(If you are looking for our film review policy, please click here.)
Our Book Review Policy
Current BOOK REVIEW Status:
We are closed to general review submissions and will not be checking the submissions form for the foreseeable future. If you are an author with our email address that we have worked with before, you may reach out to us that way.
Our team is overloaded with books that need to be reviewed and it is not fair to keep others waiting. We will resume accepting review requests at some point in the future.
Sci-Fi & Scary accepts books self-, small-, and large-press published works for review consideration.
We are willing to accommodate release day reviews, but we must have been given the book at least 2 months in advance, and you must specify in your review submission that you are wanting a release day review.
Books that are accepted for review consideration will typically be reviewed within 4 months of receipt. We may opt not to review your book after receiving it, this is generally because we’re trying to be nice and not give a negative review.
We get a ton of requests, and try to at least respond to each of them, but our emails do tend to turn into black holes at times. Bear with us.
We accept books from the following categories:
- Science Fiction (Adult, YA)
- Horror (Adult, YA)
- Thriller
- Fantasy (Adult, YA)
- Kids Science Fiction (12 and under)
- Kids Horror (12 and under)
We accept regular book as well as graphic novels.
Disclaimer: We’ve wavered back and forth on including this in my review policy, but given the sheer amount of Christian-themed thrillers we’ve been getting review requests for, we’re just going to state it plainly:
We are not the correct site to submit religious-themed works to. If your book has heavy dose of faith/religion/god-like characters come back to earth – Don’t care if it’s Catholic, Christian, Muslim or whatever…your best bet is just to find another reviewer, as we cannot guarantee unbiased reviews.
We will do our best to post reviews on:
- This blog
- Goodreads (if applicable)
- Storygraph (if applicable)
- IMDB (if applicable)
- Other sites as the situation arises.
Regarding Amazon: Effective 11/15/2018) We will no longer commit to posting reviews on Amazon. The way they are currently policing the review system is unfair to reviewers and authors. We realize this is not something small press authors want to hear, but until the situation is fixed, it is rather dangerous to be an honest reviewer on Amazon at the moment. We promise we will make it up to you by promoting your book (providing its a positive review) on social media, reviewing on Goodreads, and also on other retailer sites when possible. You are welcome to use portions of our review in the “editorial reviews” section on Amazon, though.
Our review style is honest and casual. There may be puns or snark included.
We are NOT the site to approach for a review if you are expecting an easy 5 star review. We rarely rate something 5 stars.
PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!!!
Harassment or whining will absolutely NOT BE TOLERATED. Our reviews are honestly given, without bias, and we try our best to give constructive criticism. Sometimes these reviews are negative. We do not ‘have it out’ for you. We aren’t trying to crush the little man. We try our best to promote independent authors, but if we do not like your book, we are not going to lie and say that we did. We aren’t going to give a false rating to appease your ego or help your sales.
If you submit to this site, you are saying that you promise you will be an adult if you receive a negative review. You WILL not attempt to harass or coerce the reviewer about the review that you received. You will not contact them at all about the review that you received. IF YOU DO:
Your communication will not stay private. It will be posted on the site for the world to see, and shared to social media. Your whinging and/or harassing will be publicly displayed, as will any follow-up whinges about it being posted publicly.
If you act like a child, you will be treated like a child.
To Request A Review
If you would like us to read and review your book, please complete the Review Request form on this site.
Be Aware: After we receive your submission, if we are unsure whether to take your story for review, we may ask for a sample (generally just sending me the first chapter is fine.) This will let us know if we really are a good fit for each other. You are welcome to send a sample without prompting along with your review submission.
We have registered with The Indie View.
Our Film Review Policy
Current FILM REVIEW status:
Open to all science fiction and horror films for review.
Streaming links as well as physical copies are accepted.
We do not care about your films budget. We do not care who is in it. Independent films will be reviewed with the same attention as blockbusters are.
We do not care if your film is a new release, or has been out for a while.
If your film sucks, we won’t review it. This is not to be nice, but simply because we’re not going to sit through a 2 hour movie we can’t stand.
We feel it’s important to note, folks, that you should really take a look at our list of movie reviews before deciding whether or not to submit a film for review to this site. Both of us (Lilyn and Grace) have odd tastes in movies, with a serious love of B-roll type films. We absolutely love some films that other people can’t stand, because they’re “so bad they’re good”. (We love regular horror and sci-fi films as well, but we’re very picky. Or not picky enough, depending upon who you ask.)
Please refer up to our public shaming part of our book review policy. It applies here. Should you choose to harass or attempt to coerce a reviewer into giving you a better review than the one that was honestly given, you will be afforded the same treatment given to the authors who act like that.
To Request A Review
If you would like us to watch and review your film, please complete the Review Request form on this site.