SUBMISSION GUIDELINES - HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK REVIEWED

Submission Guidelines (as of December 6, 2020) -





1. To be considered for a book review, a book description (think Amazon.com or the back of the book), copy of book cover image (if available), AND excerpt of your book must be sent via email to books@urban-reviews.com. Please put the book description in the body of the email. You must submit at least a first chapter excerpt, but feel free to send the first 2 or 3 chapters if available. The excerpt must be a whole chapter, not a paragraph, and not one page. If a full chapter isn't received, then your submission will be rejected. An entire chapter is required so that we can get an accurate feel of the author's writing. If your book is accepted for review, we will email you of our interest and forward our mailing address. We will not send emails asking if the book has been sent or if you have received our initial email asking you to send the book. You will need to be responsible for any follow-ups with us in regards to the status of your book being mailed off and received by us. When submitting your excerpt for review consideration, please do not add books@urban-reviews.com email address to your own promotional mailing list and do not use this email address to send correspondence. This email address is for review submissions only. You may add radiah@urban-reviews.com or info@urban-reviews.com to your mailing lists or to send correspondence.

2. Once accepted, you must submit a review copy of your work, a PDF file, or gift a Kindle e-book copy for review (see E-BOOK GUIDELINES in bullet #9 below). A review copy can be an advanced reader copy or a final retail copy of your novel. If the book has editing issues, it will be reflected in the review as well as the rating for your book. Since we are now accepting PDF files for ebook reviews, we will no longer accept printed manuscripts for review purposes.

3. Any African-American Fiction is acceptable (this includes Contemporary, Christian/Inspirational, Street Lit, Sci-Fi/Speculative, Romance, Young Adult/Teen, Erotica, Mystery/Suspense, etc). Outside of an occasional review for non-fiction that one of our reviewers chooses to review, we are not accepting any inquiries for non-fiction work. We also do not review poetry on our site. However, we do feature a Poetry section on the main page of the website each month at no cost. The section will feature the bookcover of the poetry book, a brief description of the book or poet, and a link to the poet's website. If interested, simply send a short email to poetry@urban-reviews.com and we will let you know if we have chosen to spotlight you.

4. The Urban Reviews rating scale for book reviews are from 1 to 5 . Please be advised that ALL reviews will be posted on our site and on Amazon.com regardless of their rating.

5. Only books that have a page count of 100 pages or more will be considered for book reviews. We also do not accept requests to review an entire series all at one time.  If you want sequels reviewed, you will have to wait until the first book has been reviewed and posted before we consider doing any follow-up books...no exceptions. There must be a direct link to a website/order page for someone to purchase a copy of your book. This includes (but is not limited to) Amazon.com, BN.com, or your own personal site.

6. There may be up to a SIX MONTH WAITING PERIOD for reviews, so inquire accordingly. Also, if your book is slated to be released in the future and you want to have a review the same month your book is released, the possibility of the waiting period being six months STILL applies.

7. Please be patient when it comes to reviewing your work. If it has been three months and we have not posted a review yet, feel free to send us an email to info@urban-reviews.com asking for status at that time.

8. All of the above is not meant to scare anyone off. Please feel free to contact us through email at info@urban-reviews.com (do not send book review requests to this address - refer to the above information for properly submitting book review requests. If chosen for review, we must have a JPEG, PNG or GIF copy of the book cover. We can resize it and host the picture on our site to accompany the review.

9. E-BOOK SUBMISSIONS: You can request to have your ebook reviewed, but it must be in PDF format (although we can convert Word documents to PDF if needed) or gifted as a Kindle e-book to info@urban-reviews.com.  E-books follow the same submission process mentioned above and are subject to the same possibility of a 6-month waiting period.  Since the E-book reviewers may pass on reading your e-book, you must let us know at the time of your original submission request if you want to be considered for review by our reviewers who can only read physical copies.  Upon acceptance, we will let you know if a printed version or an e-book version will be needed.  Do not send the entire e-book until it has been accepted.

To recap, please send the following to books@urban-reviews.com no earlier than 6 months prior to the release date of your book:

-Book Description (think Amazon.com or description on back of book - please put in body of email)
-A minimum of first chapter excerpt (but feel free to send up to 3 chapters)
-Book Cover image (if available)
-Note if book is available on Amazon.com (if not available on Amazon.com, then include a link where it can be ordered or pre-ordered)
-Whether you are able to send a printed retail copy of the book or a PDF e-book version for consideration by our E-book reviewers. (If you want both considered, please mention in your email)


Any Questions? Email us at info@Urban-Reviews.com. We try to answer ALL emails in a timely fashion.  If more than three weeks has passed with no response, please feel free to email us again.

Black Friday Weekend Sale!

 All book cover ads $20 until 11/29 11:59pm! Contact blackfridaysale@urban-reviews.com!

On the Line with Radiah Hubbert : K’wan

  

K’WAN is the best-selling, award-winning author of more thirty novels, including the wildly popular Animal series, Black Lotus, Gangsta, Road Dawgz, Street Dreams, Hoodlum, and Section 8. He has been featured in Vibe, King, Entertainment Weekly, and Time magazine. K’wan was the recipient of the 2012 and 2013 Street Lit Book Award Medals (SLBAM) in adult fiction for Eviction Notice and Animal. His credits also include featured commentary in the documentary Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (produced by Ice-T) as well as a recurring role as an analyst on TV One’s Celebrity Crime Files. K’wan resides in New Jersey, where he spends his time writing, cooking, and binge-watching reruns of The Vampire Diaries with his teenage daughters. Black Lotus 2: The Vow is his latest novel.

 Radiah:  Tell us about Black Lotus 2 : The Vow.

K’wan:  Black Lotus 2 picks up a few months after the events in Black Lotus, and right before Kahllah’s character is introduced into the Animal timeline (Animal 2). Our war hardened heroine has decided she’s had enough of living life on the edge and wants to retire and sample the fruits of normalcy. She’s been serving the Brotherhood of Blood since she was a child, and it’s starting to wear on her. She just wants to focus on her magazine “Real Talk” and maybe find a nice guy to settle down with. For a while, it seems like she may have finally gotten out of the game… that’s when a cop turns up dead and her signature calling card is found at the scene; a Black Lotus flower. 

She hasn’t committed this particular murder, but it’s going to be near impossible to prove it to the police; especially her one time rival now turned friend, Detective James Wolf. She becomes a hunted woman and the only way to clear her name is by finding the real killer, which proves to be easier said than done. The person behind the murders isn’t your run of the mill hit man. All signs to point to this being the work of a fellow Brotherhood member, but which one is the question

Radiah: Why did you decide to do a sequel to Black Lotus after so many years?

 K’wan : I’d  always planned on writing more Black Lotus stories. She and the Brotherhood are some of my favorite characters to write about. The reason the follow up took so long was because I had so much other stuff that I needed to get out. I think I released maybe seven or eight other stories between the first and second Black Lotus titles. 

Radiah: Will there be a third installment of  Black Lotus? 

K’wan: Yes...kind of. There are so many rich characters in that world. Some of the characters the readers have met and others they haven’t.

 Radiah: Do you prefer to write stand alone novels or novels that are a part of a series and why?

K’wan: That all depends. At the beginning of my career I refused to write sequels. All of my early works were standalone until the Hood Rat series. Even with those, it wasn’t actually a series but several stand alone novels with overlapping characters. I think standalone vs series all depends on where my head is at the time. In other cases I’ve found that sometimes there’s too much for me to say in a single story. 

Radiah: Can you give us a sneak peek at what you’re working on now?

K’wan:  I’m finishing up “The Reluctant King,” “Broken Promise,” and of course gearing up to release Animal 5. In addition I’ve gotten back working on my paranormal stuff.I am doing ALOT right now.  

Radiah: If a reader just discovered your books, which book would you recommend that they start with and why?

K’wan:  I always tell readers to start at the beginning with “Gangsta.” Of course, everybody loves Animal, but it was Lou-Loc who started it all.

Radiah : Where can readers find out more about you and your novels?

K’wan: I’m working on revamping my website Kwanwrites.com, which seems like its taking forever. Readers can also find me on my social media : Instagram: Kwan_Iamlegend, Twitter: KwanTheWriter and facebook. My personal page is Kwan Writes and my author page is Kwan The Writer. If all else fails, google me and my wiki page will probably pop up. 

New Review : Black Lotus 2 : The Vow : K'wan

 

 

                                    5 out of 5 books

Kahllah has retired from the Brotherhood of Blood and is trying to live a normal life. Her focus is on her magazine “Real Talk” and a possible love interest. But the simple life that Kahllah craved for is interrupted when a cop ends up dead. The killer left her signature  Black Lotus flower at the scene of the crime. Now, Kahllah must find out who is killing in her name before it’s too late.

Murder, chaos, and disorder is what you’ll find in Black Lotus 2 : The Vow by K’wan. Just when you think you have the story all figured out, K’wan throws in one of his infamous curveballs that will shock you. K’wan does a good job of giving readers more of a peak into Kahllah’s background with the Brotherhood of Blood and how they operate. You could read this book as a stand-alone but you would be cheating yourself if you skipped Black Lotus which is the first installment of this series. Black Lotus 2 : The Vow is full of the cinematic action and drama that K’wan is known for. Readers will be anxiously waiting for the next installment.

Get your copy of Black Lotus 2 : The Vow today!

The 12th Annual Great Midwest Book Fest presents : November to Remember Book Bash - Call for Authors!

 

The 12th Annual Great Midwest Book Fest presents November to Remember Book Bash on Saturday, November 7, 2020 from 1pm-5pm on Zoom. It is a free to the public virtual event for the attendees on Zoom. Each attendee that registers and attends the book bash will get one free book. The featured authors for this event are New York Times Bestselling author Brenda Jackson, National Bestselling author Naleighna Kai, National Bestselling author LaJill Hunt, and National Bestselling author J.D. Mason. This event's lineup also includes: 

Pat Simmons

Sierra Kay

Michelle Mitchell

Stacey-Covington Lee

Obelia Akanke 

Vivian King

Bonnie J. Edwards

Each  author will have 10 minutes to tell everyone about themselves or their books and they will include a link for attendees to purchase their books online.

There is still room for more authors! The participation fee for this virtual event is $20. Your space for the event will only be reserved once payment is received. If you are interested, please send an email to radiah@urban-reviews.com and I will send you a Paypal invoice. Thank you!

The Forthcoming: The Real Housewives of the Bible : Theresa V. Wilson

 

Ever wonder what really happened behind the proverbial scenes with those infamous women who became wives of some the most noteworthy men in the bible?

The Real Housewives of the Bible is the first book of a fictional series about women who found themselves assigned to situations that have an impact as a driving force behind some of the most important events of ancient times. The focus is projecting what might have been the behind the scenes events that may have contributed to their journey.

"I'm impressed with how Theresa V. Wilson kept The Real Housewives of the Bible, Biblical yet made it contemporary. She took the words from scripture and made it today. She didn't stray from the bible, she just put some 'spiritual meat' on the bones. That's a gift!"--Pat G'Orge-Walker, National Bestselling Author of Fire in the Water and Don’t Blame the Devil".

Release Date : 9/15/20

Pre-order your copy of The Real Housewives of the Bible today!

The Forthcoming : And Now She's Gone: A Novel : Rachel Howzell Hall

Isabel Lincoln is gone.

But is she missing?

It’s up to Grayson Sykes to find her. Although she is reluctant to track down a woman who may not want to be found, Gray’s search for Isabel Lincoln becomes more complicated and dangerous with every new revelation about the woman’s secrets and the truth she’s hidden from her friends and family.

Featuring two complicated women in a dangerous cat and mouse game, Rachel Howzell Hall's And Now She’s Gone explores the nature of secrets — and how violence and fear can lead you to abandon everything in order to survive.

Release date: 9/22/20

Pre-order link : https://amzn.to/342Rrx9

The Forthcoming : Show Me (Irresistible Husband Book Three) : Sharon C Cooper

Just when he thought finding a wife was out of his reach…

Colton “Cole” Eubanks is laser focused on building wealth and settling down with a special woman before he turns forty. Accomplishing one out of two isn’t bad. Unfortunately, there’s no ‘love of his life’ on the horizon, unless he counts the one woman who’s been starring in his nightly dreams—Malaya Radcliff.

After being dependent on one person after another for years, Malaya has finally learned to stand on her own. There’s only one thing she hasn’t been able to accomplish—gain full custody of her daughter. Her ex-husband never fights fair. His wealth always wins. This time Malaya’s determined to come out on top. So when Cole, the man she’s been secretly in lust with for over a year, makes her an offer she’d be crazy to refuse, Malaya wants to say yes. But that means sacrificing her newfound independence. Yet, his enticing proposal has her thinking—why not?

Release date : 9/10/20

Pre-order link : https://amzn.to/2Cv2CmO

The Forthcoming : Estranged: Nakia R. Laushaul

Previously published as Locked in Purgatory

In his prime, LUTHER BENNETT had it all … everything but loyalty to his family. And for that, when LUTHER needed his children the most, they abandoned him, forcing him to suffer in silence. SAMUEL BENNETT, the unfortunate heir to his father’s misdeeds, has grown weary of following in LUTHER’S footsteps. SAMUEL desires a life to call his own. Trapped in a marriage that doesn’t exist and a mounting mistrust of all men, LYNNE BENNETT has always felt like the black sheep of the family. After ten years of refusing to see or even speak to LUTHER, LYNNE finally decides to confront her father.

Ripe with secrets, denial, and a festering anger that sears the heart, ESTRANGED unravels the family lies that bind.

Release date : 9/15/20

Pre-order link : https://amzn.to/2Y5nubO

The Forthcoming : Love Ain't Always a Fairytale : LaChelle Weaver

 

All fairytales don't have happy endings...

Building her baby registry should top defense attorney, Martika Jordan-Wallace’s to-do list, but when her husband gets slammed with a lawsuit courtesy of his former fiancée, planning for her child’s arrival gets traded for building a scandalous case against his ex. The dirt Martika digs up on her just might do the trick. Will the spouses be able to successfully defend themselves against a woman scorned or will the cradle fall along with their marriage?

When Shayla Yarborough’s husband’s life ends tragically after he discovers she’s been keeping a secret, survivor’s guilt and remorse leads Shayla to grieve on the most unlikely shoulder. Burdened with the shame of self-inflicted misery, will Shayla finally break free from depression, or will she dive heart-first into destruction?

Dr. Rita Franklin was set to be the most stunning bride the city had seen. Too bad her fiancé ghosted her hours before their elaborate wedding. Jilted and humiliated, Rita spent the last year restoring her broken heart…but old grudges die hard; her ex and his wife are about to find out just how bitter revenge tastes on the receiving end. Will a violent incident refocus Rita’s attention on pulling her life together or will she be determined to extract vengeance once and for all?

Release date : 9/28/20

Pre-order link : https://amzn.to/3aqF9Qn

The Forthcoming : Jada's Diary: From Growing Pains to Found Promise : Jo Cabey

 

Ever since she was a child, Jada White was told that education is the key to success. To freedom. To happiness. So, she found purpose and a life direction at college, studying the very subject that connected with her the most; and as she acquired multiple degrees, life started to open up for her.

Now navigating her twenties as best she can, Jada has a thriving career as an educator amongst the hustle and bustle of New York City. But despite throwing herself enthusiastically into jobs, relationships and travel, Jada finds herself continually betrayed, alone, and far from the happiness she always dreamed success would bring.

Dragged along by her work ethic and fueled by her yearnings, Jada fails to acknowledge the traumas of her past – traumas that are rearing their ugly heads as cycles of abandonment and abuse.

As Jada is hurled from one heart-wrenching situation to the next, the peace and happiness she so desperately wants always seems just out of reach.

Can Jada face her shadows and realize that emotional freedom is hers for the taking? Or have her scars altered the course of her life forever?

Release date: 9/12/20 

Pre-order link : https://amzn.to/31QcyA0