Book Review Sites

VydorScope · 09-18-2011, 07:36 AM

So, I have been thinking lately of adding book reviews to one of my sites. Often when I finish a book I am thinking exactly what I would write if I had a review site and I know that most book review sites are back logged with books to review so I wonder sometimes if I could take on some of that load. I am sure if I drop a post in the writers area here saying "Looking for submissions..." I would get plenty of books to read, plus I have my own reading list already... so lack of material wont be an issue, what would be is where I would post them. I have options...

1) My primary blog is a place where I post a weekly Bible study. I kind of doubt this would be a good place as topically fiction books would not seem to fit with the intelectual Bible study I post weekly.

2) My second blog is dedicated to my current novels and has news/updates about them. I could see adding a section to that site for it since the kind of people that visit that site are the kind of people that read books, but I wonder if the site is to targeted for broadening like this.

3) I own my own dedicated server, so putting up a third new blog just for this would take only a few minutes. I have a pile of unused domain names that I could use for this. The problem here is a new site has no traffic, so reviews are less valuable.

4) I aslo run several other sites (2 forums, a photo site, and etc) but none of them are blogs, so they are out. Related, I currently do write for an extremely popular web site, but they are not a book review site and they assign me topics to write on. So that puts them out.

5) I guess I could try and volunteer at an existing review site, but they often will have rules like "you must review X books per Y days, and we will force feed you the books you review and you will like it!" So I worry that forced nature will stifle and kill the joy of writing the reviews. Plus I am in grad school so writing on someone else's schedule may not be possible.

So what think y'all? I am leaning towards #3 (and no matter which it would include posting reviews to GoodReads, and etc). Any advice?

afa · 09-18-2011, 08:17 AM

#1 and #4 seem to pretty much be out, for the reasons you stated.

I would probably not go for #2, either, since that site seems to be dedicated to your own work. While authors do occasionally post a mini-review of books/movies/TV Shows, etc. that they have recently experienced, it seems that you are targeting a dedicated review site, so I would not suggest this, either. Your website should remain about you and your work.

So it's between option #3 and #5. The latter seems like an idea, but I don't know how it works. If you are right, and the site will stuff books down your throat, then it might get annoying. You would not really have any freedom to choose the books you read, and you will also be restricted by their terms. Depending on the website, this might result in them preventing you from being completely free and honest with your critique, due to certain conflicting interests or policies they might have.

The result, then, is that I agree with you. Option #3 (creating a new blog) is the one to go for. Sure, you wouldn't have any initial traffic, but hopefully it will pick up over time as people come to enjoy your views.

SensualPoet · 09-18-2011, 08:32 AM

Have you considered creating a dedicated site of your reviews (a central repository) and then cross-posting (which is another form of marketing) the same reviews or condensed versions here, at Goodreads, at Amazon, etc?

You haven't actually stated what your objective is. Is it to build traffic to a site to make some money? Or to share thoughtful reviews to a wide audience? Or to post and generate rich discussions?

VydorScope · 09-18-2011, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Have you considered creating a dedicated site of your reviews (a central repository) and then cross-posting (which is another form of marketing) the same reviews or condensed versions here, at Goodreads, at Amazon, etc?

Yes...

Quote:

Originally Posted by VydorScope

So what think y'all? I am leaning towards #3 (and no matter which it would include posting reviews to GoodReads, and etc).

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

You haven't actually stated what your objective is. Is it to build traffic to a site to make some money? Or to share thoughtful reviews to a wide audience? Or to post and generate rich discussions?

Making money is always helpful, but none of my sites do that now (all are add free) and I have made no effort to effort to change that besides one half hearted attempt on one of the forums so, no making money is not a goal here. Heck even my teaching postion, and my professional writing postion are volunteer.

The objective is I love to write, I find reviewing books to be fun, and I believe I can offer value through my reviews to the reading community.

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09-18-2011, 07:36 AM	#1
VydorScope Wizard Posts: 3,418 Karma: 35207650 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: iPad	Book Review Sites So, I have been thinking lately of adding book reviews to one of my sites. Often when I finish a book I am thinking exactly what I would write if I had a review site and I know that most book review sites are back logged with books to review so I wonder sometimes if I could take on some of that load. I am sure if I drop a post in the writers area here saying "Looking for submissions..." I would get plenty of books to read, plus I have my own reading list already... so lack of material wont be an issue, what would be is where I would post them. I have options... 1) My primary blog is a place where I post a weekly Bible study. I kind of doubt this would be a good place as topically fiction books would not seem to fit with the intelectual Bible study I post weekly. 2) My second blog is dedicated to my current novels and has news/updates about them. I could see adding a section to that site for it since the kind of people that visit that site are the kind of people that read books, but I wonder if the site is to targeted for broadening like this. 3) I own my own dedicated server, so putting up a third new blog just for this would take only a few minutes. I have a pile of unused domain names that I could use for this. The problem here is a new site has no traffic, so reviews are less valuable. 4) I aslo run several other sites (2 forums, a photo site, and etc) but none of them are blogs, so they are out. Related, I currently do write for an extremely popular web site, but they are not a book review site and they assign me topics to write on. So that puts them out. 5) I guess I could try and volunteer at an existing review site, but they often will have rules like "you must review X books per Y days, and we will force feed you the books you review and you will like it!" So I worry that forced nature will stifle and kill the joy of writing the reviews. Plus I am in grad school so writing on someone else's schedule may not be possible. So what think y'all? I am leaning towards #3 (and no matter which it would include posting reviews to GoodReads, and etc). Any advice?

09-18-2011, 08:17 AM	#2
afa The Forgotten Posts: 1,136 Karma: 4689999 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Dubai Device: Kindle Paperwhite; Nook HD; Sony Xperia Z3 Compact	#1 and #4 seem to pretty much be out, for the reasons you stated. I would probably not go for #2, either, since that site seems to be dedicated to your own work. While authors do occasionally post a mini-review of books/movies/TV Shows, etc. that they have recently experienced, it seems that you are targeting a dedicated review site, so I would not suggest this, either. Your website should remain about you and your work. So it's between option #3 and #5. The latter seems like an idea, but I don't know how it works. If you are right, and the site will stuff books down your throat, then it might get annoying. You would not really have any freedom to choose the books you read, and you will also be restricted by their terms. Depending on the website, this might result in them preventing you from being completely free and honest with your critique, due to certain conflicting interests or policies they might have. The result, then, is that I agree with you. Option #3 (creating a new blog) is the one to go for. Sure, you wouldn't have any initial traffic, but hopefully it will pick up over time as people come to enjoy your views.

09-18-2011, 08:32 AM	#3
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	Have you considered creating a dedicated site of your reviews (a central repository) and then cross-posting (which is another form of marketing) the same reviews or condensed versions here, at Goodreads, at Amazon, etc? You haven't actually stated what your objective is. Is it to build traffic to a site to make some money? Or to share thoughtful reviews to a wide audience? Or to post and generate rich discussions?

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