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The Read & Write Stuff: Reviewer Recruitment Drive by Geoff Willmetts

January 2, 2018 | By | Reply More

I’m beginning to think that reviewers are a rare breed. It’s either that or they’re getting increasingly harder to recruit. Are so few of you reading books out there? For those of you who do read, you have must have an opinion whether you’ve liked a book or not. You might even have told your friends about. That’s all reviewing is really all about. The ability to work out what does and doesn’t work in a book comes a little later but I can help you develop that skill.

Reviewers with bite.

The style of reading might help a lot as well. If you’re a marathon reader, that is you read in a little, all right, maybe 100 pages a day, then you might be better than a sprint-reader who does a book at a sitting but can’t recall much about a book after a few days.

The main skills needed are the ability to write a précis about the plot without giving away too many spoilers and being able to give some honest opinion as to whether you enjoyed the book or not. With both, there is a need to explain both good and bad points. Show you can do that and send me a sample then you might find yourself getting access to a wealth of books that will keep you going for evermore. If you can read a couple books a month, that’s great. Even one a month adds up. Who knows, you might even get your grammar right but you’ll find me a useful editor in making sure you look your best. Some of my team have even interviewed authors through this so you’ll be adding to your skills if you need something for your CV.

For paper-based books, we can only accept people who live in the UK. For digital ebooks, I can draw across the world but it still needs a demonstration that you can write so don’t even consider it unless you can. You’re going to need such grounding before anything else.

If you haven’t seen anything that you normally read at SFCrowsnest, then chances are that we haven’t had someone here available to do it. We really could do with a few more fantasy and horror genre reviewers but that shouldn’t preclude SF reviewers. I need a decent and reliable reading talent in the team. I’m on the look out for reviewers all the time not when I put these annual pieces up.

We act totally geek here and often seek out books that were missed in the past and we don’t always stick to release dates. What we do adhere to is reading the books properly and making proper honest assessments. We have a good reputation for that.

Do you think you have what it takes?

Don’t be scared if you’re a novice. A few books under your belt and you’ll be the same as us.

You should be able to decipher my email address from gfwillmetts at hotmail.com and send me a sample review or ask for me more detailed review notes.

Geoff Willmetts

Did I say I’m editor here?

January 2018

PS: We’re also after first release articles and stories. Even if I say no, you’ll get the full reasons.

Category: Offworld Report

About the Author ()

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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