Steve Vakesh BDSM Reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

So who is Steve Vakesh?
I have been active in the bdsm community for more than a decade. My articles and book reviews appear routinely in the SandMUtopian Guardian, and occasionally in other bdsm publications. I have written articles and presented seminars on a host of topics ranging from flogging and whipmaking to scene etiquette and full-time 24-7 bdsm relationships.

Books?
What do we need with books when we can get bdsm information for free on the web?
As the old adage says, 'you get what you pay for.' While it is true that there is a fair amount of bdsm information on the web, it is often incomplete and some of it is just plain wrong. To site just one example, how many times have you read on the web that you should immerse the ends of your canes in linseed or some other oil (or plain water) and that the oil will percolate up the cane? As anyone who knows anything about botany or rattan will tell you, this is plain nonsense. Dead plants no longer have any capillary action and should not be confused with paper towels. Books published by people in the scene are fact-checked and generally represent years and often decades of experience by some of the scene's premier practitioners. You might not always agree with what they say (we certainly don't), but at least you won't be presented with outright nonsense. Regardless of how much information becomes available on the web, books by reputable authors and publishers and articles in print magazines such as the SandMUtopian Guardian and Checkmate will remain the best source of information on virtually any topic.

How does ordering books work anyway?
I am an Amazon.com Associate. This means that I have special permission to link directly to Amazon.com's book listings. Clicking through my site is the same as clicking through Amazon.com itself. You will pay the same price for your books and receive the same prompt delivery and excellent service from Amazon.com. If you order a book through my site, I receive a small commission on the sale which goes to maintain my site and ensure that I will keep adding both new and old books to my listing. Most, though unfortunately not all, of the books I've reviewed are available for purchase through my site in cooperation with Amazon.com--many of them at 20% off the cover price, and some at 30% off. Some of the books I have reviewed are out of print. Others are easiest to buy directly from the publishers, and I have included those links with the reviews. Amazon's discount pricing changes over time. I will do my best to keep all the prices listed up to date. In the case of out of print books, you might want to check back with Amazon from time to time as a number of excellent titles, such as the Marketplace trilogy, go out of print and are reissued regularly. If you find yourself clicking back and forth between Amazon and my site, don't worry. Amazon will keep track of what is in your shopping cart. (Also, I get a higher cut from Amazon on books purchased directly through our links, than on those you order once you're happily browsing around Amazon.)

Why are you doing this?
I remember the time, not long ago, when there was virtually nothing available on bdsm and what was available was difficult to find. I bought everything I could find. There are now so many books being published on my favorite topic that no one could possibly buy them all and no print magazine can possibly review all of them. My goal is to create a centralized listing of books on bdsm to help people with their explorations of one of my favorite topics be they personal, political, or academic. I will always have extracts of my published reviews, but my goal is to have the most complete listing possible of bdsm and related books. If you buy books through my links to Amazon.com, great. If you buy them elsewhere, or check them out from your local library (don't forget interlibrary loan), that's great too. While there are far more titles available now, print runs remain small and many books, even the best, go out of print quickly. Often borrowing from a library or your friends will be your only option. My primary motivation in creating this site is to get the best possible information to you. How you get the books is up to you.

Why haven't you reviewed Book X?
I'm doing our best. If there's something in particular you think I've missed, please let me know. My main concentration is how-to manuals and academic books and I intend to develop and maintain a complete listing. Between Masquerade, Circlet Press, Blue Moon, and the other publishers of erotic fiction, it is impossible to review everything. With fiction I amjust going to try to separate the wheat from the chaff. Please also keep in mind that my book-buying budget is, sad to say, somewhat limited and dependent on the success of this site. If you are an author or publisher, you might want to send a copy of your book to the SandMUtopian Guardian to see if they will assign it to a reviewer. Or you could send it to me. That will guarantee an online review.

Your site looks an awful like site X.
I know. I work very hard to get and review books as quickly as possible both for my website and for print publications. A growing number of other book sites have discovered this, and rather than doing their own work, simply come to my site, copy my text and often source code, and then repost it on their own sites with minimal changes. In one case they actually left my copyright notice and links back to my pages on their site. This type of plagiarism is unfortunately endemic to the web. While I are considering legal action against the most egregious of the plagiarizers (who just lost their status as an Amazon Associate because of their plagiarism), there's not much I can do about the lesser plagiarizers. In the end I believe that quality and integrity will win out over crude imitation and intellectual dishonesty. If you compare my site to the growing number of others, I believe that you will find that my listings are more comprehensive, my reviews more honest, and my updatings more prompt.