In the quiet internet backwater that this blog is, today is a very special day. Little things mean a great deal out here in the sticks, you see, and the fact that hardly anyone in the wider world will ever hear about them matters not one whit. It’s the simple fact that something is happening, and that this blog, which I once seriously considered abandoning, is perhaps beginning to find its feet.
Today, I have added a ‘Reviews’ page to the blog.
I know, I know – in terms of world events (even the virtual world of cyberspace), this is a bit like your neighbours announcing that they’ve built an extension to their house. Still, bear with me while I bore you with the details, and then invite you in to take a look around. It’s really not that important, I know, but it means quite a lot to me.
I should say at the outset that I don’t have any particular faith in my powers as a reviewer. My only real qualifications are that I’ve been an avid reader for most of my life, and that I’m a writer. As a reader, I think I can give a reasonably intelligent overview of books I’ve enjoyed and why I’ve enjoyed them. As a writer, I’m perhaps able to take that ‘Why?’ question a little further, and try to delve beneath the surface of a book. Needless to say, however, my opinions on a given book are purely subjective, and worth no more or less than anyone else’s.
‘This worked’, ‘That didn’t work’, ‘This could have been done better’ – all are reasonable, if subjective, remarks, and once formed the backbone of my reviews. From my current perspective, however, I find this approach rather incomplete. Before, I think I had a mental image of what I thought a novel should ideally be – rather an artificial image, I now believe, cobbled together from my own personal favourites and thereafter used as a template against which I judged other novels. This is both limited and limiting. Now, I prefer to try to engage with the novel as it is written, rather than measure it against my ideas of what a novel should be.
The primary purpose of the Reviews page will be to allow me to keep track of what I’ve read and what I thought of it. (I joined Goodreads years ago for much the same purpose, but I don’t always find the Goodreads format the most convenient.) Having said that, a lot of books lack the exposure they deserve – especially indie books, which will probably account for the majority of my reviews. Another little slice (or crumb) of the internet pie might help them to find an audience. It might. Realistically, I’m afraid that my blog doesn’t pack that kind of punch. Nobody’s likely to soar to the top of the Amazon charts (or any charts) because I’ve reviewed their book.
If exposure is elusive, there is no shortage of negativity on the internet. For this reason, I’ve decided to restrict my reviews to books I’ve enjoyed. If I can’t say something good, I’d rather not say anything. If I review a book, it’s because I enjoyed it and found it interesting, entertaining or inspiring, and because I think that perhaps other people will enjoy it too.
One thing I’m keen to avoid, though, is the dark shadow of cynical indie review rings. I don’t know whether these really exist, but if they do I’m in no hurry to join them. Some of the authors I review I’ll ‘know’, care of the internet, and I’ll consider some of them to be my friends; in the interests of impartiality, I’ll disclose the fact. Others I will have had little or no prior contact with. In either case, I don’t expect a review for a review. If anyone does read and review my book(s), I hope they’ll be honest. I’m less interested in bumping up my average star rating than in becoming the best writer I can be, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.
Speaking of star ratings – I’m not keen on them, personally. I doubt that one’s considered opinion of an entire book can be summed up by a row of asterisks. Besides, in these cynical times 5-star reviews are all too often dismissed as being the work of sock puppets, just as 1-star reviews can be written off as the hit-and-run tactics of those with a personal axe to grind. I’ll (reluctantly) assign star ratings on Amazon and Goodreads, but I’d rather steer clear of them here.
Anyway, now that I’ve bored you rigid with the nitty-gritty, it’s time to get down to business. The Reviews page is officially open! And what a way to begin: my first review is of Dan Holloway’s inspired, experimental novel The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes. Read all about it here.
I’ll look forward to reading these – and I agree with you about the star system. Too many variables in there and cynical reviewing. I’m the same as you, I won’t review anything I don’t like as I don’t see the point, life’s too short.
Thanks for the comment, LK! Hope you enjoy reading the reviews.
I’m excited that you’ve added a reviews section, Mari! In 2012, I decided to write a review for everything I read. When I started, they were all of the “school essay” variety and concentrated on technical aspects to the exclusion of my more emotional experience of the book. Over the course of time, that has changed. The ones I’ve written most recently are less about literary criticism and more about recounting my experience of the book. Sometimes this means that the lines between one book and the next are blurred, because my experience of the second book was impacted by my experience of the first book. It’s more interesting to me to write reviews where I address the conversation between reader and book, and possibly (hopefully!) still helpful to other readers looking for hints on their next book purchase. All of this, though, I think you sum up perfectly: “Now, I prefer to try to engage with the novel as it is written, rather than measure it against my ideas of what a novel should be.”
-aniko
I like the idea of there being a ‘conversation’ between author and reader, Aniko – that, to me, sums up one of the reasons why we publish. Writing sometimes seems a little like a monologue; when a reader begins to read our work, we enter into a dialogue of sorts. I love this idea of conversing with people I’ve never even met!
Aniko, what you have said here echoes my own struggles with writing reviews. I have recently realized that I drift between literary criticism and what you might call promotional or commercial reviews. The more personal type you describe sounds like a better idea altogether. It’s surprising how long it can take to get the range on a form of writing you are not familiar with as a producer.
Hi, great to see you’ve taken the reviewing plunge. If you want, now or in the future to join forces with Reading Between the Lines we’d be happy to have you. Get in touch with me if so. Nothing to it over and above what you’re doing right now except a logo and a link which might (might??!!) bring more readers to your site. Maybe.
Hi, Cally. I would be honoured to join forces with Reading Between the Lines! I’ll drop you a line.
Mari, I’m interested in your idea of starting a review page. I plan to expand the number of reviews I write and have considered the special page idea myself. However, I ran into a problem. When you use a page, it only has the blog posting features such as likes, shares, and comments for the first item you enter. After that, you are sunk. All you can do is paste a new review to the bottom of your first review, thus inserting it between the original review and the aforementioned blog features.
The solution is to create a subpage for each new review. Use the first page to say this is where your reviews are (i.e. write up a little intro) and add a list of all the subpages. But there is more trouble; the list is very plain and has only the title of each subpage. Try creating a couple of empty sub-pages, add them as children of the page you now have, and you will see what I mean.
I plan (God, not another one!) to create a separate blog for reviews and use the custom links feature (on the appearance / menus screen) to direct people there. You can label the tab “Reviews” just as you have done with your page. With this method, every review benefits from all the features of a regular blog entry. You can have archives, recent reviews, lists of most liked reviews, and so on.
Check out Rachel Cotterill’s setup at rachelcotterill.com, she is a real pro when it comes to this sort of thing. Look for the “Book Reviews” tab in the menu bar.
Thanks for the advice, Thomas. I only realised that this would be a problem after I posted the review! I’ll try to muddle through and come up with a solution. Given my technological limitations, it may take a while, but I’ll try…
WordPress also allows you to categorize your posts (obviously), but you can do a widget on the sidebar that shows your categories. You can see my page for an example of this. That way, even though I don’t have a specific page that is just dedicated to reviews (and not as prominent as yours), if a reader is looking down your sidebar, they’ll see all the posts that you categorized as “reviews.”
And I agree on the stars. It makes me crazy, especially the different options. Amazon goes up to 5 stars. Goodreads just does 4. And none of them offer 1/2 or 1/3 of a star. So when I review at my own blog, I avoid the stars completely and just give my thoughts on the strengths and any weaknesses of the story.
Good luck to you.
Paul
Good point Paul and your comment gave me an idea. You can also create a review tab in the top menu bar by adding your “reviews” category to the custom menu using the Appearance / Menus screen on the dashboard. I just did this and it took all of thirty seconds! Clicking on the tab works just like clicking on the “review” category in the sidebar and the tab is a lot more visible. All Mari has to do is categorize her reviews *as* reviews and then add that category to the menu bar as outlined above.
I think the big advantage of another blog (which you can create in very little time with the WordPress templates) is that you can dedicate every aspect of the setup to reviews rather than having them listed as just one category among many. You can retitle your “Recent Post” list as “Recent Reviews,” for example, and lists of “Most Liked Posts” can be “Most Liked Reviews” and so. All this adds a nice touch for avid review readers.
Ah-hah! A possible solution may be in the offing! Thanks for your suggestions, Paul and Thomas. I’ll set to work on this and see what happens…
This is fascinating as I think I’ll set up a reviews blog myself, and guess whose classic style ghost story in Lincs shall feature. Not as if I have a huge folloiwng of avid fans who hang on my every word, but…
To be fair, Lucinda, I’ve never found that reviews, good or bad, have had much effect on the numbers of readers who’ve found their way to my book. However, I don’t now think of that as being the main purpose of reviewing. Now, I think of it as being a bit like an ongoing conversation about books and literature. For individual little bloggers like us, it is necessarily a very small, intimate conversation, but it’s no worse for that! (Indeed, some might argue it was better for that…)
The trouble with indie reviews is that they mostly appear where the ebook is listed for sale on sites such as Amazon, Kobo, Reader Store, Smashwords, etc. Potential readers find the book first (usually by accident) – and only then see the review(s). These accidental encounters are too few in number to be of much help, and they may not result in a sale anyway.
Reviews posted elsewhere (on personal blogs and indie review sites) don’t get enough exposure to make a difference.
Indies have no access to the old mass-market magazine and newspaper review setup where people by the hundreds of thousands are exposed to a particular review. However, we must remember that the old system has limited space so only a few books ever get the big push. For most authors, it has always come down to finding some way to get noticed by a select few, and then hoping for word of mouth promotion.
A blog related to an author’s *themes* (such as mine) can get things started, and so can a blog dedicated to reviews of books similar to the ones the blog owner writes. The trick is to get a flow of fresh faces through the blog each month. Connect with enough of the right people and you are on your way.