Reading enables a person to visit a thousand places without leaving the comfort of home, live a thousand lives without missing out on the real one and relieves and relaxes one’s mind and soul completely.

Heena Rathore P. – 2 June 2015

About Reviewing

How did you get started?

I’ve been a voracious reader since childhood. In 2014, while considering a career in writing, I wanted to take a yearlong break in order to make up my mind. I wanted to just read and write for the entire year. So, as soon as I got all the books I wanted to read, a thought struck me, “What if I start writing about the books I read?! Well, that’ll be a good place to start writing.”

So, after a week of searching and blog-hopping, I created The Reading Bud.

That time I had no idea about self-publishing or anything else for that matter. I learned it along the way and seemed to like the idea of reading books requested by indie authors.

Today I have 5 review contributors who help me review books by indie authors for TRB. And I really enjoy helping indie authors (especially the one’s whose books are really great) to promote their books.

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

Mostly, I read the book first and then let my thought simmer for over a day or two and then I write the review. Taking notes seems to distract me from reading, so I try not to take notes while reading. But sometimes if something about the book strikes me or if I get some important ideas for review while reading it, I take short notes on post-it(s).

What are you looking for?

My review process is quite thorough. It consists of 8 sections: 1)Plot/Story, 2)Characters, 3)Romance/Kills, 4)Writing, 5)Beginning, 6)Ending, 7)Blurb (as in how appropriate the blurb on Goodreads is) and 8)Cover Art.

So, while reading I try and keep a sharp eye for all these elements.

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

That completely depends on how good the story is. If the plot is fantastic, I can happily ignore the mistakes, but if the plot itself is not good enough then it gets quite irritating.

But, if the plot is great and the mistakes are way too much, I always make it a point to mention it in my review as well as personally to the author.

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

Again, it all comes down to the plot and the characters. If it’s really good then 1 day otherwise 3 to 4 days. But if it’s not interesting at all I try reading it for a week and if in a week also I can’t finish it then it’s a DNF.

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

I started with 5-stars rating system, same as Goodreads, but after a month of reviewing books I realized that there was a need to include ½ stars as well, as some books can be best described as ‘4+1/2’ and not just 4 or 5 stars.

So, I created my own rating system (which I suppose, talks frankly to the reader):

5-stars: Totally loved it

4+1/2 stars: Loved it

4 stars: Really liked it

3+1/2 stars: Liked it

3 stars: A good book

2+1/2 stars: Okay-okay

2 stars: Not for me.

1 star: DNF

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

The only advice I can think of is related to the email they send to request book reviews from the reviewers. 1) Please don’t attach the book in the query mail, as it’s really not the way you request a review and 2) Please do some blog-reading to know the name of the reviewer before sending out the request-mail. And if you can’t please don’t address them by their blog name (seriously, my ‘name’ is Heena and not The Reading Bud.)

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

Yes, I’ve received quite a few emails from my readers thanking me for a particular review or telling me how my review piqued their curiosity for a particular book. Sometimes they mail letting me know that they’ve bought a particular book I reviewed and what they think about it now that they’ve read it.

Also, I get a lot of emails for asking recommendations and honestly, it feels great to know that my readers value my opinion.

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?

Yea, totally! Many times I’ve given low ratings to books that I didn’t find interesting enough, but I’ve always made it a point to not be too negative about the review. I always try to talk about the things that were good (if any) in the book and how some things that I didn’t like might be appealing to other readers with different taste.

But unfortunately, even after trying my best to not offend authors, some of them just can’t handle it. They just won’t reply and cut away all contacts as if the review means nothing to them. At times like this, it feels like I did a mistake accepting their request and wasted my time on the book, as the author is not bothered at all.

But on the other hand, there are a few authors who despite low ratings reply back with a thank-you email.

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 pastime is dying – do you think that’s the case?

I think people love reading as it provides them with a magic portal to take them to places where there are no worries, no stress and no problems. Reading enables a person to visit a thousand places without leaving the comfort of home, live a thousand lives without missing out on the real one and relieves and relaxes one’s mind and soul completely.

Reading is like a therapy and that too an affordable one!

As for the stats, I can’t even imagine why they’re going down! Honestly, it’s something I don’t even want to think about. I’m from India, and as far as I’ve seen, there are very few people who actually like reading here, so the stats might be even worse for our country. I’m just glad that I am from a family and in a family (after marriage) where everyone has had a love for reading!

About Writing

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

Going overboard with most of the elements. Most of the time they go overboard with action, love triangles and unnecessary drama. Also, a lot of authors publish their books without even editing them properly.

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?

Absolutely not! It takes a considerable amount of time for any book to grip the reader. If it can do it in the first 5 pages that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll keep you absorbed till the end. I’ve read a lot of novels that take at least 20-30 pages to give a fair idea. For example, when I first read Dune, I had a hard time liking it, but after out first 100 pages I started liking it and after another 100 pages, I was in love with the book!

Is there anything you will not review?

Erotica, non-fiction, historical and political books.

About Publishing

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

In today’s world everything’s moving online, so no surprise there.

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

Definitely! People are opening up more to the self-published books more than before. I myself have experienced this change in me and now I can say, without any doubt, that what really matter is the quality of the story and other necessary elements and not the publisher.

Do you have any ideas or comments on how the industry can ‘filter’ good from bad, aside from reviews?

Honestly, for me reviews are the only way to choose whether or not I want to pick up a particular book. Can’t think of anything else that can give a more clear idea.

End of Interview:

To read Heena’s reviews, visit The Reading Bud.