Mom Egg Review Book Review Guidelines
Mom Egg Review publishes reviews of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry books or chapbooks that are about motherhood or that focus on women’s lives or issues.
Our primary interest is in books released within the current year. Book reviews are published on our website, http://merliterary.com
Queries
For Presses and Authors:
If your book fits our focus and you would like us to consider it for review, please fill out our Book Review Request form, here: https://forms.gle/3rYDAxNz48SL7Tt89 You will be asked to include publication information, a PDF copy of the book, a .jpg file of the book cover, a three to five-line synopsis, and, if desired, an author photo. If we are able to review your book, you will be asked to send a hard copy directly to the reviewer.
Reviewer Queries:
If you’d like to review a book and haven’t reviewed for us before, please send your bio and a link to a writing sample, and fill out our Book Reviewer Info Form here: https://themomegg.wufoo.com/forms/m16xjbcv0821b0g/
If you have a book you’d like to review that’s not on our list, please send a query first to [email protected]. Let us know a bit about the author, the subject matter of the book, and why you think it would be of interest to our readers. It’s okay to review the books of colleagues or friends but please disclose this relationship in the review or in your cover letter. IMPORTANT: Please make sure the review follows our Guidelines, below, before submitting it. Thank you!
Guidelines for Book Reviews in MER
Our book reviews are 750 words or shorter. Deadline is four weeks after receipt of the book. If you need a longer time frame, please email [email protected].
In your review, please include the following:
- Brief information about the author (when applicable, include prior books and prizes).
- The book’s genre, its general subject matter, and its thesis or organizing principle.
- A balanced and fair critique, supported by quoted material from the book. What is the author trying to accomplish? How do they meet that goal? Consider aspects of style and craft as well as content. Please be sensitive about preserving plot twists for the reader (avoid “spoilers”).
- A few (two to four or so) quotations from the book. Format like this: ”Quoted material” (23). We follow MLA style when organizing punctuation. MLA citation information can be found here: http://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/mla/in-text. Quotations of longer than three lines of poetry or four lines of prose should be in block form, indented one inch. Cite page numbers (numbers only, without “p.” or “page”) in parentheses. For examples, you may read existing reviews at http://momeggreview.com/book-reviews
- A reminder: Book titles are italicized. Poem or chapter titles are not italicized, and are within quotation marks.
Please note that accepted reviews may be edited to comply with our guidelines and format.
MER asks for first-time print rights and electronic rights for all accepted submissions. Rights revert back to the writer after publication in MER. If the article is subsequently reprinted in another publication, we ask that MER be acknowledged as the place of prior publication.
Please Format Your Review As Follows:
Title by Author
Review by Your Name
Body of review. Word count should be 750 words or fewer.
Title by Author
Publisher, Year, Pages, price [paper or cloth],
ISBN Number [no dashes]
Your own bio. Even if you have reviewed for us before, please submit your own 3-line bio with each review.
Please submit as a word document (.doc or .docx) to [email protected].
See also our Book Review Checklist, here.
Questions? Email our book review editors at [email protected].
Note: If for any reason you cannot review the book, we ask that you return it to us at the address below, so that it can be re-assigned.
MER, PO Box 9037, Bardonia NY 10954.
Revised 6/23/24