Comments From a Book Reviewer
BY NORM GOLDMAN
For the past several years I have been
reviewing books for my own site, Bookpleasures.com, as well as many
other sites. I am also a regular contributor to the Canadian Book Review
Annual. As editor of Bookpleasures.com, I would like to make a few
comments about book reviewing and what to expect, particularly from
Bookpleasures.com.
Today, with the advent of the Internet,
there has been a proliferation of book reviewers, whom I shall classify
as the good, the bad and the ugly.
Those falling into the last category
are those that you have to be particularly on the lookout for, as their
only interest is to receive complimentary books without bothering to
review them, or if they do review them, their reviews are very short and
without substance. On the other hand, there are many serious and
excellent reviewers who devote a great deal of their time and energy in
reading and writing a review.
Sometimes, I admit, the reviews are not
exactly very complimentary. However, it is to be noted that it is not
the objective of a reviewer to be a salesperson or a public relations
representative for the author. If the criticism is constructive, a great
deal can be learned from the review, particularly if the reviewer is
also an author.
From the point of view of a reviewer,
what I find most annoying is receiving a book without first asking me if
I would accept to review it. Bookpleasures receives on average about
10-15 email requests per week. Generally, I personally accept a few to
review, others, I forward onto Bookpleasures’ international team of
reviewers.
In all probability, there is a 20%-30%
chance that a request to review will be accepted by a reviewer.
The reason why a book is not accepted
is wide and varied. Many of our reviewers have a backlog that they would
like to clear before accepting new assignments, or the subject matter is
not one that interests any of them.
What I like to see in a request is not
"hype" but rather a brief resumé of the contents of the book, who the
author is, if the book is published by a main stream publisher or is it
self-published, and if the book is available on
Amazon.
Bookpleasures also conducts
e-interviews with some authors, and if the author is open to have
himself or herself interviewed, please indicate.
If you are a publicist or publisher,
don’t be afraid to put Bookpleasures as well as other book reviewing
sites on your emailing list. You never know when something catches our
eyes. Sometimes you may be publicizing a particular book, and our
reviewers will look to your site and see something else that interests
them.
As for the time frame, this all depends
on the reviewer. Anywhere from one week to three months is the norm. You
can ask the reviewer to give you some idea as to his or her time frame.
You can also inquire as to his or her credentials. Bookpleasures does
provide links to the reviewers’ site that should give you some idea as
to their experience.
I do hope this is of help to some of
you.
Norm Goldman is a freelance travel
writer and book reviewer. His articles appear on his own sites,
bookpleasures.com and
Sketch and Travel, as well as many other Internet sites.
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