The first session of this class went well! Nisi Shawl was a terrific guest speaker.
In talking about reviews, we talked about good reviews and what they do. Here’s the notes from that.
- Provide a sense of the reviewer, their styles and biases.
- Explain what makes the reviewer say something is very good or very bad.
- Provide a sense of the book’s context and comparable books.
- Make you want to read the book but without creating unreasonable expectations.
- Alert the reader to problematic things without providing preconceptions.
- Be diplomatic but honest.
- Provide an educated impression of the book that tells the reader whether or not they should invest time/money in the book.
- Delve into what about the book created a particular impression.
Other topics we touched on: how you get started doing book reviews, what limits to have regarding spoilers, how to write a negative review well, promoting yourself and your reviews, networking, how to evaluate reviews, and the best way(s) to get better at reviewing. I thought it went really well and had plenty of interesting conversation and questions.
The next Art of the Book Review online class will happen Sunday, March 30, 9:30-11:30 AM PST. Nisi will be appearing as a speaker for the class in this session as well.
We ended up granting a couple of deadline extensions for the novel workshop, and it seemed fairer to me to extend that to everyone. So if you are someone who wanted to apply and just didn’t get their stuff in order, you’re got an extra two weeks if you want to apply.
One Response
“Complaining is like sitting in a rocking chair. You can get lots of motion, but you ain’t going nowhere….” (Rarity from the Hollow)
Nevertheless, I make a complaint about reader reviews. I sent a kudo yesterday to a woman that burned a Kindle that had a mountain of likes and positive reviews. I’ve read lots of free or $.99 books ordered by my daughter-in-law. In summary, they all sucked. I’ve vowed to never read another book that doesn’t have a professional review, such as by the Missouri Review or Midwest Review.
Do you think I’m making a mistake. I’m 62 — that may affect your advice. Thanks,