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Go on, admit it. As you meander through the aisles of your local book-nook, certain cover art catches your eye. You might be drawn to it for any number of reasons: simplicity, color scheme, nostalgic design—or an indefinable quality that you just can’t put your finger on. Humans are fickle. We like what we like, for whatever reason we like it. We channel our inner Magpie, making countless purchases based solely on the initial draw of the product. If it doesn’t work out later, so be it. But in the face of glamour, glitter, and other such nonsense, we become stupefied.

But isn’t it wrong to judge a book by its cover? Of course it is! Didn’t your mother teach you any manners? Shame on you! I didn’t say we should judge a book by its cover—I just said we do. We can’t help it. Visual stimulus draws us toward things that under any other circumstance, we would avoid like the plague. A prime example of this principle is Disneyland. Why on earth would anyone in their right mind pay thousands of dollars to go to a mediocre amusement park? The food is terrible, you wait in line for hours –in ungodly heat and humidity—for rides that last less than five minutes, and you have to take out a second mortgage to afford it.

So, why do we do it? That’s easy. We do it because when that big, beautiful blue castle comes into view, with its spiraling turrets and multi-colored Cinderella mural, our brains block all logical thinking processes and we get swept up in the magic. If you ask me, Walt Disney was a genius. An evil genius, but still…

Think about it this way: if your book were wine, would you want it with the Beringer’s $6.99 White Zinfandel? Me, I’d want it with the Dom Perignon. More specifically, I’d want it with the Moet & Chandon Champagne Cuvee Dom Perignon Rose that sells for over $900.00 a pop.

Well sure, everybody would like to be shelved with the best, but is that realistic? Probably not; but I do encourage you to look at the rough draft of your cover art and ask yourself, If I saw this book, with this cover on the shelf, would I give it more than a passing glance? If the answer is no, then you need to have a talk with your cover artist. Believe me; they want to work with you. They want you to fall in love with your cover just as much as you want readers to fall in love with your book. And in most circumstances, they are willing to work with you to reach a place where everyone is happy.

Cover art is important. It is the gateway to your literary amusement park. It is the label that assists in determining the value of your piece. Granted, work needs to be able to stand on its own merit, but if nobody buys it, then it’s really worth nothing (speaking purely in terms of market value). It might be the most profound piece ever written, but without an audience, it’s nothing more than a carelessly scribbled grocery list, forgotten on the fridge, under the cheap Mickey Mouse magnet brought home as a souvenir.

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Confucius says: if you want to become a successful writer, get out there and write.

Find magazines that will take your essays. Enter into every short story contest you come across. And, most importantly, blog, at least once a day if you can manage it. Oh, and be sure to diversify your blogging. Don’t just stick with one site/theme. Write book reviews on your book review site. Write humorous posts on your women’s forums and serious editorials for Yahoo—or vice versa.

As you develop your blogista powers, don’t forget to get out there and read other blogs. Leave comments. Build relationships. These are the steps on the stairway to stardom. Brand yourself. That way, when your million dollar book contract comes, you’re ready. Your fan base will run out and snatch up every last copy of your first print run, thereby sealing your placement among the writing greats for all reading eternity.

“Isn’t blogging a bit passé?”

I’m glad you asked. Yes and no. Like every other aspect of writing, blogging has had its hits and misses. Once considered cutting edge, blogging has become so commonplace, one wonders if it’s worth the time and effort. Most bloggers are writers, attempting to leave an indelible mark. This can be achieved one of two ways: a fan base large enough to attract the attention of a market savvy agent/publisher; or writing so sharp—crisp and unique—that it attracts the very same agent/publisher, without the fan base. If either scenario happens…jackpot!

But, in today’s super saturated blogging market, does that still happen?

Not very often. Most bloggers are aspiring writers; and blog readers fall into two categories: the writers building relationships to increase their own fan base and friends and family of the blogger. The fan who finds/reads without falling into either of the previous categories is a rare gem.

Ree Drummond, author of ‘The Pioneer Woman’, blog is a great example of the benefits of blogging. Ms. Drummond began writing about her life, with her hunky, Marlboro Man husband. The blog and all of its tidbits, became the springboard for lucrative book contracts. Her website currently boasts two books: ‘The Pioneer Woman Cooks’, and ‘Charlie the Ranch Dog’. The rumor mill has it that she is currently under contract for another book about her life with her rogue ranch hand. All in all, I’d say that blogging paid off for the Pioneer Woman.

So, what’s the reader to conclude from this post? Should blogging remain a regularly scheduled activity?

I argue, yes. To excel in writing, one must write; and in our world of underpaid, overscheduled craziness, blogging offers an easy way to practice the craft. It isn’t a guaranteed springboard to stardom; but it is another way to get out there in the great, big, world- wide- web and build your brand. Consider the time spent an investment in you. Remember, the only way to win the word smith lottery is to play, every day.

Blog on.

Elsie Love.

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I’m a writer. You’re a writer too? Of course you are. Today, everybody that has ever dreamed of writing is doing it. Pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, and thumbs to text, the world of writing is humming along quite nicely. With the invention of Amazon.com ‘Create Space’ & Smashwords (whose distribution channels include Barnes & Noble, Fictionwise, Lexcycle, & Sony) anyone that has a story to tell can do just that.

The steps are simple enough. One: think of a story. Two: write it; tear your hair out editing and creating cover art, save in one of the acceptable formats (usually a doc file). Three: go the website; create a free account, upload and sell. That’s it. Now you can just sit back and wait for the royalty checks to come rolling in. If you’re nodding your head ‘yes’, I’m guessing you’ve never completed steps one through three. If you are rolling on the floor laughing, I’m betting you’ve been around this block a time or two.

The truth of the ever changing epub market is that once published, your book, is vying for attention with the other 162,000+ books, on Amazon.com alone. Smashwords currently lists a heart stopping 4,508 pages of titles with 520 pages listed as FREE downloads. Again, that’s just fiction. Nonfiction boasts another 126 pages of FREE reading material. I’ve never claimed to be a math whiz, but even I know that the odds of hitting the writer’s jackpot are slim to none. The market is saturated with story after story ready to be downloaded to your PC, Netbook, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and smart phone.

Gone are the days of the $0.99 book deal. It’s just not good enough anymore. If you are a writer with little or no fan base beyond friends, family, and your church group you need to take drastic measures. You need to consider changing your title to begin with the letter ‘A’ and make your book FREE.

I’ll wait until you regain consciousness before continuing.

This is a shocking proposal. I know your book is your baby, your pride and joy, the harvest of months (years even) of careful cultivation. I get it. It is the fruits of your labor and it deserves to go forth in the world and shine. And with some cunning marketing, it might. I’m not suggesting your work has no value, because it does. What I’m saying is that the dynamic has shifted and what used to work as a business model has been turned on its ear.

Consider the musician that used to earn money from the sale of records (you remember records, right? The big vinyl discs that beheaded zombies in Shaun of the Dead?). They toured to get people to buy the record. This was how they made their money. It was the vinyl, not the trips across country that earned their dough.

Today, it is the exact opposite. Most bands put some, if not the all, of their newest studio creations out for FREE. You can go to Youtube, watch your favorite performers ‘live’ or in the studio then head to their website and get all the music you want for next to nuthin’. Then they go out on tour, sell tickets at $100.00 a pop, and still walk away with some tall cash in their wallets. The business model has done a 180 degree flip, landing straight on its head. The cool part is, instead of taking the lump the industry has shifted to make it work.

I argue that the writing industry is no different. Very few people will pay $24.99 for a book. Very few people will pay more than five bucks, unless they know the author. Do you have to give your book away forever? No. But you can do it for a day, or a week, or a month to garner some interest and build up a following. Do you really have to title it with the letter ‘A’? That was me being a cheeky little monkey; but keep in mind, Smashwords lists their FREE books by newest releases, best sellers, top downloads, or highest rated. An ‘A’ title won’t help you much there. But, Amazon is a different story. They list in alphabetical order. And people by nature are lazy. I’ve never gone beyond the first ten pages of free listings…have you?

Food for thought

~Elsie Love

The whole project from start to finish cost me approximately £90, and took two days. It would probably have take three days if I’d needed to use a hand-saw instead of a ban saw. Feel free to leave me comments at the end of this post! Have you made a bookcase yourself? Where do you store your books? I’d love to hear from you all, dear readers.

N.B. Click on an image for a bigger version!

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This was my bookshelf before the new one. As you can see, the shelves are too ‘high’ for the books, and they don’t have any decent partitions. They are also far too wide. Yes, it’s a rather big mess.

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This was my ‘to be read’ shelf. I have quite a lot of backlog to get through as you can see. That’s three rows of books, plus two rows stacked on top.

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All the books had to be removed from the two black shelves and stacked neatly (ahaha, yeah, right) on the floor. One of the black shelves was then entirely dismantled…

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The other one I placed in the opposite corner, and here’s the finished product, along with a big cuddly tiger, and all of my encyclopaedias and ‘fact’ books.

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So to make the brand new bookcase, the first thing I had to do was get the wood. Thankfully, my grandfather knew someone with a van…

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Oh the joys of having a bandsaw at home so that we didn’t have to cut the lengths by hand…
and yes, even though I got to play with the sharp toy, I do still have all of my fingers.

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Moving all the pieces up to the attic, we had to measure out where all of the shelves were going to come to, before then using a drill to put some screws into it to hold it. We also added glue, just to be on the safe side.

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After making the main frame, all we had left to do was to hammer tacks through some hardboard and into the frame, giving it a backing.

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Voila, after spending ten minutes trying to push and pull and lift the bookcase into place against the wall and securing it, it was time for me to start putting the books onto it. And here we are! The finished bookcase! I must admit that it turned out a lot smarter than I originally thought I could get it. All the hard work certainly paid off.

On November 1st, I gave up caffeine, fizzy drinks and takeaways in order to try and detox myself in lieu of going to the gym regularly again. I am therefore less than a week into this new regime…and all I can do is wail and moan and ask myself why…WHY would I do this to myself…right when NaNoWriMo has turned up, knocking on my door and demanding more hours from me than there are in a day.

So, whilst I was sitting downstairs in the University Library Café, drinking my decaf tea, I began to wonder about different methods of keeping ones concentration whilst writing for something as intense as NaNoWriMo. (Although admittedly, we could also link this to academic essay writing. All-nighters, anyone?).

Personally, I work best when I have a spare hour or two squeezed in the middle of other activities. I guess this gives me a definitive timeframe to work to, as well as that incentive to actually get stuff done before I have to race off and do something else. (As I type this, I have forty-five minutes until a Theatre meeting). I know of quite a lot of people who prefer to write in the evening with a cup of tea by their elbow (I’m looking at you, Fiona!) But as the author Jody Lynn Nye commented in the INTERVIEW she gave a short while ago now, she has to make herself sit and write, regardless of whether or not she’s in the mood to do so.

Because I do – on occasion – attempt to do my bit to help, the rest of this article will concentrate on a handful of points which may help you overcome the feelings of distraction and apathy which may or may not settle in when NaNoWriMo gets about halfway through.

- Writing Games

Don’t feel as though the moment you sit down in front of your laptop, you ought to be able to type up the next bestseller without stopping. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that writing should be a little like exercising…you have to limber up beforehand. Something as simple as writing up a stream of consciousness (your thought processes…anything that comes into your mind), or picking a word and playing around with it in a single paragraph or stanza of poetry help to get the creative juices flowing and your fingers flexed and ready for the evening’s typing. Simple exercises like these will also focus your mind onto your literary challenge, rather than pondering what you’re going to eat for dinner.

- Eat Well

At the risk of sounding like one of those leaflets schools give out in order to help their students revise for exams…eating well is also a key element to concentration. If you want to snack, try to have something like yoghurt or some fresh fruit, instead of reaching for the biscuits and cake. These foods are low in the amino acid which causes drowsiness. If you tend to begin writing around actual mealtimes, eggs are also a great source of nutrients in protein, whilst also being low in saturated fat. Finally…if you’re really struggling, then having a cup of coffee may give you a short-term ‘pick me up’, but be aware that too much caffeine can lead to adverse effects.

- Deadlines & Schedules

I would like to take this opportunity to extrapolate on something I touched upon earlier. Technically, the word count ‘per-day’ for NaNoWriMo is approximately 1,700. But what happens if you only have, say, two hours free during the day, before you collapse gratefully into bed? The temptation is to think ‘it’s alright, I’ll catch up tomorrow’. This is NOT something which works. What if something comes up tomorrow and you have to delay your writing for another day? No, the best thing would be to write as many words as possible in one of your free hours. Not only will it give you the incentive to get as much written as possible (the challenge here is more of a time-trial rather than something word-count based), but scheduling in an hour a day no matter what, will also help you to stay ‘in the zone’ for the full amount of time. If you have a whole, free day to do something, then those procrastination techniques that we all know so well – such as FACEBOOK and checking your emails – will creep into your time and distract you.

- Keep it fun

Finally, remember to keep it fun! Things like NaNo are voluntary, and though they should be challenging…if you’re not enjoying it then there’s something amiss. If you don’t enjoy doing your writing, there’s going to be no passion there, and subsequently very little quality. So if you feel your enthusiasm waning, why not get a writing buddy? Someone to compare word-counts with and bounce ideas off. Change your perspective from NaNo being a challenge to it being a game.

I hope a few of these things will be able to help you on your writing journey. If you have any other hints or tips on this topic, please feel free to post a comment below, we’d love to hear from you.

Happy Writing!

But to give you two examples of how I have handled some of my own issues, I will relate two brief stories. I received ARCs on the material and had to make a decision.

The first one involves my own standard of ethics. I am not one for blatant use of other people’s material. A book that an author was promoting to launch several associated ventures he had going used material from other sources and constantly compared the material to two well known series. While the material may or may not have been copyright infringement, depending on how you interpret copyright laws, I was not impressed with the content, the value of the book or the author‘s cheap comparisons to boost his own presence. And I said so in my review.

Needless to say, I received some very off color emails, hate mail from his diehard fans and eventually the review was removed from the posted location because of constant pressure from the author. But not before some other readers agreed with my thinking. I believe, and this is my opinion, that I stuck true to my own set of ethics and it appears that there were readers who agreed. I am not loved by the author in question, but neither do I care. But I still have the respect of the reading community and to me that is more important than the ire of one bad author.

As a side note – I still receive ARCs for this author‘s work.

But in another instance, what started out as a really good series got itself trapped in constant squabbling between the main characters and the original focus was lost, at least to me. Looking for the original theme of the series, a mystery, became impossible to find once the main characters started bickering between themselves and became wrapped up in themselves. The mystery aspect became lost.

But the series is successful. And I am very fond of some of the early stories. They are well written, great pieces of literature in their own right. So, rather than get into a situation where in the future the author may work out the issues and produce some first rate work again, I dropped the series for now, and will revisit the works at a later date and see if the material has improved to my own level of interest. Because I have not reviewed any of the books in this series lately, I do not receive any more ARCs, but I can pay for the book if I feel the material has improved enough to interest me.

You may find yourself approaching some similar situations as a review writer, and you may find yourself handling these differently, but that is the choice you make and live with.

To be considered by a publisher as a reviewer worthy of ARCs is a position of responsibility as well as honor. And we find ourselves in a seat that can be uncomfortable. But we also know that once we receive that first ARC from the publisher, we have reached a level of success in our chosen career. It is something to work towards as you start out reviewing.

To be in a position of receiving ARCs is very coveted within the book reviewing community for many reasons. First and foremost, the books are sent to reviewers for free. Not only do you get a free book, you get it in advance of anyone else and you usually get plenty of advance time to read and review the material. Many times it is a finished product. Some major publishers will mark the book as an ARC, others will not.

It also establishes the reviewer as one who has “made the grade”. The reviewer is now one whom publishers recognize has excelled in the book reviewing community, one who has the ability to influence the readership and one who has a vaguely perceived power over the actual sales of the book. After all, a good review from the right person can boost initial sales of the book tremendously. In some cases, the review of the book is almost as important as the content of the book itself, as the review will influence buyers.

ARCs are not sent to every reviewer and it is a position that is earned within the various publishing communities. It is sometimes perceived as a “one hand washing the other” position, with the expectation that the reviewer will give the book a fair and unbiased review.

It can be an ethical dilemma for some people should the book turn out to be a lemon, but it has millions of dollars tied up in its actual publication and release. Consider for a moment the amount of money involved worldwide in the release of the final Harry Potter series book. A couple of poor reviews from the right reviewers could have flattened sales of the final release and cost the publisher millions. It does not surprise me that ARCs were not available and the book handled the way it was. (Ah, so that’s why so many copies sold – Ed). However, the book was a winner. Did we expect anything less?

So, we go back to the ethical ramifications of being a review writer who receives ARCs. I have been in that position for many years, and allow me to tell you it can be a problem for the reviewer.

How do we handle the issue of good author/bad book? We did cover this a bit in the last article – So You Didn’t Like the Book. But in this scenario, you received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, you have seen the promotional material (just as a side note, the publisher will always include promotional material with an ARC) and you know the author carries the publisher to an extent, the publisher is counting on this book being a good seller, but the material from the author this time is not as good or well written as previous books. Or maybe this book is just a real stinker.

I do not want to say not to write the review. There could be some serious reasons why you should. And it may not endear you to the publisher or author. Do you want to bite the hand that feeds you? If the review, once published, does affect sales that much, you could lose the support of that publisher.

What about the readers? Are they going to appreciate your half hearted attempt to make a bad book look good once they plop down as much as $25.00 (15.25 GBP) for it? Will they respect your opinion in the future?

Each reviewer will come across this situation at least once in their reviewing career. It has sparked many debates within the reviewing community. Mind you, not just publishers send out advanced review copies. Many product manufacturers send out samples to select reviewers for comment and promotion. The music industry also powers its sales with advanced review copies. And I’ve received advance copies of television shows and received copies of movies for comment and review.

To be continued…

When discussing fiction, there are probably more good books then bad out there, and with so much good, why waste your time on the bad? Try to remember that your favorite author cannot always crank out a good book. We all have our moments of glory, and then there are the dogs. Please note that even dogs can make it to a best seller list.

Dealing with fiction can also be messy if your opinion of the book does not match the opinion of the fans. Fans – short for fanatics – can be just that, fanatical. Nothing their favorite author can do is poor or bad. And should you decide to go against the grain, you will find yourself swimming alone in an ocean of sharks ready to bite your head off.

I decided long ago that writing a good review of a really good fiction book was well worth my time, but writing a good review about a bad book was a challenge. While trying to say somewhat nicely that “this is not the best thing this author has written“, I also did not want to just leave it at that. I found that emphasizing some good aspects of the book while mentioning the downside made for a better review than just bashing the book all together. That is the challenging part. Good plot with poor character development is a good way to say the story could have been good had the author created better characters. The author can be over descriptive, which means wordy, or the author applies a short, abbreviated style, meaning he is not descriptive at all. It is all a matter of how you play with the language in your review.

Mind you, I have also read some really bad books that deserved bashing. And going to my favorite review website, I have found that most often there were many other reviewers who felt the same way as I did and they saved me the time of having to write a review to repeat what they said. Then again, I have considered that it would speak poorly of me if I left my voice out of the crowd of reviewers who stomped all over a particularly bad piece of writing, and have added my voice in more than the usual “This book sux” manner.

When faced with “how to” manuals, technical journals, or historical books where we find blatant flaws or incorrect information, what can we do about this? Especially, for example, when the author is a well known “expert” in the field and you just tried out his favorite “trick” and it came up flat or found a blatant date error. Do we, the non-expert, point out the flaw, the inaccuracy, the obvious error, or can we do this with a bit of class and look like a really good reviewer?

When dealing with historical information as I have, it becomes a matter of research, and this is where the really good reviewer shines. Quote two or three other experts in the field who do not agree with the author’s evidence and then make the statement that the author “goes against the modern consensus of other experts in the field”. This is a good way of making a clear statement. Of course, if there are blatant errors, pointing those out is not considered out of line; rather it is a sign of good proof reading or knowing your topic well.

Technical manuals are really for the enthusiast who wants to shine. I am an IT person, and I have to say there are numerous books out there that discuss “how to”, yet fail when applied in the field. Sometimes it is because the material was tested only in the lab, or only tested on certain equipment. Then there are the errors which cannot be explained – it just never will work and you really cannot figure out what prompted the author to include the information. Maybe someone else told him it would work and he wrote it without testing it. In these cases, personal experience inserted into the article is the best method to add to the review and is the preferred touch.

There are things that are not worth trying to review if you were not pleased with it. Rather, return the book and ask for a refund or resell it on eBay to get your money back. Some authors are very sensitive and will either have the review removed, or even go so far as to scream defamation of character if they feel that you have gone too far. If the book is really bad, unless there is a life threatening reason to write a review (other than mentioning that the reader will lose precious time from their life if they bother with it), the best you can do with a book like that is to recycle it into the fireplace. At least it will keep you warm for a few seconds or add to the ambience of a good evening with a choice bottle of wine.

Which brings us to another note: never write a review about a book when you are angry at the content or the author. That can get you into more trouble than it is worth.

Of course, if you feel especially driven, you can write the book smashing review that will deal a blow to the author, and take your chances that others will feel the same way. I suggest you write the review, put it aside for a few days, and then go back and re-read it. If you still feel the need is warranted, then go for it and hope for the best. But be warned it can backfire.

There are ways to write a review without giving the book a stamp of approval. There are ways to politely say a book is not the best you have read. Add a bit of class to your writing and it will make your review stand out.

I’ve seen reviews that mimic these reports. While the basics are there, there is no flair, no style and they are as boring as many of the reports I remember having to sit through and listen to in school. Very few were of any interest to any of us. After all, we all read the same book or books, and we were all bored to tears with the same report presented over and over again.

There is a key here to presenting a really good review. While it may have been the format required in school, it is not the preferred format for a review that the mass public wants to read. Rather, the public is looking for information, and they are looking for a presentation that keeps their interest whilst also entertaining while providing some much needed information.

I read the Books section of the Times each Sunday, and find myself looking forward to that section just to see what is new and exciting. While I may not read each and every book, I get a really good feel for the content, the author and the review writer as well. There are some reviews I read first, simply because the reviewer is one of my “preferred” writers.

Read through Amazon.com and you will find some very unique styles, some very humorous review writers and the usual assortment of three word reviews: “This book rocks!” and “This book sux!” reviews, which never seem to be anywhere near “helpful”. It’s a shame that there are so many of the three word reviews listed. However, there are some really powerful review writers on Amazon, and they are well worth your time if you are seriously considering a book they have reviewed. And they will also give you an idea of how to approach such writing. Read through the various reviews for a popular book and you will see all kinds of material presented.

There are the “fan reviews”. Anything the author writes is “great”, the review praises the author rather than examining the book and its content, and the review seems to lack substance, but apparently the fans love it as it receives more “helpful” votes than it deserves.

Then there are the “dust jacket” reviews. If you get a copy of the book, you will find there are reviewers who do nothing but copy the dust jacket blurb to the website. There are also those who do not read the book through all the way, and apparently decide from the opening chapters what the book is about. Unfortunately, it also shows in the review when the information is incorrect about main characters and the content of the book.

The other problem is finding the reviews by the good reviewers. A popular book will attract over 100 reviews, sometimes hundreds, and the good ones seem to get lost in the pile. While Amazon does do “featured reviews”, they base it on how many ‘helpful’ votes the review received. If the public did not agree with the reviewers take on the book, a possibly good “second opinion” gets lost in the plethora of three word reviews or fan reviews.

So, what do you want to include with a book review? A good review, in my opinion, discusses the book, gives an overview of the author and presents the facts or discusses the material presented in the book. While some people may see the need for a different approach to either fiction or non-fiction books, there are some basic elements that need to be discussed about both.

First, read the book. Do not shortcut the material you are about to review. Do some research about the material if it is required and look into the author if you are not familiar with him or her. If the book is non-fiction, be sure you are familiar with the material.

Assume that the audience knows nothing about the author or the book. You are going to “enlighten” them as to the overall package. You are going to give them a short, condensed bio to familiarize your readers with the author. If the author is pretty well known, reference their last book, or the genre that the author is most associated with. If the book is non-fiction, mention the author’s credentials. Validation is important in the non-fiction field, especially when you get into health books or technology books. You want your readers to know why you initially sought out the book by this particular author, and credentialing the author is a good way to start off.

While who, what, when, where, how and why are good guidelines, they are not the total review experience. I believe that “personal experience” adds so much to a review. How did you personally find the book? Did it grab your attention? Did you like the style? Do you find the material interesting from beginning to end? When dealing with a non-fiction book, have you had experiences with the topic, did you try the recipes, have you worked with the technology and how did it compare with the contents of the book? Use the basics, but add the personal touch.

Another point to make is the print job. Sorry, but I have bought $175 text books that have fallen apart before I finished the term with them. I have had art books that were just gorgeous to behold, and trade paper books that had cheap paper that yellowed quickly. Cover art can be a major attraction to the buyer but might not reflect the contents. Mention if the book is hard cover, soft cover, trade paper, paperback, glossy paper, color prints, b&w prints, photos and cover art if it is worth mentioning in any way.

Finally, check your spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. Typos and poor grammar will kill a review and send a reviewer to the bottom of the ranks. Re-read your review, edit it; modify it till you are happy with the content and style. Have someone else review it as well, and look for honest feedback.

Develop a style. Do the reading and the research. Add a piece of yourself to the review and make the review count. You will be very surprised how fast you will attract an audience.

[For another article about Review types, click HERE]

Ah, book reviews. Those snippets of writing that can recommend someone to pick up a book or to avoid it like the plague. A review by an ‘acclaimed’ critic, (I’m still not exactly sure what this means. Someone who knows what they’re talking about, presumably) in a magazine or newspaper can quite often make or break a new book. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reviews out there that don’t quite manage to balance properly between information and opinion. The rest of this article will take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to book reviews. Most of which fit into a handful of different categories.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Type 1 – Blurb Reviews

Blurb reviews are thusly named because all they seem to do is regurgitate what’s on the back page of a book. This is all very well and good, but it shouldn’t be classed as a review. Especially when you take into account the actual meaning of the word ‘review’. It’s nice to know what happens in the story before I buy it…but if I needed a plot breakdown I can just read the back of the actual book.

Type 2 – Unsubstantiated Opinion Reviews

At the other end of the spectrum are reviews which blather on about how great or horrid the book is, without actually giving the reader any information as to why this conclusion was reached. Ok, so the critic liked/hated it. For all the reader knows it could be because they simply don’t like the genre, or hero-worship the author. If the writing is poor or the plot looks like Swiss cheese, then personally, I’d want to know why as opposed to simply having to read a rant.

Type 3 – Off Topic Reviews

We’ve all read at least one of these. This type of review tends to start off all very well and good…and ends up talking about something almost entirely unrelated to the actual book. Usually, regarding a certain technique, or similar author. Reviews need to stay succinct and to the point, otherwise there’s a danger of this occurring.

Type 4 – Wrong Tone Reviews

Although this is a rare type of review, they do still exist. How many times have you been reading a review that completely and utterly bored you with their use of formal language and boring, purely analytical description? On the other side of the coin, there are some who insist upon using humour and informal language when talking about a more serious novel.

Type 5 – Balanced Reviews

Finally, we come to the type of book review which actually works. It has stated opinions and reasons of the critic, as well as a [small] plot summary to show that they’ve actually understood what the heck is going on within the novel. It’s in the correct tone, and it sticks to the point. That is, reviewing the book in a clear manner with little to no waffle.

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So what have we learned? Well, obviously different people do things in different ways, but the key to a good book review is to take all of the above points into careful consideration. Reviews are there not only to voice opinions, but to influence the opinions of others, and to do that they have to be well thought out and carefully written.

To leave you with a quote: “What is in question is a kind of book reviewing which seems to be more and more popular: the loose putting down of opinions as though they were facts, and the treating of facts as though they were opinions.” – Gore Vidal.