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A few issues with reviewing on Smashwords...
1) It is a huge site to browse and not all the books have reviews (in fact, most of them do not). I wanted to make a convenient aggregator of ONLY books with reviews to narrow the field and make people feel less like they are wading through the world's biggest slushpile. I am in essence creating a curated sub-collection.
2) Many of the reviews on Smashwords that do exist are not detailed, objective or critical. I am aiming to write 'proper' reviews, not just one-liners, shills or only positive comments. I am doing this to help *customers* buy and choose books, so I am not interested on posting reviews just because I know an author or something.
3) Doing it as a blog allows people to immediately see if there is new content by subscribing to an RSS feed. Smashwords does not have an RSS feed for new reviews. And, as I said, a lot of the reviews on Smashwords, when they do exist, are not helpful. And a lot of readers feel frustrated with having to wade through the massive, massive slog that is Smashwords just to find a few books that do have reviews or are or acceptable quality.
4) Other efforts I have seen to 'promote' indie authors are pretty much vehicles for self-promotion. My blog is different because I do personally read and review every book (i.e. I don't just post press releases) and because I am not affiliated with any authors.
5) A blog is an accepted and common format that most readers are familiar with, that is easy to bookmark and access and that is less massive and overwhelming to browse.
I appreciate that Smashwords does offer the capability to leave reviews. But my goal is to separate out the books I review, not to just have them exist as part of this larger set. I am creating a curated collection of books I have personally reviewed. Does that clarify?
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