This topic of reviewing books has been rattling in my head for the past two weeks and I think its important that I talk about it because I do review books on a blog. I'm sure that many of you reading this post do the same. Also, I couldn't really find more posts about this topic and that was shocking. I'm not talking about how to structure a review because that's a different topic. What this post is all about is how frequent you post reviews, do you review every book, do you put bad reviews on your blog etc.
I recently just posted a review on goodreads that was a DNF review. I'm personally weary about posting bad reviews or DNF reviews on my blog. Mostly, because I don't have much to say about the book and I don't want offend anyone. With these kind of the books, it is normally the same thing that I always throws me off; pacing, no character depth, no plot, or its just really confusing. At the same time I feel that as reviewers we shouldn't just not post the bad reviews, because reviews are suppose to help the author out. Of course there is always going to be those haters you will never like anything. As an author you have to expect to get critics on your writing. Reminding you, there is fine line between constructive criticism and being a jerk. I would never post a review bashing the author and saying how horrible they are. There's a simple fact, you can't please everyone's ta
Another question I been thinking about how is how frequent do you post reviews? In theory you want to find a balance between discussion posts and reviews. So how do you know when you are posting too many reviews and not enough discussion posts or the other way around? Do you review every single book you read? I think eventually you would get a burned out from reviewing books. Should we asked ourselves questions before post a review? Like is the review something your proud of? Or is it just a filler post. Personally, I think everything you put out should be something you love.
There is no right or wrong way to blog. You can give out tips and help others, but at the end of the day we are all different bloggers. I would really love to hear your thoughts about reviewing books. It's really interesting to see things from other people's point of views. Remember always keep looking for your Once Upon A Time.
What you post on your blog is up to you and it should be a reflection of what you enjoy posting and the purpose you desire your blog to have. I think that if you love writting reviews and you created your blog mainly because you wanted to share all your book reviews, then you can churn out as many reviews as you want, one after the other. If you like connecting with people and having meaningful discussions, then you can post a discussion post twice a day if that is what you feel like doing. Ultimately like you mentioned, there is no right or wrong way and every blog is different in their style and choices. So I say write what you want and don't even feel limited to discussion and review posts only.
ReplyDeleteChioma @ Blue Books and Butterflies
This is a great discussion. Of course, as Chloma said, it's really up to the individual blogger. I can't speak for anyone else, but, for me personally, reviewing books is about helping other readers, not the authors or publishers--that's just a side effect. Reviewing books is about sharing my honest opinions, so if those opinions are negative, so be it! I rarely DNF books, but when I do, I actually do end up writing a review outlining what caused me to DNF it, because I think if a dislike for a book is so strong I couldn't finish it, I should warn others. That's not to say others will dislike it as much as I did, or even at all, but it will give people at least a small understanding of what the book contains. My blog is MINE, so I write whatever I want. It's my safe place to talk about books, be that good talk or bad.
ReplyDeleteAs for frequency, my ideal review rate for myblog would be 2 reviews a week, but sometimes that's just not feasible. Writing reviews isn't always fun or easy, so sometimes I'm not up to the task, and sometimes I just haven't read enough to do that. But 2 reviews a week (even 1 review a week) is what I want for my blog, and then 4 or 5 "fluffier" posts (Top Ten Tuesday, discussion, a fun feature, etc.) Again, it is my blog, so I'm just gonna post whatever I think is fun to post. Reviews are important, but I enjoy the fluffier content as well! And it's still talking about/promoting books, just in a different way.
Also, I do try to review every book I read, whether it's an ARC or it was published in 2010. Lately, I've been focusing more attention on backlist titles, because there are really spectacular books that lost their buzz very shortly after they were released. There's so much hype surrounding new releases, so I like to remind everyone of the oldies but goodies.