Reviews - to blog or not to blog

[Daniel]

I have recently gotten into the Indie book scene and I am loving the community surrounding it. When I read a book I like to give a review with the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are two reasons for this
1) I want to help the author out by giving them constructive criticism on the bad and praise on the good
2) I want to help readers read the wheat from the chaff in this crap-infested self-publishing world we live in.

My question for the Indie Book Club is whether reviewing solely on Goodreads is the way to go, or whether I should be doing a review blog. What will most benefit readers and writers alike (format or content wise).

[Mia]

Personally, I chose to do a blog alongside posting the reviews on goodreads, so I could open up to submissions and have an easy place to put what I was looking for, as well as explain my rating systems. It was also just fun, cause my blog has a theme to it. Though I just use it for indie books. Any mainstream published works I read I just post on goodreads.

[Thaddeus]

I'd second Mia (who has a delightful site and book review blog, incidentally).

You can still post your reviews on Goodreads, after all, and you'd be doing the reviews anyway so the extra work wouldn't be all that much and I think you'd get a bigger audience.

[A.L.]

I am reviewing here and on Amazon (if I can) I am also starting to review on my blog. I am also looking for guests to chat about reviews on my blog. I guess as well I could accept reviews.

[Daniel]

I really would like the indie community to rally together and create the one-stop-shop for idie goodness. Having multiple reviews running one web-site, who all have their preferred style. For instance I read The Delilah Complex which I thought was an amazing book in its own right, but I will never read any more M. J. Rose just because the style didn't fit me and some of the content was too much for me to handle. I think that all authors who write good books deserve the spotlight, and as a sci-fi/fantasty reader myself, I can't give proper credit where credit is due in other genres (primarily romance which most of it I can't stand. I pretty well stay away from Romance as a whole because A) I don't like it and B) if it is good, I don't want to muddy the water with a bad review though it may be a good book in its own right, and I just didn't like it).

Maybe I am just dreaming, but isn't that what indie is all about? A dream turning into a reality. I have been reading a few indie book review blogs and have yet to find one that is my pace/speed (i.e. sci-fi/fantasy that doesn't bother with romance [any I have found do a lot of paranormal romance which I also choose to stay away from for similar reasons as general romance out of respect for the potentially good author] ).

I can definitely see what Mia said about keeping mainstream publishing reviews to goodreads only. In fact, I have thought of not reviewing mainstream stuff at all (because I review to help author and reader, and mainstreamers don't need my help right? ;) ) but after reading a book I basically can't help but review it.

[Scott, Fabled Reviewer o' Tales!]

My review blog focuses primarily on fantasy/scifi with some thriller and such included as well. I haven't been as active with it lately due to a whole lot of life changes going on.

I can totally understand the not enjoying romance as I really am not a fan of those either and if there is a good story that overdevelops a romantic plot to the detriment of the main storyline it really kills the book for me.

I will say that from my perspective of running a blog that solely focuses on indie books and authors for over two years now it is actually a lot of work. A lot of people who do reviews have blogs, but reviews are just one facet of them. It can be difficult to read enough to keep fresh content coming and without regular updates I'm not sure how many readers will be drawn to a blog that only has sporadic updates. I think hitting the major review sites like B&N, Amazon, and Goodreads is pretty helpful.

There are also review sites/blogs that allow you to sign up to be a reviewer and you pick and choose what to review and what genres to ignore.

[Mia]

To me, I don't review just to help authors, but also to help readers. That's why I will still review mainstream books here on Goodreads, and while some reviewers won't post a review if it's less than three stars, I will, but I'll be very clear about what my issue was and I'm always quick to acknowledge when it's likely just something in me that others won't mind so much.

[Daniel]

Scott wrote: "There are also review sites/blogs that allow you to sign up to be a reviewer and you pick and choose what to review and what genres to ignore. "

Really? I have never heard of this. Examples?

Scott wrote: A lot of people who do reviews have blogs, but reviews are just one facet of them. It can be difficult to read enough to keep fresh content coming and without regular updates I'm not sure how many readers will be drawn to a blog that only has sporadic updates

I agree. I generally read about a book a week (obviously depending on the length) and I spend A LOT of time reading, so I can definitely understand that as a blogger you want to be posting minimum on a weekly bases, so unless blogging is your day job, it's not very feasible. That is why a multi-reviewer blog would be excellent allowing for more frequent updates and versatility.

Mia wrote: "some reviewers won't post a review if it's less than three stars, I will, but I'll be very clear about what my issue was and I'm always quick to acknowledge when it's likely just something in me that others won't mind so much"

Absolutely. I do the same thing, like that M. J. Rose book I mentioned. I said what I liked and disliked specifically being careful to mention that it was not my preferred style of read and thus that may colour my review.

[Scott, Fabled Reviewer o' Tales!]

I can't think of that many of them, but I'm pretty sure The Masquerade Crew accepts people willing to review I believe. I have been looking for someone to help review on my blog as well.

[Walter]

I would say posting the review on as many pages as possible would be the best. Amazon is very important, but a personal blog is also fantastic.

The other advantage of a personal blog is that you can throw some ads up there and perhaps generate some revenue for your time and effort.

[Daniel]

for me it would have a seperate advnatage as i also put some of my own writing on my blog, so this would potentially give me some exposure. i havent put any ads up on my blog at this point. im not sure how i feel about any random ad hanging out on my site.

[Jeffrey, Lentarian Fire Thrower]

I usually will post reviews everywhere I have an account. Goodreads, Shelfari, iBooks, Smashwords, Amazon, Amazon UK, etc.

My own rule of thumb is that if I absolutely hated the book, or else I couldn't finish it, I'll refrain from posting a negative review. I know as an author you can't please everyone and since I don't particularly care for when a get a negative review from someone who clearly doesn't like my writing style, I refuse to be that person who just wants to make an ass out of themselves.

Now, I will offer critique. If I like the book but found parts I flat-out didn't like, I will mention that in the review, but I will be as professional about it as possible. I won't give any lower than a three star review. Anything lower than that won't be posted. I just chalk it up to being a waste of my time and move on.

J.

[Lana]

I have only recently started blogging, so I haven't really considered whether I will add book reviews to it. I'm a five star kind of person, meaning that if it doesn't get five stars from me, I probably won't review it. I've only actually written two reviews on goodreads so far. If it wasn't my kind of book, I don't exactly feel qualified to review it. I refuse to mark someone lower on stars just because I didn't like the writing style, genre, or events that took place.

As far as posting to your blog, I would recommend it. Someone looking for reviews of another book might stumble upon your review and subsequently, find your book as well. I also enjoy seeing what books my favorite authors are reading, so your fans may enjoy seeing that as well.

[David]

IMO, the best way to help authors and readers alike is to post the reviews on the bookseller sites (Amazon, B&N, etc...). As a second best option, if you can't or won't do that for some reason, post them on Goodreads.

Seriously, put them up on Amazon and so forth. That's where the majority of the buyers are. Most buyers aren't going to go trolling around the web looking for opinions on what has caught their eye. They're at the bookseller site, they stumble across a title, and they decide then and there if they're going to click buy.

They'll look at what's on that title's page, there. Very few of them are going to open another window and start scoring for more information. They'll read the sample, they'll look at the ratings and reviews on the page, and that's as far as most of them will go before clicking either buy or next. If you want to help authors, post them on the bookseller sites.

Nothing's wrong with blogging, but there are a LOT of blogs. The author might stumble across your review if they're Googling themselves and/or their title, but readers who don't read your blog are unlikely to find it. And, again, there are many many blogs. The reviews there help the blogger the most and everyone else less.