Reviewers over-praising books, Pt. 2

In response to my post below about "Why reviewers over-praise books" there were two comments I wanted to highlight and address.

Brian F. asked:

Do you think gushing reviews come from a "need" to create a pull quote? When you're writing a review, do you ever say to yourself "If they decide to use this to publicize the book, how will this sentence look?"

Alexandra Sokoloff wrote:

Maybe this is just a Hollywood thing, but there are film reviewers who are known to hyperbolically praise everything because that guarantees they'll get their name and quote in the ads. Is there maybe some similar motivation with some book reviewers?

I'm cynical, but practical: a lot of reviewers also aspire to writing careers, and widely-read reviews are a good way for them to build a name and connections.

I think this might come into play to a certain extent. But I'm not sure it's a predominant cause, since pull quotes from book reviews almost never mention the reviewer's name. I get blurbed all the time, but the quotes always just say "Chicago Sun-Times" or "Philadelphia Inquirer" or whatever.

My name has only appeared on blurbs a few times that I can remember, and that's out of dozens and dozens of quotes of mine that have been used.

There is still an ego boost that comes from seeing one's review quoted, even if it's not attributed by name. No doubt. But I do think that the anonymous quality of them lessens the motivation.

Pull quotes are something that I do warn myself about in the back of my mind when I'm writing reviews, and I try not to write anything that would be an obvious blurb.

On the other hand, I do try to write active, engaging reviews with positive, punchy phrasing in them (assuming, of course, it's a positive review). That's what my readers are looking for, I think, so that's what I give them. But I am aware of how it can be used for promotional purposes.

I still think that the best way to get attention as a reviewer is to write thoughtful, sincere, quality reviews. That's what you build a career on, not heaping unwarranted praise. Granted, some folks might not be savvy enough to realize this.

Comments

[Ali]

Hmmmmmm Interesting thread

I concur with David on the sheer volume of books received from Publishers, Editors, Authors being part of the root of the problem. I get big slugs of books each week, - and many are 'OK' others less to my taste and some I just don't like, while some are gems in the sand.

If I don't like a book I tend not to review it - as time pressure is an issue, so why spend more time trashing a book that I didn't like ? Besides I can usually tell within 60 pages or so if a book is to my taste - hence if not to my taste / then I've probably not finished it [and therefore not in a position to do a review] - but If I like a book a lot, then I want to tell the whole world -

As an example, a lot of my reviews are archived at booksnbytes.com :-

http://www.booksnbytes.com/reviews/_idx_ak_all_byauth.html

Reactions from Publishers?

I disliked this book :-

http://www.booksnbytes.com/reviews/wolstencroft_goodnewsbadnews2.html

The Publishers contacted me and asked if they could quote the following line from my review 'From this thread we have a stodgy tale that bores the reader.' for their 'Golden Clanger Awards' - in fact they loved that line, and had a good laugh - the book went onto sell a lot, so it's all about taste.

Gushing example :-

http://www.booksnbytes.com/reviews/lehane_shutterisland4.html

"Shutter Island is simply spoken my best read this year. This is all the more staggering in a year that has given us pure excellence from the crime/mystery genre. It is just amazing how Lehane snaps back the boundaries by combining the mystery genre with the sinister and paranoid world of Philip K Dick, and the whole question of reality, madness and evil"

But again many hated this book, so again it's all about personal taste.

I also write, and I expect to be treated as fairly as I treat someone who spends a year of their life writing in a room, and laying bare their words for the whole world to look at, prod, poke and add an opinion to, and as that famous gangster once said -

"Opinions are like arseholes, every f++ker's got one".

Oh, and a big tip - look out for Michael Marshall's THE INTRUDERS - coming in April, it's a wonderfully menacing book and one that I make no apology for gushing about.

Ali

[Bill Peschel]

I confess that, early on in my reviewing "career", I would sometimes attempt a line that I thought would be quotable.

Then I realized that, even if the book has five pages available for quotes, the small-town newspaper I worked for was never going to be quoted.

Still, I admit that when a paperback version of a book appears, I'll flip through the reviews. Even the ones I pan, to see if they ellipsed my remarks.