How relevant are some textbooks when professors, even in the same department, teach similar courses in different ways? Are there methods by which textbook companies can receive realistic, substantive feedback concerning the quality of communication textbook offerings? This paper details the methods by which its author/educator became a textbook reviewer. The paper then presents three reviews of current and proposed speech and mass communication texts that the author/educator, an associate professor of mass communication and director of broadcast journalism at Southern Arkansas University, wrote for Allyn and Bacon and Harcourt Brace College Publishers. It notes that although the texts reviewed were excellent, not even the best writing will guarantee adoption--marketing and promotion are vital to the success of any academic offering. Detailed reviews by the author of two textbooks and a proposal comprise the majority of this paper. (NKA)