Cornflower Books

Calling all writers

... at least the ones who offer me their books.

    As I typically get a great many emails from writers asking if I'd like to review their books (and that's in addition to those from publishers and publicists), may I offer a word or two of advice:

    Please take a moment to look at this site and see what sort of books I read. Check the comments to get a feel for the Cornflower Books readers' taste (there are useful posts here and here), then ask yourself whether your novel is a good fit. The range here may be wide-ish but it's not all-encompassing, and so a wee bit of research before sending your message doesn't go amiss.

    If you think I'd be interested in what you are offering, by all means get in touch, but make your email brief. If you've read my posts you'll perhaps have noticed that I try to be succinct and cover a book in as few words as possible. I appreciate conciseness in others, so make your pitch short and to the point - I've been sent synopses which would give Proust a run for his money, and they don't augur well for the quality of the book they seek to describe. If you can, have a look at some publishers' press releases as they are generally short and snappy and effective at 'selling' the book.

    I try to reply to all emails, although recently a lot of approaches from authors have gone into my spam folder, and so I may have missed some due to automatic deletion, but if you don't hear from me, the chances are that I'm swamped.

    If I accept a book - and being able to pick and choose is a privileged position and one I'm grateful to be in - then I always make clear that because of existing commitments and the sheer number of books arriving, I can't promise to read any book soon, or even at all; a lot will be passed over. Sometimes I have to stem the flow and turn down everything I'm offered because I have so much reading already waiting in the piles, but even when I welcome new books, good as they may be, I may not get around to reading them. Checking back to see how near the head of the queue your book is may not be the best use of your time.

    I hope I'm not sounding snooty and off-putting here, nor getting ideas above my station, and some of the above I've said before, but I think it bears repeating as I'm trying to give an honest view of the situation in an effort to cut down on the number of 'misguided' approaches, and to help writers direct their efforts where they are more likely to bear fruit. The fact remains that my appetite for books is as great as ever, I love to know what's in the pipeline or about to be published, what's new on all fronts, and I still read as much as I can and write in one way or another about as many books as possible, just not all of them!

About Cornflower Books

    Judging by some of the emails I get it seems that quite a few people visiting this site for the first time come away with the mistaken impression that its sole function is as the home of a book group. I thought I'd better set the record straight.

    Cornflower Books is all about books and the wider world of books: writing, publishing, literary festivals and prizes, bookshops, libraries, our reading habits, and so on. It reflects my interests as a lifelong passionate reader whose aim is to spread the word about good writing and books worth reading. Happily, it has a large and loyal following of equally keen readers from many countries, and it functions as a source of recommendations, bookish news and comment, a place where good books of many types and vintages may be found and discussed. Yes, it is home to a book group, too, but that accounts for no more than two or three posts in a month; the rest of the time it's mostly concerned with what I happen to be reading.

    Although I went to university to study English (with the vague idea that I might eventually work in publishing), my first year course took all the joy out of the reading of literature and so I ditched it in favour of a degree in Law, a subject I took to wholeheartedly. But the time devoted to legal training and fully-fledged practice has turned out to be well-spent in terms of what I do today; that honing of the analytical faculties and seeing through to the heart of the matter means that when I write about books now - feeling as though I've come full circle in a way - it's always with the aim of being as succinct as possible and getting, if I can, to the essence of the thing. Communication is key, with regular posts saying what I rate and why so that others may discover and enjoy those books for themselves, but I claim no knowledge or experience other than that which my years of writing and talking about books here, in print and on the air have given me.

    I hope that all who stop by find this a warm and friendly place, and I do love to hear from readers whether it's by way of a comment or an email - the link to my address is over there on the right. If you're a publisher, publicist or writer wanting to send me a book, do by all means get in touch; a quick glance at a few posts or at the books I've read and written about (see the sidebars or look here for a pretty comprehensive list) should give you a fair idea of typical Cornflower material (there's the original site, too). You may have to wait a while for a reply as I am often inundated, but I do my best to respond, and I read as much of what I'm sent as I can, though these days that's only a small proportion of what comes in.

    In whatever capacity you have come to this site, I hope you'll feel welcome and find something here to interest and engage you.