About the desk
A small site for a large TBR
Oli's Bookshelf exists because long series punish first-time readers: prequels that spoil, novellas that look skippable, and “complete” lists that quietly include picture books or RPG extras.
What we publish
Series reading-order guides and short “what to read next” notes for science fiction, fantasy, and mystery/thriller long-tails. We start with publication order, then explain where chronology diverges. We do not rewrite novels or quote copyrighted prose.
Editorial standards
- Facts over flavor text. Titles, publication years, and “this story sits before that novel” claims need a source. Author and publisher pages beat fandom wikis.
- No scraped blurbs. We will not paste jacket copy. If a retailer blurb spoils, we say so without repeating the spoiler.
- Drafts stay labeled. New guides ship as
status: draftuntil a person checks the order table and the review flags. - Next-reads are arguments, not rankings. Each suggestion needs an original reason (“same institutional voice,” “same found-family aftercare”), not a star average.
- No fake reviews. We do not invent quotations, Goodreads voices, or “I cried on page 400.”
- Money stays honest. Amazon Associates is not active. Search URLs use
TODO_AFFILIATE_TAGonly. See the disclosure.
The longer house rules live indocs/EDITORIAL_STANDARDS.md in the repository. Workflow and backlog live beside them.
Who this is not for
If you want recaps, leaked manuscripts, or “make money with book blogs,” this is the wrong shelf. We also skip the most over-covered primaries (Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, Star Wars) so the work stays on series that still confuse people.