How do you balance having book reviews scheduled in advance but not making authors wait too long to see their review go live on your blog?
Jackie Burris of Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories offers this great tip:
Jackie Burris of Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories offers this great tip:
The book reviews for authors who have requested them I set up to post on an exact date, which can be a month to a month and a half after the author approached me.One way to handle this is to post the review on your Goodreads page first and send the author the link to the review.
You can copy and paste then post the same review on any of the book review sites you belong to including but not limited to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Shelfari and Library Thing.
That way the review is "live" as soon as you've read the book, and the author doesn't have to worry you didn't read the book. The author also can see what the review looks like prior to the blog post itself, so if they have any issues they can contact me.
This is great advice, Jackie, as it allows bloggers to be organized and mannerly at the same time. Thank you very much for stopping by!
What are some of your best book-review tips?
31 comments:
Good idea! I really should make time to do lots more reviews on Goodreads, but I got discouraged when I wasn't able to transfer all my LibraryThing accounts over to Goodreads. So because I feel like my Goodreads account doesn't "properly" showcase my library, I haven't devoted too much time to hanging out there. Something else to add to the To Do list!
I do the same thing. I'll write up a review and have it scheduled to appear on my blog, but I go ahead and put the review elsewhere first, like Goodreads, Amazon, etc.
Michelle I am late to the party but thanks for hosting me today, it was nice to be able to offer up a fairly simple solution that everyone can agree on about keeping up with the reviews in a timely manner to both the satisfaction of the blogger and hopefully the requesting author as well.
Now my errands are done for the morning am working on catching up and your blog was my first stop of the day!
Deniz easiest fix would be to start with your current reading reviews on Goodreads and slowly over time transfer the others, that would be my solution so you will not be overwhelmed and give up again.
Cherie I think most of us do our reviews the same way, we all read much faster than we have time on our blog schedules to set up the requests immediately.
Good tips. I shy away from reviews of my blogging buddy's books. If it's not gushing, I don't want to offend anyone, but I want to be honest. So if I get a request to do a review or an interview, I'll often take the interview.
It is fun to do both Theresa, I just prefer to read rather than ask questions and so do my blog followers prefer reviews rather than interviews.
Great idea, Jackie.
I write reviews on Goodreads and then copy/paste them for my "books recently read" posts. Not only am I sharing my thoughts on books, but I get to do quick blog posts this way.
@Theresa/@Jackie, it's interesting but I was just telling my husband before I read both of your comments that I sometimes get a better response from the author interviews than the reviews. Hmmm, I wonder what that means ...
Medeia you are right it is a quick and easy way to set up the blog review post, that is why I start with Goodreads first so as to allow myself usable book and author links.
Michelle it depends on the popularity of the author, on my blog I interact with a lot of unknown or lesser known authors so interviews and reviews both get about the same number of comments and page hits. Of course if the guest posting author has something really unique to share they garner more attention and comments too.
I agree Goodreads is an awesome resource. I actually put the books I have read and need to write my review in my currently reading list, this helps me to keep track and allows me to panic when I realize just what I have not completed writing yet :) LOL Thanks for sharing today.
@Jackie, that's another great point you bring up that it's easier to comment on guest posts and sometimes even author interviews that it is book reviews. And number of comments don't equal number of page hits. :)
I usually don't do book reviews, but these are great tips. Thank you Jackie, Michelle!
I should really check Goodreads out more than I normally do. I seem to be missing out on awesomeness.
Theresa's point is well taken. I preview the interview to the review when it involves a friend/blogger friend. I do think most of us feel a bit constrained when reviewing under these circumstances. You want to be honest. But what do you do if you feel there are serious drawbacks to the story/writing, whatever? And if you're not honest, then what does a review really mean? It's a real dilemma.
I have known for a long time that I need to learn how to do Goodreads. A while back I posted some reviews there, but I need to make some time to really get into the place. Thanks for posting this. I'm printing it out, and also heading over to Jackie's place.
Ann Best, Author of In the Mirror, A Memoir of Shattered Secrets
Michelle, on my post you said, "I hope both of you get to having some better days soon, although knowing your spirit, you’ve already made a refreshing pitcher of lemonade from the recent lemons." I'm already feeling more upbeat, and Jen too from her nap, just from comments such as yours! I appreciate your confidence in my ability to slog through the soppy days. I keep trying!
Denise no need to panic just do one at a time and before you realize it you are finished.
Michelle, exactly.
Marlena you are welcome, goodreads is a great place to find people who like to read the same genres and more new to you authors and wonderful reads to share with others.
Ann most of my reviews are done on books that I own and the rest or either part of a blog tour or requests from authors that do not start out as my goodreads friends. As for the honesty factor that is no problem I enjoy every book as screen very carefully before saying yes to reading it.
Looking forward to your visiting my site, hope you find something to your liking.
I'll admit I'm too lazy to do reviews. I used to do them on my blog (if I really liked the book), but then felt bad if someone bought the book and didn't like it. I do, though, rate it on Goodreads.
Stina even ratings help if the book really strikes a chord with more than one person it usually has more buys than not.
@Deniz, I hadn't thought about using Goodreads in this way; thanks for the tip!
@Marlena, I know what you mean; when I read Jackie's post, I thought "Shelfari? Library Thing? Oh, my!"
@Ann, I'm so glad the day is getting better for both of you. Regarding reviews and interviews, I've been contemplating whether to have shorter reviews and combining them with the interview. If the review reads more like a blurb and has fewer personalized comments, it still will let readers know about the book--because maybe it just didn't resonate with me due to the genre being one I'm not as into. And if the blurb is really brief, it probably would mean I think the book has problems such as too many typos or a weaker plot, etc.
@Jackie, I'd love to know if there's a way to see how many readers as well as authors-who-are-readers are on Goodreads. I know that's one of the conundrums of blogging--are we reaching our audience of readers in addition to our author/readers? And that's wise that you screen a book carefully before agreeing to read it.
@Stina, I know what you mean about doing reviews; it's like saying the food is great at restaurant, but then the regular chef is out sick the day your friends go there to eat. :) And reviews aren't easy to do, IMO.
Michelle in researching found out with this link that there are close to 25000 authors identified on Goodreads. I looked here and the goodreads
users are not broken down into numbers but categories.
Lots of useful information and with this link which is the contact page you might get the goodreads staff to help answer your question in full if they can do so.
And yes screening my choices before accepting has made me very happy so far, not one DNF book in the bunch and have found something to like if not plain love in every request that I have read.
Jackie, I'm in awe of your organizational skills, let alone knowing your way around Goodreads. I still have trouble navigating it.
I tend to get a ton of comments when I guest post at your place. I like it because I get to connect with people new to me.
Interviews are trickier for me unless I can put a spin on it because I don't want to bore anyone. Those chicken jokes only go so far. LOL.
Maria milady, good to see you and thanks for stopping by tonight. Your last post garnered the most hits and comments for the whole week, made me happy to have hosted for one of your tour stops. Not that it does not make me happy to host you for any kind of posts as they are always crowd pleasers! :-)
@Jackie, these links are outstanding; thank you!
Michelle, I have elected you for an award. Check my blog for details. Hugs.
Great advice. Thanks.
Michelle you are welcome, hope they help.
Carol you are welcome.
Good suggestion. Because of my review format, I tend to post to my blog first and then edit for Goodreads & Amazon.
J.L. my reviews started out that way, since am on blogger it is easier to format it first on Goodreads with all the HTML and then copy and paste into all my other sites including my blog. Whatever works though is great as long as we all share some good reads that is all that matters.
@Julia, thank you very much for the award!
I might take an hour or so soon to go through all the books in my Goodreads library and at least star them. Then catch up on reviews later...
Ahh, I remember the days where I had a few books reviews in a row to be posted. Nowadays, I'm lucky if I can get one in every couple of weeks!
Deniz sounds like a solid plan, good luck with updating and catching up as know it is a chore.
Jamie you are right they do take time and when Real Life gets in the way they also do not get done.
Another post with food for thought. I learn so much from your posts, Michelle. Thanks for coming up with such useful and helpful information for writers!
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