The Complete Review:
Eleven Years, 2500 Reviews
A Site History, with commentary
on diverse and sundry related matters
- the book -
About the book | Book data | Sales statistics | What people are saying
About the author | Buy the book
The Complete Review: Eleven Years, 2500 Reviews is a documentary history of the complete review from 1999 to 2010. It includes a descriptive site history, a longer essay On reviewing in general, twelve representative reviews (one from each year the site has been in operation), a Literary Saloon dialogue, and diverse other odds and ends.
The volume offers a useful (if entirely subjective) overview of online book coverage over the past decade, as well as background and insight into the complete review and its Literary Saloon.
While about half of the material -- the reviews and the Literary Saloon dialogue, and some of the data in the appendices -- is also available on the site, the rest is entirely new.
Published on 19 October 2010 (but only officially released on 2 November), the book is now available at:
Amazon.com:
paperback at Amazon.com (US)
paperback at Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Kindle edition ¹ at Amazon.com (US)
Kindle edition ¹ at Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Lulu.com:
¹ Note, however, the format-issues raised in this Amazon-reader review (in particular the footnote-issue: with 225 of them I can imagine this gets annoying ). Note that this is not an issue with the printed text -- and the pdf version available at Lulu.com --, where the footnotes are presented conventionally at the bottom of each page (though that can also still be somewhat annoying when reading the pdf version ...).
Book data
Title: The Complete Review: Eleven Years, 2500 Reviews
Subtitle: A Site History
Author: M.A.Orthofer
Words: 54,100
Footnotes: 225
Appendices: 7
Publisher: aesthetics of resistance / press (@ Lulu.com)
Price and availability:
- at Amazon.com:
paperback at Amazon.com - $ 16.95
paperback at Amazon.co.uk - £ 11.22
Kindle edition at Amazon.com - $ 9.95
Kindle edition at Amazon.co.uk - £ 7.34
- at Lulu.com:
paperback: $ 16.95
download: $ 9.95
The Complete Review: Eleven Years, 2500 Reviews was published (on Lulu.com) on 19 October 2010 (and officially released on 2 November).
Note that Non-Lulu.com vendor sales (via Amazon.com, etc.) are not immediately reported, so there is a lag (of up to a month) between actual sales and these being recorded here.)
As of 13 March 2013:
19 paperback copies have been sold
12 downloads has been sold
1 electronic copy has been given away
14 print copies have been given away
0 review copies have been submitted
Total copies printed: 50 (31 for personal use)
Total copies downloaded: 12 (0 for personal use)
Highest recorded Lulu sales rank: 38,095 (6/4/2011)
Highest recorded Amazon.com sales rank: 115,871 (28/11/2010)
Highest recorded Amazon.co.uk rank: 19,086 (27/11/2010)
Total earnings to date: $ 143.58*
Total expenditures to date: $ 312.24**
Net earnings to date: ($ 168.67)
*My earnings per sale (via Lulu.com) are:
paperback: $7.02
Earnings are considerably lower via third party retailers (which is why the price of the book is set at $ 16.95 / $ 9.95).
** Expenditures consist of: printing, shipping, and handling of 31 print copies, as well as shipping costs for freely distributed copies
� The first reaction, from the only person to have discovered the book before the official 2 November announcement of its publication, was positive.
� Levi Asher kindly comments at his Literary Kicks weblog (17 November 2010; item 3) that:
I've read it, and it's a charming, candid look at the kinds of questions, decisions and private struggles that animate the life of a serious independent blogger.
� At the Marginal Revolution weblog Tyler Cowen mentioned the book (28 November, first item) -- and I'm flattered that he writes: "I love his stuff".
� In the Times Literary Supplement of 26 November J.C. writes about the book and site in his N.B.-column, noting that I serve up:
a range of daily refreshment with cheering enthusiasm, as well as enthusiasm's no less cheering opposite.
Some cyberfreaks can't wait to bury the portable book (for reasons still unclear) but the Saloon, like other sensible blogs, provides a complement to the imperishable object.
� The book has now also been reviewd at Danny Yee's Book Reviews.
The Complete Review: Eleven Years, 2500 Reviews was written by the founder and managing editor of the complete review, M.A.Orthofer.
Currently, The Complete Review: Eleven Years, 2500 Reviews is available at:
Amazon.com (US) for $16.95
Amazon.co.uk (UK) for £ 11.22
Kindle - Amazon.com (US) for $9.95
Kindle - Amazon.co.uk (UK) for £ 7.34
paperback for $16.95
e-book for $9.95
The Complete Review: Eleven Years, 2500 Reviews will soon also be available at Barnes & Noble.com and other online retailers.