Review Policy

Review Policy

Last revised 14 April 2024

Please Note:

As of April 2024, I will not be doing any regular review of self-published or indie novels until further notice. This isn’t likely to be a permanent thing, but I think I can expect it to be a few months before I’m ready to re-evaluate. For now, my Review Policy remains unchanged, and authors or publicists are welcome to contact me, but please expect that no reviews are going to get done for a while.

If you are a self-published author, or you have published through a small indie press, feel free to contact me (use the Contact tab on the menu bar above) and request a review. Aside from the normal fields of the contact form, your review request should include the following:

  • Your byline. This can be your legal name, or it can be the pen name under which you write.
  • The title of the book to be reviewed.
  • A brief synopsis of the book. This can just be your ad copy, but if you can actually describe the plot briefly, that would help.
  • A link to the book in the Amazon US store, if it’s already available for purchase and you want me to post a customer review there. Alternatively, I’ll read an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) if the book interests me enough up front. I prefer to purchase a copy, though.

Please be aware that I get many more review requests than I’ll ever be able to answer, much less fulfill. I absolutely do not promise to review every book that gets submitted, since I only review one or two books per month.

Your book is much more likely to be reviewed if it’s in one of my preferred genres:

  • Hard science fiction
  • Military science fiction
  • Space opera
  • Epic fantasy
  • Historical fiction or historical fantasy (ancient period preferred)
  • Historical non-fiction (ancient period preferred)

I am not at all interested in:

  • Vampire, werewolf, or “shifter” stories
  • A/B/O or “omegaverse” fiction
  • Literary Role Playing Games (LitRPGs)

If I like what I see, I’ll purchase the book myself. If it’s not available for sale on Amazon US, I’ll contact you and ask for a review draft or ARC (PDF preferred).

I will then make a fair attempt to read and analyze the book. If I can’t get through it, don’t enjoy it, or find it riddled with typos and style problems, then no review will be forthcoming. I’ll be reviewing only on a 3-4-5-star system:

  • 3 stars: A good read, worth adding to the TBR pile.
  • 4 stars: An excellent read, thoroughly enjoyable, worth putting at the top of the TBR pile.
  • 5 stars: An exceptional read. I loved it, and think everyone should drop everything and read it now.

If your book turns out to fall within that range, I’ll write a substantive review and post it to my blog here. I’ll also cross-post the review to Amazon US and Goodreads if possible. In any case, you’re welcome to use direct quotes from my review in your promotion. Please credit any such quotes to “Sharrukin’s Palace.”

I do not guarantee that Amazon or Goodreads will leave my review in place when I write one. They should, since I’m not asking you for anything by way of compensation, but that’s up to them.

In particular, be aware that if your book is likely to need a content warning (CW) in any in-depth review, for content that’s likely to trigger automatic moderation from Amazon or Goodreads, I won’t be able to cross-post the review there. For example, if any character in your story exhibits pedophilia by the clinical standard, I won’t be able to post the review anywhere but here.

As a final note: yes, I’m also an author with some self-published work, but please don’t offer to review my work in exchange for any review of yours. It won’t make any difference in how I proceed, and in any case, that’s a great way to make sure both reviews get taken down.