Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Book reviews

By Pamela Moeng

The writing life these days is hectic. I was forcibly removed from my Blackberry on the Thursday before Easter, and since then keeping up with emails and blogging has been tough.

A genre hopper, the most recent I've turned my hand to is the book review. I've written four in the past few weeks, one published on the web through a book review blog called Katalina's Playroom, another due to be used in a literature journal, and one submitted to Katalina's Playroom, but not published yet, and still another in the works.

Book reviews are cool. You get to read a book under the guise of "work", and then you get to write about whether you liked the book or not and what its salient features are. Tons of fun!

One day I hope my own books are the subject of someone's review, with the hopes that all the reviewers will absolutely love them. But that's eons away.

For now, I am thrilled to be able to use my writing skills to source new reading material. What a great trade off! Someone sends me a book and all I need to do is write about it. Why didn't I think of doing this years ago?

Seriously though, spreading my wings to a new genre is just part of the plan for making me a better writer, one more marketable and having more fun.

How many of Storypot's readers have written a book review? Do any of you have any leads for me on where I can go to expand the market for my reviews? Do you take book reviews seriously when you are deciding what books to spend your hard earned money on? What is your notion of the ideal book review?

I'm interested - let's talk.

3 comments:

Siar said...

I'm sure your books will be reviewed in the futher as long as you continue to make them better. Good Luck!

flipbook maker

PJ said...

Thanks, Siar. I am to do that. I appreciate the good wishes.

Damaria Senne said...

I reviewed a lot of children's books when I first started this blog. Here is an example:

Miss Behave and the Secret Agents

http://damariasenne.blogspot.com/2007/03/camille-lagarrigue-captures-my-kids.html

I've also posted reviews on Amazon and Goodreads

Here is an example

http://www.amazon.com/review/R32T6TNL8V9KRH

I'll keep sending you leads if and when I come across them. I also think you should chat with Bridget, she who is co-writing the course, and find out if her publishing company needs book reviewers.

Whether I take a book review seriously depends on the reviewer. I need a high level of trust before I trust someone's opinion. However, I have bought books based on the recommendation of reviewers trust. Might I just mention that the reviewers were not necessarily famous ones or ones in mainstream media. Most of them were bloggers, actually.

Copyright Notice

With the exception of entries specifically credited to individual authors, the content on this blog is copyrighted by Damaria Senne and may not be reprinted without permission.