What’s it all about then?

Books. Or rather more expansively the review, discussion and promotion of books in all their forms. Literature, language, story, knowledge and enjoyment are some of the ingredients of good books. At Bookrater.co.uk we think books and reading really matter, that they elevate and enrich our culture. We exist primarily to collect together reviews from selected readers, to promote discussion of featured books in the comments thread and possibly in the future forums.

How does it work?

We post reviews, you read them, you jump on the comments thread and tell us why we’re wrong or agree with us loudly…it’s up to you. If you wanted to rate the book while you were their that would be cool. If you wanted to subscribe to a feed that would be even cooler and if you get enough other people on here we’ll open up a forum.

I’d like to review for you

Cool. We’re flattered.

If you really want to review for us then you need to either have an existing blog (that you’ve been posting on for longer than six months) or be known in meatspace to an existing reviewer and send in an example review via the contact form.

Also: we don’t pay. As much as we’d like to pay you for your work at present we simply don’t have the traffic volumes to monetize the site. Obviously we’d like to change that over time. In the event of the site beginning to turn a profit we would look to operate a revenue share model of some kind but that’s very much pie in the sky at the moment. You need to do this because you love it.

In terms of style you need to ensure your review is not War and Peace in length (unless by prior agreement) and that your tone is friendly, reviews work best when you don’t require a literary degree to follow them. Your critique should be of the text not a personal attack on the author. The same - incidentally - goes for the comments threads; trolls will be ejected like the limited metaphors they are.

If we turn you down to review for the site it doesn’t mean you’re crap. It just means one of the following a) you’re literary tastes are too similar to an existing reviewer or b) your style doesn’t fit with the tone we’re going for at bookrater.co.uk. That’s it.

I disagree with your review

Fantastic, different opinions are what make the world go round. Jump on the comments thread and tell us why. That leads on nicely to…

Moderation Policy

Talk about whatever you want related to the books or indeed the reviews. Treat featured writers, reviewers and other users as you would if they were in a cafe, bar or pub chatting about books and everything will be cool. Act like an idiot and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. It’s that simple.

Copyright

All rights for the material released on Bookrater.co.uk remains owned by the person named as the writer, unless we tell you it’s someone else. If you hoover off content and republish it elsewhere without correctly attributing content and linking back here then you’re stealing, more importantly you’re offering yourself up for legal action.

We use Creative Commons and so you can republish content from Bookrater.co.uk as long as you attribute the author correctly, link back to us and don’t make money off it. We’d prefer it if you didn’t recycle content in its entirety because of the inevitable SEO penalties that can cause but really that’s down to you as good internet citizens as long as you stay in the terms of the license.

Who are we?

The current reviewers:

Neil Beynon:

Neil enjoys reading most things and has been known to describe himself as literary tart, sometimes when he’s actually sober. He also writes but presently still earns his living in the world of digital marketing. His blog The Other Side of The River can be found here: http://neilbeynon.wordpress.com.

Abbi van den Berg:

Abbi is a South African ex-pat who finds her home in deepest darkest Earlsfield, AKA Little Johannesburg, with all the other Saffas. She kindled her love affair with books at the age of three after discovering that if you told the librarian it was your birthday you got a lolly. It was her birthday everyday for the next year. She never lost her love for books even after the ruse was up. Abbi counts Watership Down, The Twilight Series, The Power of One and of course, Harry Potter amongst her favourite books but will consume more of less any other written material that is not nailed down. When not sitting on her bed in her loft with the skylight open reading, Abbi can be found wandering around Camden dressed like an anime cartoon looking for a new unwashed indie band to worship. She is also writing an ill-advised TV series and about 12 short stories at once. Abbi blogs at Where The Wild Things Are.