AppleUsers.org are able to receive a regular supply of new publications from various publishers including, but not limited to; O’Reilly, PeachPit, McGrawHill and APress.
In return for providing these titles, the publishers simply ask for us to write short reviews of the books we select and then to publish those reviews in the AppleUsers Spotlight… and we are now looking for YOUR assistance with this.
We also encourage members to post their reviews on the publisher’s websites (where available) and on sites like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders and SlashDot.
What’s Involved?
It’s quite simple really… we request titles for review from the various publisher’s and depending on the publisher we either get a physical copy of the book or access to an electronic version.
Once you have the book, read it, then write the review. Some people find it handy to jot down some notes as they finish a chapter or section.
The length of the review is up totally up to you – but our recommendation for a “concise” review is between 100 – 500 words whilst a “comprehensive” review could be between 700 and 1,500 words.
The format of the review can be just Plain Text, or in a “Styled Text” Microsoft Word document. We also recommend you supply a copy of the cover as a separate image file (most publishers supply a hi-res image on their website)
We’ll be submitting to the publisher a PDF version of the issue of the AppleUsers Spotlight that contains the review, so you don’t need to send the review direct to the publisher.
If you decide to publish the review on other Book Review sites, let us know where you have published the review – just in the body of the email you send us with the review will be fine.
Rating System
When reviewing a book, you should give it a rating out of Five and here at AppleUsers.org we are going to recommend using the brightness of a Spotlight 🙂
[1] Blacked Out
This book did not meet any of your expectations at all. Whilst we hope we never see such a rating, if a book really does fall in to this category, let us and the publisher know exactly why you thought this and if possible provide suggestions on how it could be improved.
[2] Candle Powered
This book covers most of what you had hoped for, but with a couple of changes, it would have Quite Awesome.
[3] Daylight
This book is quite acceptable for what you needed it to cover.
[4] Light Blub
This is an above average title and highly recommended.
[5] Search Light
This book is fantastic and you’d recommend it to everyone and their mother.
How many books can be reviewed?
You may review as many books as you like… in fact, as the saying goes, the more the merrier.
However, initially we’ll recommend that you look at doing a single review at a time. Once you’ve decided you like reviewing books, then we can look at the possibility of providing you with two or more books at the same time for review purposes.
We’d also be interested in perhaps seeing some comparative reviews of books on similar topics and would see these reviews at aiming to highlight which titles are best suited for “Beginners”, “Intermediate” and “Advanced” users with an eye of allowing readers to start with one title, then progressing through a series of books to develop their own personal skills and knowledge on the topic.
Can I review a book that has already been reviewed?
Ideally, we’d prefer you to review a new title, but if you have a very different opinion, for better or worse, about the book compared to the current review, then we and the publisher’s would like to hear your thoughts as well.
How do I find out what books can be obtained for review?
Visit the publishers websites and any title they can already published should be able to be requested immediately.
If the publisher has pre-announced a title that you’d like to review as soon as it comes out, you can still request it now and we’ll see what can be down about getting a copy to you as soon as it is available, but no promises
Tips and Suggestions when writing reviews
When writing a review, please consider the following;
- Always include the book’s title, author(s), publisher, and price (the US price is fine, but if you can find the Australian price, obviously include that as well). Some people like to have this information at the beginning of their review, others prefer it at the end
- Include a link back to relevant page for the book on the publisher website.
- Be Honest! If you liked something in the book, let people know what it was and why. If you didn’t like an aspect of the book, again say what it was and why you didn’t like it.
- When we publish the review in the AppleUsers Spotlight, we’ll include the most current details about any relevant discounts the publisher offers our readers, so you don’t need specify them in your review.
There are a number of sites that provide hints, suggestions and examples for reviewing books;
- ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html
- www.apress.com/community/writeareview
- www.peachpit.com/user_groups/index.aspx?st=66343
- slashdot.org/book.review.guidelines.shtml
- www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/CriReadingBook.html
- teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/bookrev/index.htm
Contacting Publishers
IMPORTANT NOTE: Reviewers should NOT contact the publishers directly for review copies of books… There is a single contact point from AppleUsers.org to the publishers – This is at the publishers request as it reduces duplication of effort. If there is a title you’d like to review, then complete the form below and we’ll contact the publisher on your behalf.