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NetGalley.com, a website for "professional readers" (who read and recommend books: reviewers, bloggers, media, booksellers, librarians and educators). Publishers (including self-publishers) pay NetGalley to host digital galleys (not printable, and not printed), both PDF and EPub files, readable on all major reading devices .
(See About.com's PCSupport explanation: EPUB file: What It Is & How to Open One. An EPUB file is an Open Publication Structure eBook file.
The Page 99 Test (Marshal Zeringue's blog to test the hypothesis: "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."~Ford Madox Ford).
It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. ~ Oscar Wilde
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy a/k/a Book Reviewers for Hire Meet a Demand for Online Raves (David Streitfeld, NY Times, 8-29-12). An eye-opener about not only Kirkus Reviews but all those glowing reviews for new books on Amazon.
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
~ Jean Rhys (also attributed to editor Hazel Rochman, in a 1995 essay, but Rhys may be a more likely source)
Some Book: Celebrating 60 Years of Charlottes Web (Michael Sims, NY Times Sunday Book Review, 4-20-12)
Fresh Air interview with Rachel Maddux . The popular MSNBC host talks about her start in broadcasting, her life, coming out, depression, and her new book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, in which she argues that our national defense has become disconnected from public oversight.
Back From the Dead: The State of Book Reviewing by Jane Ciabattari (The Practical Writer Sept-Oct 2011, Poets&Writers)
Announcing The Independent, a.k.a. The Washington Independent Review of Books.
"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
~ Samuel Johnson
"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
~ Samuel Johnson
"My idea of pure heaven is to spend a day in the kitchen, peeling, chopping, and stirring while the words of a good book fill the air around me."
~Ruth Reichl
"I would rather be attacked than unnoticed."
~ Samuel Johnson
"Educations purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
~ Malcolm Forbes
"Everyone should be on Facebook. Facebook isnt competing with Twitter. Facebook is competing with the Internet. If youre a journalist, you want to be part of the conversation."
~ Sree Srinivasan, in a lecture to the National Book Critics Circle, in which he also said Facebooks is "one of the greatest time sinks in human history" "Some reviews give pain. This is regrettable, but no author has any right to whine. He is not obliged to be an author. he invited publicity, and he must take the publicity as it comes along."
~ E.M. Forster
"Anyone can be accurate and even profound, but it is damned hard work to make criticism charming."
~ H.L. Mencken
"Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs."
~ John Osborne |
E-mail Pat (pat at patmcnees dot com)
Dying: A Book of ComfortThis site built to support the book expanded into Illness and Recovery
Writers on Writing(complete archive of the NY Times series, writers exploring literary themes. Requires free membership.)
Letters of Note (fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos--that you were never expected to see)
Aha Moments (from the brilliant Mutual of Omaha campaign to record people's stories about moments of clarity, defining moments when they gained the wisdom to change their life)
TED: Ideas worth sharing Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
Freelance National Anthem (Bill Dyszel, 4 minutes)
KeepMeOut (addicted to a website? bookmark this page and it will remind you to get back to work!)
Today's Front Pages (check out Newseum's U.S. map -- move your cursor across the map and see the front pages change)
Online Education Database150 resources to help you write better, faster, or more persuasively
Help a reporter out (HARO)(useful for reporters and for sources)
Paris Review "Writers at Work" Interviews (selections from 1953 on, a gift to the world, and with a single click you can view a manuscript page with the writer's edits)
The Onion (if the news is making you sick, try this approach)
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Plus blogs, links to author interviews, resources for critics and book reviewers
Author interviews
How and where to get your book reviewed
Social networking for book lovers (Goodreads and other book communities)
Literary magazines and journals, lists of
Blog roll -- good book and lit blogs
Mysteries--recommended reading sites
General links (book news, reviews; book and reviewer blogs; resources for critics and book reviewers
Fake ("sock puppet"), not-quite-kosher, and poison book reviews
With some periodicals, you may have to register to view the publication online (usually for free, except maybe for book reviews). They want the demographic information so they know where (and how old) their readers are and thus to whom their (dreamed-of) online advertisers will be able to market their wares.
Authors in Your Pockets (iTune podcasts)
Author Webcasts (Library of Congress presents, free, the "best of the nation's authors, poets and illustrators")
BookTalk Nation
Book TV's After Words interviews (C-Span archives)
Book Notes (C-Span Video Library archives)
Charlie Rose interviews
C-Span Video Library
Diane Rehm arts & culture programs and interviews with authors , but one of my favorites is her Reader Review programs (book clubs on the air)
Don Swain book and author interviews (Wired for Books, WOUB online, Ohio University)
GoodReads exclusive author interviews
Intelligent radio and TV talk shows (a roundup of links to all the good NPR programs, most of which have archives--or you can listen online)
Interviews with (or about) novelists and short story writers
Key West Literary Seminar Audio archives (KWLS recordings of presentations and readings by and conversations between some of the world's most influential writers)
NPR Books author interviews
Paris Review interviews (authors discuss their life and writing in revealing conversations in The Paris Review's Writers at Work interview series--transcripts))
Paris Review interviews with fiction writers (transcripts)
PEN America multimedia archives
Politics & Prose Author Event Recordings on Demand (Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington DC holds awesome author events, recordings of which you can listen to online, free--or download the mp3s and listen while you exercise)
Powell's Books Interviews
Rorotoko (archives of author interviews)
Salon.com author interviews
Interviews with Authors (Barnes & Noble series), includes interviews such as the following (a small sample from a great series):
David Brooks (a conversation with James Mustiche 3-17-11)
Patton Oswalt (A conversation with Kerry Lauerman, 2-3-11, from Salon.com, who has partnered with B&N for many of these interviews)
Stacy Schiff (author of Cleopatra)
Interviews (video) with and about authors
Literary Fathers: James Jones and Andre Dubus. Interviews about them with their children, Kaylie Jones and Andre Dubus III (Open Road Integrated Media)
Literary Fathers: John Gardner, Stanley Elkin, Terry Southern, and William Styron. Interviews with Lucy Gardner Johnson, Joel Gardner, Molly Elkin, Nile Southern, and Alexandra Styron (Open Road Integrated Media) How and where to get book reviews and publicity
Where to find online book reviewers (Sandra Beckwith, Build Book Buzz). Includes tips on where to find reviewers for self-published books.
News, reviews and promotion for self-published books and indie eBooks
A few places to start:
PW Select (Publishers Weekly's bow to self-published books).
Where to Get Self-Published Book Reviews (SPR)
How to get your self-pubbed or e-book reviewed by bloggers (Stephanie Lawton 8-18-11)
Authors Unbound (providing indie authors who epublish with events at which they share their work and connect with fans)
Indie Reader (a site that features and reviews books of indie authors)
Blue Ink Review is an example of a pay-for-your-review site. It pays reviewers $75 for a review and charges the self-published author $395 for a review (as of November 2012), or $495 for "fast track" (review to be completed in 4-5 weeks).
Kirkus Indie Kirkus Reviews has a set-up similar to Blue Ink Review, and reviews on Kirkus may be negative (that is, frank).
Darcie Chan started word-of-mouth on her quiet novel, The Mill River Recluse (not a vampire novel or any other sensational genre), by getting the book featured on promotional sites for low-priced ebooks. After lowering the price to 99 cents and being featured (for free) on Ereader News , her sales jumped in two days to 600,000. Sites that promote low-priced eBooks (typically for a fee) include
~ Ereader News (tips, tricks, and bargain books for your Kindle)
~ Pixel of Ink (free & bargain Kindle books),
~ Kindle Nation Daily (free books + Kindle tips + news, commentary)
~ The Frugal eReader (frugal finds under nine for the Kindle)
~ Bargain eBook Hunter (briefy traps free Kindle books)
C. Patrick Schulze, in How to Get Your Self-Published Novel Reviewed, lists lots of places where indie books are reviewed (This Business of Writing 4-16-10).
The Best Reviews Money Can Buy (or, Book Reviewers for Hire Meet a Demand for Online Raves, by David Streitfeld, NY Times, 8-25-12--note 300+ comments)
Poets & Writers guide to literary magazines. Connect your poems, stories, essays, and reviews to the right audiences by researching over eight hundred literary magazines in our database. Here, youll find editorial policies, submission guidelines, contact informationeverything you need to direct your work to the publications most amenable to your vision.
NewPages.com . Browse the literary magazines listed in NewPages to find short stories and longer fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, essays, literary criticism, book reviews, author interviews, art and photography. The magazine editor's description for each sponsored literary magazine gives you an overview of editorial styleswhat writers they have published and what they are looking for (with contact information, subscription rates, submission guidelines, and more).
Faster Times list (Lincoln Michel's list of literary magazines that regularly publish fiction)
Pushcart Prize ranking of literary magazines (fiction) Clifford Garstang's lists at Perpetual Folly, ranked according to number of Pushcart Prizes and mentions. Here are the rankings for nonfiction and for poetry.
PEN/O'Henry index of literary magazines
Bookfox's list of literary journals (ranked according to how many stories or mentions they've had in Best American Short Stories (BASS).
Literary Markets ranked by award anthologies (Mark Watkins' list, which includes such magazines as The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly)
Selby's List 2.0 (The Venerable List of Experimental Poetry/Art Magazines, curated by Jon Henson
The Best Literary Magazines & Journals (AbeBooks.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_magazines (Wikipedia's list of literary magazines and journals: periodicals devoted to short fiction, poems, essays, creative nonfiction, book reviews and similar literary endeavors which have published each year for ten years or more)
Canadian literary magazines (Wikipedia's list)
Social networking for book lovers
(book communities)
LibraryThing (enter what you're reading, or your whole library--and connect with people who read what you read--1.5 million people discuss and catalog books, find book reviews)
GoodReads (a popular site for rating and commenting on books,for keeping track of what you read, and would like to read--or forming a book club, answering trivia, or collecting your favorite quotations--plus some giveaways)
Shelfari (another popular site for rating and commenting on books -- a community-powered virtual bookshelf, to display your favorite books and connect to people who love to read what you love to read)
BookCrossing (a popular book sharing site, with some paid features, including book tagging: You register a book, get a Bookcrossing ID, use that to physically tag a book, and release it (e.g., leave it in a coffee shop or on the subway). The person who finds the book you set free can register it, so you can follow where it travels)
BookMooch (Give books away. Get books you want.)
Book Movement (reading guides, reviews, a community)
Comic Book Resources (a community and resource for comic book lovers)
Bookperk. HarperCollins' site offers perks for "insiders."
inReads (WETA, DC's public television affiliated, launched inRead 6-22-11, in Beta). Lets users converse about books, read reviews and get recommendations. Read ( PW account here.
Kobo's Reading Life. Explore. Unlock. Share.
Nook Friends (Barnes & Noble site for Nook readers)
Overbooked. Timely information about fiction, all genres, and readable nonfiction, plus Overbooked Scoops (curated by Ann Chambers Theis). Starred review lists include books that received at least one starred review from Booklist, Kirkus, LJ, and PW)
PaperBack Swap (a paperback book sharing service and community)
Revish (a book rating community)
Scribd (pronounced "skribbed") may be the largest book club in the world--on many topics
Wattpad (an eBook community). Fiction-oriented. Read stories. Vote for your favorites. Create a library.
[Go Top] But is it well written? . In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post (2-1-13), reader Patrick Ross of Alexandria writes, "I admire The Post for continuing to review books, even after eliminating its stand-alone Book World section. But I do not understand why The Post often encourages reviews of nonfiction books that neglect a critique of the actual writing." Nowhere does one reviewer tell him if a Jared Diamond book "is a good read."
Audio Books (formerly books on tape, but CDs and digital downloads are taking over the market)
Audie Winners (2001 on, along right -- recordings awarded best narration etc.--a good list from which to check out recordings from library)
Audible Yahoo Group (consumer discussion group sponsored by Audible.com, but not limited to Audible titles)
AudioFile (magazine/website for those who love audio books, with reviews)
Books for Ears (see review archive
Review of Audiobook Services
Author Links for Mystery Authors (Mainely Murders links -- a store where you can not only find a good selection but also trade in certain mysteries in excellent condition)
Back From the Dead: The State of Book Reviewing by Jane Ciabattari (The Practical Writer Sept-Oct 2011, Poets&Writers)
Biblioklept (review and discuss books and interview authors, publishers, and other book-type people)
(Megan Sullivan, head buyer at Harvard Book Store, thoughtfully reviews books)
Book Slut (Jessa Crispin, reviews, feature stories, interviews, and other book-related content)
Book Square (dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism)
Dear Reader (Suzanne Beecher's online book club). She's profiled here by Bill Duncan.
A Commonplace Blog (D.G. Myers, whose credits include the much-discussed blog article The most overrated novel ever ( Beloved by Toni Morrison)
The Shatzkin Files (Mike Shatzkin, Idea Logical Company, a publishing futurist who writes interesting analyses of the shift toward digital publishing and where book publishing is headed)
Publishers Lunch (the publishing industry's daily essential read, free) and if you $subscribe to Publishers Marketplace you can read Publishers Lunch Deluxe
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (reviews of romance novels)
The Book Trib (an aggregator of all the best book-related blogs
PowellsBooksBlog
So Many Books (Stephanie, in Books, Rambling)
Some Choice Book Blogs (Cynthia Crossen (WSJ, 11-13-09)
More to come!
Bookish.
Publishers Make a Plan: A One Stop Book Site (Julie Bosman, NY Times, 5-6-11). Three publishers (Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Hachette), frustrated few book buyers visit their company sites, have created Bookish.com, hoping it will become a destination for readers the way Pitchfork.com is for music lovers and IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Netflix are for films -- where site visitors can read recommendations, reviews, and recommendations from other readers and can buy books from the site or other retailers. (The article doesn't mention Amazon.com. The Bookish staff will select books from 14 or more publishers. The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered. Clive James' classic poem about about literary schadenfreude, as posted by Dwight Garner on the NY Times Paper Cuts blog about books.
The Book Publicity Blog (helpful blog -- and check right-hand column for good links to blogs on books, bookstores, media, marketing, publishing, publishing houses, technology, and more)
Book Reviewer Yellow Pages (scroll down for links to book reviewers who review books regularly and accept self-published and small press books)
Book reviewing panel. C-Span video of 2010 Virginia Festival of the Book panel discussion of the business of book reviews, with panelists Ron Charles, deputy editor of Washington Post Book World, David Montgomery, thriller and mystery Critic for the Daily Beast and Chicago Sun-Times, and authors Rebecca Skloot and Katharine Weber.
Book Review Podcasts. Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the New York Times Book Review, talks each week to authors, editors, and critics about new books, the literary scene, and current best sellers. The downloadable audio files are in mp3 format.
Book Reviews: Riles & Rules
Books and Beyond and other public events at the Library of Congress (Washington DC)
C-Span Podcasts (After Words, Washington Today, Podcast of the Week, Q and A, The Communicators, etc.)
Curled Up With a Good Book. (LL writes: "highly entrepreneurial e-zine; reviewers work for free and do a good job (on the six reviews I've read so far")
DailyLit. Receive short book installments by email or RSS feed (bite-size chunks of public domain books. Read on any computer or mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) (whenever you like). We learned of this from Cool Tools -- any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. (Thanks to Dan Curtis for this tip)
Dear Author (bloggers/reviewers who love romance books and a smattering of other genre and nonfiction books)
Dirda's Reading Room (ongoing discussions of books, including Best Books for Scientists, Genre Books as Works of Art, Wild, Wild Western Literature, What Are Your Favorite 'Best Worst' Works of Fiction and Poetry. Older discussions here.
Does anyone want to be "well-read? by Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times 4-16-11) on changing ideas of "must reads."
The Fallen Status of Books, Hard Times for Hardcovers, by Jack Schaefer (Slate, 9-9-10).
Flashlight Worthy (Peter Steinberg and Eric Mueller provide many and various recommended reading lists on topics of interest to book lovers -- a culling of books with Amazon links)
Fresh Fiction (news, reviews, blogs, etc., on genre fiction: genre fiction: romance, mystery, suspense, thrillers, horror, science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, graphic and action novels
The Future of Book Reviewing (Karen Long, Critical Mass, NBCC, 6-3-10)
How NOT to react to negative criticism for a self-published novel (Big Al's Books and Pals reviews a poorly edited novel and author melts down in public)
How to Break into Book Reviewing (Gerald Bartell, ASJA's The Word blog 9-5-12)
In Praise of Book Critics (Cynthia Crossen, Dear Book Lover, Wall Street Journal, 11-28-11)
Kirkus Reviews rises from ashes, tran$formed:
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy (David Streitfeld, NY Times, 8-29-12). An eye-opener about not only Kirkus Reviews but all those glowing reviews for new books on Amazon. (a/k/a Book Reviewers for Hire Meet a Demand for Online Raves)
And here's a little history about Kirkus:
Nielsen folds Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews (Jim Romenesko, Poynter, 12-10-09)
Kirkus Reviews lives on. Motoko Rich reports that Kirkus Gets A New Owner From The NBA (NY Times 2-10-10). In December he'd reported that End of Kirkus Reviews Brings Anguish and Relief (NYTimes, 12-11-09). Starred reviews were rare; negative reviews were not. Here's the link to Kirkus Book Reviews, reincarnated.
The Millions (C. Max Magee's popular online literary, arts, and culture site--good reading lists and comments)
Most negative review award (funny, but terrible for the author) goes to Lionel Shriver for Vow: A Memoir of Marriage (and Other Affairs) by Wendy Plump (The Guardian, 3-8-13). A badly written memoir of marital infidelity has Lionel Shriver yearning for Anna Karenina. (Interesting to compare with reviews on Amazon.
Mysteries -- Recommended Reading sites
Cozy Mystery List and Cozy Mystery List blog. A helpful way of presenting the lists winners of Malice Domestic's Agatha Awards (traditional mysteries that contain no explicit explicit sex, gratuitous gore, or excessive violence).
General Mystery Websites (links to sources for mystery reviews, blogs, true crime, mysteries in film and tv, etc.)
Mysteries by Location
Mystery News (good through 2009, when it ceased publication)
Mystery Reader
Mystery Scene magazine
Stop. You're Killing Me! (a website to die for if you love mysteries)
Articles about mysteries (general):
The guilty vicarage: Notes on the detective story, by an addict by W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (Harpers, 1948)
The mystery of mysteries: What really keeps us reading (Mark Kingwell, Globe & Mail, 5-18-12)
Why Readers Read Mysteries (James N. Frey)
The Simple Art of Murder (Raymond Chandler, 1950)
Mystery Readers International (journal). Janet Rudolph, chocoholic, lists mystery readers' reading groups, mystery bookstores, mystery periodicals--and her journal issues focus on topics such as mysteries set in France, legal mysteries, shrinks and other health professionals in mysteries, animal mysteries, etc.)
National Book Festival podcasts from the Library of Congress festival on the National Mall.
Podcasts from Bookfest 2011 (Terry McMillan, Jessica Harris, Adam Goodheart, David McCullough, Russell Banks)
Podcasts from Bookfest 2010 (Ken Follett, Jane Smiley, Anchee Min, Judith Viorst, Isabel Allende, Pat Mora, Rae Armantrout)
Podcasts from Bookfest 2009 (Julia Alvarez, Judy Blume, Michael Connelly, Junot Diaz, Gwen Ifill, John Irving, Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor, Lois Lowry, Rickey Minor, Walter Mosley, James Patterson, George Pelecanos, Jodi Picoult, Jon Scieszka, Nicholas Sparks, David Wroblewski)
Podcasts from Bookfest 2008 (Louis Bayard, Jan Brett, Geraldine Brooks, Warren Brown, Joseph Bruchac, Marisa de los Santos, Kimberly Dozier, Sharon M. Draper, Arthur Frommer and Pauline Frommer, Philippa Gregory, Walter Isaacson, Brad Meltzer, Cokie Roberts, Peter Robinson, Kay Ryan, Bob Schieffer, Jon Scieszka, Michelle Singletary, R.L. Stine, Dionne Warwick)
Podcasts from Bookfest 2007 (Terry Pratchett, Maria Celeste Arrarαs, Charles Simic, Rosemary Wells, Victoria Rowell, Patricia MacLachlan, Sanjay Gupta, Ken Burns, Megan McDonald, David Baldacci, Holly Black, Carmen Agra Deedy, David Wiesner, Shelia P. Moses)
New Books Network.
Discussions with authors about their new books -- a consortium of podcasts dedicated to raising the level of public discourse by introducing serious authors to serious audiences. Dozens of categories, which include:
New Books in Biography (Oline Eaton interviewing)
New Books in History
New Books in Religion
New Books in Education
New Books in Film
and so on!
100 Essential Sites for Voracious Readers (Masters in English). Categories covered: general literature & publishing, literary magazines, book reviews, literary criticism, and book club blogs.
100 Great American Novels You've (Probably) Never Read (the book) by Karl Bridges. This pricey hardcover book is "a resource for readers of American fiction whove read their way through the standard canon of classics. 'One goal of this book,' Bridges writes in his Introduction, 'is to represent a wide time spanone equaling the length of American history.'' The novels listed cover a full 200 years: from Charles Brockden Browns Edgar Huntly, or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker(1797) to Charles T. Powers In the Memory of the Forest (1997). You can find a list of the 100 novels on Neglected Books.
Real Clear Books, links to top of the day's book reviews in various publications. See also Real Clear Politics, Real Clear Markets, Real Clear World, and Real Clear Sports.
Reviewing the Reviewers (Cheryl Jarvis, Publishers Weekly, 6-29-12)
Social networking for book lovers
(book communities)
LibraryThing (enter what you're reading, or your whole library--and connect with people who read what you read--1.5 million people discuss and catalog books, find book reviews)
GoodReads (a popular site for rating and commenting on books,for keeping track of what you read, and would like to read--or forming a book club, answering trivia, or collecting your favorite quotations--plus some giveaways)
Shelfari (another popular site for rating and commenting on books -- a community-powered virtual bookshelf, to display your favorite books and connect to people who love to read what you love to read)
BookCrossing (a popular book sharing site, with some paid features, including book tagging: You register a book, get a Bookcrossing ID, use that to physically tag a book, and release it (e.g., leave it in a coffee shop or on the subway). The person who finds the book you set free can register it, so you can follow where it travels)
inReads (WETA, DC's public television affiliated, launched inRead 6-22-11, in Beta). Lets users converse about books, read reviews and get recommendations. Read ( PW account here.
Scribd (pronounced "skribbed") may be the largest book club in the world--on many topics
Kobo's Reading Life. Explore. Unlock. Share.
Wattpad (an eBook community). Fiction-oriented. Read stories. Vote for your favorites. Create a library.
Bookperk. HarperCollins' site offers perks for "insiders."
Nook Friends (Barnes & Noble site for Nook readers)
BookMooch (Give books away. Get books you want.)
PaperBack Swap (a paperback book sharing service and community)
Revish (a book rating community)
Book Movement (reading guides, reviews, a community)
Comic Book Resources (a community and resource for comic book lovers)
Reviews of these and other niche social networking sites (Kevin Palmer, Social Media Answers)
[Go Top]
So What Do You Do, Tom Lutz, Editor of Los Angeles Review of Books? Cameron Martin's interview with TL (Media Bistro, Avant Guild 10-26-11) The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything. Linda Holmes (NPR, 4-18-11) on how, with so much music and literature out there, we can't get to it all, so we must "cull" (sort what is or isn't worth our time) or "surrender" (this goes on the list of what I won't get to).
Shelfari (social networking for book lovers)(a virtual bookshelf -- a community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers)
Why Do Critics Hate Movies Audiences Love?. I like Nell Minow's title for the interesting conversation, on video, between film critic A.O. Scott and David Carr, which the NY Times calls The Sweet Spot (6-1-12). Carr emphasizes how much a bad review can hurt. Scott emphasizes how bad The Lorax was (which he called a "noisy, useless piece of junk."
Writer Races to Victory From Way Off the Pace. Novelist Jaimy Gordon was a long shot for the National Book Award for fiction, with her novel Lord of Misrule, which won. "To write a novel that was even remotely commercial...she had to get out of Providence, where even to think of such a thing was considered a sell out..." Janet Maslin describes the novel as "so assured, exotic and uncategorizable, with such an unlikely provenance, that it arrives as an incontrovertible winner, a bona fide bolt from the blue."
[Go Top]
Anthony Trollope on negative book reviews
(from The Way We Live Now (Chapter XI, Lady Carbury at Home)
During the last six weeks Lady Carbury had lived a life of very mixed depression and elevation. Her great work had come out, the 'Criminal Queens,' and had been very widely reviewed. In this matter it had been by no means all pleasure, inasmuch as many very hard words had been said of her. In spite of the dear friendship between herself and Mr Alf, one of Mr Alf's most sharp-nailed subordinates had been set upon her book, and had pulled it to pieces with almost rabid malignity. One would have thought that so slight a thing could hardly have been worthy of such protracted attention. Error after error was laid bare with merciless prolixity. No doubt the writer of the article must have had all history at his finger-ends, as in pointing out the various mistakes made he always spoke of the historical facts which had been misquoted, misdated, or misrepresented, as being familiar in all their bearings to every schoolboy of twelve years old. The writer of the criticism never suggested the idea that he himself, having been fully provided with books of reference, and having learned the art of finding in them what he wanted at a moment's notice, had, as he went on with his work, checked off the blunders without any more permanent knowledge of his own than a housekeeper has of coals when she counts so many sacks into the coal-cellar. He spoke of the parentage of one wicked ancient lady, and the dates of the frailties of another, with an assurance intended to show that an exact knowledge of all these details abided with him always. He must have been a man of vast and varied erudition, and his name was Jones. The world knew him not, but his erudition was always there at the command of Mr Alf, and his cruelty. The greatness of Mr Alf consisted in this, that he always had a Mr Jones or two ready to do his work for him. It was a great business, this of Mr Alf's, for he had his Jones also for philology, for science, for poetry, for politics, as well as for history, and one special Jones, extraordinarily accurate and very well posted up in his references, entirely devoted to the Elizabethan drama.
There is the review intended to sell a book, which comes out immediately after the appearance of the book, or sometimes before it; the review which gives reputation, but does not affect the sale, and which comes a little later; the review which snuffs a book out quietly; the review which is to raise or lower the author a single peg, or two pegs, as the case may be; the review which is suddenly to make an author, and the review which is to crush him. An exuberant Jones has been known before now to declare aloud that he would crush a man, and a self-confident Jones has been known to declare that he has accomplished the deed. Of all reviews, the crushing review is the most popular, as being the most readable. When the rumour goes abroad that some notable man has been actually crushed, been positively driven over by an entire Juggernaut's car of criticism till his literary body be a mere amorphous mass, then a real success has been achieved, and the Alf of the day has done a great thing; but even the crushing of a poor Lady Carbury, if it be absolute, is effective. Such a review will not make all the world call for the 'Evening Pulpit', but it will cause those who do take the paper to be satisfied with their bargain. Whenever the circulation of such a paper begins to slacken, the proprietors should, as a matter of course, admonish their Alf to add a little power to the crushing department.
[Back to Top]
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy (David Streitfeld, NY Times, 8-25-12). "Consumer reviews are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth....[Bing Liu] estimates that about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake. Yet it is all but impossible to tell when reviews were written by the marketers or retailers (or by the authors themselves under pseudonyms), by customers (who might get a deal from a merchant for giving a good score) or by a hired third-party service." See also In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5 (Streitfeld, 8-19-11) and Is That Review a Fake?
Update on Amazon's Disappearing Reviews: Konrath Continues Bold, Pro-Lies Stance; Amazon's Policies Clarified (Ed Robertson, Failure Ahoy! Adventures in Digital Publishing, 11-3-12). Responding to bad behavior by axing genuine reviews as well as fakes, Amazon has stirred serious criticism. Robertson points to the best summary of why Amazon is deleting so many honest reviews in Peter Durward Harris' post in Amazon forums.
The 'sock puppet' scandal: How to stop fake book reviews online (Laura Hazard Owen, paidContent, 9-6-12)
The furor over 'sock' puppet' Amazon book reviews (Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times, 9-4-12).
Giving Moms Book Five Stars? Amazon May Cull Your Review (David Streitfeld, NY Times, 12-22-12). Amazon's "sweeping but hazy purge [of "illegitimate reviews"] has generated an uproar about what it means to review in an era when everyone is an author and everyone is a reviewer."
Authors condemn fake internet reviews (The Telegraph, on Web abuse by writers, 9-3-12)
NI crime writers Stuart Neville and Sam Millar clash (Nuala McCann, BBC News, 9-3-12
Case Study of Paid Book Review Mill (ShelfAwareness, 8-27-12)
RJ Ellory admits posting fake book reviews over past 10 years (Andrew Hough, The Telegraph, UK, 9-4-12). Bestselling British crime writer, exposed for writing fake online reviews lauding himself while criticizing rivals, admits he has engaged in the practice for a decade. Thus begins the "sock puppet review" scandal.
RJ Ellory: fake book reviews are rife on internet, authors warn Bestselling writers Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Susan Hill, Val McDermid and Helen FitzGerald, who have collectively sold millions of novels, unreservedly condemned the abuse on websites such as Amazon, where reviews posted under fake identities are causing untold damage to the publishing world. Read their letter in full.
Leading academics in bitter row over anonymous 'poison' book reviews (Alastair Jamieson, The Telegraph, 4-18-10). Orlando Figes, professor of history at Birkbeck College, London, and author of a book on Stalin, has named his wife as the author of comments criticizing books written by other renowned scholars as being "dark and pretentious" and "critically dull."
Historian Orlando Figes agrees to pay damages for fake reviews on Amazon (Alexandra Topping, Guardian, 7-16-10). Historian to pay damages and costs to two rivals who launched a libel case after he posted reviews "praising his own work and rubbishing that of his rivals."
AMAZON'S REACTION TO THE SOCK PUPPET SCANDAL IS EQUALLY UPSETTING:
Amazon Tackles Review Problem, Deletes Wrong Reviews (Suw Charman-Anderson, Forbes, 11-7-12 )
Amazon Customer Care Droids (Johnny Be Good, Stop the Good Reads Bullies blog, 10-20-12)
Fake Reviews: Amazon's Rotten Core (Suw Charman-Anderson, Forbes, 8-28-12)
Do Consumer Reviews Have A Future? Why Amazon's Sock Puppet Scandal Is Bigger Than It Appears (David Vinjamuri, Forbes, 9-12-12). A huge controversy has erupted over the use of Sock Puppets fake personas created by authors to write phony positive reviews of their own work and attack their rivals. The controversy started at the Harrogate Crime Festival in the U.K. in July, when British crime writer Stephen Leather casually acknowledged using sock puppets to generate buzz for his books. Amazon's guidelines for creating reviews include these two rules:
--"Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)"
-- "Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product. This includes reviews that are a part of a paid publicity package"
Amazon Freaks Out About Sock Puppet Reviews And Deletes A Bunch Of Real Reviews (collateral damage department, TechDirt, 11-2-12). After authors freaked out about the sock puppet reviews, Amazon first revised its rules for review writing. making purchased reviews against the rules, and then deleted a lot of legitimate reviews, making it unlikely readers would post reviews in future.
Why is Amazon deleting writers' reviews of other authors' books? (Carolyn Kellogg, Jacket Copy, Los Angeles Times, 11-2-12). A writer posting a review of another author's book got this response from Amazon: "We have removed your review from .... We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product. As a result, we've removed your reviews for this title."
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