When Is a Book Review Not a Book Review?

An Editorial by Nan Hawthorne

When is a book review not a book review? When it is, in essence, a free advertisement.

I just resigned from a book review blog because a review I wrote was deemed "negative" and therefore unpublished. I had not known the policy of the group precluded anything but the most minor criticism of a book. If I had been, I should not have chosen to accept the invitation to participate. As I said recently to a colleague, I believe that if a reviewer cannot say what she thinks of a book she has no business reviewing it at all. It's dishonest. It calls into question the credibility of every single review published within its digital covers. It cheats those who read and trust the reviews.

I am terribly disappointed. I felt honored to be part of that group. But I simply feel that if authors want nothing but a send-off of their work, they should make sure their books are perfect. And you know and I know that no book is perfect. It's a subjective art, reviewing.

In the case of the book I reviewed "negatively" -- I don't happen to agree with that assessment, actually -- it had several plot threads that simply fizzled out and were never resolved. The book had its merits, the historical research was superb and it was one of the best portrayals of female friendships I have ever read written by a man. But the book was slow to start, got better, then started jumping about confusingly. Then it just ended. I feel it would have been a disservice to cover all that up.

To clarify, the site's policy is basically "If you have to say too much negative about a book, don't review it at all." In other words, you as the reader don't know if a book that is not on the site was tooo awful to review or was just never reviewed.

I don't understand how reviews of books where flaws are unacknowledged is anything but free advertising for the book?

I plan to ask the publishers of the site either to remove all my reviews as well as their review of my own novel or add a disclaimer that only positive comments were permitted.

As an author I object to mollycoddling. If I put out my work I must be prepared to hear things I don't like. I understand the author of the book whose flaws I acknowledged wrote to the owner of the site to object. The owner only said to me that his email "broke my heart". What sense does it make to write reviews then? I was not harsh or bitchy or nasty.. and I shouldn't be defending myself here. He should be defending his book. I know how it feels to have less than complimentary assessments of my work published. That's just the price of being a public artist.

My one chuckle over this situation concerns the new law that calls into question the integrity of product review blogs. As of December 1st bloggers in the U.S. must reveal if they received the book or other product they are reviewing in return for the review. This law doesn't apply to any mediem other than the Internet. The impllication is that people who review on the Internet are not to be trusted to have integrity, that we are likely to write rave reviews in exchange for compensation. In the case of book reviews, this is a laughable assertion, given that it is a rare review where the reviewer bought the book herself. That happens to be the case with most of my reviews, since That's All She Read is as much a place for me to record all the books I read.

But it appears that it doesn't take compensation or reward to assure a positive published assessment of a book. Ill-placed and unprofessional "niceness" will do the job as well.

Is Your Novel On our Calendar?

Mayhap you have had a chance to check out our Today in Medieval History daily online calendar.

Mayhap you have noticed the instructions on the page that tells you how to add this calendar to your blog or web site?

But mayhap you do not know that if your novel, old or new, depicts a famous event in medieval history -- an d we define that as being between 500 and 1600 AD give or take -- we would be pleased as Punch to at least print your title and ordering information and would also like to print an excerpt from your book describing some aspect of the event!

All you have to do is send us your title, the ISBN and, if including an excerpt, a Word or text file attachment to hawthorne@nanhawthorne.com with the subject line "for the medieval calendar" or words to that effect.

For some examples, take a look at these pages:

19 April 1536
5 August 1192
22 August 1485

The blog is an Amazon Associate site.

Questions? Contact us at hawthorne@nanhawthorne.com!

P.S. We even want to know about books you read about these events. For instance, anyone know of a book that tells how Ben Jonson, the playwright and poet, came to be arrested for manslaughter?

The Talking Book Marketing Blues

I woke up this morning,
And sat down at my desk.
I thought of my novel,
And how I did my best.

I wrote of my characters,
And made them so real,
But sometimes it feels
Like I'm spinning my wheels.

I got the talkin' book marketing blues.

The book's got a great cover,
So the bookstore guy said,
But even he only gave me
A dollar a head

For my tome of a novel
Of passion and war,
And I wonder sometimes
What is it all for?

I got the talkin' book marketing blues.

I know it's too soon
To give up on this dream.
It's been only six months
Since my book made the scene.

I think I'm doing everything
To get out the word
I've gotten reviews
And their praise reassures.

I got the talkin' book marketing blues.

I made a great trailer
And it's up on YouTube
I blog like a demon
I'm spreadin' the news.

I even left copies
With the donated books
Hoping the readers
Would tell other folks.

I got the talkin' book marketing blues.

I started a book group
And they read the book
I suppose I should be happy
And not be so shook

I just wish I knew
What else I can
To spread the good word
About what I loved to do.

I got the talkin' book marketing blues.

So tell me your secrets
You big-seller writers,
How did you tell them
Those big novel buyers

That they'd love what they read
Of your eloquent words
Of kings and of warriors
Of a romantic old world.

I got the talkin' book marketing blues.

The Mad Book Marketer

Mirella Patzer always comments on my range of marketing for my book, An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England. I thought I'd enumerate the ones I can think of in one sitting.

I started marketing my novel a year and half before it came out by starting my old blog, The Blue Lady Tavern. It was a fictional blog with stories about the characters in the book. I remember running a whole series of stories about my Irish bard, Shannon O'Neill, that got some fan letters. The idea clearly was to get people inters ted well before the book came out.

I am doing the standard stuff:

Bookmarks
Asking for reviews and interviews
My own web site
Am working on a flyer
Book giveaways on my blog(s)
Am working on a video book trailer too with shield wall action scenes

Some of the perhaps less typical things I have done, though I don't claim any are original:

Volunteered to moderate an Internet book club
Putting copies of my book on library for-sale shelves
Starting an Internet radio station to play music I love and is likely to attract folks who like the genre I write in
I took a few copies to a used book store that buys books

On top of that a friend who sells books on eBay is putting one of my bookmarks in all the books she sells. Thanks, Brandy!

I make a point of being active on blogs other than my own but of interest to the same people, leaving comments, offering link exchanges. This is all part of "networking", a concept I learned a lot about when I was writing employment articles for eSight Careers Network. It gives me lots of places to put my book title in front of people already primed for its general topic, and it builds a relationship with other writers and readers.

You will notice that many of the ideas bring in no money and in fact cost me more than I would get from selling one book. The point is, as the marketing types say, to create buzz. As an example, someone might notice the book, which has a striking cover, at the bookstore,not buy it that time, but remember it and decide to go ahead and buy it on Amazon.

I haven't gotten much done on it yet, but I also have a site with further stories about the characters in An Involuntary King, including what you might call some unauthorized ones. There is one where my Saxon king is in what looks like an episode of COPS!

When I was working as a volunteer resources manager for a nonprofit, I applied a tried and true marketing concept called "you are always marketing". In that case I said "you are always recruiting volunteers". The concept as I applied it was to strike up conversations at the supermarket and anywhere I was where I mentioned the organization I worked for. Most people want to volunteer but aren't sure how and where, so they would always ask me questions. I have taken the marketing concept back and now make a point of bringing up my book.. not in an annoying way, but just in passing, and never to the same person twice! Having a t-shirt with my book cover on it helps spark the conversation.

Another thing I learned early was to do favors. If you naturally like to help others and do what you can for them, you are bound to find your favors returned. I would do them anyway. I just like to be a resource. But it is, as they say, gravy when someone therefore well disposed to me then do me one back, like recommending my book.

The second I click on "Publish Post" I will think of several other things I do. But that is all for now.