Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
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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It would be very, very useful if you copied your reviews to Smashwords. Red Adept, who also reviews indie authors quite frequently, copies her reviews (about once a month) to Amazon. It's really done as a courtesy to the authors, but it is a great feature. There are more eyeballs during BUYING of books on the site itself.
I've been lucky enough to get a few reviews posted at Smashwords (mostly by you kind folks at Mobileread!) It really can make a difference to the author and it also may bring back folks to check out your site for reviews.
But you are the author--and the one doing the work. Ergo, we're grateful for the exposure and the reviews. Even if you don't review me personally, having someone who is reviewing smashword books helps every single author on there. Thanks.