1 star (*) – Forget It – Just generically bad. Not enough to make me throw the book at the wall, but not a book I’d want someone else to pick up. Also fairly rare.
  • 2 stars (**) – Not Impressed – This book has potential, but it’s so far lost in the chaos of the rest of the issues in it that I had trouble with it.  Often books that have an interesting core but there’s too much wrong for me to recommend it.
  • 3 stars (***) – Worth A Look – A flawed book, but one that I’d recommend you pick up if you like the pros I mention. For example, if I think that I am out of the intended audience for a book, but the book has excellent writing/characters/etc, it’ll likely get 3 stars. One core issue, but basically a good book.
  • 4 stars (****) – Recommended – These are books I really enjoy, but lack the necessary hook to bring it to the next level. These books are solid Bs. There’s nothing wrong with these books, they just aren’t the ones that make me stare at the ceiling and wonder about existence.
  • 5 stars (*****) – Highest Recommendation – These are my ultimate favorites. They’re the ones I’ll start yammering about when you ask me about what I’m reading, the ones where the characters stay with me for weeks, the ones that blew me away. I’m very picky about what I give 5 stars to. It’s not easy.

 

Still with me? Awesome! If you’ve come all this way, then I commend you, and you have won my contact information.

For requests, please send me an email to korionfray@gmail.com with the subject line in this format: REVIEW REQUEST: [Novel name] by [author]. I’d also very much appreciate if you either left a link to your book, or let me know the page count/word count in your email so I have an idea of how large of a book we’re talking about. If you haven’t received a response within 48 hours, poke at me again, because there’s no excuse for that. 😉

I look forward to hearing from you!