logo formation 1976 legal status active purpose book reviews headquarters oregon wisconsin region served california wisconsin upper midwest official language english editor in chief james a. cox website official website midwest book review is an organization that maintains several book review publications . established in 1976 the organization s editor in chief is james a. cox . midwest book review produces nine book review publications per month with a goal of encouraging literacy library usage and small press publishing . it selects for review about 600 books out of an average of 2000 titles submitted each month . the organization has a focus on serving community and academic libraries booksellers and the general reading public . all reviews produced by midwest book review are indexed by gale cengage learning s publication book review index . contents 1 organization 2 reception 3 see also 4 references 5 further reading 6 external links organization edit midwest book review was established in 1976 . 1 the editor in chief of the organization is james a. cox . 2 3 the review puts out nine publications on a monthly basis with a focus on community and academic library organizations booksellers and the general reading public . 4 the organization maintains a website at www.midwestbookreview.com . 5 publications produced by the organization include the bookwatch 6 california bookwatch the children s bookwatch 7 internet bookwatch 8 library bookwatch 9 mbr bookwatch the midwest bookwatch 10 the reviewer s bookwatch 11 small press bookwatch 12 and the wisconsin bookwatch . 13 the children s bookwatch is a newsletter made as a resource for librarians . 14 some reviews from reviewer s bookwatch are provided in greater depth at the organization s website . 15 midwest book review is made up of volunteers 4 and frequently seeks additional individuals to serve as book reviewers for the organization . 16 the organization is located in oregon wisconsin . 17 it has a motivation of increasing literacy public utilization of libraries and fostering small press to which it gives priority . 4 18 of the 1 500 books submitted to midwest book review for consideration per month the organization chooses to review approximately 450 of them . 19 20 a visitor to the website amazon.com emailed cox in 2006 and asked about the organization s practice of giving all reviews posted to the site a five star recommendation . 21 cox replied explaining that he disagreed with the star rating system in general and noted if a book isn t good enough to pass our initial screening then it doesn t get reviewed in the first place . 21 in 2007 an author asked cox about the organization s position with regard to amazon.com ratings . 22 cox explained for a book to make it all the way through the midwest book review process . ... it merited the highest recommendation available under the amazon rating system . inferior books flawed books substandard books are assumed to have been weeded out and never made it to the finish line of publication in one of our book review magazines . 22 in a 2001 interview with the denver post cox stated that midwest book review considers submissions from print on demand pod publications . 23 when 1st books iuniverse and other pod titles cross my desk i make sure to look at them not out of regard for these publishers but out of regard for the authors said cox . 23 cox does not believe that book reviewers should be fee based and said any reviewer that wants money from you for any purpose whatsoever is operating a scam engaging in unethical behavior that is in violation of the publishing industry etiquette norm . 24 in 2008 midwest book review had gained reviewers as a result of cutbacks in print media publications . 25 cox noted the drastic cutbacks in newspaper and magazine space for reviews has redounded to the benefit of the midwest book review and other online review sites . these displaced reviewers have turned to us as an outlet for their reviews previously published in print sources . over the past few years we have gained at least ten reviewers this way . 25 after stating that charging fees is a scam cox began charging a reading fee in 2011 . initially fees were only charged for e books but since then has expanded to include any ebooks pre publication manuscripts galleys uncorrected proofs arcs and pdf files . 26 reception edit every review produced by midwest book review is indexed to the review index maintained by gale research . 27 book review index indexes reviews for the midwest book review publications bookwatch and children s bookwatch . 28 online computer library center described the website of the midwest book review as a resource to locate book reviews resources and advice for writers and publishers . 29 writing and publishing the librarian s handbook published by the american library association recommends midwest book review as a resource for information for writers . 16 midwest book review is listed as a resource in doris booth s writer s handbook of faqs . 4 according to the complete guide to self publishing by tom ross and marilyn heimberg ross the reviews of the organization are welcomed and respected . 30 in book design and production author pete masterson listed the organization as a resource . 31 he noted that the website for midwest book review has lots of useful information for authors . 31 mayra calvani of blogcritics noted that the organization is popular among small publishers self published authors and academic presses . 25 see also edit books portal wisconsin portal american book review kirkus reviews publishers weekly the new york times book review references edit connelly valerie 2007 . calling all authors . nightengale press . p. 156 . isbn 1 933449 43 8 . moses alexandra r. march 4 2002 . joe joe rawlings a new literary hero for children . associated press . p. section entertainment news . cantu hector june 25 2003 . parents might be surprised by dark side of new harry potter . the dallas morning news . a. h. belo corporation . a b c d booth doris 2004 . writer s handbook of faqs second edition . authorlink . p. 98 . isbn 1 928704 34 4 . mason dick july 5 2008 . storytelling comes naturally to fantasy writer . the observer . la grande oregon western communications inc. oclc 321345897 oclc 13100762 oclc 80547565 oclc 65356742 oclc 13212440 oclc 54958751 oclc 80547560 oclc 65356746 woodall martha june 11 2001 . who said improving vocabulary had to be scary . the philadelphia inquirer . p. e01 ; section philadelphia business . st. petersburg times staff february 25 2004 . hometown citrus . st. petersburg times . florida . p. 4 . a b smallwood carol 2009 . writing and publishing the librarian s handbook . american library association editors . pp. 25 26 . isbn 0 8389 0996 5 . local book news . sarasota herald tribune . sarasota florida the new york times company . may 23 1999 . p. 5f . pryor alton 2002 . publish it yourself . stagecoach publishing . p. 111 . isbn 978 0 9660053 5 6 . sansevieri penny c. 2002 . get published today no more rejections . pennsylvania infinity publishing . p. 133 . isbn 0 7414 1111 3 . poynter dan 2004 . the self publishing manual . para publishing . p. 182 . isbn 1 56860 115 8 . a b cox jim june 2006 . jim cox report june 2006 . jim cox report . midwest book review . retrieved 2010 01 21 . a b cox jim june 2007 . jim cox report june 2007 . jim cox report . midwest book review . retrieved 2010 01 21 . a b halls kelly milner december 9 2001 . print on demand publishers reject vanity label . the denver post . p. dd 02 ; section bks . weber steve 2007 . plug your book online book marketing for authors book publicity through social networking . weber books . p. 52 . isbn 0 9772406 1 4 . a b c calvani mayra june 1 2008 . interview with james a. cox editor in chief the midwest book review . blogcritics . newstex . p. blogcritics.org books . retrieved 2009 12 14 . mbr author publisher information . www.midwestbookreview.com . retrieved 2016 02 02 . rose m. j. 1999 . the secrets of our success . deep south publishing . p. 78 . isbn 0 7394 1018 0 . ferguson dana 2005 . book review index 2005 cumulation . detroit michigan thomson gale . pp . xii xiii . isbn 0 7876 7841 4 . issn 0524 0581 . oclc 439279392 ross tom ; marilyn heimberg ross 2002 . the complete guide to self publishing . writers digest books . p. 322 . isbn 1 58297 091 2 . a b masterson pete 2005 . book design and production . aeonix publishing group . p. 296 . isbn 0 9669819 0 1 . further reading edit calvani mayra june 1 2008 . interview with james a. cox editor in chief the midwest book review . blogcritics . newstex . p. blogcritics.org books . external links edit the midwest book review retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title midwest book review & oldid 702880175 categories book review magazinesmagazines established in 1976companies based in wisconsincompanies established in 1976magazines published in wisconsin1976 establishments in wisconsin navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 2 february 2016 at 04 48 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia 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