Review sites worth considering

Most authors, whether self- or traditionally published, will have to spread the word about their book at the beginning of their career. Searching the internet for review sites can take a long time. To save you time, I've put together a list with a few sites that should get you started and keep you busy for a few days. You won't be able to get your book featured in each and every one of those, but a few good reviews should spark some major interest in what you have to sell.

General interest:

• About.com - Literature: Contemporary. Several reviews of new books each week.
• The Agony Column. Reviews and commentary.
• American Book Review. "Dedicated to reviewing books from independent, small, and university presses." Limited online availability -- and in the dreaded pdf format.
• Anglican Media Sydney. General interest fiction.
• Anthony Campbell's Book Reviews. Over 400 reviews, good selection.
• Armchair Interviews. Thousands of reviews.
• The Bactra Review. Over 100 reviews. Serious, eclectic.
• The Barcelona Review. Good, small archive, interesting selection
• Barnes & Noble Review. "Aims to bring serious readers smart and useful appraisals of current books, music, and films (on DVD), as well as reconsiderations of important past works."
• berniE-zine. Eclectic, small, fairly literary.
• Between the Pages. Small, popular titles. Also other content.
• Bibliofemme. Good, fairly extensive general site.
• BiblioReview.com. "A gateway to book reviews and author interviews". Impressive collection of links to reviews.
• Black Star Review. "Books - Politics - Popular Culture".
• Blether. Thousands of reviews of popular titles, very mixed bag.
• Boldtype. "An email-based review, presenting each month a short list of books worth reading."
• The Book Barn. E-mail book discussion list with extensive review archive.
• The Book Brothel. Over 100 reviews, mainly popular fiction.
• BookLoons. "Book reviews across genres". About 1200 reviews, popular focus
• bookmunch. Small, interesting selection, nicely done. Also some author interviews.
• BookPleasures.com. "Reviews, interviews, and more ...", especially strong on travel-related writing
• Book Reviews by Scott London. Non-fiction, especially media and politics.
• Book Reviews by Kristen Voskuil. General interest.
• Bookslut. Monthly. Includes author interviews and other features.
• Brothers Judd. Good, large selection of reviews (with links !), now relatively easy to use.
• California Literary Review. Reviews, some additional material.
• Cambridge Book Review. Limited number of reviews.
• Crescent Blues. Mainly genre fiction.
• The Critical Flame. "A Journal of Literature and Culture". Bi-monthly.
• Curled Up With a Good Book. "Book reviews of literary and mainstream fiction, fantasy, science fiction and nonfiction".
• The Danforth Review. Limited number of reviews.
• Danny Yee's Book Reviews. An eclectic list, largely non-fiction. Over 1100 reviews.
• Emerging Writers Forum. Decent selection.
• ex libris reviews. Small collection.
• Flak Magazine. Limited number of reviews, but good selection, nicely presented.
• Fresh Fiction. Genre focus.
• Front Street Reviews. Popular focus.
• goodreports.net. Canadian, but also general interest coverage.
• Green Man Review. Good, fairly large selection.
• Harriet Klausner's Book Reviews. Something (almost always very good) to say about what seems like every new book published.
• Heartland Reviews. "Scientifically-based book reviews from the heart." Unwieldy.
• IMHO. In My Hysterical Opinion. Decent selection of reviews.
• Internet Book List. "Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive and easily accessible database of books". Sci-fi top heavy, and very uneven coverage
• Internet Review of Books. "Reviewing books in the fields of science, social science, history, art, music, and current affairs with attitude and passion: An Intelligent Guide for Intelligent People."
• Jacket. Ca. 200 reviews, mainly poetry.
• January Magazine. "Book reviews & author interviews".
• John's Book Pages. Over 450 reviews. Serious, literary.
• Just Book Reviews. "It is composed of a small nucleus of academics and intellectuals who have expert knowledge of specific areas"
• Large Print Reviews. Fairly extensive selection of reviews of books available in large print editions.
• Midwest Book Review. Good, very broad coverage and large archive, but brief reviews, very unwieldy presentation (and only semi-useful search capability).
• Montreal Review of Books. Bi-annual, limited number of reviews.
• Mostly Fiction. Good, extensive coverage -- and with links !
• MyShelf.com. Decent selection.
• NewPages. Good collection, small press focus.
• The New York Journal of Books. Daily reviews.
• Open Letters Monthly. "An arts and literature review". Good essay-reviews.
• The Oxonian Review of Books. "Features reviews of recently published books in literature, politics, science, and the arts". Relatively few reviews.
• Palatinate Online. British, limited number of reviews.
• Paperback Frenzy. "We are just a couple of friends who like to read books and share them with others.".
• Parson's Review. "Independent fiction and nonfiction book reviews by pastor and freelance writer". Small.
• PopMatters. Interesting selection, decent archive.
• The Quarterly Conversation. Good reviews and longer literary essays.
• RALPH. The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities. Unwieldy, but interesting coverage.
• Readysteadybook.com. "Devoted to reviewing the very best books in literary fiction, poetry, history and philosophy." Good coverage of new titles.
• RebeccasReads. Somewhat messy site, but good, broad coverage.
• ReviewsOfBooks.com. Provides links to newspaper reviews of extensive number of recently released books. (Note that links open in annoying small, separate pages).
• The Second Circle. "A guide to contemporary literature". Interesting selection, but very small.
• Simon McLeish. Over 1100 reviews. Fiction (particularly science- and crime-fiction) and non-fiction (particularly science, history, music and literature).
• spike. Over 200 reviews, literary focus.
• Steph's Book Reviews. Fairly extensive, current.
• What I've been Reading. "Comments on books from Bob Corbett". Small, but good selection of literary titles.

Mysteries:

• Crime Time. British, focus on crime/mystery.
• Mystery Reader. A good site for reviews about mystery and suspense books, and thrillers.
• New Mystery Reader Magazine. Decent mystery coverage.
• ReviewingTheEvidence.com. "Thousands of reviews of mysteries and thrillers of all categories".
• Tangled Web. Ca. 1000 reviews. Annoying frames, but good coverage.

Poetry:

• The "Constant Critic". "tri-weekly poetry reviews".
• Contemporary Poetry Review. "Resuscitating poetry criticism". Only ca. 100 revs.
• Poetic Voices. Fairly small, decent coverage.
• Verse magazine's webspace. Blog format less than ideal, but good coverage.

Romance and women's fiction (including paranormal lit):

• The Romance Reader. Good coverage of romance books. Over 5000 reviews.
• A Romance Review. "Where Love Rules and Romance Rocks!!!!!!" Over 4000 reviews.

Science fiction and fantasy:

• The Alien Online. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror focus.
• Fantasybookspot. Fantasy focus. About 200 reviews, as well as other content.
• Science Fiction Weekly. Good science fiction coverage
• sffworld.com. Good coverage of science fiction and fantasy.
• SFReader.com. Reviews of science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels.
• Susan Stepney. Decent selection.

Please do your research and read the fine print before submitting to any of these sites as I can't guarantee they're all free. To your publishing success!