By
John Gilstrap
http://www.johngilstrap.com
A couple of weeks ago, I received a box of 15 really beautiful Advance Readers Copies (ARCS—bound uncorrected page proofs) for the upcoming No Mercy (July 7, 2009). The question is what to do with them?
I have a couple for the local B&N and Borders stores to stir up a buzz among the sales staff. It’s truly a sad state of affairs that no independent bookstores that I know of continue to live in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. (I don’t count Politics and Prose or Olsson’s because they don’t as a rule stock genre fiction.) So, what to do with these extra books?
Sure, there’s always family and friends, but to tell you the truth, I’ve always looked at them more as guaranteed buyers than give-away recipients. Call them the most reliable of reliable customers. Then I thought: I can put them to work.
Here’s my new rule. If I give you an ARC, you are a) still obligated to buy at least one copy of the actual book; and b) additionally obligated to post a review on amazon.com. I don’t even mandate that it be a positive review (though who could think negative thoughts about my masterpiece?). They just have to post something. So far, everyone has agreed.
This brings up a larger question. As consumers of books ourselves, don’t we have an obligation to post reviews on the books we read? Don’t we sort of owe that to our fellow trench fighters? It seems to me that we do.
I confess that I rarely post reviews under my own name. I’m just not comfortable doing that, particularly in the case of books I don’t care for. Okay, I don’t usually post a review at all if I don’t like a book. As the old saying goes, if you can’t say something nice . . . Well, you know.
So, what are your thoughts? As book review pages continue to disappear, and paper gets edged out by electrons, do we book fans owe populist reviews to our most admired (or most loathed) authors?
John, I agree. I’ve given reviews on Amazon and, like you, do so under a different name. I finally received several reviews for my book of course a full 6 months after the release.
I have felt funny asking people to post a review. I know I need to get over that. Finally, after receiving emails from some readers who really seemed to enjoy it, I responded to them with a note welcoming them to post their review on Amazon. I’m not sure if they are the one’s that posted it.
I don’t think anyone has an obligation to review anything. I also don’t think that reviews on Amazon have more than the slightest impact. (I’ve posted nearly 300 of them on Amazon, but rarely anymore.)
That being said, I think it’s great if people are willing to take the time to post reviews of the books they read. If nothing else, it’s a nice gesture.
(Speaking of local bookstores…How depressing is the Borders in Fairfax? I was in there a few weeks ago and the place has really gone downhill. It’s especially a bummer as they have a great mystery/thriller section.)
David,
I agree about the Borders in Fairfax. I’m now a regular denizen of the B&N in Fair Lakes. They’ve got a great staff, lots of comfy chairs and pretty high-end Starbucks.
I think the total number of Amazon reviews is indicative of an author’s popularity, but I think we as readers should seriously consider writing a review only if we are passionate about a book, one way or the other. The purpose of a review is to sway someone about whether to purchase it. I find that I get more out of a review if someone loved loved loved the book or absolutely despised it. That said, if many of the reviews are damning with faint praise, that’s useful to me as a buyer as well.
Overall, though, what I look for in reviews is consistency among the group. If everyone is saying the same thing, with a few outliers, I’ll generally believe the consensus. If reviews are all over the place, I’ll usually move on.
The other information that helps me in a review is to know about general content that wouldn’t be in the description. Something like, there’s a nasty rape scene in the beginning, or a lot of bad language, or it’s really slow in the middle. Those reviews don’t necessarily dissuade me, but I like to know some of that up front.
Spoilers, I hate.
As a reader, I usually read at least the first few reviews of a book before I buy it. I leave reviews when I can. I find them pretty useful, moreso than newspaper reviews. Of course I assume most bookstore buyers probably go the other direction and prefer the official reviews over public review, since they are coming from a more informed perspective for the most part.
Another type of review I enjoy reading are reader reviews directly on the authors site, especially when they do keep the negative reviews. I know having an open forum for my podcast novels has enabled me to create a rappor with many my readers/listeners in addition to providing prospective customers with a bit of insight.
Good strategy for using ARCs, but the whole reviewing issue is a minefield for authors. When I revealed to my first agent that I was doing a book-review gig (that paid a little and produced free books), he recoiled in horror. His advice: “Sooner or later, you will not like a book, will say so in print, and will make an enemy for life who will have vengeance upon you.” So I gave up the gig. I will do Amazon write-ups for friends, but only if I like the book — and my write-up might be a bit more enthusiastic than I actually feel. Friendship first.
When I read Amazon reviews, I tend to start with the 1-star comments. That way I know they probably weren’t written by a buddy or family member. That’s where the real flaws in the story are usually revealed.
There’s nothing that gets the goat like a bad review from someone who writes a negative review out of meanness. When you get a comment like, “the book was too complex.” or “Maybe James Lee Bourke will write a book about Hurricane Katrina, but this sure isn’t it.” For a while I had one guy who found something negative to say about three of my books, and when I read his other reviews I understood. The man was writing with the green meanie on his shoulder. HE was obviously someone who imagined himself a writer, although he’d never written one, and every author he read was in his sights.
I love the idea of a guy who reads a book, hates it, writes a nasty review. Reads ANOTHER book by the same author, hates it, writes a nasty review. Then reads a THIRD book by the same author and, unsurprisingly, hates it, too!
Makes me think of Einstein’s quote about insanity.