Book Reviews and Reviewing

They are the bane of an author’s life. They are a necessary evil. But we gotta have them. Be they from industry magazines (Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, or Booklist) or from newspapers (USA Today, the New York Times Book Review), or consumer magazines (People, The New Yorker, etc.).

I remember a time when most all newspapers, even local ones, did a page of book reviews. They no longer have the staff or the space on the quickly diminishing size of print newspapers. Plus, when you get rid of your copy editors/proofreaders, as many of them have, it makes for an uncomfortable and, yes, amateurish read.

Publishers like them to put on book covers, nice little pull-quotes that say what a marvelous book this is and why. This is different from a blurb that you request from authors, mostly authors more accomplished than you are yourself. Bestsellers. Name brands. For the average reader, they prefer to see a blurb from an author they like. I put them on my bookmarks and once, when I was giving them out at a mystery fan convention, I heard a reader comment as he read the blurbs from authors on the back of mine. “If so-and-so-author likes it, then I’ll give it a try!” Verification right there.

And yet, there seems to be a new trend away from that. Publisher Sean Manning with Simon & Schuster said recently in a Publishers Weekly article, “This got me thinking about the practice of blurbs. While there has never been a formal mandatory policy in the eight years I’ve been with the Simon & Schuster imprint, it has been tacitly expected that authors—with the help of their agents and editors—do everything in their power to obtain blurbs to use on their book cover and in promotional material. I have always found this so weird.” He points out that no other industry requires this. No film asks for a blurb from another filmmaker. No pot or pan, requires them. And so he is no longer requiring it. (And by the way, I’ve always thought that it should be the publisher’s job to get those. After all, they already have a huge pool of authors from which to ask. Instead, it’s always been my job, not my agent’s, to go get them. It’s one of the many perks of networking.)

But it’s necessary, if not ego-boosting to have the professional critic give it their imprimatur. Why? Well, it seems to be an industry standard of what goes on a cover, what gives the book legitimacy. A thoughtful review on Amazon or Goodreads or LibraryThing or any other book review blog or online venue helps. But those generally don’t go on book covers. And for the most part, at least on book buying sites, these are just everyday folks who love to read and love to tell about the books they had just immersed themselves into. And that becomes a numbers game; how many stars, how many reviews not just ratings can a book get? How do we as authors crack the code?

We don’t. Once it’s out in the world, it’s no longer up to us. It’s a thing alive, squirming through libraries and people’s home bookshelves or phones.

Why go to the professional critic then if this other is so numerous and available? It’s a matter of responsibility. On critic Adam Allen’s The Haunted Library substack/blog, he poses that question: “No longer do you have to have a degree or published work in order to share your opinions and thoughts, and I’m not writing this to say that’s a bad thing in any way. What I’m saying is that when you critique art, you have a number of responsibilities to consider both to your audience and to the artist.” He goes on to say, “One, you must actually read the work. This does not mean skim. This does not mean read what other people think about the book. This means to sit down and read or listen to the book without distraction. If you are are unable to do that, are you truly in a position to discuss it?”

You don’t have to be a literary genius to review a book on Amazon or Bookshop.org. You just have to write what you like or dislike about a book. It’s not a book report. It’s a conversation with other readers, as if the entire webosphere was a giant book club.

There’s even videos on how to write a book review. Here’s one from Reedsy and another from Yaasha Moriah.

It seems I will still be getting those professional critic reviews on my covers as well as the author blurb. I recall a time when the Boston Globe, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Globe and Mail in Canada did reviews of my books. No more. I must rely on industry magazines and on personal blurbs from authors I respect to grace my covers. Some things don’t change.