Good News About Bad Reviews

I never read a book before reviewing it – it prejudices a man so. – Sydney Smith

I’ve been pleased with the reviews I received on The Ride. Yes, I paused here to knock on wood. OK…it was the side of my head, but let’s not worry about details.

Recently I read about an interesting study, Positive Effects of Negative Publicity: Can Negative Reviews Increase Sales? Don’t get me wrong, I am not asking for someone to write a bad review. In fact, I’m hoping that doesn’t happen. I’m only saying the results of the study were intriguing.

The report scrutinized the effects of a New York Times review on the sales of 244 fiction hardcover books. A negative review for established authors led to a 15% decrease in sales. A negative review for unknown authors increased sales by 45%. That’s quite an increase.

For unknown writers, I’m wondering if the increased sales have more to do with being reviewed by the New York Times than the actual content of the review.

Honestly I think a bad review would make me think more like Steve Lehto in his article, “When an Author Meets His Critics.” After receiving positive reviews in the New York Times, Vanity Fair and The Wall Street Journal, he talks about how bad a one-star review on Amazon made him feel.

He went on to check the reviews on some classics. He says:

“To Kill a Mockingbird was called "A BORING, WORTHLESS WRECK OF A BOOK" -- yes, in ALL CAPS -- by one reader, and "one of the most overrated and hyped books of our time," by another. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling better already.”

I suggest reading the entire article, especially if you need a few chuckles after receiving a bad review.

Have you ever given a book a one-star review? How do you handle negative reviews? Would a positive or negative review in the New York Times influence your decision to purchase a book.

Tags: Sydney Smith, negative reviews, New York Times review, Steve Lehto, Amazon, To Kill a Mockingbird

Gender-Bias in the Literary World

I love to be individual, to step beyond gender. - Annie Lennox

A few months ago I read an interesting blog about gender-biased reviews at Darcia Helle’s, A Word Please . Darci mentioned reading a Sisters in Crime newsletter which said that approximately 67% of reviews went to male authors while 33% went to female.

According to Darcia:

“Sisters in Crime monitors 42 publications. Of those, only 3 gave more reviews to female mystery authors. These were the San Francisco Bay Area’s Contra Costa Times, the Annapolis Capital, and Romantic Times. Of the remaining 39 that slant toward male writers, some of the statistics are astounding. For instance, 100% of the mystery novels reviewed by Detroit Free Press were written by men. They didn’t review one female mystery author all year! The percentage of male authors reviewed in other leading publications include: Ellery Queen at 76%, Entertainment Weekly at 72%, the New Yorker at 75%, and the Washington Post at 79%.

Looking at these statistics, a person would be forgiven for assuming that there are simply more male mystery authors to review. This, however, is untrue. The split is almost even.”

Two popular female authors, Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult, recently added more fuel to this debate according to an article in the Huffington Post, “When Is a Literary Feud NOT a Literary Feud?” by Lisa Solod Warren.

The article states:

“The two women say Franzen is getting too much play for his new novel Freedom (which, incidentally hasn't even hit bookstores yet) and that his subject matter is one that women like them write about all the time but for which they never receive the kind of press Franzen is getting (the cover of Time being the breaking point, perhaps). Picoult is quoted as saying that the New York Times favors " white male authors" and Weiner, in the Huffington Post, says that she thinks "it's a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it's literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it's romance, or a beach book -- in short, it's something unworthy of a serious critic's attention."

I don’t agree with the author of the article when she goes on to say things like, “The truth is that authors like Picoult and Weiner can't hold a candle to Franzen.” Or “It seems more about professional jealousy than equal coverage or women's rights.” Or “One benefit of reviews in mainstream, influential publications like Time and the New York Times is to introduce readers to writers who may not be on the average reader's radar.”

I tend to agree more with an article by Tina Jordan on shelf-life.ew.com titled, “Stop calling it chick lit!” She writes:

“As far as the Times goes, Weiner and Picoult are correct: The newspaper absolutely does have a bias towards white male authors (if you doubt this, go do some counting yourself). Look and see how many men in the last year got both daily and Sunday reviews — and then compare how many women were accorded that honor. Check the number of mentions Gary Shteyngart has gotten in the last month, and then do the same for Mona Simpson, a novelist of equal literary acclaim. (Their most recent works came out at roughly the same time this summer.) Simpson did get a profile, it’s true. Of course, it ran in the Style section, not the Arts section.”

My favorite part of the article was:

“The chick lit issue is equally bothersome. It’s never failed to irritate me that the smart, funny, achingly real Good in Bed should be dismissed as “chick lit,” with all its dismissive, derogatory implications. This isn’t a novel about sex and shopping. Would we demean brash, action-packed adventure novels by calling them “dick lit”? No, we would not. (Although if the “chick lit” tag persists, maybe we should.)

My research team (better known as my sister) sent me the following email, “… after discussion last night I thought I'd count the reviews of male vs female authors this week in the Wall Street Journal. HA! Their current list of book reviews has 12 books by men and 5 by women (I didn't count the two books that were co-authored by a man and a woman, but then it would have been 14 to 7).”

I tried to find statistics on percentage of men to women writers in various genres, but came up empty handed. Regardless of the numbers, I think it’s clear there is a bias. However, I have no idea what can be done about it.

Do you think gender-bias reviews are a problem? Do you have any solutions?

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope to see you again next Monday.

Tags: Annie Lennox, Darcia Helle, sisters in crime, gender bias, book reviews, Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Weiner, Frantzen,Wall Street Journal,New York Time book review,

Writing a Book Review

A good writer is not, per se, a good book critic. No more than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender. - Jim Bishop

I never thought about writing book reviews until I was the author of a book receiving reviews. I know how nice it is to have someone who liked the book take the time to post their thoughts. Therefore, I decided I wanted to do a better job of writing reviews of the books I’ve read and enjoyed; especially those by new authors.

Writing reviews, I quickly learned, is not as easy as it sounds.

I know what kind of reviews I like to read—short and to-the-point. An example of what I consider well-written book reviews can be found at Straight from Hel. Helen Ginger’s reviews leave me wanting to read the book even if it’s not in a genre I normally select (the disclaimers posted along with the reviews are also thoroughly entertaining). Click here and here to read samples of her recent reviews. Her blog involves many other book related topics, so if you haven’t visited, I recommend a stop.

I also know what type of reviews I don’t like to read—the tell-all style that reads more like a book report and often gives away important plot twists. I avoid these types of reviews (unless it’s something someone posted on The Ride, and then I read every word). I simply don’t want to know all there is to know about a book I haven’t read yet. And, if there is a spoiler alert, I cringe and close the page as quickly as possible.

In my quest to learn how to write good reviews, I ran across an article by Michelle Kerns at examiner.com, titled “The top 20 most annoying book reviewer clichés and how to use them all in one meaningless review.” Gripping, poignant and compelling are samples of the words on her list. According to Michelle:

“The purpose of reviewerspeak is to force every free-thinking book, movie, and art reviewer into the submissive parroting of only a handful of approved reviewer words to describe any item that may come their way. Call it laziness, call it the incessant demands of the ever-wakeful internet, call it fear of the wrath of Harold Bloom, but reviewers -- particularly book reviewers -- spew out these same, tired old clichés with the force and regularity of Linda Blair in a scene from The Exorcist.”

Then I read another of Michelle’s articles “Book Review Bingo: More book review cliché fun than you can shake a riveting, unputdownable stick at,” that takes these clichés a step further. She added a few words, such as "unputdownable," and developed a Bingo game. She says:

“I hardly think there is anything that drives a stake into the heart of a book review faster and with more determined force than a cliché. Book reviews that use clichés mean nothing, say nothing, and tell the reader nothing. They're like eating a cream puff when what you really want is prime rib -- they're unsatisfying and, ultimately, useless.”

After my “research” this week, I am confident about words I want to avoid and the kind of review I don’t want to write, but I am nowhere near being able to sit down and write a review with ease.

Now I plan to spend some time visiting the 100 Best Blogs for Book Reviews at onlinecollege.org. This site looks interesting as it divides the review blogs by genre, so I can concentrate on the types of books I read the most.

It’s important for me to find my voice in writing book reviews soon, because my stack of read-but-need-to-write-a-review books is about to become taller than my to-read stack.

Do you write reviews? If so, do you review all the books you read or only the ones you really like? How do you feel about tell-all reviews? Do you have any hints on how to write the perfect book review?

Before I forget, I want to thank Virginia Grenier at The Writing Mama for bestowing me with the Versatile Blogger Award. It’s quite an honor coming from a truly resourceful blogger, who manages to raise three kids while writing, running a publishing company, editing…oh and blogging. If you’re not familiar with her blog, you might want to stop by to see what you’re missing.

Thanks for stopping here today. I hope to see you again, next Monday.

Tags: Jim Bishop, book reviews, book reviewers, writing book reviews, best blogs for book reviews, Helen Ginger , The Ride,