Being a Review Writer – Introduction

My pen name is Boudica and I have been a review writer for Amazon and other websites since 2001. Currently, I am a “Top 500″ reviewer for Amazon. I started writing reviews for an on line e-zine that my husband runs – TWPT.com. I was approached by another pagan review writer who suggested that I post my reviews to Amazon. Things just took off from there.

Utilizing a pen name is not necessarily to mask my identity. When I started, I was associating my reviews with my community name. Many people in the pagan community know me by my “on line” name and associating the reviews on Amazon in this manner is “brand identification“. Over the years, however, it has proven to be a prudent move, as there are emails that I have received from time to time about myself and my community that were not very pleasant. I know other reviewers on Amazon who have experienced the same kind of treatment who are not pagan. While some use their real names, others have used their community names for branding and identification. And occasionally there will be a reader who will not agree with their review and will write an unkind email to that reviewer to complain. So, pen names are not a bad thing. Do not frown upon the pen name; it is actually a cushion against what can be an unkind public.

What I have found is that focusing on a particular genre has made me an astute reviewer in my field. I have limited my focus, which enables me to become familiar with the authors and their material. It allows me to know when a particular author is at their peak with a new book, or when it seems they are “pulling at air” for new material. But, with a field as limited as pagan non-fiction books, it also restricts my ability to review material outside my own genre. I know because of exploratory reviews into horror movies I wrote revealed my lack of knowledge. And realizing my own limitations, I learned to stick to topics I know.

I do review other kinds of books. But the issue of being a pagan book review writer has left what many actors have always feared – type casting. This does present an issue with some reviews on other material with which I am also well acquainted. I do write reviews on other book types, as well as specialty music on Amazon under another pen name. And the reason is simple – so that the reviews can stand on their own and not be held to judgment based on the fact that I am a much better known pagan book reviewer. While I do not hold a “special title” for those reviews, they do well enough that I continue to write them as much as I write reviews on pagan books. As long as one of my pen names does not vote for the other, there is no conflict. I have held to this and it has worked out to be a very amicable relationship. Amazon is always looking for reviewers of specialized material, and this allows me to review fields I am well acquainted with, for benefit of Amazon.

I have also been noticed publically. I was mentioned in an article about Newt Gingrich, as he also reviews books on Amazon and he and I were tied for position as reviewers. While the article writer thought it a point to draw some farfetched conclusion, it did afford me publicity regarding my reviews and also brought some heavy traffic to my website. Being noticed like this does have an upside.

I have not written many reviews in the last year or so due to my returning to school and my focusing on publishing articles for pagan publications as well as working on my own book. These pursuits take more time than I had imagined.

While my own preference is pagan books, a review writer does not have to limit themselves to a particular genre. Review writing is a universal process, and the techniques that I use for writing reviews are exactly the same as the techniques that all writers employ to write their reviews. What makes them different or successful is how they apply style and discuss content.

I will be writing some articles for Inspired-Quill over the next few months regarding review writing and possibly other writing topics, and wanted to start with a basic introduction, a “getting to know you” piece that will give you some insight into who I am and what my credentials are. Hopefully you can take away some “tips and tricks” that will enable you in your own writing processes.

Hello, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

4 Responses to “Being a Review Writer – Introduction”

1. Вероника says:

   October 24, 2009 at 1:54 pm

   Меня это не беспокоит.
2. Вика says:

   October 26, 2009 at 1:39 am

   Интересно, развейте..! )
3. Саша says:

   October 26, 2009 at 1:41 pm

   ни че се коментов
4. Леша says:

   October 27, 2009 at 1:03 pm

   Конечно, никогда нельзя быть уверенным.