Is there a place for the bookman's essay-review on the net?

[Andre Jute]

I regret that so many reviews on the net are so short. Not saying they aren't effective in their place, but I miss the sort of essays on books one used to find in print. I'm glad Sue's page Cookie's Book Club
http://cookiesbookclub.blogspot.com/2...
fills that need, but we could do with more of the same.

[Patricia]

In which direction do you read reviews -- before you read the book, or after? I don't like to read reviews ahead of time because I want the story to surprise me.

[Andre Jute]

When I had the time to read about literature as well as read literature, I'd read about one book for every thirty that I read about. A review would rarely cause me to buy the book but I would have my library order it, and it would arrive too long afterwards for me to remember the specifics of the review or any spoilers.

In any event, literature is most incisively defined as books you can read again for pleasure even after the outcome is known.

Christ, now you've made me all nostalgic for my youth, when I would spend all of Sunday in the winter reading the literary supplements. I can't remember when I last did that... It's been decades since I didn't work seven days a week.

[Keryl]

If in depth reviews is what you want...

www.topublishornotto.blogspot.com

I don't think I've got a single review on there at less than 800 words.

Granted, reading most of my latest reviews, you're only likely to find one book worth reading...

[Andre Jute]

What, the one where the woman immorally kills the children? To hold up as an example of how not to do it in my next books for other writers? That's a super review, an example of giving something brutal that needs to be said a personal touch, even a little charm. But I'm not going to spend any time with the book, even if it is well written. I take a hard line on the novel being a morality tale. If it isn't it is emotional masturbation for surplus eaters, as Henry Kissinger said so memorably. The skill of the novelist as a storyteller is in not sounding preachy, but, as you make perfectly clear, moraility a major part of the contract with the reader, as expressed in identification and empathy with the leading characters.

Nah, among your latest, the only books that would tempt me are the psychological thrillers, the girl in the institution, the tormented boy and the cheerleader.

But the piece that I WANT is the one on the contract between the writer and the reader. That's super stuff, even if misguided where you refer to commercial reasons. The contract exists with or without the commercial considerations; they're an irrelevance to the bond between writer and reader, though they do good service as shorthand for continuing reader interest in long series.

The rest of you can read the pieces Keryl and I are talking about at www.topublishornotto.blogspot.com

[Keryl]

Wasn't trying to imply the contract with the reader required them to pay for the book. Just that it's easier to get them to buy your next book if you followed the contract and kept them happy with the first one.

Meanwhile, I am working on an expanded contract aimed directly at fantasy readers with genre specific advice.

As for the books, The Death of Torberta Turchin was the only one of the last six that I thought was worth reading, and unfortunately Saturday's book isn't winning any prizes either.

[Andre Jute]

I once read at least some fraction of each of a 100 indie books, probably skewed by the fact that I chose them not truly at random but by being already on my Kindle; professional writers made up half a dozen or so of my 100, simply because they are more likely to know to send me a copy than an amateur. I found 21 out of the 100 indies to be publishable or developable, ironically enough double what the indies who were abusing me for even asking the question thought it would be. (They were loud in their support for Teddy Sturgeon's apologia for rubbish sci-fi, that "90% of everything is crap," just the sort of glib smartarsery of mickey mouse minds that irritates me enough to be blunt when I expose them as crap merchants.)

But the interesting thing here is your expectation that a high percentage of indies -- self-selecting self-publishers! and the majority of them pre-rejected previously -- should be palatable. How did you come by those books -- I don't mean the six or whatever, but the universe of those you would at least dip into for a few sentences or pages or ten minutes before casting them aside or putting them on the pile for review. What reason is there for expect a large part of them to be worth reading?

Also, I would expect books that arrive to you to be self-selecting already. Your netsite and your published opinions are not likely to be inviting to those fuzzy minded writers who want their critics to be "supportive", so that what you actually get would be a cut or several above the median of indie offering.

Now there's a title for the next James Bond movie. They've already had the meaningless Quantum of Solace. So how about an outright lie, The Median of Grace.

[Keryl]

Why do I think more of them should be good? (Or at least appealing to me?) Because I pick the books I think I'll like.

I don't really enjoy writing numerous variations of "This Sucks!" (Though I get more likes and follows from bad reviews than good.)

So, when a book comes in I read the email, some get booted off at that point. Then the write up, some don't make it past that. Then the first few pages. If my interest isn't grabbed by page two, good bye. If you can't hold it 'til page ten, good-bye.

I think most of what's bumming me out about this latest crowd is that they all had solid beginnings. There was a lot of potential. But basically I got sent a bunch of rough drafts, all in a row.

The one that goes up on Saturday is really pissing me off because, in addition to being rough draft number seven, the beginning was absolutely fantastic, so I know this guy can write, he just didn't bother to polish the damn thing. (Literally, he was too lazy to get a three/four star review. The Smashwords version, which he didn't send me is formatted fine, the .mobi, which he did send me, lacks section breaks. So each time he moves to a new scene, there's no way to tell.) And to make matter worse, when I read his other reviews on Amazon (cause he only has them on Amazon, none here, none on smashwords, none on LibraryThing.) I'm getting a very strong sense that he's got a pile of sock puppets or a bunch of buddies writing 5 star reviews for him.

So, yeah, to get back to my contract idea, I expect the promises they make in the first chapter to carry on through.

I'm also guessing very few of the people who send me books actually read my reviews before deciding to send the book along. Among other things, they'd be more likely to proof-read the damn things before sending them along if they did.

But no author has decided to get into a flame war with me over one, so I guess that's something... (Though a good flame war might get me some nice attention!)

Meanwhile, I like The Median of Grace. Sounds like an indy-rock band.

[Andre Jute]

I'm convinced that some of these people don't know any better than to send out a rough draft. Some of the indies included in my sample of a 100 clearly read nothing except lottery tickets. Then they would express surprise on KB and elsewhere that they didn't get rich overnight.

[Keryl]

Sigh...

The real kicker, my two best covers, sharp, elegant, just beautiful, were two of the worst books this year.

[Katie]

Andre Jute wrote: "I'm convinced that some of these people don't know any better than to send out a rough draft. Some of the indies included in my sample of a 100 clearly read nothing except lottery tickets. Then the..."

Even sadder is that some of them have done well because they had the money to rig the system. Or am I just a cynic?

[Keryl]

That I don't know. I can say nothing I've reviewed lately is hopping off the shelves in droves.

But a really good cover does seem to do a lot for sales, so there's always that factor.