Yes, but is it any good? - Karen Bush

If writing a book is hard work, writing a review of one – although much shorter – can be equally difficult, presenting its own particular challenges. Most people write a review because they like a book and want to recommend it to other readers: but if you really, really hated it, please let me ask you not to write “This book stinks” even if you feel it deserves it. The ease of digital publishing may have meant that everyone can now be a published writer, but it has also given new responsibilities to online reviewers.

It takes time and practice and multiple attempts to produce your first decent book; and in the past, unless you resorted to vanity publishing, your initial scribblings were unlikely to see the light of day. They may not always have got it right but between them, agents, editors and publishers did help to weed out the not-so-good stuff, were able to suggest re-writes and improvements, checked on grammar and spelling and sorted out layouts and technical stuff.  Nowadays you can bypass all these folk: e-publishing has made it very easy to get your book out there, whether or not it is ready or even readable.

"The plot is a little light on gravy bones ..."

But we all have to start somewhere, which brings me back to the point about reviews. I was lucky enough to start my writing career back in the days of traditional publishing. I had many rejections – most were standard slips, some were returned with helpful covering letters detailing the reasons for the rejection, but all had the effect of making me work harder to produce something that was worthy of publication, and succeeded - I hope - in stopping me from being sloppy and satisfied with producing less than my best.
I trusted the knowledge of these professionals. None of the rejections contained derogatory comments: any criticisms, if occasionally blunt, were entirely constructive in nature, aiming to educate and elucidate. Nowadays, self-publishing writers miss out on this chaff-sorting process and have to rely entirely on getting all their feedback directly from readers instead: it’s not always very helpful, and sometimes can be spiteful and offensive. Hence my plea – if you don’t like a book, but feel the need to post a review of it somewhere, then make it useful. Focus on detailing what you felt to be the strengths as well as the weaknesses, giving proper reasons and not just dismissing it out of hand. Insults and lazy reviewing contribute nothing, but constructive criticism will help a writer to write better in the future.

P.S. It's my birthday this month, so a review would of course, make a nice present ...


Web: http://karenbush.jimdo.com/