Indieview with Reviewer Malka Ahmed of Contemporary Books

I honestly don’t understand why there is still such a stigma against writers who have decided to ditch the traditional route and self-publish. Those authors shouldn’t be scorned, they are being brave and should be lauded. 

Malka Ahmed – 1 November 2014

About Reviewing

How did you get started?

I’ve always been an avid reader and my family and friends always come to me for recommendations on what to read next. I always wanted to be a professional book reviewer, but I just didn’t know how to start. Sure I could start up my own blog, but then it would just be another hobby. Luckily I found NovelBlogs.com, a website that teaches you how to set up a working website, learn to monetize your website, network and reach out to authors to write reviews for their books. I credit my start in the book review business to all the amazing skills that NovelBlogs.com taught me.

How do you review a book? Is it a read first, and then make notes, or do you make notes as you go along?

When I read a book, I am always jotting down notes and underlining. It’s so important for me as a reader to actively engage with the text. This helps me immensely in writing my reviews because I always leave a paper trail of my thoughts on the book. I don’t always write the review immediately, because often the books can leave a lasting impression. I let my thoughts simmer for a day or two to see if that impression is real.

What are you looking for?

My favorite kind of books to read are the ones that pull you in, and immerse you into its world. My favorite kind of characters are the ones that promise to me that they will tell me everything and reward me for sticking alongside them in their journey. These types of books are the ones that transform you, and that’s what I am always on the hunt for.

If a book has a great plot, great characters, but the grammar is less than perfect, how do you deal with that?

Luckily, I have yet to stumble upon a book that hasn’t been thoroughly whipped into shape by a fierce editor. However, as a reader I tend to focus on the story and characters and less on the grammar. I’ve read many great stories in writer workshops and classes that haven’t been properly edited, but that hasn’t deterred me from liking a story. With that said, for a published book, I do expect it to be properly edited for me to offer my serious and thoughtful literary criticism.

How long does it take you to get through, say, an eighty thousand-word book?

I’m a very fast reader, so a 500-800 page book can be read in three days or so. It all depends on the content and pace of the story though. I’ve read very long sagas and breezed through them, and have found myself slugging along into 100 page books.

How did you come up with your rating system, and could you explain more about the rating system?

My rating system is very simple, it’s on a scale from 1 to 5 stars. Each star is added for the overall quality of the book, that includes (but not limited to) plot line, characters, dialogue, and resounding themes. When I open a new book, I automatically give the author 5 stars and as I read, it becomes the book’s job to convince me to stay at 5 stars.

What advice could you give to authors looking to get their books reviewed?

I encourage all authors to match their book and its genre to its reader. It won’t help if you try to get your science fiction novel read by someone who enjoys romance novels. I highly recommend that authors look through a reviewer’s policy and understand the types of genres and books they like to read. If you want to get your book to a reviewer’s attention then please read their review policy to capture their fullest attention.  I’ve spent a lot of time cultivating my book review policy and it’s mainly there to aid the author. When I receive requests that are blatantly against my review policies, it always gets negative points towards the request. In fact, I take them personally – it’s like, ‘hey I put all these guidelines in place for me to help you, and not only did you ignore them you still expect me to review your book!’

Do you get readers emailing you and thanking you for a review?

I try not to let my newfound fame get to my head (ha!), but my favorite part is engaging with my readers. I’m very active on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and I love hearing from them and connecting with them based on our shared interest in anything literary related.

My advice to authors on getting a ‘bad’ review (hasten to add that might mean a perfectly honest, well written, fair review – just bad from the author’s point of view) is to take what you can from it and move on. Under no circumstances to ‘argue’ with the reviewer – would you agree with that?

Hemingway once beat up someone who gave him a bad review, however the reviewer didn’t just criticize Hemingway’s book, he questioned his manhood. That is a very important line that all good book reviewers will recognize; you can criticize a book, but the author is not subject to criticism. Hemingway’s brawl is an extreme example, but unless a reviewer has personally attacked you in a review, it’s best you keep it to yourself.

About Reading

We talk a lot about writing here on the blog, and possibly not enough about reading, which is after all why we’re all here. Why do you think people love reading? We’re seeing lots of statistics that say reading as a pastime is dying – do you think that’s the case?

I know that for me, reading has always been a means to escape my own life. It is the ultimate form of voyeurism – for a few hours, a few days you get be in someone else’s head and see how they view the world. If you look at all the other popular pastimes such as television, music and even social networking, these are all forms of escapism. The variety of pastimes will only keep increasing in the future, so for reading to remain as a contender we need to cultivate better readers. Readers who will appreciate what a good book can do to you, how it can change you and stay with you in a way that movies, music and other forms of expressive art cannot.

About Writing

What are the most common mistakes that you see authors making?

Not trusting the reader to understand or make important connections in their book. Readers are smarter than you think, trust them a little more and its ok to make them work a little bit to understand what’s going.

We’re told that the first page, paragraph, chapter, is absolutely key in making or breaking a book. Agents typically request only the first five pages of a novel; what do you think about that? If a book hasn’t grabbed you by the first five pages, do you put it down?

I wholeheartedly agree that the beginning pages of a book are vital to it being successfully read through to the end. A good book will have no trouble seducing you within the first five pages. I am tad bit more lenient than literary agents in that I allow the author at least 50 pages to win me over and convince me to read more.

Is there anything you will not review?

I consider myself a pretty open-minded person, so I do find myself reading many different genres that I normally do not gravitate towards such as Mysteries and Sci-Fi. However, I have zero interest in Erotica and Horror.

About Publishing

What do you think of the oft-quoted comment that the “slush-pile has moved online”?

The online slush-pile is very obvious if you just take a look at the number of books that have been released on Amazon in the last 30 days. Over 90,000 books on average each month. 90,000! How is a reader supposed to decide what to read and what’s going to be worth their time? Aside from recommendations from family and friends, book reviewers are now more important than ever.

Do you think attitudes are changing with respect to indie or self-published titles?

I sure hope so. Majority of the books that I’ve been reviewing have been written by some very talented and amazing indie writers. I honestly don’t understand why there is still such a stigma against writers who have decided to ditch the traditional route and self-publish. Those authors shouldn’t be scorned, they are being brave and should be lauded.

Do you have any ideas or comments on how the industry can ‘filter’ good from bad, aside from reviews?

This may sound silly, but I truly think that the industry can benefit from cultivating better readers. Better readers will beget better books. Better readers will also naturally be able to filter out the good books from that so called online slush-pile.

End of Interview:

You can read Malka’s book reviews at Contemporary Books.