Writing a Review

Writers of book reviews will receive 50% of the commission payable for each book sold through the book reviews pages of The Stone. Look at the Contributors Guidelines page for general details of contributions and payment arrangements.

If you want to contribute a book review it should be written from a neutral standpoint giving the reader an impression of the author's perspective as well as the contents of the book itself. In a situation where the reviewer disagrees with the author, then the reviewer should try to describe the author's position in a social or historical context which may explain the reviewer's difference of opinion. In this way, honest, constructive criticism of books is encouraged so as to give readers of The Stone an idea of what they are buying. Reviewers, therefore, can be trusted as they do not have to say that every book is a masterpiece or slag off a book that they do not agree with.

It is important to contact the Editor before writing a review, just to make sure that what you have in mind is a book we want to cover. Book reviews will not be accepted for books which are already reviewed on The Philosopher's Stone or for books we in the process of reviewing so check first to ensure you aren't wasting your time. Reviews should be of works by authors in the list on the main books page and ideally in print and available over the web from one of the Amazon sites. We will, where appropriate, cover important out of print books so that people might track them down through second hand suppliers. (Where out of print books are available second hand there is no commission payable from Amazon.) Reviews should be in the region of 300-400 words in length although we are flexible on this. Also see the note on editions on the main books page.

At this stage we have a list of authors who's work we would like to cover on this part of The Stone so read the contribution guidelines if you would like to submit a review. There are bound to be authors of classic books in fields not covered by this list so if you have any suggestions then submit them to the Editor via the contribution guidelines page.

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