Escape Pod will occasionally publish short reviews of movies, books, television programs, video games and other media. If you want to submit a review to the Pod, check out the following guidelines:

1. Escape Pod is interested in reviews of genre material–that is, sf. That means science fiction, fantasy, horror, and freaky weird stuff that isn’t easily categorized. We wouldn’t be interested in a review of, say, _Goodfellas_ or _Madame Bovary_. Great stuff, to be sure, but not EP’s focus. Reviews of television series, while welcome, should cover entire seasons or seasons-in-progress, not individual episodes. Reviews of video games, websites, or other genre-related material are also welcome–anything you think might interest EP’s listening audience.

2. If you want to write a review for EP, there are two ways you can go about it. Your first option is to send a query to the Reviews Editor, Alasdair Stuart. Quite frankly, this might be your preferred alternative. EP just doesn’t have the capacity to review all the great stuff that’s out there–our emphasis is on fun stories. So before writing a review, you might want to know if we’re even interested. Send your query–just a few short lines, please–to reviews@escapepod.org. Al will get back to you asap and let you know if we’d like the review. The second option is to just _write_ your review and send it to that same address. Note the emphasis: _write_ the review. Do _not_ submit a recording. If your review is accepted, we’ll have you send us a recording at that time. (And please note: this means that if you want to do reviews for EP, you should be prepared to record it yourself, which means you’ll need access to the very simple facilities for recording your material.) All reviews will be subject to any editing the Reviews Editor may find appropriate.

3. If you choose to submit a written review without querying, or if we have responded to your query by inviting you to submit a review, it should be submitted in a manner identical to our fiction submissions: in the body of the email, plain text, etc. If you haven’t already, you should take a look at our fiction submissions guidelines. Send your submission to reviews@escapepod.org. Your subject line should read QUERY or REVIEW:(TITLE) as appropriate. Emails with other subject lines will be used in EP’s ongoing investigation of whether information really is lost forever when it’s tossed down a black hole.

4. Reviews have a hard limit of 1000 words maximum, and we’d actually prefer them to be a bit shorter than that.

5. At the present time, EP does not offer payment for reviews. This may change as we continue to grow and consolidate our nefarious control over all entertainment media in the universe.

6. Although writing a review may sound easy, it’s not. EP wants thoughtful, incisive reviews, not “Mikey likes it” or “Scott hated it.” The ideal review puts the work in some sort of context (“_Cosmic Blow-Out_ is Gumford C. Fhardquat’s third novel…”), addresses what the author is trying to do thematically or artistically (“…in which he returns to the theme of how oral sex with religious aliens might affect human civilization…”), and ultimately examines whether the work succeeds or not (“…Fhardquat’s trilogy builds to an epic climax that leaves the reader exhausted, but satisfied…”). The elements of a good review’s analysis include plot, pacing, craftsmanship, characters, etc, and also whether all these elements, good or bad, “gel” into a cohesive and entertaining work that EP’s listeners might want to check out. The point of all this is that you shouldn’t just tell us the work was fun or stupid or “good” or “bad.” You have to tell us _why_ it worked, or didn’t work. It’s harder than you might think, but once you start approaching material in this way, it’s a lot of fun, and deeply rewarding. Good luck!