Authors, this one’s for you: in 200 words or less, convince me to buy your novel. On July 1, 2005, I will pick one to purchase, read, and review. That’s it: one free review from an unbiased reader, and you don’t even have to send me a free copy of the book. No strings attached. This is just a fun way of combining my love for reading with my desire to support independent art. If it’s successful, I might make it a regular thing.

To enter, send an email to melydia@hotmail.com with “blog books” in the subject line (all others will be eaten by the spam filter), containing the following: your name, the title of your book, an email address where I can contact you, a link to where I can purchase the book, and a paragraph of no more than 200 words convincing me to buy your book (this can be an excerpt, an impassioned plea, a press release – anything goes).

Now for some assorted rules and other information:

• Authors submitting finished works only. I don’t want to hear from agents, friends, fans, or family members, nor do I want to critique manuscripts. Feel free to pass the word to any and all authors you know.
• One book per author. Multiple entries will be disqualified.
• The review will be initially posted here on my blog, and if the winning author likes the review I will happily post it elsewhere (meaning that you don’t have to worry about a bad review showing up on Amazon or something). I promise to be honest in my review, and I do try to find something positive in everything I read, but I do not promise to fall in love with your book.
• Paperbacks and hardcovers only, please – no ebooks or audiobooks.
• Any genre of fiction is welcome, as well as short story collections, true crime, and biographies. Just no books that don’t have a story (e.g., poetry collections, self-help, science texts, etc.).
• Your book must be available for purchase online with a US credit card*, but does not need to be listed on Amazon or the other huge retailers. I am willing to buy straight from the publisher if required. However, I am not willing to buy directly from the author.
• I will respond to everyone to let them know I received their entry, so if you don’t receive a confirmation email within a week, please resubmit (and include a note letting me know). I will also send out an email when the winner is announced.
• This contest is 100% free to enter. All you have to do is send me an email before 11:59 PM on June 30, 2005. (I’m in the Eastern United States, but I’m not going to be a stickler if you’re a couple hours late.)
• The winner will be chosen at my own discretion, and there may be two if I get enough awesome entries. Feel free to email if you want to know why your book wasn’t chosen, but if you don’t want to hear things like “it sounded boring” then don’t ask. :)

So there it is. Now write those paragraphs and send those emails. Spread the word on writing forums and anywhere else you please – I’d love to get enough entries to do this again and again.

*Changed because “US dollars” caused some confusion. As long as I can purchase your book using an American credit card, it’s admissible. I know there are retailers out there who only take local currency, of which I have none. Oh yeah, and I don’t have a Paypal account either.