What’s your opinion of book reviews? Should authors review? Please readers, don’t be shy!

Originally posted on Just Olga:

Hi all:

I���ve read and heard a variety of arguments on the subject or reviews. Much advice to authors focuses on the need to obtain reviews, on how important they are, on professional reviews (yes, because scandals apart, there are places, Kirkus reviews to name one of the best known, for example, that provide reviews for money, but we���re talking about honest, unbiased reviews, so as an author you might be in the weird situation of paying to get something bad said about you���hey, one can get that for free!), on bloggers who provide reviews, on methods to try and get reviews even before the book is finished (the famous ARC or ���advance review copy���) as sales seem somehow linked to reviews. (It���s a bit of a catch 22 situations. Like trying to get a job on something you���ve never worked on before. Employers want experience and recommendations but���

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