Book Review: The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing
November 17, 2008 by Lillie
Welcome to Mayra Calvani and Anne K. Edwards, who are on a blog book tour for The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing
Mayra will check in during the day to answer questions, so ask away. What would like to know about book reviewing? She can answer questions about the value of book reviews and how authors and publishers can get reviews for their books. She can also help both established and beginning reviewers with the art of reviewing.
The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing
Mayra Calvani and Anne K. Edwards
Twilight Times Books
Copyright 2008
ISBN: 978-1933353227
Paperback, 186 pages, $16.95; also electronic formats (PDF, HTML, Palm), $5.95
Non-Fiction
If this is a useful book review, the credit goes to The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing. If it’s not, the blame goes to me, the student, not to the teacher.
Although I’ve written a few reader reviews at Amazon.com, I’ve never written a reviewer review. The authors explain that reader reviews don’t “follow the structure or organization of a review written by a reviewer… .“ (page 70) The book explains the differences between reader reviews and professional reviews as well as the differences between book reviews and book reports, critiques, and press releases. Explanations and examples showcase different kinds of reviews based on such considerations as length, tone, and genre.
Mayra Calvani, a multi-genre published author, and Anne K. Edwards, mystery author, have been reviewing books for more than ten years for a variety of publications, both print and online. They have written the book Mayra wished was available when she started reviewing. Beginning reviewers will learn the basics, and established reviewers will improve their craft with the tips and advice.
But you don’t have to be a reviewer or aspiring reviewer to benefit from this book. Authors and publishers who wonder whether it’s worth the time and effort involved to seek out reviews or who want to know how to get their books reviewed will find answers here.
Part One, The Art of Reviewing, covers the keys to being a good reviewer, writing reviews, definitions and examples, ethics, ownership rights, practical tips, and more. The section devoted to starting a book review site will probably be of interest to a smaller percentage of readers than the other sections. The extensive table of contents makes it easy to read sections of interest and skip others. The section on the controversy about bloggers writing book reviews will be of special interest to bloggers.
Part Two, The Influence of Reviews, doesn’t offer as much actionable information and some of the material seems repetitive. However, it may be helpful to anyone interested in how reviews influence libraries, booksellers, readers, and others.
Part Three, Resources, lists more than 150 print publications and online review sites broken down into categories. The advantage of reading the e-book is that the URLs are clickable links, making it easy to access the online sites. Though the list is focused on opportunities for reviewers, it can be a good resource list for authors and publishers seeking reviews for their books as well.
I can see why The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing is a finalist in the 2008 Best Book Awards. Reviewers, authors, and readers will all find it useful as a resource. I will refer to it often as I write more book reviews—and I predict my reviews will get better and better as a result. Highly recommended.
You’ll want to visit other stops on the blog book tour for The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing. In the meantime, though, be sure to leave a comment. Welcome the authors to A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye and ask any questions you have about book reviewing.
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Dear Lillie,
Thnak you so much for such a great review and for hosting me on my VBT today. I appreciate it!!!
Mayra,
Thank you for visiting. You’re my first blog book tour guest and my first other-than-reader review so I’m learning a lot today.
Marya,
One of the things that I found especially interesting in the book was the discussion of honesty, objectivity, and tact in writing reviews. When I’ve written reader reviews before, I’ve always tried to be honest and not ignore the negative, but at the same time to be sensitive to the author’s feelings. Do you find it difficult to maintain that fine balance?
Hi Lillie,
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, sometimes it’s very difficult to find that balance, especially when the book is so-so, with as much good things as bad things. A writer myself, I know the time and effort it takes to write a book, so I’m always sensitive to an author’s feelings.
Mayra,
It’s good to know that experienced reviewers struggle with the same thing that amateurs do. Maintaining that balance is a sign of professionalism in a reviewer.
I must be more tired than I thought, Lillie… LOL!
Of course you have to stop by, since it’s your blog!
Mayra,
Having just finished my own three-week blog tour, I totally understand.
I have to stop by … but I didn’t have to ask a question so I took your comment as thanks for the question.
Great review, then again, I love all of Mayra’s works so far.
Lea,
Thanks for visiting and commenting. This is the first book of Mayra’s I’ve read, and I’m ready to check out the others.
Lillie,
The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing sounds like a book that would be of great value to any writer who would like to learn the proper techniques for writing clear, cohesive, thorough, and incisive yet balanced book reviews. Thanks for featuring it here at A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye! I’m sure that many of your other readers will be as intrigued by your review as I have been!
Jeanne,
Yes, I think this book will be very helpful to anyone who wants to write reviews. Since I plan to write more reviews here, I’ll put it to good use.
Have you given any thoughts to a teachers discount?
As an educator, we always love those discounts. =)
Usually authors don’t have any say in what discounts aren’t offered, but maybe the author can suggest that to the publisher.
I’ll certainly mention it to my publisher, Acai!
Mayra,
Your book appears to provide comprehensive coverage of a topic that has many writers pretty much baffled about where to even begin. I’ve done a bit of online research about book reviewing and have found numerous approaches to the art, with various aspects being addressed and/or emphasized in different how-to articles.
What advice would you give the aspiring book reviewer for determining which components are most important to include in a given review and which might be optional for certain types of reviews? (Including them all would likely require a book of its own!)
Wishing you success!
Jeanne
Hi Jeanne,
I apologize for the late response but I live in Belgium… so I’m afraid while you were asking this I was already sleeping! LOL
The most important elements of a great review are:
Honesty
Clarity
Of course, good spelling and grammar
Tact (when writing negative reviews)
Objectivity
As for the structure:
*An interesting lead, observation or quote
*A brief summary of the plot (without giving away ending or spoilers)
*An evaluation of the writing
*A recommendation–or not
Once you get use to using this ‘formula’, writing reviews becomes a lot easier
Hope this helps!
Mayra
I’ll add that having this concise summary is helpful, but you need to read the book to get all the details. Most importantly, the book includes examples so it’s much easier to see the structure.
Point well-taken, Lillie!
I wouldn’t want anyone to think they didn’t need to buy the book because of Mayra’s generous answers here!
Mayra,
Thanks for a great overview of the review-writing process!
Jeanne
Congrats on another great review!
Charlotte,
It was a bit intimidating to review a book on reviewing—as you know. But Mayra and Anne did such a good job of explaining the structure that it was easier than I’d expected.
Lillie, how fascinating that you posted this just as I was asking my readers what they look for in a book review. Great minds think alike!
I find myself thinking about reviews because a) I’m reading a lot of books on writing, and want to share them where relevant to my readers and b) I’m starting to be sent review copies to look at.
I suppose my question is around the ethics of review copies:
Am I obliged to write a review of a book I’ve (perhaps unthinkingly) said I’ll look at?
Or does it all just depend?
Joanna Young´s last blog post..Quotes on Experimenting, Writing, Art and Life
Joanna,
When I read your post asking for input, I thought “How timely.”
Mayra and Anne address the ethics of reviewing and review copies in the book in a fair amount of detail, but I’m sure Mayra will give a brief answer here.
Joanna,
Mayra may have missed your question in the midst of all the conversation here or perhaps she just hasn’t had a chance to stop back by since she’s busy with other tour stops.
She may yet come back and answer but rather than leave you hanging any longer, I’ll respond.
In the book, the authors say that a reviewer who writes for a review site may be required to write reviews of all assigned books, but a blogger or other independent reviewer is not obligated to review every book she receives. For example, if the book is terrible, the authors recommend that the reviewer not attempt to review it. Some reviewers return the book under those circumstances, but others don’t. The reviewer is actually doing the author a favor by not writing an honest review of a terrible book.
I have started to receive requests to review books and products, and the way I handle it is this: If I think the book or product might be of interest to my readers, I tell the person making the request they are welcome to send the book or product, and I will look at it. However, I won’t promise to write a review—I’ll make that determination after I read the book or try the product.
Recently I got a request to write a sponsored post about a product that sells for about $300 if I remember correctly. They would provide the product and pay my rate for a sponsored posts. I replied that I don’t write sponsored posts, but I would try the product. If I felt it was helpful to my readers, I would review.
I received and tried the product, and I didn’t find it useful so I wrote the person who made the request and told him I wouldn’t be writing a review.
About the same time, there was a flurry of glowing reviews of this product on a number of writing blogs, some fairly high-profile ones. I hope those writers truly found the product useful, but I didn’t. Rather than write a negative review, I opted not to review the product at all.
Of course this was a product, not a book, but I would do the same thing with a book. I have several books now that people have sent for review, and I have told them all the same thing: I will read the book and decide whether or not to review it after I’ve read it.
Certainly we wish the best for then with this book hoping they would accomplish their goals for this book.
Magdiel,
Mayra and Anne seem to be having great success with this book, as they should.
Great review, good job, again
Thank you. I tried to follow the excellent guidelines in the book.
A book review on a book about book reviewing. Sounds like a missing Seinfeld episode!
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John,
LOL. It is a little … strange, isn’t it?
You have made a strong case here.
Thank you, shirazi. There’s more to writing a book review than I realized.
Hi Lillie,
Thank you so much for this valuable information. I never even thought about the book review process from the perspective of an author (but then I just started to think of myself as an author). You are a wealth of great information! Thanks Lillie!
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Karen,
I learned a lot about reviewing from this book. I have thought about reviews from the perspective of the author and not much from the perspective of the reviewer.
I’m glad to hear you’re thinking of yourself as an author!
OMG, Lillie. Did you know that I have read a paranormal book named “Embraced by the Shadows’ a year ago at the local library. The reason why I’m attracted with this book, it’s because of the author name, “Mayra” and I din’t know that Mayra is one of your friend here!
What a small world, isn’t it?
Note: Mayra, you’re definitely a talented paranormal writer indeed
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wilson,
It is a small world, and I’m glad you’ve read and enjoyed one of Mayra’s novels. She is a talented writer.
This is indeed a very true and well deserved for the very best article. I hope you are going to continue with these types of reviews in your near future:)
I will be doing more book reviews from time to time. I enjoyed this one, and readers seem to like it as well.
Mayra is just awesome, her plotting is flawless and vocabulary is awesome. I loved the review as well very well written and very well deserved for the very best
Sounds like you’ve read some of Mayra’s fiction and recognize her talent.
I’m going to purchase this book
Dave,
I think you’ll find it helpful.
hMM. Sounds nice to me. Have to read the book.
If you ever write book reviews (or even product reviews), you will find the book helpful. Conversely, if you want to get reviews for your own books, it is an excellent resource for that as well.
I must read this. Anyone must read this.
shirazi´s last blog post..Fine Art of Travel Writing
shirazi,
Certainly anyone who writes or solicits reviews needs this book.
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