How do I contact an author/publisher?
BookBrowse cannot put you in touch with, or forward messages to, authors or
publishers. However, many authors have websites, and a few provide an email address on their
website that you can use to contact them. So your first step should be to
check if the particular author has a website. If BookBrowse is aware of an author
website, we link to it from the appropriate author biography page.
The established method for contacting authors is to write to them by postal
mail, c/o their publisher. You can find the publisher's address by looking
in the front pages of the book or by searching online. To find a publisher online, query a
good search engine such as Google. For example, type in Knopf Publishing, and one of the top results will be to
Random House's website, because Knopf is an
imprint of Random House; from there you'll need to find their contact page to get the mailing address. Then write your letter, stick on a stamp
and send it to Author Name, c/o Publisher, Address.
Can you give me advice on writing and getting published?
We can't but there is a wealth of information and resources waiting to be discovered on the web and,
probably, close to where you live - for example evening classes, writing groups
(check with your local library or bookstore to see if they know what's
available in your area). Some web based resources for adult writers are
Writers Market,
Writers Weekly,
Writers Digest,
Poets & Writers, The Literary Market Place and
Publishers Weekly. Also a
number of successful authors offer tips on writing, either in books they've
written, or on their websites; for example Stephen
King's
On Writingand Dan Brown's
website.
How can I tell if a book is a 1st edition?
There is no easy answer to this. However, as a general rule for books published since WWII in the USA, the
words 'First Edition' or a continuous sequence of numbers including 1 (or
letters including A) will often indicate a first edition. You should also be aware that there can be multiple print runs within a first edition, and
the later printings will be less valuable than the first. Also, be aware
that a book may be the first edition in a particular country or from a particular
publisher, but not the first edition overall, and the value of the book will
vary accordingly. The only sure rule of thumb is to get the advice
of an expert or become one yourself. Try the Pocket
Guide to the Identification of First Editions.
Who writes the BookBrowse reviews? Can I write for you?
BookBrowse's reviews are written by a group of experienced reviewers, some in-house and some freelance. If you are interested in reviewing for us please visit our reviewer information form, and if you feel you meet the critieria, complete the form.
Why can't I find the book I'm looking for?
BookBrowse is an online magazine not an all encompassing database. As such we select from the best and most interesting titles and feature only these books -
so that you spend less time wading through lists of so-so books and more time reading exceptional literature. Of course, we can't promise to cover every
exceptional book, especially as everybody's definition of what that be is different, but we do promise that if we feature a book it is because we
wholeheartedly recommend it.
Does BookBrowse sell books?
We do not, because we feel that if we did we would naturally tend towards recommending the bigger selling
titles. We've got nothing against 'household name' authors, and don't
hesitate to recommend a well-known author when he or she publishes a particularly
exceptional book but, in general, you don't need BookBrowse to tell you about
these books, because you're probably already familiar with the author or will hear more than enough about the particular book from other sources. This
frees us up to recommend a wider range of authors, including many unknowns before they
become household names. For example BookBrowse visitors have been reading
books by Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code etc.) and Alexander McCall Smith (The 'No 1 Ladies Detective
Agency' series) since 2001 - years ahead of the crowd!
How can I get my book listed?
Please see the submission guidelines which will explain how to submit a book to BookBrowse.
Do you offer book club recommendations?
BookBrowse offers hundreds of free reading guides listed by genre, title and author.
There are errors in the book information, who do I tell?
If you see an error please do let us know. Although everything is
carefully proofread it is inevitable that mistakes will occur, and it is always
appreciated when somebody takes the time to let us know so we can correct it.
However, keep in mind that what you see as an error may be a difference between editions. For example,
over the years we've received countless emails from UK visitors telling us that Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the wrong title for the first J.K.
Rowling book - it's not wrong, it's simply the title used in the USA. Equally, the cover of the book will often vary between the hardcover and paperback
editions, and between countries.
Also, if you encounter errors in
spelling it maybe that the word is written in a version of English different to
the one you are used to. For example, color vs. colour, center vs. centre,
skillful vs. skilful, catalog vs. catalogue, encylopedia vs. encylycopaedia,
check vs. cheque (the first is American English, the second British English). Even the syntax or grammatical structure may seem
odd to you in some cases. For example the Americans say 'I dreamed', the
Brits say 'I dreamt', the Americans say 'leaped', the Brits say 'leapt'.
The excerpt that you will find at BookBrowse will usually be from the first published
English language edition.
What exactly is BookBrowse?
BookBrowse's concept is very simple but, to the best of our knowledge,
unique. We combine the best features of a highly selective bookstore -
hand selected and personally recommended books which you can browse at your
leisure - with the best features of a newspaper book review column (except you can read the
opinions of multiple reviewers not just one!) Plus we offer much else that you
won't find in any bookstore or review column - such as hundreds of reading
guides, interviews, extended author biographies, literary quizzes and much else.
In short, we are a book recommendation service with the mission to seek out
the diamonds in the rough from the approximate 100,000 books published each year
(in the USA alone), so that you can spend more time reading exceptional titles,
and less on books that don't live up to your expectations.
What types of books do you recommend?
We recommend both fiction and non-fiction. The majority of books are adult fiction (novels, thrillers, mysteries, historical fiction etc.); about a quarter of the recommendations are for non-fiction titles, such as biographies, current affairs, history and science; and each week we try to recommend at least one book for children and teens (from about ages 9 years and above) so that if you have children, or need to select books for children, you'll have a good idea of the better quality and more interesting titles currently available.
Will I like the recommendations?
If you like to read 'quality' books and enjoy reading a variety of genres you're very likely to enjoy BookBrowse. The book recommendations tend to be relatively literary, but not exclusively by any means - reading should be like a good meal - sometimes you want a great heavy casserole of a book, sometimes a light summer salad is what's needed - and you'll find both at BookBrowse. Personally, I find that after I've read a couple of 'heavy' non-fiction books I welcome a good thriller to clear away my cranial cobwebs, but I couldn't survive on a diet of blood and guts!
I live outside the USA, is BookBrowse relevant to me?
The publication dates you'll see at BookBrowse, and the book jacket covers,
are for USA titles. However, visitors worldwide enjoy BookBrowse -
firstly, because the great majority of the recommended books are available in
other English speaking countries (although the publication dates may vary) and
secondly because, to the best of my knowledge, there simply isn't another website like BookBrowse!
How many people visit BookBrowse?
BookBrowse receives about 400,000 unique visitors each month - not including search engine spiders and other 'non-human' traffic, which some websites include
in their figures.
Can I copy information from BookBrowse?
All information at BookBrowse is protected by copyright - either BookBrowse's
or the original copyright owner's. You may print out an
excerpt or reading guide for your own personal use, or to share with a small
group, such as a book club, but you may not reproduce it elsewhere, online or in
print, without written permission from the original copyright owner or their representative. Copyright notice.
Is BookBrowse safe for children to visit?
There are two genre categories especially for young people (children aged 9+ and teens) that contain books that I consider suitable for my children - but your standards maybe different. If you are concerned I strongly encourage you to view the books yourself first.
If children stray outside the two categories dedicated to them it is possible they will come
across a few excerpts with (mildly) sexual content and some violence (there is barely a thriller
worth its name which doesn't have at least one murder in the first chapter!) Having said that,
by definition, they are as safe at BookBrowse as they would be if you gave them free rein in your local library or bookstore!
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