{"id":99,"date":"2008-05-29T10:15:04","date_gmt":"2008-05-29T15:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=99"},"modified":"2018-10-31T12:49:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T16:49:10","slug":"the-cardinal-sin-of-book-review-blogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=99","title":{"rendered":"The Cardinal Sin of Book Review Blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of my business, I subscribe to about 50 book review blogs. <\/span>Partially to spam them with my books, and also to scan their content for past reviews. <\/span>Because there\u2019s no way of telling if they reviewed your book or not. <\/span>Solipsism is the cardinal sin. <\/span>Here are some of the major points for improvement:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1) What\u2019s with not having an Amazon Associates account?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been around for 12 years, it\u2019s free, and it\u2019s a great source of revenue. <\/span>Now, I get it if you\u2019re one of these retarded anti-Amazon people but, if you link the book you review to Amazon, why aren\u2019t you an Associate? <\/span>Here, retard<\/a><\/span>. <\/span>Just through very select and casual use, I pull down anywhere from $20-100 a quarter. <\/span>It\u2019s not even on GS anymore, unless you go to the tomb. <\/span>I only have a handful of books liked up on the author pages for my company.<\/p>\n

2) <\/span>Post your review at Amazon\/Barnes & Noble\/everywhere. <\/span><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s a positive review, then help the book out, you idiots. <\/span>The small group of people reading your dime a dozen blog are already converts. <\/span>Go and put that nice review up at Amazon where thousands \u2013 or more \u2013 will read it. <\/span>Those customer reviews sort of determine the casual impulse buys. They do for me\u2026 I put more weight on them than the media reviews. Plus, it\u2019s a great ad for your blog. <\/span>More people coming to your blog is a good thing. <\/span>Especially if you\u2019re selling books through your Associates account.<\/p>\n

Publishers, publicists, and agents all look down on book review blogs because these isolated little reviews don\u2019t translate into sales, or even buzz. <\/span>You could change that if you branched out. <\/span>Because those same industry professionals go fucking ga-ga over Amazon reviewers. <\/span>The top 1000 Amazon reviewers are courted more aggressively than the New York Times<\/em>. <\/span>Sit in any room with anyone from the book industry and get them talking about the target review audience and the number of times they mention those Amazon reviewers will make you want to bite their faces.<\/p>\n

If the prolific review bloggers crossed their shit over, it would change the face of everything. <\/span>You\u2019d have to buy a baseball bat to keep Random House off your doorstep with their free books, t-shirts, and offers to fellate you.<\/p>\n

3) Only newspaper types write bad reviews. <\/span>And, even then, they only do so because they have a quota to fill. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can find plenty of lukewarm reviews, but the \u201cI hate this book\u201d review is reserved for schlock shit. <\/span>If you don\u2019t like the book, don\u2019t review it. <\/span>The book industry sucks. <\/span>Bestsellers are a lie<\/a>. <\/span>The public doesn\u2019t read<\/a>. <\/span>Authors don\u2019t make money<\/a>. <\/span>Not really<\/a>. <\/span>The only books you should be tearing apart are self-published or vanity press novels (because those amateur fucks ruin it for the rest of us). <\/span>Of course, a real reviewer won\u2019t even touch those books. <\/span>They\u2019re thrown out as soon as they arrive. <\/span>But, you know, if you\u2019re looking to spice up your blog with negativity\u2026<\/p>\n

The industry ignores quality, so the readers should ignore shit. <\/span>That\u2019s our only defense. <\/span>Because the joke\u2019s on you, bad reviewer: <\/span>The industry pros don\u2019t believe in bad press. <\/span>\u201cYour review\u2026.[is]\u2026a\u2026stunning\u2026[triu]mph.\u201d<\/p>\n

4) Link the book to a reseller.<\/p>\n

What the fuck? <\/span>You review the book and don\u2019t link it to Amazon, B&N or wherever? <\/span>You\u2019re just being an asshole, then. <\/span>Even if you\u2019re some wild \u201csupport the physical stores\u201d fuckhead, then at least link to the store locaters. <\/span>Or Booksense, where you search for the title by zipcode to locate indie stores. <\/span>If I mail you a book for review, that\u2019s inventory lost and five bucks or more out of my pocket\u2026 Just for you to not use your spellchecker, not link it anywhere, and give it away to your readers. <\/span>This goes back to the second point \u2013 having publishers take you seriously so, at the very least, you never pay for books again\u2026<\/p>\n

5) Inform the goddamned publisher that you wrote a review.<\/p>\n

Oh my god\u2026 What? <\/span>Tell the publisher. <\/span>The website\u2019s probably right there on the book. <\/span>The publisher will love you, and probably send you a bunch of other books. <\/span>Now, I\u2019ll be the first to warn you that publishers can also be fuckheads, because our brains have turned into vodka-soaked oatmeal, but that will all change. <\/span>There are good eggs now and, as the economy and the book industry continues to scream downwards into some dark abyss, the flakes will be peeled back to reveal really cool publishers who are insanely grateful for your time and effort. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d go so far as to say it\u2019s rude not to let the publisher know about your review. <\/span>I\u2019m certainly upset when I see one of my books reviewed and no one lets me know. <\/span>Publishers have to employ clipping services (or put-upon interns) to scour the papers and internet for reviews, because nobody communicates with anyone in this industry. <\/span>It\u2019s sick, really, and you\u2019re a part of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever happened to community? <\/span>We\u2019ve lost all focus. <\/span>From the writing, to the marketing, to the reading of books\u2026we\u2019ve become inhuman machines. <\/span>The average \u201clife\u201d of a book, in terms of receiving marketing support, is just a few weeks. <\/span>After the first month, the book\u2019s direction has been decided and it\u2019s left for dead. <\/span>How could that change if book review\/news blogs coordinated their content with folks in the industry? <\/span>It would change dramatically. <\/span>As with everything, getting the diseased and demented book industry back into line begins with the people\u2026<\/p>\n

(Posted without using spellchecker and without talking to any publishers.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of my business, I subscribe to about 50 book review blogs. Partially to spam them with my books, and also to scan their content for past reviews. Because there\u2019s no way of telling if they reviewed your book …<\/p>\n

The Cardinal Sin of Book Review Blogs<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[151,154,402],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-blogs","tag-book-reviews","tag-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1146,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/1146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}