Five Guidelines for Authors Requesting Book Reviews

January 5, 2026January 5, 2026Leave a comment

After over a decade of reviewing books, I’ve decided to (finally!) share some guidelines/tips for authors requesting book reviews from bloggers.

Time is Precious—and Limited

Many book bloggers receive boatloads of review request emails. Because reading and answering them all can be time-consuming, a lot of bloggers may put off or simply delete the emails that don’t give them the information they need in one read-through.

Now, different bloggers’ procedures can vary somewhat. If a blogger’s book review policy tells you exactly what to include in your review request email to them, go by that. But if their policy doesn’t give specifics about what your email should include, I’d recommend going by the five guidelines below.

Be Considerate!

1. Check the blogger’s website to see if they share their name. If so, and if you’ll be going on to contact the blogger, greet them by name in your email. Remember, you’re presenting your work to a person—not to an online machine just waiting for books to review. 😀

2. ‎Read the blogger’s review request policy thoroughly. It should give you a pretty good idea if your book and the blogger would be a good fit. (Note: Some authors might think, “This blogger’s policy says they don’t like my genre, but they just don’t know what they’ll be missing if they don’t read my book.” However, it’s actually rude to ask a blogger to review a type of book they specifically say they don’t accept or want.) It’ll save valuable time for both you and book bloggers if you focus on finding and contacting those whose genre and/or content guidelines your book meets.

3. Respect the blogger’s schedule. If the blogger says they’re swamped with books and they’re currently scheduling reviews six months out, don’t ask them to squeeze in a book review for you in two weeks. Or if a blogger says they’re not currently accepting review requests, respect that.

Minimum of Book Info

4. Give the blogger the information they need right off the bat. Your email should include all of the following details about your book:

• the title
• your author name—exactly as it will appear on the book cover and on bookstore websites
• the book’s genre
• the book’s length
• the book format(s) you’re offering for review
• the date or date range when you’d like the review, if you’ll need it by a specific time
• the book blurb/description, as it will appear on bookstore websites
• a direct link to your book online—on Goodreads, for instance (and be advised that some bloggers who include book cover images in their reviews won’t agree to review a book until they see the style and quality of the book cover design)

Again, Because the Blogger is a Person…

5. At the end of your email, be sure to thank the blogger for their consideration.

There you have ’em! Now, all the best to authors and book bloggers alike as we do the bookish things. 🙂

If Jesus Christ Were a Christian Fiction Author Today

April 18, 2025April 16, 20252 Comments

This isn’t at all my first time talking about the parables, the fictional stories, told by Christ the storyteller. But this time, I’m not asking how today’s Christian fiction readers might have viewed Jesus’ stories “back then.”

We’re centuries upon centuries removed from those ancient Bible times. Because we’re so far away from having to actually live in the reality of those times, many Christians may find it pretty easy to imagine themselves accepting Jesus if they met Him back then. Imagining themselves loving Him and seeking out His ministry, hearing and believing His words, and following His guidance as the Good Shepherd.

I’m guessing it’s what many professing and/or devout believers would naturally imagine about meeting and being in face-to-face relationship with the One Whose name they proclaim. I think a lot of Christians would imagine that having Christ around in the flesh today would even make it easier to accept and follow Him.

Because, hey. Human nature seeks tangibility, and Jesus Himself would be right here. In person.

It may not be as easy or comfortable for Christians to imagine themselves possibly being among the many who wound up rejecting Jesus when they did have Him right there. In person. It may not be as convenient for professing and/or devout believers to remember that it was many of the professing and/or devoutly religious people in Jesus’ time who rejected Him—because He didn’t fit that well into the religious framework they’d constructed.

• They talked down on Jesus for visiting and eating and drinking with sinners
(Luke 5:27-32, 15:1-2)
• They said that Jesus’ miraculous power was demonic
(Luke 11:14-15, Matthew 12:22-24)
• They criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath
(Luke 13:10-17)
• A fierce mob of people, led by religious leaders, claimed that Jesus was “perverting the nation,” and the mob lifted loud voices, demanding that Jesus be crucified
(Luke 22:47-71, 23:1-25)

That isn’t an exhaustive list of the instances when the religious people around Jesus didn’t accept or understand Him. But it gives an overall idea of what I’m talking about.

I think a lot of dedicated Christians don’t necessarily wish to imagine themselves participating or being complicit with the mob that screamed, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Or, at the least, Christians probably wouldn’t wish to think of themselves saying, “We heard Jesus is supposed to be a rabbi or a prophet. Some are even saying he’s the Messiah. But he doesn’t make enough sense for that.”

One key way that Jesus didn’t make sense to people was through His storytelling.

Again, I’m pointing out that Christ the storyteller spoke in parables. Occasionally, He’d literally mention God or prayer in the stories, but usually, He didn’t. While conveying truths through telling stories about common things, Christ sometimes explained the stories’ spiritual significance. Other times, He didn’t.

He told His disciples the purpose of His storytelling (Matthew 13:10-17), showing that being able to recognize God in a story, a situation, etc. depends on the condition of one’s heart. Christ also indicated that His disciples should have been growing in understanding, not always needing Him to spell out explanations of parables (Matthew 15:15-17).

“Are you still lacking in understanding?” He asked His disciples—because they should have started learning by then to discern the character of God, even without the kind of religious language or pointers they might have come to expect.

Well. I’ve often addressed how a lot of Christian fiction readers are looking for content like prayers, discussions about God, verses of Scripture, etc. in Christian fiction reads. As I have before, I’ll reiterate that there’s nothing wrong with being blessed by stories like that. I say that as an adult who’s been reading ChristFic for decades, since her preteens.

Still, during the time since I’ve gone from simply reading ChristFic on my own to being active in the ChristFic community, I’ve heard a lot of readers say that when stories are labeled as Christian fiction but they don’t include content like prayers, discussions about God, verses of Scripture, salvation messages, etc., then those stories may be “clean, but they’re not Christian.” Or they’re at least “not Christian enough” to really belong in the Christian fiction genre.

Now, again, although I’ve done so before, I’m not asking this time for today’s Christian fiction readers to imagine how they would have taken Jesus’ stories if they’d heard Him way “back then.” Back in the Bible days that we hear about so much, but we’re far away from living in the reality of those days.

The reality we’re living in is now. So, this time I’m asking Christian fiction readers to consider: What if we did have Christ the storyteller right here in person, in the present day?

What if He came authoring fiction in the way He already has, usually without literal mentions of God or prayer and such in the stories, and without always including explanations of the stories’ spiritual significance?

Would the religious framework you’ve constructed about Christian fiction have room to accept and embrace Christ’s stories?

And, no, I don’t mean would you accept and embrace His stories if He made a big announcement: “Hey, everybody, I’m Jesus Christ! Here’s my I.D. and some free fishes and loaves to prove it!”

No, I mean without an easy announcement or endorsement identifying exactly Who this author is—if instead it were up to ChristFic readers to discern the character of God through the author’s storytelling about common things…

Would a lot of Christian readers wind up rejecting Jesus’ fiction? Would they say that because the stories don’t tick certain ChristFic boxes—because the stories aren’t written with the kind of religious language and pointers those readers have come to expect—then it means those stories aren’t “Christian enough” for the Christian fiction category?

While Christians have essentially put His name on this genre of fiction, I wonder how well Jesus Christ would actually fit as an author in this genre.

It’s worth thinking about.

For Further Consideration

Some who’ve read through this post may think, “But it isn’t a very relevant scenario, to imagine Jesus like a modern-day author. The post says the reality we’re living in is now, right? Well, the reality is that Jesus Christ isn’t a Christian fiction author today. He isn’t one of today’s readers either—readers who need novels that are written to bring people closer to Him.”

However, considering Christ like a modern-day author is definitely a relevant scenario. Why? Because in Matthew 25:31-46, Christ pointed out that how we treat others in need is how we’re treating Him. “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” (Matthew 25:40, NKJV)

So, it’s relevant to consider how the Christian fiction community treats readers who need—and authors who write—stories like the parabolic ones Christ told.

I’ve discussed this in a previous blog post about the Christian fiction community, in case you’d like to look further into it.

Illustration of two smiling teenage girls, one white and one Black, and chocolate malts in front of an American flag

Malt Shop Fiction and American Diversity

January 10, 2025December 19, 20252 Comments

(This post is an excerpt from the Author’s Note in
Vicky’s Victory. You’ll want to read the full Note in the book after you’ve read the story.)

Have You Heard of Malt Shop Fiction?

Much of the time, I can be rather old-fashioned.

I love watching vintage movies and television programs, and I also enjoy my share of vintage novels. That includes young adult “malt shop” books, which were published from the 1940s to the mid-1960s.

Malt shop books typically have storylines that are fairly light (sometimes medium) in weight. They feature young heroines navigating teenage life, without content like profanity, sex, or graphic violence. The stories often have a romantic focus or at least a side of romance in the overall mix.

Two vintage novels with illustrated book covers featuring white, teenage girls and guys out on dates

Two of the malt shop novels I’ve enjoyed: Saturday Night by Marjorie Holmes, which I discovered in 2022, and Fifteen by Beverly Cleary, which I’ve read multiple times since I found it back in my childhood.

So far in my reading, my old-fashioned self has generally found malt shop fiction to be pleasurable. Even so, there are fairly common moments when simply trying to relax in my nostalgic heart-and-head space isn’t so easy for me as a Black American woman.

Vintage me, Nadine! Well, me a few years before I started rockin’ my Afro.

Unsurprisingly, among other problematic issues that can arise from indulging in entertainment from times past, one issue regarding malt shop fiction is its lack of racial diversity.

From what I’ve seen in the world of malt shop books, girls and guys of color are largely nonexistent. That is, they either don’t exist in a substantial way, or they don’t exist at all, for the most part.

Covers of twenty vintage young adult novels, one with an illustration of a white bird, the rest with illustrations of white people

I’d probably enjoy some of these novels if I read them, but this is just a sample of what searching for malt shop fiction looks like.

Granted, I’ve come across a few young adult novels from that publishing period that do include or mention one or two persons of color, or that make direct or indirect references to race. Yet, during my reading, the majority of those inclusions or references didn’t strike me as the most culturally competent or sensitive. (Or authentic, in one instance.)

I’d have to ask myself, “Do I wish this was another book that just didn’t mention people of color at all, rather than mentioning them…like this?”

A Matter of Representation

To state the obvious, people of color did indeed exist in real-life America during the 1940s to mid-1960s (and during every other period, of course). Whole human beings with whole lives.

Collage of Black men and women in vintage fashion

Now, concerning me and vintage fiction, you may or may not be thinking what I often hear some people say—statements along the lines of: “You can’t approach olden-day entertainment with modern-day social sensitivities or wishes. It was just a different time, back then.”

However, I don’t point out issues in relation to vintage fiction because I wish to somehow change the past. I point out the issues because, as the adage goes, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We should be aware of the past and be mindful not to wind up reverting or slipping back into former trends of racial exclusion and/or deficient racial representation in fiction genres that should be welcoming for a diverse range of peoples.

A multicolored row of books

Also, just because circumstances were a certain way in “a different time, back then” doesn’t mean everyone back at that time was perfectly happy or fine with it.

Narrowing this down to my Black culture for now, many Black Americans have always wanted more or better than what the wider society granted or permitted them. Many Black Americans have always cared about issues pertaining to their human dignity and social representation.

But they haven’t always had the opportunities or platforms for their voices to be heard about it. At times when some did get their voices out there, much of America wasn’t ready to listen or willing to budge that far from the status quo.

This isn’t a new issue for Black Americans. Our desire to be represented well—especially to have the opportunities to represent ourselves well—isn’t a desire that just recently popped up due to modern-day social sensitivities.

Old black and white photographs of Black people with polished clothing and hairstyles

Well before the malt shop era: a few from among other archived photographs of Black Americans, adults and children, from the mid to late 1800s

A Novel Idea

One recent time while I was in my nostalgic space, getting into a malt shop novel, I ran into some non-malicious but racist humor in the story. That day, I just wasn’t in the mood to do as I’ve often done with vintage entertainment: spit out a cherry pit and press on through the dessert, when I’d hoped at first to have one of those nice times when I could simply enjoy a good ol’ dish of cherries jubilee. Sweet and pit-free.

I set the book aside. I still wanted to read something from the malt shop world, but you never know when one of those vintage books might have some of those pits in them.

A saucer of cherries, one with a pit beside it

Not long after that, on a couple of my jaunts around the internet, I came across some old photographs that were taken inside of soda and malt shops and ice cream parlors in the ’40s through the ’60s. One of the photos showed high school or college students: a few of them waiting at the front counter near the soda fountain, one of the girls standing and sipping a soft drink, and other students surrounding the shop’s jukebox.

And what did those particular, old photographs I found all have in common? The people pictured in them were Black.

Some of them working, serving the customers.
Some of the customers sitting and chatting over their orders.
Some of them smiling or apparently laughing.
Certain ones stopping to stand together and smile right at the cameras.

Various groups of Black people. Malt-shopping like everyday Americans. Because they were everyday Americans.

An idea was coming to me. Fast.

Partial view of a smiling, Black young woman in a malt shop, inside of a thought bubble

Not at all for the first time in my bookish life, there was a certain kind of book I wanted to read but couldn’t find, so I was going to have to write that book myself.

In this case, it would be a light-to-medium-weight story set during the malt shop era, centered on a cast of young Black American characters.

And now the story is here for you to enjoy as well—the first in a series. Check out
Vicky’s Victory!