ARC Review Update

Lately I've been staring at my TBR pile and wanting to cry a little. Not because of the books themselves because books are inherently awesome. Who would cry over a book they'd want to read? But my TBR pile looks like this -

The stack on the far left are ARCs for review alone. The rest is a mix of BEA titles, PaperBackSwap/BookMooch books and a handful I've been dumb enough to purchase. And then I have my NetGalley list which consists of the following titles -

Crazy by Han Nolan

Alison's Wonderland by Alison Tyler

Tyger, Tyger by Kersten Hamilton

The Secret of Ka by Christopher Pike

Annexed by Sharon Dogar

Demon Hunts by CE Murphy

Eight for Eternity by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer

Lovely by Kris Starr

Captive Spirit by Liz Fichera

Ghost Shadow by Heather Graham

The World Above the Sky by Kent Stetson

Tricker's Girl by Hilari Bell

Roman Games by Bruce MacBain

F**k it by John C. Parkin

Views from the Loft by The Loft Literary Center

My Soul to Keep by Rachel Vincent

The Hypnotist by MJ Rose

Spy Glass by Maria V. Snyder

Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner

Losing Romeo by AJ Byrd

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey

The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks

Those That Wake by Jesse Karp

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Grilled Cheese Please! by Laura Werlin

Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish

The Betrayal of Maggie Blair by Elizabeth Laird

Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky

Mystify by Artist Arthur

Lost in the River of Grass by Ginny Rorby

Everything I Was by Corrine Demas

What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez

One Hundred Candles by Mara Purnhagen

My Favorite Band Does Not Exist by Robert T. Jeschonek

So it's with this massive list in mind that I say I've come to the conclusion that I will only now consider ARCs from those that I currently have standing relationships with. In other words, don't cold call me. If I've already accepted a product from you then I will consider more but with a much stricter eye. I will have to really, REALLY want to read it in order to accept it. If I haven't, please don't knock on my door and try to pitch me your sale. I won't bite. As you can see, I'm a bit overwhelmed so adding more works to my pile is not on my list of things to do.

I'm not doing this to be bitchy or thumb my nose at the indies or debuts out there or anything. I just can't take on any more without going at least halfway insane. I need to make a sizable dent in my reading pile before I open up my ARC receipts full tilt.

If you ignore this post and submit to me anyway and I see that you're not on my bypass list, your email will be deleted unanswered. You can't be bothered to put forth the effort to follow my guidelines, I can't be bothered to respond to unsolicited emails. That's only fair.

So please, if you've sent me stuff in the past, don't be afraid to ask again. I will still consider it. To everyone else, the answer is no. Please don't even try. It'll be a wasted email.* These new guidelines will remain in effect until further notice.

*While this may sound bitchy, I have had authors try to convince me that they're above my guidelines and I should just consider them anyway. Um, no. I create my guidelines for a reason. At least this way if I still get someone trying to convince me otherwise, I'll feel less guilty about pointing this out and telling them to piss off. I don't think cordiality is rendered when a person has already told my guidelines to go fuck itself.