I think that the way in which we read is changing, ebooks and indie publishing make books more accessible to those who perhaps didn’t have access other than via a library in the past, and there are books on more diverse topics that speak to a wider range of people. So too, the increase of audio books has widened the time people can spend with a book. I think there is a bigger appetite for books than ever before and on more platforms.
LizaRose – 10 June 2020
About Reviewing
How did you get started?
I had a love of books instilled into me at a very early age by my mother who was a children’s librarian. I have been beta reading on and off for many years, but there is often (though not always) a significant difference between a beta ready book and a final offering to the reader. A beta reader essentially works with the author “in secret” and the book may or may not see the light of day at the end of it. It’s difficult to be enthusiastic about a book and then not be able to share it with people, and I love to share books with friends. I wanted to share them with a wider audience.
How do you review a book? Is it a read first, and then make notes, or do you make notes as you go along?
This depends on the book. If the book is gripping then I may read through and then read again to review, but other books need some time to digest, or a break and a few notes to give them a chance. This latter approach happened on my first formal review – Louise Penny’s Still Life. You have to give a book a chance, literally, don’t judge it by its cover, or the first few pages. I didn’t fully understand how good Penny was until I got into Chapter 2. Then I had to go back and reread Chapter 1 again to understand just how good she was.
What are you looking for?
Typically mysteries or speculative fiction. I review all SF genres except horror. It’s not that I don’t like horror. I do. But I also enjoy sleeping at night and I am a little bit of a nervous nellie when it comes to horror!
Mysteries come in all shapes and sizes. I love cozy murder mysteries, but also mysteries that are associated with skeletons in the closet, think A Villa In Italy (Elizabeth Edmunsen) or The Death of Mrs Westaway (Ruth Ware).
If a book has a great plot, great characters, but the grammar is less than perfect, how do you deal with that?
Again, it depends on the book. If it throws me out, I might approach the author and ask them if they would like feedback. I rarely put a book on the DNF pile. Grammar mistakes can be annoying but we can all make them, and language is always developing and changing, whether we like it or not. I get annoyed with excessive use of bad language, but that’s normally due to a lack of imagination or vocabulary.
How long does it take you to get through, say, an eighty thousand-word book?
A good story that grips me and I can read and review it in under half a day. That said, I do have work and a family, so typically I would manage it in a week.
How did you come up with your rating system, and could you explain more about the rating system?
I only score on a 5 star basis, but each of those stars has an associated meaning for me:
- Opening and ending
- Story plot and twists
- Language and prose
- Humour and pathos
- World Building and characters
I might give a half star in some categories so the final rating is an aggregate.
If it hits all of those points, and I would read again, then a five star rating is the reward.
I often find that most books don’t hit all five points.
My reviews don’t always reflect the detail of how I arrived at my score, sometimes less is more, and I never want to give the plot away. Similarly, I might not give a full star for each of the factors, and I might round up or down on my general feelings on the book. I haven’t read a book yet that would get only one star based on my review method, most books have something to redeem them, but I have seen a 1.5!
What advice could you give to authors looking to get their books reviewed?
Most importantly, edit first, ask for a review second. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. You can be the best writer but not the best editor. You can be the best editor but not the best writer. A good book is the product of a writer and editor who suit each other.
Be polite in your request, and provide a little bit of information to help identify whether a reviewer is right for your book. If someone doesn’t want to review your book don’t take it personally. A reviewer might not like your type of book and knows that they can’t do your book justice in reviewing it, hence their refusal. If you communicate with a reviewer, always be polite, they are people just like you.
Do you get readers emailing you and thanking you for a review?
Not yet, but I live for the day when I do 🙂
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?
In principle, I agree. If I expect to give a bad review because I don’t like the book but it’s otherwise suitable for others, I would expect it to still get at least 2 stars in my rating but I would conclude my review with a statement that a book has merit but that it’s just not for me. I would contact the author and ask them if they want me to post the review publicly.
If I expect to give a bad review because there is (in my opinion) something lacking, then I would ask two questions. One, again, do they want me to post the review publicly, and do they want feedback on what I found to be the issue (again in my opinion). I am open to polite discourse on that basis, but because it is an opinion, to argue with it is futile, since the author is also entitled to their opinion on my review too.
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?
There are many reasons for wanting to read a book, information, education, enlightenment, entertainment. The mood I am in influences which book I pick up to read at any given time, but most often I am looking to be transported somewhere that is as real as the world we live in. Any book that can worldbuild and provide rich complicated characters that make me feel something for them is a good read.
I think that the way in which we read is changing, ebooks and indie publishing make books more accessible to those who perhaps didn’t have access other than via a library in the past, and there are books on more diverse topics that speak to a wider range of people. So too, the increase of audio books has widened the time people can spend with a book. I think there is a bigger appetite for books than ever before and on more platforms.
About Writing
What are the most common mistakes that you see authors making?
Disclaimer. I am also an author. We make lots of mistakes, but I think not having a good editor is one of them. Not ‘killing’ the ending is another. An ending should leave you wanting more but not dissatisfied that the story has no resolution. There are a lot of books out there that are really chapters in a longer story, book 1 made to sell book 2. There is nothing wrong with this if book 1 is a complete story with a satisfying ending, but there are many books that leave too many threads hanging. I exclude some of the space opera novels from this as they are written this way by design.
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?
No. I would have stopped reading Still Life on that basis and would have missed an absolute treat. Reading the first three chapters is more appropriate, I think. Publishing houses do have to make quick decisions, but it explains why so many best sellers have had to shop around so much to sell something that has turned out to be a money maker.
Is there anything you will not review?
See my note on horror!
About Publishing
What do you think of the oft-quoted comment that the “slush-pile has moved online”?
I think that is an unfair assessment of indie authors. There are many reasons for self-publishing a book, including the timeliness of a book, its expected longevity in the market, the time it takes to publish traditionally, and the market appetite for books. That is not to say that there isn’t a place for traditional publishing.
Do you think attitudes are changing with respect to indie or self-published titles?
I think that if indie authors continue to be creative and interesting in their ideas and they take themselves more seriously, then indie books will continue to thrive and grow in the marketplace. And by that I mean that if indie authors don’t treat their book like a bestseller and have it properly edited and produced, then why would anyone else treat it like a best seller and buy it?
Do you have any ideas or comments on how the industry can ‘filter’ good from bad, aside from reviews?
Publishing as an industry is struggling to meet the times. The advent of larger online ebook retailers has made it difficult for any writer, including bestsellers, to make a living at writing. This means that the cost of editing is prohibitive for many writers, adding to the problem. That said, the same retailers do take quality into account, certainly in production values, for example, print on demand book formats. It may be that if these same companies were able to offer editing packages, there would be less need to ‘filter’.
End of Interview:
Check out LizaRose’s reviews at Theta Station.
