What has been considered rotten style once is our habitual way to write now, and what was a flashy, elaborate style in the past, is now considered obscure or downright unintelligible.

Simon Brenncke –  29 Nov 2012

About Reviewing

How did you get started?

Just this year, in 2012, when I self-published my first novel via Smashwords and Amazon. I came across the topic of indie authorship rather accidentally when I was thumbing through a magazine in a bookstore on a London airport. Sad as it is, up until that day, I hadn’t heard of Smashwords, nor even of Amazon Author Central before. Nor, for that matter, of the IndieView. As I put my own novel into shape, I researched about the background of indie authorship on the Internet and I came across blogs reviewing Indie books.

Well, I’m an avid reader, but I’m also a student, which equals to limited means. Now, honestly, I often couldn’t find a difference in quality between Indie books and those promoted by publishers. So I thought to myself: ‘Why not have authors send their work to you, for free?’ I know this is not quite the elevated intellectual reason for writing reviews; but so it was. I set up a blog, I set up a review policy tailored to the genres of my choice. Of course, now the next question was how I could actually get authors to send me their work. I wrote to a blog listing Indie reviewers – I fear I’ve even forgotten now how it was called, nor have I been able to retrace it – to add my name to the reviewers list. I wrote I’d like to find a foothold in Indie books reviewing. I was added. Some time later, the first requests arrived. After I had put the first review on my blog, I asked to be added to the list of reviewers on the IndieView. With that request granted, I’m into the game now.

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

It is a read first. I want to get a general impression of the work. With novels it’s been my experience that sometimes something doesn’t make sense in the first place, but it turns to fit into the scheme of the author once his story is fully developed.

What are you looking for?

Sci-fi, fantasy, mystery and adventure.

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

Since my mother tongue isn’t even English, the author stands a chance I won’t notice his faulty grammar in the first place. But if really I do – supposing there’s something grossly wrong about it – I’d write back to him, I’d tell him that he has written a magnificent work I really appreciate (with great plot, characters etc.), and, thus having become a fan, I want to see his work meet the standard of quality it really deserves. Then I’d point out to him what needs changing. I’d ask him to please fix the errors and supply me with another copy, because I’d really like to write a passionate review for his work.

I’ve actually done something roughly similar. For one of the novels I reviewed I compiled a list of typos and send them back to the author. He was very thankful about it and made the changes. But I only did that because – well, I liked the book and I wanted to see it as good as I liked it.

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

That greatly depends on the uni timetable, working schedule etc. It really can be anything from a couple of days to several weeks.

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

I have a 5 star rating I took over from Amazon and Smashwords. I also found that many reviewers go by the same standard on their blogs.

But I think that, with my reviews, the rating really doesn’t matter that much. If I write a review at all, it means the book moved me that much that I have to tell something about it. And when a book stirs something within you, it’s already truly art: that is: moving art. Thus, every book I review has set something loose within me – something I try to capture in the review. Even if I give a low rating it doesn’t have to mean I considered the work low quality. But I’ll explain my reasons long and large in the review itself. I think that’s the fair thing to do, instead of just flinging off a rating and leave half-explained the reasons.

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

Just write to me. If I like the description of your work, I’ll start to read it.

However, I’d like authors to call me more often “Mr. Brenncke” than “Simon”. I know on the Internet it’s the convivial thing to do, but I rather don’t find it terribly professional. I, at least, in replying, always keep to the author’s surname.

Perhaps it’s hard to give general advice, though. Thus I’d say it’s of primary importance to read the review policy carefully before submitting a book.

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

Yes, so far, to each review I’ve written, the authors have responded in some way. Until thus far there hasn’t been an unfriendly comment, even if my rating didn’t look positive.

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?

Absolutely. Art is not mathematics. Sustainable truth values only exist with the hard sciences and their abstraction, that is, mathematics. But in reading a novel I’m not running through calculations. I read a story that either rings  a note with me or it doesn’t. That’s pretty much all there is to say about it.

‘Style’ is also subjective. What has been considered rotten style once is our habitual way to write now, and what was a flashy, elaborate style in the past, is now considered obscure or downright unintelligible.

Some readers fall for long-winding sentences – others like it short and crisp. Some yearn for detailed descriptions – others would criticize that they couldn’t find their way through your labyrinth of adjectives and adverbs.

I wish readers to know that my reviews are purely subjective and that it cannot be otherwise. If you’re an author, I wouldn’t want you to care about my opinion, but I’d want you to read my review to see if you can gauge anything from it that is meaningful to you. Either you can or you can’t, but there really is nothing to argue about.

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’d believe that, as a medium, the novel is undying because it calls on your imagination in a way a movie or computer game never could. There everything, after all, is already given ready-made to your senses. But as a reader you’re a co-creator of the author’s world. I believe people always will like that. The novel simply appeals in another way, on another level, than a movie or a computer game.

About Writing

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

To lose faith in what they want to tell. If they feel they have to tell something, they should go ahead and do it. I guess that, as Indie authors, most of us are hobby authors. In consequence, what we write, we’ve written for our own pleasure in the first place. I think for an author that’s the thing to recall when he comes across negative reviews.

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?

No. If the blurb tempted me into reading, in general I go along for about a quarter of the book before deciding whether I want to continue or no.

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

Oh, really? I haven’t heard about it.

Is there anything you will not review?

I’m appalled by lavish, minute descriptions of violence. It often makes me wonder how careless violence is used as a mechanic tool for creating suspense – a rather cheap tool, I’d like to add.

About Publishing

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

Thanks to heaven it has. Indie authors are providing the reading world with a variety it could never have dreamed of before.

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

Yes, I’d say so. From what I’ve read about the subject, I gather that Amanda Hocking and similar biographies are forcing traditional publishers to develop an awareness for what’s happening on the self-publishing platform of the Internet. Else they might miss precious market chances.

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

I wouldn’t see the need to filter. If a novel has readers, followers, a fan-base, the industry will get to know that. It will see a market opportunity opening up. If an author gets readers he has passed beyond all filtering.

End of Interview:

To read Mr. Brenncke’s reviews, visit his blog. For Indie authors hoping he’ll consider reading your book, visit his review request page.