FAQs

Who writes the reviews?

Up to 2005 the reviews were written mainly by the founder of the "SFBook" website, Thomas Christensen (TC) . Since this time they have been written by me, Antony Jones (Ant) along with a number of other wonderful reviewers (see the About Us page for more details).

I've written a wonderful book, could you please review it?

Possibly, but please do understand that we can receive anything from 20 to 100 requests to review books in a month, as such we can't accept all requests. We read fast but there are only so many days in a month and this is all done in our very limited spare time. For those books we do accept it can take me some time before we pick it up from the stack, and these are read in the order they arrive (mostly). On average it's usually at least 8-12 weeks before a review is ready after the books been received but this can vary greatly.

Do you make a lot of money on this Site?

No!, in fact the revenue generated from the minimal adverts doesn't even cover the running costs. This is purely a "non-profit" site and if there was an excess generated it would be put straight back in the site.

Can I write a review myself?

Yes you can, you are quite welcome to submit reviews by contacting us directly - for books already present on the site or those that haven't been reviewed. All reviews are moderated before being added and any bad language or blatant self promotion / advertisements will be scrubbed. Please also note that we also don't publish any reviews that are already present on other websites, the review must be unique and not available anywhere else, Including Amazon. If the review is regarding a book not currently on the website then ideally it should be at the very least 200 words long.

What format of Books do you Accept?

We now have the ability to review hard copies of books (hardback, softback, review copies) or Kindle compatible e-book review versions. Kindle Compatible versions include the formats pdf, prc and mobi but we can convert from epub too. Please don't send unbound copies or word docs. If you are going to send a pdf version then please don't include DRM as reading pdf's on a Kindle can be a pain if they aren't formatted for that screen size. If you want to DRM an ebook (I have nothing against this) then please send in the kindle compatible .mobi version. You can change the format of your ebook using the free software Calibre.

Can I use your review material on our site or in our books?

Yes you can, although please do only use snippets and not the complete review.

Can I link to the review

Please do feel free to link to the reviews and or the website.

Where does the review appear?

The reviews appear exclusively on this website and nowhere else on the web, we don't as a rule write reviews anywhere else, including Amazon so please don't ask us to write reviews for other sites.

Will you publish your review on Amazon?

Quick answer: No, longer answer - The great god Google has deemed that copying content from one website to another is a bad thing and it can and will drop websites from it's search results for this action. The problem is that Google isn't perfect and as such one of the way's it determines the originator of such content - and therefore the site that won't get dropped - is by "authority". As Amazon is a far greater authority in Google's eyes even than the venerable SFBook, it's not a good idea to post the time consuming and unique reviews we write on Amazon.

What's the difference between science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction?

Ask any author, publisher or fan and each will give you a different answer to this question, in fact it can become a fairly heated debate in some circles. Noted author Ray Bradbury claims to have only ever written one science fiction book (Fahrenheit 451) although some of his other works are classed as science fiction by many and do share science fiction elements. The most succinct description of the differences between science fiction and fantasy is:

Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible.

Speculative fiction is a genre that shares characteristics of more than one other genre, Star Wars is a good example of this as it shares many fantasy elements in a science fiction setting.

So Who Designed and Built the Site?

Every bit of the website has been designed and built my myself and the site runs in the excellent content management system Modx.

Can you publish my book for me?

No, the site is simply a book review site and we have neither the facilities, nor experience in publishing works of fiction.

Will you be my editor

The is currently no capacity for us to act as editors, promoters or agents, we simply provide unbiased reviews of fiction novels.

Can you review my short story

We only review full novels, with very few exceptions, please feel free to ask but most of the time it will be a no.