About Our Book Reviewers
Our reviewers are located in the Leavenworth, Kansas community from amongst the customer base of our bookstore, The Book Barn (in business since 1979). This town is filled with a highly educated, creative, well-read, multi-lingual and widely traveled work force. For example, Hallmark Card's production facilities attracts numerous talented illustrators to our area. There are three colleges-public, private and military. The Army's Command and General Staff College is highly selective, admitting only the top 20% of all military officers. In addition to a talented pool of military officers, their military spouses bring a great many talents to our customer base. Many have been or still are educators, teachers, librarians, or professional writers.
There are several major and minor authors in the community; (some belong to our store-sponsored writers group). One author's first novel was recommended for the Pulitzer. Needless to say, this is the market we cultivate assiduously. We may be the only BookSense independent store in the network of 1,200 participating stores to provide a BookSense Review Section for our customers. Their comments guide our future selection of stock. Our customers' opinions of books really count because they are peer leaders.
Finally, we have heartland values. At the same time, we have a world view. Again, we believe these are unique characteristics for an American community and are reflected in our perspective of evaluated works.
About Bob Spear
Bookstore Owner
Bob and his wife, Barb, have owned The Book Barn since 1979. They are members of the American Booksellers Association, The Association of Booksellers for Children, and are members and past board members of the Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA).
Author
Bob has had ten books published, two by a major publisher and six by his own publishing company.
Self-Publisher
Bob started Universal Force Dynamics Publishing in 1989 and ran it until 1997. Two of his books sold over 30,000 copies each with Doubleday's Military Book Club. One book sold German rights and sold 2,000 copies in that limited market. Another sold over 25,000 copies in the US Military bookstore system overseas.
Direct Mail Catalog Experience
In conjunction with his publishing company and an international radio talk show which he hosted, Bob developed a catalog of 200+ books and a direct mail customer base of over 8,000 customers.
Reviewer
Before starting Heartland Reviews, Bob was a prolific volunteer reviewer for Book Sense, the Independent Bookstore network associated with the American Booksellers Association.
Editor
Bob is an intense editor, quickly reading manuscripts, locating their problems and errors, and recommending fixes to his clients. He edits a wide range of genres.
