Review Policy
(Image courtesy of The Learning Center.)
Up to now, all of the books that I’ve reviewed have been ones that I have bought or borrowed.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a publicity manager at HarperCollins in reference to my review of The Wrong Kind of Blood. She offered to send me a copy of the next book in the series if I would be willing to review it on my site. No strings were attached. I agreed. The review will follow in a later post.
It’s time for me to establish a formal review policy, so as to maintain transparency.
Review Policy
I write reviews in my limited spare time. If you want me to review a book or a product, please use the E-mail link elsewhere on this page to contact me.
- I may decline to review the product.
- If I agree, I will require a review copy,
- which is mine to keep. If you require return of the review copy (i.e., a loaner), you must make that clear before sending it to me, and you pay for return shipping.
- I will not accept payment. The review is free.
- I will not accept restrictions on what I can say:
- if I don’t like the product, I will write a lukewarm or negative review.
- No non-disclosure agreements or other contracts which
- restrict my freedom to write a review.
- My review will disclose that I received a review copy.
- I make no guarantees about timeliness,
- but I will try to post a review within a month of receiving the review copy.
- If for some reason, I decide not to review the product,
- I will let you know as soon as possible.
- Reviews are copyright © George V. Reilly.
- I reserve the right to post my review on other sites.
- You have the right to reprint part or all of my review
- in your promotional materials, provided that you do not misrepresent my conclusions. I require attribution and a link to my website, www.GeorgeVReilly.com. I appreciate notification.
- I am not DPReview.com. I write short, pithy reviews,
- not exhaustive ones.
- I mark on a range of 0 to 5 stars, in half-star increments.
- I almost never give out 4.5 or 5.0. Most reviews get 3-4 stars, but that’s because I tend to review things that I expect I will enjoy.
This policy was initially posted on 2007/05/21. Revision 1.0.
Qualifications
What are my qualifications? For reviewing fiction and movies, no formal qualifications save having been an avid reader for more than 35 years. Read my blog for sample reviews.
For reviewing programming books or software: more than 20 years of professional experience as a software developer. I have tech reviewed books for Addison-Wesley, Wrox, Sams, and New Riders. I have co-authored two books, Beginning ATL 3 COM Programming and Professional Active Server Pages 3.0.