Entry tags:

industry, reviews

Reviews, again.
All About Romance has a series of reports from and about the RWA conference. Blythe's reports have a lot of interesting information on authors, YA, Chicklit, and different publishers such as NAL. I'm looking forward to the RWA tapes.

A new discussion began after one of paperbackreader's reviews. helenkay writes:

In an effort to promote the genre, to suggest we should be taken seriously outside of the romance writing world, we don't shy away from the negative review. After all, if we can't self-critique in a way that amounts to more than empty cheerleading, have we earned the credibility we insist we should have?

alisonkent follows it up here and shannonstacey here.

I understand being frustrated with cheerleading review sites. It does hurt the credibility of the industry. But authors and readers can actively and vocally support review sites/publication which give honest reviews, and voice their displeasure to the powers that be of those that don’t. And this is all just my opinion, but I truly believe in writers writing and reviewers reviewing.

I like good review sites and I don't think they should only belong to non-writers. Writing, reading, and reviewing are so closely linked together in my mind. I have personally backed away from reviewing on my blog because I just don't want to deal with these discussions. It would take away from my writing; I have a great capacity to fuss for hours on end about this type of thing. I may, at some point, change my mind.

All that said, reviews are funny things. I take them into account less and less when it comes to buying. Take Mrs. Giggles, whose reviews are extremely entertaining and no use to me whatsoever because our tastes are so different. And, as alisonkent says in helenkay's comments:

I know for a fact that Alison the author looks at a book differently than Alison the reader. I don't mind authors reviewing, but neither do I see how they can help but point out craft/structure/character issues many readers wouldn't know about or care about. This is where Monica's point about what's selling - and money being the loudest reviewer of all - comes in.

What I generally need now to buy a book is a review by someone whose tastes are in line with mine and some buzz. Not that buzz and reviews don't feed each other.

ETA: smartbitches weighs in.