Let's talk about reviews...
I've been thinking about reviews a lot lately.
What is this: "I was given a free copy in exchange for a review", I keep seeing so much of?
There is really nothing about this arrangement that suggests free copy to me. It's more like a medieval barter system.
I'm going to use Joe Shmoe's standard e-book on Amazon as an example. If someone goes to Amazon.com and orders a market copy in e-book format, that person's likely going to spend $2.99 plus taxes of some sort. (This is so that the author gets a 70% royalty on his work.) The purchaser thereby has no obligation to ever review, nor even finish reading, the book he has just bought.
Let's flip this around. I actually timed myself reading my debut novella in a little over 6 hours. (I don't know if this is particularly standard. Some readers are faster or slower.) I can't speak for those of you in the rest of the world, but here in Minnesota if you are running a small business and you pay an employee, you must generally pay at least $6.50 per hour. (This is according to minimum wage laws.)
Therefore, any positive* review someone gives to the book I wrote is worth $39.00. So, why is someone required to state, "I was given a free book for this review?" Was it really a free book? Or did someone pay in opportunity cost 12 times more than someone who just bought the e-book on Amazon?
Even if we were to acknowledge that they got a free product,--hey, they enjoy the book; it's entertaining--the time spent to write a decent review is in itself likely as much as, if not more than, the book would have cost.
This isn't to belittle our reviewers' mental disposition. Far from it. We don't thank reviewers enough for the hard work they do. They spend so much for the product. I simply think it's high time to stop acting like someone got something for free. Is this sort of off-putting remark ever really necessary or useful?
Let's go one step further...
When I look into reviewing something, I look at it as a writer's endorsement. You've seen this in traditionally published fiction: "A flippin' good time!" - So-and-so Author
Now, not that I put myself on the same pedestal with whatever famous author put his name on the dust jacket of New York Times #1 Bestseller. But you gotta consider this. If my name appears on the back of that jacket, someone who's seeing my name for the very first time has to wonder, "Who's that guy?" And when they see who that guy is, if they see that it's the same sort of fiction they're already interested in, there's a pretty good chance they're going to invest.
Think about it: Why don't you see Mrs. Romance Novelist endorsing Mr. Military Sci-Fi's book on the dust jacket? An endorsement says as much about your writing as it does about the author's. It does me no good, if, say, Stephenie Meyer (Yay! Twilight!)decides to endorse my book. My books have markedly little in common with hers and don't really share a target audience. (In fact, given my lack of affection for werepires as a whole [hey, sooner or later, someone's going to breed them with all those love triangles going on], I'd actually plead with her not to review my book.)
So, yet again, asking a fellow author for a review (unless you truly admire his work and see similarities with your own) may be detrimental. Whereas, if the works are similar, review swapping just makes marked sense.
Authors on goodreads.com have been offering "review swaps" for quite some time, and really, there isn't anything inherently wrong with that. However, we might be better off sharing books in a swap, and later, if the authors agree they have a mutual respect for each other's work and see similar styles, working together to bring fan bases together.
Now, I'm not sure how to go about such a thing, but I do think it's worth consideration. What do you think?
*Positive is here emphasized, because if you consider the writing horrible, why finish reading it?
What is this: "I was given a free copy in exchange for a review", I keep seeing so much of?
There is really nothing about this arrangement that suggests free copy to me. It's more like a medieval barter system.
I'm going to use Joe Shmoe's standard e-book on Amazon as an example. If someone goes to Amazon.com and orders a market copy in e-book format, that person's likely going to spend $2.99 plus taxes of some sort. (This is so that the author gets a 70% royalty on his work.) The purchaser thereby has no obligation to ever review, nor even finish reading, the book he has just bought.
Let's flip this around. I actually timed myself reading my debut novella in a little over 6 hours. (I don't know if this is particularly standard. Some readers are faster or slower.) I can't speak for those of you in the rest of the world, but here in Minnesota if you are running a small business and you pay an employee, you must generally pay at least $6.50 per hour. (This is according to minimum wage laws.)
Therefore, any positive* review someone gives to the book I wrote is worth $39.00. So, why is someone required to state, "I was given a free book for this review?" Was it really a free book? Or did someone pay in opportunity cost 12 times more than someone who just bought the e-book on Amazon?
Even if we were to acknowledge that they got a free product,--hey, they enjoy the book; it's entertaining--the time spent to write a decent review is in itself likely as much as, if not more than, the book would have cost.
This isn't to belittle our reviewers' mental disposition. Far from it. We don't thank reviewers enough for the hard work they do. They spend so much for the product. I simply think it's high time to stop acting like someone got something for free. Is this sort of off-putting remark ever really necessary or useful?
Let's go one step further...
When I look into reviewing something, I look at it as a writer's endorsement. You've seen this in traditionally published fiction: "A flippin' good time!" - So-and-so Author
Now, not that I put myself on the same pedestal with whatever famous author put his name on the dust jacket of New York Times #1 Bestseller. But you gotta consider this. If my name appears on the back of that jacket, someone who's seeing my name for the very first time has to wonder, "Who's that guy?" And when they see who that guy is, if they see that it's the same sort of fiction they're already interested in, there's a pretty good chance they're going to invest.
Think about it: Why don't you see Mrs. Romance Novelist endorsing Mr. Military Sci-Fi's book on the dust jacket? An endorsement says as much about your writing as it does about the author's. It does me no good, if, say, Stephenie Meyer (Yay! Twilight!)decides to endorse my book. My books have markedly little in common with hers and don't really share a target audience. (In fact, given my lack of affection for werepires as a whole [hey, sooner or later, someone's going to breed them with all those love triangles going on], I'd actually plead with her not to review my book.)
So, yet again, asking a fellow author for a review (unless you truly admire his work and see similarities with your own) may be detrimental. Whereas, if the works are similar, review swapping just makes marked sense.
Authors on goodreads.com have been offering "review swaps" for quite some time, and really, there isn't anything inherently wrong with that. However, we might be better off sharing books in a swap, and later, if the authors agree they have a mutual respect for each other's work and see similar styles, working together to bring fan bases together.
Now, I'm not sure how to go about such a thing, but I do think it's worth consideration. What do you think?
*Positive is here emphasized, because if you consider the writing horrible, why finish reading it?
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