What do you like most about book reviewing?
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Re: What do you like most about book reviewing?
- miztree46
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- ALynnPowers
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- moderntimes
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Just kidding, folks --- like most book reviewers, I get to keep the book as "payment" and that's it.
I write reviews for a mystery e-zine and therefore I review maybe 5-6 books a month.
I like this because I'm a private detective novelist myself and I can read new mystery books and get ideas to steal! (kidding again!) -- I love to read and enjoy mysteries, so getting free mysteries to read is a treat.
As for writing the reviews, I try to write a short essay about the book and its setting. Reviews that just summarize the plot are "high school" style and nobody like spoilers. Instead I try to provide a little "story", in the general mode of NY Times or New Yorker type reviews -- for example, a recent excellent mystery set in 1st century Imperial Rome and I wrote about Roman history (I'm a history buff) and talked about how difficult it is for an historic author to create the setting without lecturing.
So I talk about writing in general, the book's themes, the way the author describes surroundings and characters, and try to avoid any spoilers.
Naturally I like to write so writing book reviews serves several things for me, entertainment, a way to broaden my author's view, and in a slightly selfish way, to get my name out there. I've met and had good interchange with several top authors as a result.
And it's fun!
- Norma_Rudolph
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2. Helping authors getting audience their book deserves.
3. Looking for different ways to start the review. I find starting it difficult.
- moderntimes
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- ShawHamp
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moderntimes wrote:If you have difficulty starting the review, just don't focus on the book's plot and then try to summarize it. Instead, consider what the book made you ponder or what fresh idea the book presented, and start talking about that. Discuss the author's motives and purpose, how the author brought these forward. That's what I do and it helps me start writing the review.
That sounds good. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind
- moderntimes
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- Carlg1971
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- ALynnPowers
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I tease...
- moderntimes
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Getting mystery books to review does let me learn how the competition is working, and in a few cases, lets me become acquainted with an author whose book I really liked.
And of course the pleasure of reading a new novel that I wouldn't have otherwise found. That's, for me, the best benefit of being a reviewer.