If you’ve ever submitted a book to us for review, you’ve seen our handy dandy Request A Review form.  We love that form.  It takes the guess work out for everyone and it makes it easy for us to zone right in on the important information that helps us decide if we want to accept a title or not (personally, the number one thing I want is a link to your book info, preferably Goodreads, but an author/publisher site is fine too).  We still get direct emails (especially if they are from publicists or 3rd party publicity companies), which is fine too as long as they check our Review Policy first.

On our Request Form, Review Policy & Direct Contact page, it states very clearly that we DO NOT accept self-published titles for review or feature, yet we get multiple requests a week to feature/review self-published titles.  We understand that some of the e-mails we receive may be from authors who haven't had the time to explore all the way through our request a review page (when you're doing it all for your book, we understand that it takes a lot of time and effort), but we put that information out there for everyone’s benefit, and some requests are from authors who politely but explicitly ask us to go against our policy (‘I know you don’t accept self-pub, but…’).  We feel bad having to type essentially the same rejection email every day, and we’re sure it’s no picnic for the authors to have to read them either, so we’re hoping that if we explain some of the reasoning behind our no self-pub policy, it might help everyone. 

EW talks to the best-selling authors behind the current vamp vogue including Stephanie Meyer, Melissa de la Cruz, Anne Rice, P. C. Cast, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Charlaine Harris

Did you guys read this article in Entertainment Weekly  a few weeks ago? Some of our favorite authors weighed in on the Vampire phenomenon, and answered some questions regarding their books, their vampires, and each other.  I’m posting just a snippet from each author (P. C. Cast’s answers had me rushing to my computer to finally buy her books). You’ll have to click the link at the bottom to read the whole article. 

Stephanie Meyer
Author of the Twilight series

It may come as a surprise to learn that Meyer — reigning queen of pop culture's vampire coven — has an uneasy relationship with the toothy buggers. Back in 2003, when she was tapping out the first draft of Twilight, she refused to show it to her husband. ''I was embarrassed,'' she said. ''It was about vampires.''

 

 
Melissa de la Cruz Author of the Blue Bloods series

Who's your favorite vampire that's not your own?
Anne Rice's Lestat. He's Socratic and flawed and sexy — and evil, but in a really good way.

 

Laurell K. Hamilton
Author of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books

When and how did you envision your first vampire?
When I was about 7, I was allowed to stay up and watch the Creature Feature Hour, and they had the old Hammer vampire films like Vampire Circus. Those movies really sunk into my psyche. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King was important, because his vampires were modern-day. And The Natural History of the Vampire by Anthony Masters. It was the first book where they equated serial killers with vampires and werewolves.

 

SOOKIE STACKHOUSE AND ME by Charlaine Harris

When I began trying to imagine the novel I wanted to write, I knew only two things about this novel: The protagonist would be a woman who was dating a vampire, and the book would be both funny and bloody. In 1998, there were not that many strong women characters in the science-fiction field, and I was constructing my heroine from new material.

 

Anne Rice
Author of the series The Vampire Chronicles

What was the first vampire book or movie that influenced you?
A black-and-white film called Dracula's Daughter, with Gloria Holden. I saw it when I was a little girl at the neighborhood theater. I think it influenced everything I subsequently wrote. I never really read any vampire literature, but in our family, we had a collection of short stories from the library, and we read one called ''Dress of White Silk.'' It was a first-person vampire story from the point of view of a little-girl vampire. It had quite an influence on me.

 

P.C. CAST
Cast and her daughter, Kristin, write the House of Night series

Who's your favorite vampire that's not your own?
Oh, my God, Spike [from Buffy the Vampire Slayer]. Please. Spike is my boyfriend. In my heart, Spike is my boyfriend…he is that perfect mix of really bad boy and sex appeal.

Click here to read the entire article