Welcome to the Pond!
The Ducks at The Good, The Bad, & The Unread have forthright, and frequently adult, views on the books and the writing industry. We post reviews, interviews, news, and general reading/writing information. We talk mostly about the Romance genre but we frequently swim into other waters.
There is the occasional rant, but we like to think of them as strongly worded opinions. Some folks are even silly enough to let us interview them. We also talk a few authors and book industry types into doing guest blogs, contests, and more. TGTBTU hosts about three Guest Author Days a month. And the ducks? They’re around just because we (::ahemSybil::) like them.
The Good, The Bad, The Unread exists because we’re enthusiasts and not because it’s a paid service. We enjoy reviewing and guest days, but they are not the sole purpose of the blog. We accept guest author requests and review requests and submissions. The schedule of those are always pending reviewer availability. You can check our schedule by emailing us, the duckeez[at]goodbadandunread[dot]com.
Some things to note about TGTBTU:
- We are don’t typically over-think things – there are other places for cerebral discussion.
- We are often R-rated, even NC-17, and may cuss a little… Well, okay, a lot.
- Subjects are not chosen or excluded because of ethnicity, gender, or sexual preferences of the author, the characters, or what kind of cereal we had that morning.
- TGTBU reviewers are a mix of tastes, beliefs, races, morals, and ideas. We believe the mix makes things interesting.
Feel free to comment on how we do things around here. Not a lot bothers us. Opinions and discussion are what makes the world go ’round, after all. We’re quacky like that…
What other people say about TGTBTU
“TGTBTU always reminds me a bit of the first floor of Macy’s (the NY flagship store) at Christmas – crowded and crazy and buzzing with energy and good vibes – but dang, these people love them their books.” – Bestselling author Karen Templeton.
“However, the reason they are here – and indeed first – amongst my brilliant blogs is that they do fine reviews. They take their time and read through a novel, and then really tell you valuable info. Like all these kinds of sites, they have a large TBR (to be read) pile, and like most of these sites, they haven’t been smart enough to review Double Crossed (!) but I found the reviews to be meaty and energetic. ” – Barbra Novac’s blog review.
Feed the Ducks
Have a question? Want to know if your book is set for review? Wanna know the secrets of the pond? Have a suggestion for the duckies? Want to submit your romance novel for review? Have news you wanna quack about? Ideas on how to make Gwen behave? Know of a topic we should put our beaks into? Have some top secret quackery? Just have something silly to share or wanna tell us how pretty our feathers are? Email Sybil
Meet the Ducks
| Ash
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C2
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Dinca |
| Gwen
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Laura J
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Liviania
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| LynneC
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Nikki
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SandyM
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| Sybil
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Sybil, too
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and Sybil again
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| Wendy, the Super Librarian |
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Review Grades
Books may be reviewed by more than one duck, uh, reviewer, but not every book can be reviewed. Just not enough reviewers or time in the day to get thru the mountains of new books published every day. If there is a particular book you want to see reviewed, feel free to email theduckeez[at]goodbadandunread[dot]com and we’ll see what we can do – we love new books, genres, authors and we’re always looking for something shiny and different.
If bad reviews make an author sad, or feel the need to make an ass of themselves in public, we suggest reading our reviews with caution. We do not guarantee a good review simply because we’ve been sent a book. There are sites for that kind of fluff. This isn’t one of them. Here’s our grading logic, such as it is…
| A | Excellent. Squee worthy.
So damn good the reviewer wanted to have sex with the book AND recommend it to everyone they know. An A+ would be recommended to anyone and is a candidate for a “Keeper Shelf.” An A- is one the reviewer would recommend to any readers of that genre (fiction, romance, etc). |
| B | Good.
In the duck’s opinion, there were one or two faults with the book, but the positives far outweighed them (and still don’t need to go on a diet). The + or – indicates how strongly the reviewer felt about the book. The reviewer would recommend the book to fans of the genre or the author. |
| C | Average.
The reviewer’s enjoyment was marred by a number of issues (and sometimes the lack of chocolate ice cream), but they enjoyed the book well enough. The + or – indicates how strongly the reviewer felt about the book. The reviewer would recommend the book with reservations, fans of the author or subgenre (paranormal, contemporary, etc.) may find it likable. |
| D | Not good.
In the reviewer’s opinion, there were more flaws than positives with the book. There were one or two moments that kept the book from sinking into oblivion, but it blew a chunk or two. The + or – indicates how strongly the reviewer felt about the book. Can’t recommend the book. |
| F | Bad.
In the reviewer’s opinion, the book sucked so bad it could have cleaned their carpet. |
| DNF | Did Not Finish.
And the reviewer wants to talk about what happened. It could simply be because the book was boring, or not the reviewer’s thing, or failed to hold their interest. It could also be because the book was just bad, bad, bad and needs to go sit in the Naughty Corner. Wait. That could be a good thing. |
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Scheduling
TGTBTU’s goal is one to three posts a day (mix of regular reviewers and guests) and two to four guest posts a month. Compare this to the vast number of books published and you can see how the math works out. Not every book, author, genre, subgenre, etc., will be reviewed (in spite of Sybil’s attempts to make her ducks read 24×7). Not every book sent to us will be reviewed – not because we wouldn’t like to read them all, there just isn’t time.
Guest invitations or requests are scheduled based on the blog’s calendar, planned events, and general amusement factors. As you know by now, we admit we are easily distracted by shiny things, so the schedule can be fluid. We try to have at least one contest a month – sometimes it’s more. We try to be good about posting contest winners as soon as possible, but see above about shiny things.
Guest Author Days (GAD)
We invite authors we know and love for GADs. You are welcome to request a GAD, but the book being released needs to be sent to Sybil (by email or print) and must be read before a GAD can be scheduled. We only do Guest Author Days for authors of books we would recommend. A GAD is the largest commitment for an author, but is still not onerous (heh heh, she said “onerous”). GADs are decided by Sybil, with input from the her Quack Team (a.k.a. her henchwomen). Candidates can also come from our trolling for new books, submissions from editors or publicists, or simply meeting interesting people.
With a GAD, the author’s name is all over the blog for the majority of the day including the window we have the most readers – 10am(ish) to 3pm(ish) US Central. We will format your posts, adding photos and graphics, and may edit them for small errors (names, misspellings, space, etc.), but we’ll avoid changing the content whenever possible. Please feel free to send photos or graphics for inclusion in your posts if you wish.
Below is what we expect for a GAD. Of course, all of this is negotiable if time is limited. This is just what we typically request, not what we always require:
- a brief “essay” post – an author can talk about anything they wish;
- a list of what the author has in their personal TBR pile, or a post talking about books that inspires them;
- a Q&A post, which is essentially an interview – we’ll send you questions in advance, or you can provide your own if they’re amusing;
- a contest item – a book (signed or not), or other book-related giveaway – it can be sent by us, the author, or the publisher at your choice; and
- that the author is periodically on the blog during the window (10-3) to answer reader questions in post comments.
Guest Posts
A guest post is just that – a post written by a guest, or an interview with a guest. It can be a guest author or a guest reader. It’s a good way to get some exposure on the blog without having to do a full-on GAD. A guest post should be approximately 4-5 paragraphs (or more, if you ate your Wheaties that morning), discussing something related to the writing industry, or just something you’re passionate about and wish to share. It can be a philosophical dissertation, as long as you don’t mind us putting photos of mantitty or ducks in it. A guest interview will be about 10-12 questions, to which we hope to get more than “yes” or “no” answers. We will format the post for you, and, if you wish, you can send photographs for it.
Not every guest post is used and the formatting may look different than you envisioned, though we’ll make every effort to stay true to your vision. Tell us approximately when you think the post should go up on the blog (to coincide with a book’s release or some event) – we’ll make every effort to meet that schedule.
Guest Reviews
We LOVE to get Guest Reviews – it’s always so interesting to get another point of view. Both authors and readers can submit guest reviews for books they haven’t written. We don’t expect only positive review grades, and we won’t avoid posting poor review grades. We are, first and foremost, a reader blog and we don’t pull punches on our opinions – even if we’re still nice ducks people ducks.
A guest review should include information about the release date, a brief description (2-4 paragraphs, or more if you really want) of what the reviewer liked/disliked about the book, and a grade using our grading system (see above). We will format the review, adding book blurbs, excerpt links, cover art, etc. We may also edit the review if needed, for space, and so forth. Not every review submitted will be published (but probably will be, cuz Sybil is a content wh… OWWW! quit hitting me Syb!).
If you want to pull up a floaty chair and swim with the ducks for a spell, this is the place and we have a book to tell you about…
