Archive
Monthly Archives: January 2011
- by Tara Maya
5 Things A Writer Learned About Reviews and Reviewers
It’s that time in my novel’s lifecycle that it has to go out into the big wide world and plead for reviews. It’s both terrifying and gratifying, when I thought it would merely be terrifying. Already, I’ve leared so much I never would have guessed about reviews and reviwers, and I’m only beginning.
1. People who read and review books are awesome.
I admit, I never used to think this. I thought of book critics as obnoxious wannabes who enjoyed tearing down writers for the malicious sense of self-importance it gave them. Now I am ashamed of myself for thinking that.
Who are the reviewers? Well, among those who are interested in my book, which is a coming of age story, a fantasy, a romance, a fairytale, there tend to be a lot of young reviewers. College kids, mostly, a few high school and a few just out of school, who find time for fiction around school semester schedules, math tests and English degrees. Then there is a whole slew of SAHM (Stay At Home Moms) who balance a house of small hooligans with very slick, semi-professional review blogs. Among the professionals, librarians and teachers predominant. We mustn’t forget there are also a few grandmas out there, boldly braving the new technology to remind readers of classic tales, and also to read new releases.
Some of these reviwers do three to four reviews a week! Some reviewers work in teams. Others work alone. They challenge each other to read X number of Y kind of book in Z amount of time. Not surprisingly, they get burned out. Some reviewers whose beautiful reviews of other books moved me were sadly not taking on any new projects. Others were eagerly still filling their calandars.
2. Not every reviewer will love, or even like my book… and that’s okay. Really.
Of course, I’ve gotten nothing but 5-star reviews for The Unfinished Song: Initiate so far, so it’s easy for me to say this now… but I know not every review is going to be 5-stars. Some reviewers I’ve contacted have already declined because they didn’t think it looked like their kind of book. I thought that kind of response would devestate me, but you know what? It didn’t. I didn’t feel bad about myself or the reviwer in question. It was acutally (gasp) no big deal.
3. There are, in fact, more readers than writers in the world.
I have a lot of friends who write novels. In fact, sometimes it seems like everyone I know writes novels. A great many of my friends on Facebook and Twitter not only write novels, but write much better novels than I, and have been publishing them for years. This is all very intimidating, and it sometimes feels like it’s pointless to put any new novels out there, because there are more novels than people to read them…
…and it turns out, this is completely myopic. There are actually lots and lots of people out there scouring the world for books, desperate for books, in love with books.
And it’s ridiculous I have to be reminded of this, because I am actually such a reader myself. I was, long before I wrote anything down, and remained, even after I began earning money as a published author. Readers are abundant, they love books, and they make this whole thing worthwhile.
Not surprisingly, some reviewers are also writers, or aspiring writers. Rather than see this as a bad thing, I see myself in them, especially the young girls who are busy devouring 8 books a week while also puttering away on their first novel. I was once in their shoes.
4. Reviewers need ereaders.
There were some reviewers whose blogs I loved, whose reviews were a delight to read, but whom I did not ask to review my book. Why? They didn’t want an ebook version, only a print ARC.
I remember going through this with agents and email. Originally, I mailed all my queries. Agents wrote scathingly on their websites that authors had better not try to email them. Then, a few agents began to accept email queries. Naturally, I queried them first, but still wrote paper letters to the others. After a while, it became tiresome to write paper letters, when the more reasonable agents accepted email, and I procrastinated. Finally, long after this should have occurred to me, I realized I didn’t even want an agent who couldn’t figure out to use email, and I didn’t care what their excuse for preferring paper was.
I could see myself about to go through the same thing with ARCs and reviewers. I understand that some reviewers haven’t bought an ereader yet, some still prefer paper books, etc. But the fact is, if you are in this industry, and if you review, even as a hobby, you’re in it at least by a toe, you owe it to yourself to move past paper. It’s just dragging you down. It makes it more expensive to send an ARC, unnecessarily so.
I did note the names of reviewers I liked who had a “no ebook” policy. In a year, I’ll check in on them again. I bet many of them will have changed that policy.
5. Reviewers have gone indie too.
A lot of reviewers state explicitly that they won’t review self-published books. I’m going to restrain myself from injudicious comparisons to refusing to serve certain people at lunch counters because of the color of their skin rather than the content of their character, because that would unfairly trivialize a loathsome historical situation. I will say that I wish all people would judge books by the content of their character.
Here in the real world, though, some people still turn up their noses at small third party presses and indie books. The most obnoxious so-called fantasy/sf review site I saw actually listed the only publishers from whom it would accept books, and it wasn’t a long list.
The publisher of Paeolo Bacigalupi’s award winning The Windup Girl
Dude. Whatever.
However, there’s a most delicious irony lurking in all this, namely that reviwers themselves are independently published. Think about it. It used to be rather difficult to be a reviewer of any importance, to be anyone publishing houses would send ARCs. You had to have a journalism degree and a job at a newspaper or a magazine or some such, or perhaps a syndicated column. High school girls, and college students and stay at home moms and grandma librarians probably needn’t have applied.
Now all you have to do is set up a blog — self-publish. You don’t need credentials, you just need cred, and you build that by providing content. Simple as that. Make it look professional, put the work in like a professional, and you will be treated as a professional, you’ll have publishers sending you so many books you have to turn them away in droves. If you’re lazy or inconsistant, that shows in the blog, in the number of followers and readers, and probably you won’t be as overwhelmed with eager authors and publicists sending you books. Either way, it’s all up to you. You can do a professional job without making it your professional job. You have the control.
I love living through this publishing revolution. Have I mentioned that? Love it. I love seeing a tech revolution that empowers people for once, that decentralizes rather than centralizes the apparata of control.
Someone I know is trying to replace the word “indie” (short for independent) with “invy” (short for innovative). I think both words fit. And I love it.
- by Tara Maya
The 3 Steps to Writing a Novel
1. Start.
2. Keep going.
3. Finish.
You will never write a book if you don’t start typing. You’ll have to ignore a thousand distractions, like your job, children, spouse, tv and sparkly things on the internet. At some point, you have to declare the book DONE even if you know in your heart of hearts it can still be better.
- by Tara Maya
The top-selling 100 books, 1998-2010
The hundred top-selling books in the UK, 1998-2010.
by Dan Brown
, 4,522,025
by JK Rowling
, 3,844,316
by JK Rowling
, 3,184,492
by Dan Brown, 3,096,850
by JK Rowling
, 3,043,226
:Children’s Edition by JK Rowling, 2,947,565
by JK Rowling, 2,842,059
by JK Rowling, 2,776,314
by Stephenie Meyer
, 2,105,862
by JK Rowling, 2,057,397
by Dan Brown, 2,018,264
by Stephenie Meyer, 1,975,659
by Alice Sebold, 1,942,042
by Dan Brown, 1,911,943
by Mark Haddon, 1,868,969
by Stephenie Meyer, 1,846,171
: Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, 1,697,425
by Khaled Hosseini, 1,551,953
by Audrey Niffenegger, 1,496,081
by Jeremy Clarkson, 1,447,188
by Ian McEwan, 1,396,366
by Dan Brown, 1,370,347
by Bill Bryson, 1,334,635
by Stephenie Meyer, 1,315,685 by JK Rowling, 1,297,411
by JK Rowling, 1,283,638
by Stieg, 1,265,474
by Dave Pelzer, 1,116,042
by Alexander McCall Smith
, 1,106,219
by Gillian McKeith, 1,103,619
by Tony Parsons, 1,100,44
by Sebastian Faulks, 1,078,571
by Kate Mosse, 1,065,008
by Yann Martel
, 1,050,090
: The No-hunger, Luxurious Weight Loss by Robert C Atkins, 1,046,531
by JK Rowling, 1,039,823
by Louis De Bernieres, 1,025,66439
by Delia Smith, 1,014,854
by Julia Donaldson
, 1,007,208
by Lynne Truss, 995,455
by Philip Pullman
, 976,435
by Jed Rubenfeld, 950,686 by Stieg Larsson, 942,103
by Helen Fielding, 923,429
by Marina Lewycka, 904,498
by Paulo Coelho, 903,395
by Bill Bryson, 898,388
by John Boyne 885,450
by Michael Moore (877,777)
by Jamie Oliver, 874,546
by John Grisham, 869,077
by Helen Fielding, 858,390
by Eric Carle, 855,920
by Khaled Hosseini, 855,523
by Peter Kay, 853,499
by Jamie Oliver, 833,060
by Andrea Levy, 831,039
by Kim Edwards, 820,877
by Pamela Stephenson, 801,133
by Kate Morton, 793,338 by JK Rowling, 788,619
by Nigella Lawson, 780,665
by Arthur Golden, 766,706: Book 2 by Delia Smith, 765,246
: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, 762,717
Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours by Jamie Oliver, 759,900
2009, 747,715
by Jamie Oliver, 741,643
by Zadie Smith, 731,416
by Lauren Weisberger, 725,210
by Linwood Barclay, 722,103
: The Utterly Addictive Number-placing Puzzle, 719,307
by Joanne Harris, 713,299
by Jamie Oliver, 707,570
by Frank McCourt, 694,831
by Ben Schott, 694,063
by Barack Obama, 690,765
by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, 688,808
by Harper Lee, 682,102 by JK Rowling, 680,886
by John Grisham, 677,378 672,950
, 668,497
by Paul McKenna, 665,923
by Jamie Oliver, 659,722
by Monica Ali, 659,023
by Sophie Kinsella, 658,598
by Markus Zusak, 658,524
by Jeremy Clarkson, 658,274
: My Autobiography by Sharon Osbourne, 656,431
by Philip Pullman, 653,615
by Sophie Kinsella, 652,78898
by Bill Bryson, 646,515
by Mark Haddon, 645,453- by Tara Maya
5 Things A Writer Learned About Reviews and Reviewers
It’s that time in my novel’s lifecycle that it has to go out into the big wide world and plead for reviews. It’s both terrifying and gratifying, when I thought it would merely be terrifying. Already, I’ve leared so much I never would have guessed about reviews and reviwers, and I’m only beginning.
1. People who read and review books are awesome.
I admit, I never used to think this. I thought of book critics as obnoxious wannabes who enjoyed tearing down writers for the malicious sense of self-importance it gave them. Now I am ashamed of myself for thinking that.
Who are the reviewers? Well, among those who are interested in my book, which is a coming of age story, a fantasy, a romance, a fairytale, there tend to be a lot of young reviewers. College kids, mostly, a few high school and a few just out of school, who find time for fiction around school semester schedules, math tests and English degrees. Then there is a whole slew of SAHM (Stay At Home Moms) who balance a house of small hooligans with very slick, semi-professional review blogs. Among the professionals, librarians and teachers predominant. We mustn’t forget there are also a few grandmas out there, boldly braving the new technology to remind readers of classic tales, and also to read new releases.
Some of these reviwers do three to four reviews a week! Some reviewers work in teams. Others work alone. They challenge each other to read X number of Y kind of book in Z amount of time. Not surprisingly, they get burned out. Some reviewers whose beautiful reviews of other books moved me were sadly not taking on any new projects. Others were eagerly still filling their calandars.
2. Not every reviewer will love, or even like my book… and that’s okay. Really.
Of course, I’ve gotten nothing but 5-star reviews for The Unfinished Song: Initiate so far, so it’s easy for me to say this now… but I know not every review is going to be 5-stars. Some reviewers I’ve contacted have already declined because they didn’t think it looked like their kind of book. I thought that kind of response would devestate me, but you know what? It didn’t. I didn’t feel bad about myself or the reviwer in question. It was acutally (gasp) no big deal.
3. There are, in fact, more readers than writers in the world.
I have a lot of friends who write novels. In fact, sometimes it seems like everyone I know writes novels. A great many of my friends on Facebook and Twitter not only write novels, but write much better novels than I, and have been publishing them for years. This is all very intimidating, and it sometimes feels like it’s pointless to put any new novels out there, because there are more novels than people to read them…
…and it turns out, this is completely myopic. There are actually lots and lots of people out there scouring the world for books, desperate for books, in love with books.
And it’s ridiculous I have to be reminded of this, because I am actually such a reader myself. I was, long before I wrote anything down, and remained, even after I began earning money as a published author. Readers are abundant, they love books, and they make this whole thing worthwhile.
Not surprisingly, some reviewers are also writers, or aspiring writers. Rather than see this as a bad thing, I see myself in them, especially the young girls who are busy devouring 8 books a week while also puttering away on their first novel. I was once in their shoes.
4. Reviewers need ereaders.
There were some reviewers whose blogs I loved, whose reviews were a delight to read, but whom I did not ask to review my book. Why? They didn’t want an ebook version, only a print ARC.
I remember going through this with agents and email. Originally, I mailed all my queries. Agents wrote scathingly on their websites that authors had better not try to email them. Then, a few agents began to accept email queries. Naturally, I queried them first, but still wrote paper letters to the others. After a while, it became tiresome to write paper letters, when the more reasonable agents accepted email, and I procrastinated. Finally, long after this should have occurred to me, I realized I didn’t even want an agent who couldn’t figure out to use email, and I didn’t care what their excuse for preferring paper was.
I could see myself about to go through the same thing with ARCs and reviewers. I understand that some reviewers haven’t bought an ereader yet, some still prefer paper books, etc. But the fact is, if you are in this industry, and if you review, even as a hobby, you’re in it at least by a toe, you owe it to yourself to move past paper. It’s just dragging you down. It makes it more expensive to send an ARC, unnecessarily so.
I did note the names of reviewers I liked who had a “no ebook” policy. In a year, I’ll check in on them again. I bet many of them will have changed that policy.
5. Reviewers have gone indie too.
A lot of reviewers state explicitly that they won’t review self-published books. I’m going to restrain myself from injudicious comparisons to refusing to serve certain people at lunch counters because of the color of their skin rather than the content of their character, because that would unfairly trivialize a loathsome historical situation. I will say that I wish all people would judge books by the content of their character.
Here in the real world, though, some people still turn up their noses at small third party presses and indie books. The most obnoxious so-called fantasy/sf review site I saw actually listed the only publishers from whom it would accept books, and it wasn’t a long list.
The publisher of Paeolo Bacigalupi’s award winning The Windup Girl
Dude. Whatever.
However, there’s a most delicious irony lurking in all this, namely that reviwers themselves are independently published. Think about it. It used to be rather difficult to be a reviewer of any importance, to be anyone publishing houses would send ARCs. You had to have a journalism degree and a job at a newspaper or a magazine or some such, or perhaps a syndicated column. High school girls, and college students and stay at home moms and grandma librarians probably needn’t have applied.
Now all you have to do is set up a blog — self-publish. You don’t need credentials, you just need cred, and you build that by providing content. Simple as that. Make it look professional, put the work in like a professional, and you will be treated as a professional, you’ll have publishers sending you so many books you have to turn them away in droves. If you’re lazy or inconsistant, that shows in the blog, in the number of followers and readers, and probably you won’t be as overwhelmed with eager authors and publicists sending you books. Either way, it’s all up to you. You can do a professional job without making it your professional job. You have the control.
I love living in a tech revolution that actually helps decentralize power rather than hoard it.
- by Tara Maya
Overheard On Ebooks
Literary Escapism: “I’m looking to sell books so I can use the $$ to buy digital copies of them.”
Jill Corcoran: “e-pub does not impress me unless you have sold 10,000 copies, and these are not free or $1.99 type sales.”
Holly L’Oiseau: Good reason to not e-pub: You can’t be sold as a debut author if you gain agent
I agree paper books will be around a long, long time. But here’s the thing: even if publishers continued to sell JUST AS MANY paper books as they do today, ebooks could STILL start outselling paperbooks in a few years.
Why? Because ebook readers buy more ebooks for their ebook ereaders. I’ve heard over and over that people who used to buy on one or two books a month, or bought used or borrowed books, now buy dozens of ebooks in a month. Not just because it’s so much cheaper, but it’s also much easier. The book is one click away, Instant gratification. There’s no nagging worry about where you will fit the book on your shelf or that you’ll have to carry it as you shop for clothes.
And you can buy the book even without any ereader. For instance (behold my shameless plug), I will gift a copy of my first book to anyone who emails me to ask for it, and you don’t have to have a Kindle. Or you could buy it for just $0.99 while the promotion lasts. (Ok, end of shameless plug. Forgive me. It’s my debut novel and I’m all excited about it.)
The thing is, people often discuss the ebook/paper book market share as though we are talking about the same pie. But if the pie gets bigger, it’s a whole other story.
Tara Maya
The Unfinished Song: Initiate
(Right now only $0.99 on Amazon or FREE if you email me)