Over the past few weeks
the press and internet have been full of stories of dodgy goings-on
in the frantic world of “buy-my-book”. There was the scandal of 5
star reviews being bought on Amazon and that of well-known authors
setting up bogus Amazon accounts in order to give themselves glowing
5-star reviews and (worse to my mind) vicious 1-star reviews to their
rivals.
Too many people have as
a result thrown the baby out with the bathwater, saying that you
cannot trust the free-for-all of the internet and you should stick to
traditional print reviews by professional reviewers. But how many
books would you discover that way? I have a women’s fiction
newspaper in which I pick up the best articles and reviews from
across the web and I therefore monitor the major newspaper sites.
What I have found is that they all review the same books.
How is this? Is it
because the publishers only promote a very limited number? Is it that
the reviewers act as a cabal? Is it that newspapers only review books
by “established” authors? And dare I say it – does money
exchange hands, just as it does to ensure that a book ends up on
major booksellers’ three for the price of two tables or even just
prominently displayed on the shelves? I’ve no idea, but what is
certain is that the majority of books (and I am talking about
traditionally published books as well as indies) never get reviewed
by these professional reviewers.
What is worse is that
the newspapers tend to review only literary fiction and not genre
fiction. This of course has an implication for women’s books, which
can be dismissed as chick-lit, romance or just women’s fiction. No
matter that romance outstrips literary fiction and all the other
genres in terms of sales.
Where then can you turn
for reviews you can trust? Where can an author go for reviews? The
answer is I believe the burgeoning phenomenon of the book blogs.
Until I published my first book only six months ago I had only been
slightly aware of the wonderful, selfless world of the book blogger.
The proponents of the traditional professional reviewers would
pooh-pooh the amateur book bloggers (and have done so in various
comments I have seen). But they are wrong to do so. Yes, many, but
not all, book bloggers have no qualifications (such as English
literature degrees), nor do some professional reviewers for that
matter. But what book bloggers do have is a love of books. They write
reviews in order to share what they have read with you. And some of
them clearly do nothing else than read and review. I have a magic
realism review site and I just about manage a book a week.
How do you know which
book bloggers to trust? Simple – look at their reviews. Have they
liked the same books as you and better still for the same reason? Do
they provide you with the sort of review you need to make a decision?
If the answer to these questions is yes, then start following the
blog.
But how do you find the
right blogs in the first place? You have a number of options:
- Try a search with two book titles you like and the word “blog” to find a suitable blog.
- Use one of the book blog directories, such as http://directory.kaysbookshelf.com, and http://www.bookblogs.org/blog-list. If you are interested in indie writers try http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/
- Or you might like to join the book blogs forum on http://bookblogs.ning.com
This post is part of
the Celebrating Bloggers Blog Hop organised by Terri Guiliano Long.
