Indie writers, book bloggers, and book reviews….
I’ve been trying to schedule some book reviews for More than Human: The Mensa Contagion, getting a head start before the book is released (real soon now). As usual, I first scan reviews of similar books, try to find some reviewers on that famous Amazon top reviewers list, and peruse Simon Royale’s list on The Indie View. Here are some comments about what is going on right now in the reviewing world.
Item. What do I look for in a book review? First, I really don’t look at book reviews when I buy ebooks for my casual reading. A large percentage have no content other than a thumbs up or down, and they shouldn’t even be figured into that Amazon star-average (see the rant against Amazon below). Many are just lies, so I don’t believe them. They’re often from friends or family too—nothing wrong with that per se except that I know there’s an automatic bias involved. These sets of reviewers aren’t mutually exclusive either—one reviewer can belong to all three classifications.
No, my question refers more to what I’d like to see in a review of my own ebooks. Please note that a recent MFA, creative writing, or journalism grad isn’t a requirement for writing a decent review. You might have hated reviewing books in school and don’t want to get into those writing details. You don’t need to—at least not for me.
All I’d like is a simple list of things you liked or disliked about the book and why, maybe a comparison with some other books you’ve read, and comments about peripheral things like cover art, whether you like Irish whiskey too, etc—if you’re so inclined. That sort of thing helps me write better books and helps my very efficient publishing team too—the book review becomes a learning experience and shows other readers why they might be interested in the book (hopefully not just for the sexy cover or the Irish whiskey mentioned in my bio).
The flip side: If I don’t use your book’s review to buy or borrow your book, what do I use? First, your blurb. It had better give me an idea what the book is about. I don’t expect that in a review anyway (those pesky spoilers), but I’d hope you can pitch your book without giving too much away (that, my friends, is creative writing not taught in an MFA program!). Second, I’ll use Amazon’s “peek inside” feature to see if you can really write.
Item. Reviewing is noble work. If you’re doing it voluntarily, of course. It is work, and it should take some time. I appreciate every review I receive, even the negative ones, because I know someone took the time to read the book (usually) and comment (sometimes without reading the book). No author should ever pay for a review, though. If you’re traditionally published, your publisher should pay (if there’s a charge). The standard contract is a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. If that free ebook isn’t enough for the reviewer, I’d tell him to go pound sand.
I have a particular problem with scamming book blogs—“we’ll review any ebook for free, but it might take forever, so think about moving it up in the slush pile by paying us.” That’s not noble volunteerism at all—it’s just a scam. These sites want to survive, of course, but they won’t do it on my dime. They shouldn’t on yours either.
Item. Book review bandwagons. Why is it that when a reader finishes a book s/he has to jump on the bandwagon and write a review even though the book already has more than twenty or more (sometimes thousands)? I know it isn’t because s/he wants to weight that Amazon average one way or the other (fact: her/his review isn’t statistically significant when there are 1000+ reviews…duh!). Nor can it be because s/he thinks that s/he has something original to add beyond what 20+ people have already written.
If you scan all those numerous reviews chronologically—just click on “see all reviews”—the “serious reviews” (those at least meeting my criteria above) tend to be early ones, except those from book bloggers (serious or not) who tend to have piles of books to review and therefore are often a bit late in reviewing a book. Maybe TV programs like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars have completely corrupted the book reviewing process? Or, is it all Amazon’s fault for treating ebooks like women’s and men’s apparel? I have my own answers to these questions, many not publishable in a PG-13 blog (those not R- or X-rated are considered below).
Item. Reviewers’ prejudices against series. Those readers of this blog who have read my post about writing ethics know that I reserve a special place in hell for authors who use cliffhangers in their “series” in order to make readers buy the next book. I NEVER do that—every ebook in one of my series is a stand-alone. Every novel, in a series or not, is a complete story. A book in a series should just use some of the same characters and settings but still tell a completely different and original story. Asimov, Connolly, Deaver, and Ludlum, to name a few series authors, never wrote cliffhangers. I won’t either.
Result: I also reserve a special place in purgatory (it’s probably not a sin on the level of cliffhangers) for a reviewer who tells me that s/he won’t review one of my ebooks if there are preceding ebooks in the series, or requests all the previous ebooks in a series in order to review the one I’d like her/him to review. As a writer, I ignore all book bloggers and reviewers who make such requests. As a reviewer, I never make that request, but I’ll slam the writer for cliffhangers. Fair warning.
Item. Other complaints about reviewers. A reviewer who tells me to send the ebook first and then s/he’ll decide whether s/he’ll review it also deserves a special place, this time in hell. The standard deal is a free ebook in return for an honest review. Stick to it. Allow a query using a form on your website or an email. I realize and respect that you might not be interested in my ebook, so why should I have to send you one in that case? Just respond to the query.
Many indie writers use Simon Royale’s list of reviewers at The Indie View. It gives links and genres for some 200+ reviewers. However, some reviewers listed there seem to think that it’s the job of the poor indie writer to figure out whether her/his site is closed to queries, whether her/his genre interests have changed, or to figure out how s/he can be queried for a review (lack of clear guidelines, no contact info, etc). Yeah, I know, these are all wonderful and noble volunteers, and I respect that, but why are people book blogging? C’mon! They get free books to read! Abusing that privilege brings the book blogger bad karma.
Item. Amazon reviews. Amazon has been voted to be the friendliest corporation recently by someone. I don’t care. For indie writers, it’s a mixed bag. Yes, they provide us with an active marketplace for our ebooks. Yes, they offer many different ways for us to bring our ebooks to market (KDP Select, lending options, Kindle Scout AKA their form of American Idol, Create Space, and probably a few others). Someday your pbook could be delivered by drone, and right now your ebook can be delivered to the reader by WhisperNet. For traditional publishing, its biggest sin is trying to support all the middle people standing in between readers and writers, namely the traditional publishers’ bloated bureaucracy. For indie publishing, it’s the reviewing process, especially the one on Amazon.
You see, Amazon treats ebooks just like any other product—women or men’s apparel, for example. That Amazon Top Reviewers list I mentioned? A large percentage of people there don’t even review books! It’s much easier to write a review for ladies’ pumps or men’s shavers than it is to write a good book review, even following my minimal guidelines above.
n fact, if you look at those books that have more than 20 or 30 reviews, you’ll see that a large percentage of those look just like other product reviews, those reviewers review more products than books (I’ve checked), and Amazon is happy about all that—they only care about the number of stars anyway so their computer can calculate that infamous star-average. For Amazon, ebooks are shoes; in “I think this is a great book” just substitute “I think these are great red pumps.”
Amazon has forced indie writers to join this three-ring circus by making us beg for book reviews. Moreover, readers have come to use number of reviews (see the bandwagon comments) and star-average (the star ranking in a review is basically a thumbs up or thumbs down) as their purchasing criterion. I feel like a clown in that circus as I waltz around the internet begging for reviews. I’ll wear the big red nose and paint for a while longer, but I’m reaching my tipping point. After that, I might stop producing ebooks. Or, if I continue, I’ll stop begging for reviews. It’s a bit embarrassing to always play the clown. Just ask that guy in the opera I Pagliacci.
[Coming soon, Kindle Countdown Deal #2: Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, #3 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco,” will be on sale from July 1 through July 7, at $0.99, reduced from $2.99. Does Chen commit murder? The long answer is surprising. If you missed the first deal, don’t miss this one.]
In elibris libertas….
