“… narrative convenience is not a good enough reason to cut someone’s heart out when all decent people are sleeping….”

Elizabeth, of Wading Through Electronic Ink

15 April 2012

About Reviewing

How did you get started?

I devour young adult paranormal books at a ridiculous pace, and I was running out of traditionally published ones to read. Amazon kept pushing the self-published ones at me in my recommendations, but I was hesitant to read anything that didn’t have the seal of a major publishing company on it. Simultaneously, I had just finished writing a novel that I couldn’t even get an agent to read, so I knew there had to be at least one good book out there that couldn’t make it in the real world (Or at least I think so. And my mother). But I also knew that the publishing process serves a purpose and that there are a lot of bad self-published books out there. What I needed, I thought, was someone to read these books and tell me which ones were good. And then I realized I could BE that person. So I bought some of the books that Amazon recommended to me and wrote what I thought of them. And that’s pretty much what I’m still doing.

How do you review a book? Is it a read first, and then make notes, or do you make notes as you go along?

I don’t actually take notes for my reviews.  I review pretty quickly after I finish a book, so it’s still fresh in my mind. If some time passes between my first read and the review, I’ll read it again or at least skim it to remind myself of the major points.  I divide my reviews up into 5 sections: the Plot, the Good, the Bad, the Romance, and Will I Read More? I try to have one to two major points for each section and aim my reviews to be between 700 and 850 words. Sequel reviews are shorter (300-500 words), lack a solid form, and basically consist of whatever pops into my head about a book.

What are you looking for?

In an ideal world, my goal would be to read and review every self-published young adult paranormal book out there. In reality, there are a ton of them out there and more coming out every day. So I satisfy myself with reviewing 3 of them a week. But my policy is to read any novel that meets the basic criteria, not just ones that sound good or especially interesting. In fact, I make an effort to read some really bad books (and sometimes it really is an effort) so that my reviews can be varied and I can truly be separating the wheat from the chaff.

If a book has a great plot, great characters, but the grammar is less than perfect, how do you deal with that?

I’m a bit of a grammar Nazi, so when there are grammatical errors, you can bet that I notice them. I’m probably not going to comment on it, though, unless it’s so bad that it impacts readability. In most cases, I have more interesting things to talk about than the commas.

How long does it take you to get through, say, an eighty thousand-word book?

I can read most books of that length in 1-3 days, depending how much time I have and how interesting I find it. I’ve been reviewing 3 books a week for a few months now [Editor’s Note: “Wow!”], and I don’t have a problem keeping up with the reading. If anything, I have a backlog.

How did you come up with your rating system, and could you explain more about the rating system?

I originally started with a system based on value, where five stars was a book I would pay publication price for, three stars I would read for free, and one star I wouldn’t read even if my sister wrote it. As I’ve reviewed more, I’ve developed a different system. One star generally means I couldn’t even follow what was going on. Two stars had me cringing in numerous places. Three stars had a mix of good and bad. Three and a half stars are mostly “Meh,” and four stars are quite good. Four and a half stars generally were excellent except for one or two things, and five stars are close to perfect. Most books that get 4.5 or 5 stars go on my blog’s Quick Pick list. I can be a little stingy with stars, but most of the books I read are at the 3.5 or 4 star mark.

What advice could you give to authors looking to get their books reviewed?

My first piece of advice is not to be afraid to ask for a review. Sure, a reviewer might say no, but that probably has more to do with his or her schedule than your book. And even if it is your book, it’s probably about personal preference for reading material. And you might get a bad review, but if the points are fair, you will probably be grateful for them in the long run. I know that I would want someone to tell me if my book were terrible, though I would almost certainly hate them forever. Other than that, I advise being simple and straightforward. I know really all I want to know from a request is whether the book meets my submission criteria, so the easier this is for me to determine, the more amiable I will feel toward the author.

Do you get readers emailing you and thanking you for a review?

Not really. I have a few friends who read the books that I recommend, and they thank me for them, but other than that I mostly hear from authors.

My advice to authors on getting a “bad” review (hasten to add that might mean a perfectly honest, well written, fair review – just bad from the author’s point of view) is to take what you can from it and move on. Under no circumstances to “argue” with the reviewer – would you agree with that?

One of my favorite sayings is “You aren’t a hundred dollar bill. Not everyone is going to like you.” I think this is especially true if you are putting yourself out there for any kind of public review.  And, generally, I think that author vitriol leads to bad press for the author and good press for the blogger, so you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot.

About Reading

We talk a lot about writing here on the blog, and possibly not enough about reading, which is after all why we’re all here. Why do you think people love reading. We’re seeing lots of statistics that say reading as a past-time is dying – do you think that’s the case?

I like to read, but really I like stories in any form. I have over 150 seasons of television on DVD, and I used to watch a lot of movies until Hollywood ran out of ideas in 2008. I even like video games; they’re like interactive movies! So if more people decide to watch television than read books, I don’t think it’s a tragedy. I think it’s embracing stories in a different form.

About Writing

What are the most common mistakes that you see authors making?

I would say one of the most common things I see is authors not providing sufficient justification for their characters’ actions. It might be totally necessary for plot reasons to have your character perform a ritual sacrifice at midnight in the graveyard, but narrative convenience is not a good enough reason to cut someone’s heart out when all decent people are sleeping. All too frequently I find myself staring agog at my Kindle saying “WHY would someone DO that?” and every time it happens, I’m adjusting the star rating down.

Oh, and for the love of all that is holy, you need a comma between independent clauses. If you don’t know what that means, find one of your friends who does and make him or her read your book with a red pen. Twice.

We’re told that the first page, paragraph, chapter, is absolutely key in making or breaking a book. Agents typically request only the first five pages of a novel, what do you think about that; if a book hasn’t grabbed you by the first five pages, do you put it down?

Honestly, I find that the first five pages are usually the WORST part of any novel, usually because I’m so hyper-critical going into them. Once I get into it a bit, I stop worry nitpicking on the adjectives, so long as they aren’t continuously bad. For me, the most important part isn’t the beginning; it’s the end. I’m one of those irritating readers who flips around in books instead of reading straight through. So I’m much more likely to put down a book a third of the way through it because I don’t like the LAST five pages.

There has been a lot of talk recently about Agency pricing and Apple and the Big 6, what are your thoughts on that?

I think that we live in a capitalist society and that publishing is a business. This means that its first goal is to make money, and its second goal is distributing literature. This is not to say that they don’t care about number 2, but they also aren’t going to make any decisions that don’t also generate revenue. Whether one agrees with this philosophy or not, to expect differently is to ask for disappointment.

Is there anything you will not review?

Pretty much anything. J I only review self-published young adult paranormal/fantasy e-books. It’s a limited genre, but it’s what I know and what I like to read. I have plenty of material for 3 posts a week, plus a backlog of 50 books that I’ve bought but haven’t got around to reading and reviewing yet.

About Publishing

What do you think of the oft quoted comment that the “slush-pile has moved online”?

I think that after an author sends out fifty query letters  and still can’t get anyone to read his or her entire book, it’s only logical to put the book on-line to get someone else to read it. I get quite a few e-mails from authors thanking me for even mediocre reviews, in large part because I think they’re grateful that someone actually took the time to read and think about their book.

Do you think attitudes are changing with respect to Indie or self-published titles?

I would like to think that Amazon spamming us with cheap self-published titles will eventually get more people to give indie authors a chance, but I think the prevailing attitude is still that if a book were good enough to be traditionally published, then it would be traditionally published. And really, a year ago, I thought the same thing. The only thing that has changed my mind is a lot of personal experience with my own work and other authors’. So it’s definitely an uphill battle, one in which I hope we are constantly making strides.

Do you have any ideas or comments on how the industry can “filter” good from bad, asides from reviews?

Well, I review because it’s the best idea I could come up with! And I think it’s really important that reviewers make sure to feature good and bad books on their blogs, so that readers can trust that this person is distinguishing. Other than that, I think we should never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. “This is one of the best books I ever read, and you can get it for $3” is a pretty persuasive argument for a lot of people.

Editor’s Note:

Thanks, Elizabeth for taking time out of your obviously busy schedule to share your thoughts with us; those thoughts contain a lot of great advice for ALL writers, never mind just those YA Paranormal Scribblers (YAPS – you heard it here first :)). Of course, if you are one of those YAPS then I’d be visiting Wading Through Electronic Ink immediately.