My Quandary - How to Support Each Other's Books

Hi Karina,

You're most likely to hear back from me once I've got my short stories section up and running. I'm concentrating on novels, authors and discussions about content on the site at the moment.

Regards,

Pat

We have way too many books in our house, a house we are trying to sell. Our realtor said we needed to de-clutter more than we have and when I look around, the clutter is mostly books. Sometimes someone will talk about a book on a certain subject and I'll say, "I've got a book about that." So I give the book away, but often I have already given it to someone else.

My grandkids come and look through the books in my house and talk about which ones they've read. My granddaughter was writing poetry for creative writing class and wanted to put her poetry into a work of art, like a maze, and I told her I had a book that did that. I finally found it in a box of my mom's books. I had given it to my father.

Books are beloved objects. When we give a book to someone in this family, we always write a special message in the front. I have old books with loving messages from beloved relatives long gone.

Carol

Me again.

I also wanted to say that my writing has greatly improved since writing on messageboards. They are great practice. When someone takes what I say in a different way than I mean it, I know I've got to work on the way I say it. I did teach English at one time and kind of liked the diagramming, but still make mistakes.

I like authors and have become a better writer spending time among them.

Carol

I could not agree with you more, Carol. Not only are message boards good practice for me, they are also full of interesting people and useful information. (This forum, especially.)

Just another side of book reviews on Amazon: I have two books published by a small publisher that has perhaps three dozen authors in his stable. The big time operator's marketing plan was to have all his authors write Amazon reviews on all the other author's books, thereby making his titles more appeaing in the marketplace. Understand now we we're not asked to read the books, and he certainly would not supply copies for that purpose--if we wanted to actually read the book before rating it Five Stars, we had to purchase the book. My falling-out with him was not over his not supplying books but his coercion that we falsify reviews in the first place. A few of his authors did as told for a while , I refused from the start, but the scheme quickly died away, but it does point up that reader reviews on Amazon are not all they might seem to be. I have placed two or three reviews on Amazon, but I own and have read the books I reviewed.

Jim Woods
www.ultrasw.com/jwoods

I know a number of authors whose publishers, or to be more accurate, whose editors expect them to review or blurb other books from the department or imprint. I think it goes with the territory. Until now I'd never heard of an author being asked to do a write-up on a book he'd never seen. I can forsee demand rising for classes in literary ESP. But I have been involved in discussions about how to sound neutral about a book you hated. I've also heard some of the most positive authors saying that they can almost always find something agreable to say about a book if they think about the problem for long enough.
Oddly enough I once reviewed a book for one readers' site where I was asked a number of times to critically review anything that I was sent. I found the requests slightly odd and asked what I was supposed to do if I found the any of the books teriffic. By return of post I recieved a rather peculiar novel which I didn't like at all. I can't help feeling that the book was chosen for especially for me. I wrote precisely what I thought of it and the website's owner was delighted. However, I'll always think of reviewing that book for her as a very strange experience.

Regards,

Pat
I review books here: http://www.litarena.com/books/

I see this happening with some publishers, litarena, and I don't really want to be part of it. It's tough to be expected to write an amazon review or post a weblog entry about each new title when: (a) it takes a lot of time to read it and write the review, (b) folks figure you're being ultra-positive because the publisher expect it. Then, there's the problem that comes up when one thinks the book isn't any good.

Malcolm

I can't see bing honest aout a book when the publisher is expecting you to read it and write a positive statement. They should give you an option, letting you opt out if you hated it.

Although I have written several reviews of other's works, it has been purely optional and at the request of the author; or because it was read and enjoyed, not requested by a publisher or editor. If I did not like the book, or it was poorly done, I simply refused to do a review. If I am offering an opinion, I want it to be an honest one, even if others disagree with it. I think that honesty and integrity are very important.