Sue Knott's Blog: Knott The Screaming Type - Posts Tagged "reviews"

Are you aware that the world of books is changing, perhaps more than at any time since the introduction of the Guttenberg press? Do you know that you, as a reader/book lover are being called upon to play new, hugely important role in this change?

Traditional publishing is dying, or, at the very least, rapidly morphing into something altogether different than it's been--and no one is sure what it will end up changing into.

Today, the digital democratization of publishing is allowing hundreds of thousands of additional titles to be available to readers each year. Egad! Thought it was hard to pick a book 5 years ago? Now your choices are multiplying at exponential rates.

Not only are more NEW books available, more OLD books are becoming available. Titles that no one could afford to keep in print are becoming easy to keep available as digital downloads. It's going to take publishers (dinosaurs who move at the pace of rock) quite some time to make many of the older books available digitally. But, every new book that comes out digitally is now going to hang around rather than finding itself out of print and forgotten.

This is both good and bad news for readers. It's good news because we will have so much more to choose from. So many amazing books have gone unpublished over the decades. Elitist editors can no longer dictate what books we have access to. Long digital shelf lives will allow niche gems to be discovered. Books will no longer need to occupy the stifling confines of existing genre limitations.

The difficult part is where you, the reader come in. Readers are now needed to sort the literary wheat from the chaff. Your ratings and reviews are crucial to helping other readers discover the good and not waste time on the bad. Your blogs, conversations, tweets, etc. will make the difference between a book flourishing or failing. YOU are the gatekeeper that publishers once were.

I have no doubt that books are in far better hands now with readers in control. A savvy analysis of reviews can usually tell me if I'm going to love or hate a book. I know my travel experience has improved ten times over since tripadvisor.com gained hold. Now, sites like goodreads.com and the reviews on store sites are doing the same for my reading experience.

Don't take you new reader responsibilities lightly! Post your reviews. If you love a book, rave. If you hate it, rant. If you're wishy washy, say "eh." If we don't all participate in the process, we'll never be able to keep our heads above the tsunami of literature heading our way in the digital age. (And while you're at it, post to product review sites you use, too...power to the people has never been so readily at our fingertips...wield it wisely!)

Many readers are unaware of the topsy-turvy state of publishing right now. After decades of business-as-usual, the book world has been turned on its head. Nobody knows where it will end up.

That's an opportunity for you, dear reader, to help shape the future to your liking. I mentioned in a previous post that bookstores won't exist if you don't buy books there. Well, there are other developments that will stay or go away based on your behavior.

Right now, authors and publishers are experimenting with book giveaways as a marketing tool. (In fact, right now, Feb. 4-7, the Kindle version of my novel, "Catching On Fire" is available free. And my sometimes-co-author, Lardyard Hampoon, is offering his "Fifty Shades Nastier An Intensely Funny Parody" free through Kindle on the same days. Warning: I had nothing to do with Lardyard's book. The humor in it is vile, for adults only, and not for the faint of heart.)

Hopefully, you've come back from getting your free downloads for the rest of my message. And that is: if these freebies don't work for the authors/publishers, they won't continue to offer them. It's very experimental right now. If people don't leave honest reviews on sites like goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, the freebies won't make much of an impact. (And an honest review can be good, bad or indifferent, as long as it's honest and posted where others can read it.) If the freebies don't lead to sales, people won't be offering them. Word gets around in the publishing community.

Same goes for talking up a book that you like, whether you got it for free or paid for it. If it's not yet a best seller, it needs your enthusiasm. Most books go nowhere. If you don't help a favored book succeed, you may not see anything else from that author ever again. His/her publisher will drop him/her. It won't be worth the author's time to write another book.

So, if you like freebies, be sure to leave a review that will be helpful to potential readers, even if it's a negative review. And if you happen to love an author who isn't on the NYTimes Bestseller List, make sure all your friends know how great that author is.

While you're at it, you might want to learn to rely on reader reviews...they might be the way of the future. Don't just go by star ratings. Read several reviews to see why the reviewer did or did not like the book. You'll recognize the reviewers who share your taste.

Last, but not least (trite, I know), tell publishers/authors what you want. Tweet about it. Send them emails. They'll pay attention. (My current pet peeve: ebooks that are more expensive than print books! How stupid do publishers think we are? Sure, ebooks are convenient, but I know the pixels cost a lot less than the paper.)