Aug 7 2011
Kindle 3G (with Special Offers) Giveaway
A month or so ago I announced that we would start giving away one ebook reader a month to the DA readership as a thank you for using the affiliate code links to buy stuff at Amazon and other retailers. (You can find those in our sidebar) ——>
Today is our August giveaway. To enter the ereader giveaway, I would like for you to leave a comment about one thing you think DA does not do well. We want to improve this place and it is always helpful to hear what the users think about the site.
To sum up, leave a comment in this thread about how we can improve DA to win the August eReader Giveaway. This contest will be open until Wednesday 8 pm CST. The winner will be announced on Thursday.
The September giveaway will be different. During the month of August, I will be gathering up all the commenters who leave a comment throughout the month and giving away another Kindle 3G with special offers to one of those people. I encourage lurkers to comment on one of our Open Threads. To enter the September eReader Giveaway, simply leave a comment throughout the month of August. (This thread will not count)
Thank you for being part of DA and for contributing its ongoing success.
Send to Kindle
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:06:44
Aloha, Jane! I read this blog for industry news … so just keep the info flowing!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:07:08
I think the list of books by cover is a public service, but I am greedy enough to wish they were also arranged by release date of the ebook for easier shopping. Affiliate links behind the covers would make it easier to credit you for the sales you’re making.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:10:24
I think you are doing a great job! But the lists of “related links” don’t always work well – for example, they often contain links to giveaways or sales that already expired. It would be nice if this was cleaned up, because I find it distracting at times.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:10:58
I love Dear Author, all I can say is more! Well more link round-ups, I really enjoy those, and more ereader device reviews. I work in a library so while I’m not really in the market to buy a new device, I like to know about all the devices that come out so I can tell people about them. The app reviews are not super helpful for me.
Keep up the good work.
Sarah
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:26:44
I love DA and I check it several times daily. I love the wonderful reviews and a lot of my purchases come from those reviews. I also love the insightful “insiders” posts where you explore what’s happening in the industry and related topics. As a reader, it’s very informative and does help w/ my understanding of the whys and wherefores of how I get the books I love.
The only improvement I can suggest would be the upcoming releases section. While I love that section and use it to update my upcoming lists, it’s kinda confusing. Often times, books are placed in several different months and the format of the book descriptions is often all over the place when you click on the book cover. Maybe switching back to a simple spreadsheet style might be easier.
Thanks so much for all you do! It’s soooo nice to have such a wonderful blog to explore and that it’s updated several times a day has made it so addicting!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:27:13
I would love to hear more about what the reviewers are reading, even without full reviews. I follow on most of y’all on twitter, but something here on DA would be awesome.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:27:40
Your industry news is the best. One improvement I would like is to have your reviews listed by reviewer. I know who has similar tastes to me and occasionally I remember that there was a review I was interested in and I can’t always find it. The grade does not work in this case as I never remember what it was given.
Even with no changes, this is still my favourite site for entertainment and for information.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:29:28
I really like the link roundups. I never read those short little Harlequin books and sometimes it seems like you have nothing but those for a couple of days in a row. If there was some way to mix those in better, that would be great.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:31:59
I know you have a search engine, but I would supplement it with an additional link under reviews. As an example, click on reviews, go to a newly named icon called “Reviews alphabetized by author’s last name,” and click on a letter. All reviews for books with the author’s last name beginning with that letter would then appear.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:34:18
I would like to be able to see reviews sorted by reviewers. In addition, I thing the coming soon can get messy with overlap. I am not a huge fan of the first page posts either.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:48:16
I miss the “If you like” posts. In fact, googling “if you like Julia Quin” is how I found DA more than two years ago! It doesn’t need to be as elaborate and wonderful as that post was (although that would be awesome), but just general “hey, you just discovered Julie James, and now are wondering who the other awesome contemporary authors who write snappy dialogue with professional women” kind of posts.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:48:47
Dear Author is one of my favorite sites and I’m here multiple times a day – even though I rarely leave comments. The industry roundups and e-reader information are great. The GLBT book reviews were awesome. However, in the spirit of giving away a Kindle, it would be fab if you would include more digital first books in your reviews. There’s so much out there an as a reader, I have a hard time making picks so more digital first reviews would be great to have. (Full disclosure – I’m a digital first author but really, what author is’t a voracious reader too?)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 12:57:05
I enjoy all that you post here. I can’t think of anything that needs improving.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:02:05
You do so much so wonderfully!!
What would I like to see here that you don’t already do?
Find me an alpha hero of my own?? That would be great!!
Seriously, A listing of your reviews by release date would be nice, &/or a listing of your reviews by author, then title.
Otherwise, this place is GGRRRRREEEAAATTT!!!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:07:23
The one thing I wish were more consistent is the tags. For example, on the In Death reviews some of them are tagged “mystery” and others not, some are tagged “futuristic” and some are not. A few are even missing “JD-Robb” as a tag. Another example is some of the Calibre posts are tagged with “Ebook reading”, some with “Ebook technology” etc. So when you click on the tags, not every applicable post comes up. Not sure there would be an easy fix for that, but it’s the one thing I’ve noticed as I often use tags to look up other posts.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:10:34
I really like the mid-day links (I think that’s the name of the feature?). I wish you’d do it every weekday, though I understand it really depends on whether or not you have anything worthy to share.
I don’t care for the first page crit, though I think some people like it.
I dislike your weekly movie reviews. I don’t read them because I don’t come here to get movie reviews, and I frankly find them distracting on my Google Reader because I go, “Oooo DA has a new post up…! Oh wait, it’s just a movie review.”
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:16:30
More reviews/coverage of m/m books, please! I don’t read much heterosexual romance these days, so I end up skipping over a lot of DA posts.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:35:11
Why do I have to say something bad :( I like everything!
Ok I am throwing something out there, analyzing the movie vs the book
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:42:19
I love the atmosphere at DA and visit every day. I would really appreciate more variety in the romance subgenres reviewed here–I’m particularly interested in seeing more science fiction romance reviews. I think it’s a subgenre with a serious future.
And kudos for making DA a great place to read reviews of gay and lesbian romance. Romance readers and reviewers rock!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:43:15
I agree with not being a big fan of the first page posts, but it’s not really a big issue – i just mark those as read in my reader :)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:44:34
Jeez, everyone else covered the few things I wouldn’t mind seeing done. I do wish the reviews were also listed by reviewer as well as how you come by your “grades”. I like that you list what bothered and worked for book reviews. I am strictly a reader, not an author so everything else here is great for me. I just want to say Thank You for this site.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:52:03
This is, by far, my favorite “reader” blog and I thank you for all the hard work you put into it. One (small!) suggestion would be to ask for more multi-person reviews. I appreciate seeing more than one person’s viewpoint on the same book.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:52:13
I love the site as is. Maybe try to have more author interviews? I really enjoy interaction with readers and authors. Thanks for an awesome website! Heather
Aug 07, 2011 @ 13:57:07
I’m a big fan of the post and I think you all do an amazing job. Since there are so many books reviewed, if there could be a section for by month of the books reviewed. (Actually, you may have that out there, but I’m just a dork who can’t find it.
Thanks for the great job!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:03:18
I would like to see some more paranormal book reviews.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:05:39
I love this site but I think sometimes the articles posted can be a bit long winded.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:06:21
How about an out of print author interview? And in the interview you could ask about releasing their out of print books in ebook format. :) giving them advice on how to do it etc.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:09:38
I love visiting the DA site and there is hardly anything I would change! The only thing that comes to my mind is that I would like the reviews listed by author and not only the grade. Oh, and I honestly skip the First Page posts every time.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:11:52
My only comment would be for reviews. Would like to see a list by author, and not have to search through every graded category.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:14:01
If possible, I would love to see a semi-regular round-up of authors’ backlists that are now available in e-format. More and more authors are e-pubbing their out-of-print titles, and they’re easy to miss unless you stumble upon them while browsing the Kindle store.
Thanks for all you do! I love this blog!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:19:00
possible improvements:
search by author surname
keep up pressure on publishers to ditch the geographic restrictions on ebook purchases (from a non us canada eu/uk reader)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:21:33
Most of the things I would like to see changed/improved have already been touched upon. These are my main three suggestions:
> reviews by reviewer list easier to find
> consistent and extended tagging
> skip the film reviews
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:28:14
I’d LOVE it if the coming soon page had books listed by release date.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:36:15
I don’t post often though I read DA at least once a day. I really like industry news and opinion pieces as well as the movie reviews – it’s a nice change from book reviews and as long as the book reviews don’t stop, which I don’t think they’re in danger of, I enjoy pretty much everything posted.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:44:58
It just feels wrong to have to mention something I don’t like about this blog when it’s one of my favorites and I check in at least once a day. The one thing I have the most difficulty with is the coming soon page. If it was just listed by release date I would find it much easier to use and more beneficial to me.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:51:16
Hmmm, what don’t you do well? Good question.
Well, I do wish Jane would proofread her reviews and articles, but the typos and sentence fragments are almost sort of endearing at this point. So, I don’t know if there’s anything you do poorly, really.
What I would like to see are more book discussions. Maybe pick an already released title each month to highlight and maybe do a group review of it then turn it over to us wolves to tear it apart at length. I had a lot of fun on The Reluctant Nude thread, and I think so many of us commented because it had been out for a while. I like how thoughtful the discussion is here.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 14:58:56
I too think DA is a fabuloso place. And I am in agreement with the other posters who wanted to see:
1. Reviews searchable by author and reviewer names.
2. Discontinue the First Page entries.
3. Discontinue the movie reviews.
4. Posting and searchable data base of author backlists in ebook format.
Kudos to you, Jane, and all of the hardworking contributers here.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:02:32
First of all, keep up the wonderful job! Dear Author is a fantastic site for both book readers, authors, and everyone in the publishing industry. Over the years, the publishing industry has seen some drastic and some expected changes, ranging from the introduction of ereaders, the closure of bookstores and the emergence of publishing companies. With all these happenings, Dear Author has certainly kept up! Being relatively new to ebooks and ereaders, the news and postings on them are appreciated. I mainly read and will sometimes comment.
1. I really appreciate the site maintenance. The links and content are updated and relevant. There is no lag in the page loads and it is clean without being plain. I am a reader and the following are suggestions are pertaining to this, which I hope you’ll consider:
2. I noticed the books are categorized according to their grades and think they would also be helpful if they were categorized according to the genre. I checked and couldn’t find if it was, if so it’s not easy to find. It would help when I am looking for a genre specific book or to avoid a book even because as a multi-genre reader I vary the genres I read and try not to read from the same one back to back.
3. When I read a book, one of the thing I hate the most is accidentally choosing a book that is in the middle of a series or the end of it. I notice in the reviews sometimes it’s mentioned in the post which installment it is but I wouldn’t mind seeing it in the included in the sub-titling information (not the post title but somewhere apart from the main body of the post. Perhaps at the beginning or the end. Some blogs have a whole mini-section devoted to publisher name, page numbers and format (I don’t need all this) but it’s an idea of where to put this information.
4. The bestseller list in the “for readers” tab is useful but I’ll admit I don’t often bother to check for two reasons, mainly my TBR pile is large enough and two I’m a visual person. A cover is what draws me to a book and then the blurb is what will convince me to read it. It would be nice to see this list visually. It could be nice where the banner of books at the top of the page is. I’m not sure if there’s a system to books being placed there but it seems random. If you don’t to compete with the space there, the bestseller list books could still be placed there on a rotating basis.
5. I like to see spotlights on “old books”. To me they are like “hidden gems” because they have been forgotten and perhaps need to be brought to light more. There could even be spotlights on books that have been re-issued, a comparison of old covers versus new. Also it’s a great way to find old favourites or perhaps discover new books to read.
Keep up the great work, Dear Author!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:02:36
Can’t really think of anything I really don’t like on DA. I actually enjoy the First Page entries, but add me to the list who don’t pay attention to the movie reviews.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:10:14
I love DA! My only wish is that there was more consistent and more robust tagging on posts.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:19:54
I can’t think of any improvements that haven’t already been mentioned
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:28:34
I check this site daily and love pretty much everything. But if there was something I wish was better…
-more reviews of non-big 6 published books. I could use some help wading through and finding good books amongst the not so good.
-I skip the movie and first page posts. They don’t bother me, they just don’t really add anything to my day either.
-more mid-day links. Well, I know you can’t make up news to blog about, but I really enjoy the mid-day links, so please keep them coming.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:30:13
@Maytoo:
I’m actually on a two week hiatus from the blog right now but I happened to check in here and saw your comment. I wanted to let you know that we already have a form of this feature, in our For Readers section. If you scroll down to where there’s a brief description of what each reviewer reviews, you can click on the name of the reviewer and you will get almost all of that particular reviewer’s op eds, reviews, and other posts. The only ones you may not find that way are the joint reviews; two people do them but they can only be found under one of their names.
Anyhow, as an example, all of lazarspaste’s posts and reviews can be found under http://dearauthor.com/author/lazaraspaste/ . All of Jayne’s can be found under http://dearauthor.com/author/jayne/ . And so forth.
You can of course bookmark these pages but the typical way to get there is to click on the “For Readers” menu, select the first choice, also called”For Readers” and click on that, and then scroll down to “About Dear Author” and click on the reviewer’s name. We could probably use a shortcut.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:31:01
I wouldn’t check my reader for new posts as often as I do if you didn’t run a wonderful blog. The only thing I generally skip is First Page just because I don’t feel qualified to judge and if it sounds really good I would want to get it right away…I suck at delayed gratification. I would like to see If you Like again.
One recent change was how the recent comments are shown…I preferred the last iteration of Whozit commented on This Thread rather than Whozit said at this time “a snippet”.
I guess I will have to delurk in August so I can qualify for the September contest. There just seems to be so many thoughtful, intelligent comments that mine would not add anything!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:31:17
I love the site as it is. More interviews with authors is the only thing I can think of.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:36:10
I’m not a fan of the First Page but that is not necessarily a negative, it’s just not my thing.
I really love the in-depth reviews the most, being a fan of romance it’s such an awesome thing to find a forum with like minds! :)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:43:02
Hi Jane! I’m a daily visitor to the site, but one thing that tripped me up in the beginning were all the acronyms that were tossed about in reviews. HEA I could figure but it was months before I understood what DNF meant. Maybe I’m slow :D.
But what could help future new readers could be a list of common acronyms that you and the other reviewers use.
Cheers!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:43:13
I, too sometimes wonder at the frequency of Harlequin category romance reviews.
New releases listed by release dates would be wonderful.
I actually like the First Page posts – I know that there will always be a fresh post up Saturday morning for me to read while becoming caffinated.
Most of all, though, I’m awed by the amount of time and effort it takes to keep this site so fresh and interesting. Thank you for that.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 15:54:27
I’m not crazy about your movie reviews either.
I come here every day and I usually lurk.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:02:47
I really enjoy this site and think you all do a top notch job. It would be great if the Coming Soon section could be sorted by release date or if that info was available in the hover over. I’d also love more “If You Like” posts.
Thanks for making this site so awesome.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:05:54
After some brain wracking I can think of only one thing that irks me about the site and that is when contests are geographically restricted to North America. As a recent winner of a book here (thank you, thank you, thank you) I know I shouldn’t complain but it is the www and you do have a lot of non-North American readers.
I find it surprising that so many commenters have said that they dislike or skip the first page and movie review posts. Please ignore them!!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:11:17
I always enjoy reading book reviews and technology-related postings (e.g. e-readers) at DA. I wish DA has is an Advance Search option, where one can enter author name (first or last) or book title.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:22:15
I don’t dislike the movie reviews in theory, but I never take the time to read them.
I also agree that having the series name and number with the subtitle will be helpful.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:22:50
Hmmm….I check out this site almost daily and had to page back quite a few times to see if I could come across an entry I didn’t read and it appears I never read the First Page.
I think you and your contributers do a great job of articulate reviews and thought provoking commentaries on the increasingly changing world of reading, writing and publishing.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:24:17
I’m not sure I can come up with an improvement! Your site has been one of the most useful when it comes to information on eReaders. It’s incredibly well-organized. You are constantly improving it. The ONLY thing I can come up with – and this is just nitpicking – is that I’m not sure there is a lot of value in the “recent comments” section. Even on my giant desktop monitor, I can only see one or two words, and it makes the home page a tad cluttered. But the content and overall layout of this page is magnificent and useful, and I regularly refer readers to this site.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:31:39
I really find the mid-day links informative. Very rarely do I read the movie reviews. I love Dear Author. I also enjoy the Sunday posts on technology.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:35:24
I visit the site everyday at least once and find it so useful to have a place that brings readers, authors, and publisher views together. It’s like one-stop shopping.
Improvement would be hard but kudos for acknowledging it’s possible. My suggestion: once or twice a month to review a (very) small e/print press release or a Kindle Digital.
I read this weekend that “The Help” was rejected 60 times before it found a publication home. So, somewhere out there are hidden gems their authors have published other than with the big girls.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:40:37
Not an entry, because it’s not a critisism, but my favourite post of the week is the First Page post. Even if I don’t comment, I always enjoy reading what other readers make of the page. Please don’t get rid of it.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 16:43:28
Love the site, read it daily. Wish there were more reviews from the M/M romance genre. I would also like some more reviews from ebook publishers, (smaller publishers) there is a lot of junk out there but there are a few jewels too. Keep up the good work.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:01:35
The advertising panel is too wide. The constantly changing pictures make me not want to buy any of it. I also wish the first page could be revised to first 3 pages. I get very frustrated when the excerpts end after only two or three paragraphs.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:05:10
I really love what you are doing and look forward to seeing what you have to say each day. I have to say that the format is the best part of your reviews. I like that you keep the summary section light and really talk about what works for you (reviewer) and what doesn’t. I too skip the movie and first page posts. What I’d like to see more of is:
1. multiple reviews of the same title by different reviewers (but not in the same post.)
2. reviews of books that are stand-alones or new authors.
Great job!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:18:09
Dear Author is a great blog! I enjoy the midday links, but my favorite thing about DA is the commentary. I love finding out what other readers think about the authorial persona, courtship, infidelity, sex and feminism, and all the other topics you occasionally post about. If I could change one thing about DA, it would be to have more of those discussion-generating posts.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:21:40
The coming soon pages could be improved. I would like it better if were in list form you could sort by publisher, author, date, etc.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:21:52
That is seriously evil of you to do. :) I didn’t read many of the other comments. More industry news though, I love your daily news and snark!
You should implement +1 (Google Plus) with your posts though. I heard they will start using their data for their new Real Time search and I’m sure it will be a factor in their algorithm in the next few years.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:37:39
I’d love to know all the books the reviewers read in a month even if it wasn’t reviewed for Dear Author.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:39:27
can’t think of anything that hasn’t already been mentioned (and those were minor items anyway) overall pleased w/ the site & always make sure to stop & check it out.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:39:53
Some of these have already been mentioned:
-Not a fan of the movie reviews.
-Since the weekly bestseller’s list only covers Amazon, it seems really pointless to me.
-I’d love to see more posts on digitized backlists.
-There seems to be a lot of reviews of Harlequin category books, which I really don’t get. I understand they’re big sellers irl but I’ve always gotten the impression that they’re not that popular among romance readers online. It just seems that a really high percentage of reviews here are Harlequin categories.
-I’d love to see reviews of older books. You’ve all been reading romance a long time so it’d be nice to read your reviews of old favorites and old hates.
-Along with your monthly threads for readers, how about a thread for the reviewers and what they read last month? Obviously you can’t review every book you read, so a list of who’s reading what and maybe a really quick blurb on what they thought (or even just a grade without commentary) would give a better sense of reviewers’ tastes as well as letting us know more of what’s out there.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:40:59
I like the First Page posts, but usually skip to the comments right away. I don’t like the movie reviews. Also, I usually read posts on my phone, and sometimes they are a bit long. They could be tightened, and stay just as informative. Thanks!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:42:52
I don’t really have any criticism. I find the reviews very helpful, so the more of those the better.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:51:58
I generally don’t read the movie reviews, and often skip First Page posts – but with a diverse audience I wouldn’t expect everyone reads every single post, especially from a multi-author blog.
Ditto more consistent tagging on posts.
But those are really just nitpicks, keep up the good work. :)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 17:59:14
I like the new “29 books” feature, but I find the format a little overwhelming. I start skimming and I’m sure I miss things that would interest me. Could you maybe organize the list by author, rather than title? I tend to recognize/remember authors more than titles.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:20:30
I really can’t think of anything that needs to be added. Some of the technical stuff goes WAY over my non-techie head but that’s nothing you can fix. ;-)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:31:11
I visit this site most days, so its clear that I love a lot of what you are doing. However I’ve been crying for something just right to read, and I tried your ‘if you like’ series and while it helped it seemed a little out of date. I Also had trouble with the search engine leading me to the reviews I wanted. I typed in the full title, yet it was often on the second+ plus page of results.
But as I said, Yours is the one Blog I visit most days, so these small details obviously don’t bug me to much. Keep up the good work!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:32:40
I visit the site every day and love the book reviews, but I would also like to see more interviews with authors and editors.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:34:15
I enjoy pretty much everything here, but I agree that it would be nice to see more reviews of books from smaller publishers and not quite so much Harlequin. And generally, I don’t read the movie reviews, but I love the midday links and the First Page posts.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:37:45
I like the movie reviews! There’s at least half a dozen movies I’ve watched (and enjoyed) because of those reviews. Please keep them.
I never bother with First Page any more, but it doesn’t bother me that it’s there–I just skip it. Since so many people don’t seem to like it though, I’m curious about how useful it is to the writers who are submitting entries. Is it helping them in their writing life?
One thing that seems just needless clutter is the “recent comments” squibs down the right-hand edge of the page. What’s the point of them?
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:39:33
Let’s see…more info when an author’s backlist is digitized. I’m neutral about the Saturday first page posts. If enough people like them, I’m fine with it, but I rarely read them. I like the industry news and technical posts. And I’m always on board for the reviews. You have expanded my TBR list quite a bit :) Your site is a must-see for me every day.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:46:30
I love this blog and visit frequently. I would also like to request reviews of older titles, especially those that have been recently re-issued in e-format.
Thank you for doing such a great job with this blog.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 18:49:55
I think you should have a system that can search for book reviews or organize the reviews by genre or grade that I can easily sift through in case I am looking for a recommendation.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:03:24
Is there a way to do a text only option? Sometimes I check on my phone at work and it tends to take a while to load up. I do follow on Twitter so I get the highlights but I do like to read on my breaks too. However, it is nice to navigate and just get to the heart of the matter especially when you are short on time.
Ann
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:20:02
I honestly can’t think of a way to improve this site as it excels in all it tries to do. Just keep doing what you do and I’ll keep reading.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:24:40
Don’t enter me, but I wanted to add that easier search of reviews, more like the functionality of Power Search at AAR, would be great. To me, it is useless to have categories for different grades. That is not how I look for books. It helps that DA’s Google ranking is so high that if I know the title, I can find your review pretty quickly, but I would love an easier search function for reviews.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:24:48
For me , my request would be a list of reviews, alpha by author. Sometimes, I start reading authors late and searching the archives is a pain
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:28:46
I’m late to the party, so most everyone has mentioned mine, but I’d love to see more in-depth academic analysis-type articles that focus on either themes/tropes in romance, or on specific books themselves.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:41:28
I check DA at least once a day. I love the reviews but I would like even more, please!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:46:15
I’d like it to be easier to find reviews by genre. Of course I could do a simple search, but I’d like them listed by genre as well as/instead of by grade (A/B/C/DNF etc.).
But generally I think you guys do a good job, especially as you use so many tags.
Personally, I love the category romance reviews. They are very popular amongst all kinds of readers, and on other sites there’s more discussion about them than almost anything. There’re so many extremely talented category writers (more than in most other area I reckon!). Jane, I’m guessing there’s a very good reason why you read so many of them – it’s where the talent is.
I’ve never won or tried to win anything here, but as a non-American, I’d definitely agree that the discrimination isn’t any fun (but then these things are usually determined by factors other than who is running the blog!) It’s very frustrating in general to be a non-American reader – you should try finding anything Amazon will sell you on Kindle. But that’s a whole different issue.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:55:06
I love all you’re doing and so love to come here for all the news! Not just news on releases (which I love those) but news on the industry too. I’d love to see more of that. I see new publishers out and would love if you could research into them for the community or share what you know of whats new out there. I miss them not knowing.
Its hard to ask what we need when you do so much here at DA, so thanks!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:57:52
Searching the archives is not fun, as others have said.
I also don’t love the three-column layout. It seems cluttered, and I’m always a fan of streamlining.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 19:59:14
While Dear Author is very comprehensive in catering to the many different facets of the romance reading crowd, it would be nice if it focused more on the reviews rather than the First Page articles or movie reviews.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:11:49
I’d never read a Harlequin in my life until I started reading the reviews here. So, Jane, you have expanded my horizons. :-)
Also, I discovered P J Tracy and P B Ryan and their backlists through reviews, so I too would like attention paid to e-only books, whether small press, back lists or indie. There’s gems amongst the dross out there.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:13:29
I, too, visit DA multiple times a day because I truly am eager to see what is going on.
I would also like a way to find reviews by author. That is the one thing I keep looking for and am always surprised when it is not there. Yeah, I know. Not very bright.
Would also like to see more If You Like. Thumbnail reviews would be great, too. Something as simple as loved the heroine, premise was weak, made me happy, just a little nugget. While I enjoy the lengthy reviews, sometimes I want just a down and dirty “this was worth the time/effort” review, or “wouldn’t read this again for all the chocolate
in the world” would be helpful, too.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:20:30
I think you guys do an excellent job, but I have noticed some inconsistency with how tags are used. This is probably due to how different reviewers categorize things, but can be a bit annoying.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:22:44
As a huge fan of Romance, I am excited to find a website like this to cater to my needs! Even better is being able to find new authors to check out. As for what you can do better: reviews of older titles, more reviews per book (for additional POVs), better way to search/organize the reviews by author name, romance genres (I am big on fantasy), or reviewers, and lastly, possibly have a once a month review on books by first time authors or new authors (there’s nothing better than finding a new favorite author to fawn over!).
Other than that, thank you so much for what you guys do and thank you for your giveaway.. good luck to everyone!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:23:08
I really enjoy the “If you like…” posts, so more of them would be great.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:24:38
DA rocks. Intelligent, insightful, timely.
This is a stretch, but maybe knowing more about the individual reviewers, so maybe I can see if one reviewer overlaps more with my taste in romances than others. Always looking for reliable recommendations.
But seriously, DA is amazing.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:29:40
I would like even more YA fiction reviews. Not only have they expanded my own reading, but I’ve passed them on to the young adult librarian at my local library.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:36:31
As has already been mentioned, the archives can be tricky. I’m also not so fond of the three-column layout; it feels cluttered to me. Also also, I miss being able to preview my comments.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:39:42
I love all the info we get from you, as someone else said, the industry news. It’s always fascinating to me to learn more about the ins and outs of publishing!
My only sometimes dislike is that some of your reviews can be a bit spoilerish…. and long! :D
Thanks for hosting this site though. It contains so much valuable information!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:41:00
All of you do such a great job on this site already I really can’t think of much to improve on. I love the check out the under $2.99 or so deals on e-books, so I hope you continue on with it. It has helped me so much! One reason because without it I would never know what was on sale and another reason I’m able to afford to buy more books.
I also like the idea of reviews being searchable by authors.
Thank you for all the hard work you guys do on it!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 20:55:11
I also love Dear Author, but it loads SOOOO much more slowly than most other websites I visit, that sometimes I get frustrated. It is also down more often than the other sites I visit regularly. I am web illiterate, so I can’t point to the fix that is needed, but that would be my request.
Thanks for all you do!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:01:47
@JenMcQ That makes me so sad to hear! I’ve done so much to improve the speed, but I think it has to do with the theme that I am using. I don’t think its as greatly optimized as I would like. I’ll look into the speed thing, though.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:02:45
@Niveau The preview comment feature came with the former editing comment plugin and I haven’t found a good replacement but I’ll keep this in mind.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:03:47
@jude We’ll have to make better author specific pages here at DA. Putting it on the “To Do” list.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:04:04
@Kaetrin These were reader generated. I would love to have more of them. I’ll put out a call.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:05:17
@srs Tagging consistency seems to be a big issue. We are going to work on that. It might be something we can only improve going forward, but this is a good goal for us to work on.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:06:48
@Cady We are going to work on creating an index for the reviews by author and by title. It may be a few months before we can get that up and running.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:08:28
@Heather Greye We have been sorting by price and then by author name but we could possibly present the list in different ways. Will think on this.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:09:28
@Las I am going to try to work on something regarding digitized backlists. It’s of interest to me as well. It’s hard to stay up to date with authors.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:09:46
@Kristi Good point re: Google Plus.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:10:18
@Lisa J The coming soon pages are sorted by date but I hear people preferring a searchable list and this can be accomplished fairly easily.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:10:21
The site is great! I love the Sunday blog about ereaders. Very interesting information.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:11:16
@Beret Brenckman Just curious why you like the multiple reviews of the same title in different posts. I have done it both ways but I have been grouping them together so that all the comments are in one place.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:11:23
Maybe i’ve missed this on your site, but I would love it to be able to search by tags. Is there a place where i can see all your tags? I would love it if you did.
Other than that, great site!
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:11:56
@katieM Part of the reason we only do the first page is so that we aren’t asking too much of the commenters in terms of critiques but I appreciate your input.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:14:59
@Evangeline Cheng We need a romance reader dictionary.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:15:30
@Amy Kathryn Recent comments changed. I actually haven’t liked how it appeared either.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:16:36
@Jane: You were using Ajax Edit Comments previously correct? I had problems with the 404 error being returned on the preview popup but was told by support to disable “Load wp-load.php Directly” in options and it works fine now. Before that though I downgraded to the previous version so it would work. Not sure if that is the reason you are no longer using the plugin but thought I’d mention it just in case.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:16:43
@Na We generally use “tags” to mark the genre but we can do a better job of making it easier for readers to find books by genre.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:17:57
@Heather I’m hearing “more author interviews”. I didn’t realize those were so popular. We will have to see about doing more of them. Alyson H is so good at it.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:20:06
@Maytoo I think we can do a reviews listed by reviewer by creating an author page that would list all the reviews (just by title). I’m going to look into this.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:21:51
@MD Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy way of excluding posts from the related links. That is automatic but I understand what you are saying.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:27:36
@Sophia (FV) Yes I did use it but it became completely broken for me (the text was right justified!) and the load was very high so I switched to this other, slimmer editing plugin.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:29:13
I appreciate everyone’s comments here. You’ve given all of us at DA food for thought and great ideas on how to make the site better. Keep them coming. (You may have noticed I’ve implemented a couple of changes already including an advanced search feature and a change to the recent comments. I also moved stuff from the middle section to the far right section in hopes that we can declutter it for the eyes)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:29:34
I love this blog and check it a couple of times a day. But I could do without the first page section. Also I have no interest in the movie reviews as I rarely watch movies. I come here for the book info.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:34:03
I wish the search function would be better. I have had to resort to using the tags to look for particular articles or reviews but it is not fun to wade through many pages to look for the entry I am interested in. I would like a better way to search for reviews for a particular author or romance book category. Could you also archive the list of recommended books but also classify them (ie paranormal, series romance, historical etc.) so it would easy to search for the books that a reader is interested in.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 21:44:55
I read Dear Author virtually every day, and my only suggestions echo ones that have already been made.
I actually like the Harlequin reviews. Sometimes I’m just in the mood for a shorter read, and you’ve often led me to pick up books or authors that were new to me.
I only read the movie reviews if they happen to be of movies I’ve already seen and like. I also skip the First Page posts.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 22:27:19
I read you daily and love the insider news, midday links, and reviews. I don’t really care for the 1st page posts or the movie reviews though.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 22:29:51
LOL I’m trying to think of something and, seriously, the first thing I thought of was that we haven’t had many HP mini reviews lately. :) I like category Romance! (And since Harlequin is the only publisher who puts them out, any site that reviews them is going to review a lot of Harlequin.) I like the movie reviews too. If the movie doesn’t sound interesting, I just skip the review.
I can’t really think of anything to complain about which is unusual for me. I’ll tell you something weird that happened recently but I’m not sure if it’s a DA thing. I was somewhere else on the web and wanted to see if DA had reviewed a certain author so I googled “Dear Author” and the author’s name. There was a result for DA but it led to a “no results found for author name” page on DA. It was like one of those irritating sponsored links that plugs in your search term to make it look like a store has what you’ve searched for. Maybe this doesn’t have anything to do with the DA site. It’s a good complaint, though. :)
Aug 07, 2011 @ 22:31:40
I love Dear Author for the book reviews, and visit regularly. By far the best of the review sites out there!
The main changes I would like to see involve a better searching/tagging/archiving system. When I’m looking for something it often means wading through a lot of pages when it should be much simpler.
For example, the tags don’t seem to be consistent from book to book, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to search by tag unless you happen to come across one and click on it.
Being able to search by author or publishing year would also be a huge help.
On an unrelated note, would you consider linking books to Goodreads?
Edited to add: I’m not so keen on the author interviews others are asking for. On other book review sites they usually come across as glorified advertising.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 22:55:33
This is one of the few sites I consistently check for reviews and publishing news–and really, there’s not much I would change.
Probably my main improvement would be to be able to search reviews by author name. And I’d also like the “grade” to be more visible with the reviews–that’s one of the first things I look for, but sometimes I have to search for it.
I enjoy the first page posts but generally don’t read the movie reviews.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 22:59:02
Yeah for giveaways. It would be nice to have a different sort of system of replies, like in some blogs if you want to respond to one person’s reply, you can do that, and the reply would show up underneath who you responded to.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 22:59:59
@jamieguo: Er, I mean one in which the replies are actually underneath the reply you’re responding to.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 23:08:07
I agree, reviews searchable by author would be nice.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 23:08:31
@jamieguo Those are called threaded comments. I had those activated at one time and then met with some resistance from the crowd but maybe we should revisit it.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 23:50:57
I love the site and it has a lot of info. Is it possible to search by Author under Book Reviews?
Aug 07, 2011 @ 23:51:21
I loved it when you ladies used to post news about books that the publishers had just bought or negotiated, but haven’t seen anything like that in a long time.
And the search-it’s hard to look up archived reviews based on an author as every single mention of the author will pop up as well.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 23:51:28
I would love to read more letters of opinion, but other than that the site’s great just the way it is.
Aug 07, 2011 @ 23:54:59
I think DA could improve by trying to offer its readers/audience more variety. You guys write lovely romance reviews but I would like to see more genres across the boarder. Like more YA, more science fiction and steam punk.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 00:05:57
I really enjoy this blog and look forward to checking it. I would love to see the reviews grouped more by genre or reviewer or even by the author of the books.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 01:43:55
I second the comment (or perhaps third or fourth, but I don’t have time to read them all) about the reviews sometimes being long-winded. I would also like to see more proof-reading/editing of the reviews.
Some of the features I’m not crazy about, but I have no problem skipping them since other people like them.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 01:49:23
I think maybe the first page feature is getting a little stale. I usually delete them from my feed without reading them.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 01:50:19
I love DA, check it almost daily.
One thing i would want to see is a better search system.
For example – Say i want to read a mystery novel but based in a historical setting rather than a contemporary. So rather than just searching by one tag only, i keep shortlisting using other parameters to narrow the search results
Aug 08, 2011 @ 01:55:03
I am here everyday and enjoy all the different kinds of posts. I like reading about both the publishing world and the reviews. I really like the new addition of the 2.99 and under posts. I am looking for a site that does a really good new release list covering both ebooks and print. I would think that the different store sites would do this, but I don’t feel like anyone really does this well. I want to be able to go and see what is out this week and what is coming soon. I also would like to try out to be a reviewer. Do you have a way to do that?
Aug 08, 2011 @ 02:12:26
This is a highly informational blog, and I love your structure, guys! I love your news and reviews of various genres. Just keep doing what you’re doing!
Aug 08, 2011 @ 02:19:33
This is the one site I count on to give me consistent reviews and keep me abreast of technology and publishing news.
I have to stick up for Harlequin books. I am a very eclectic reader but I never read categories until a few years ago. I appreciate the reviews.
I switched to the RSS feed because the site at time seems so chock full that I feel like I am missing something new. The emails relieve this worry.
I would prefer the site stick to romance. I stopped reading other sites because they diversified so much, it was even more of a pain to try to find reviews of books I was interested in. While one reader felt like heterosexual romance was too widely represented, I am sometimes feeling there is a wave of m/m and other romance genres I am not interested in.
Thanks for asking for constructive criticism. We appreciate it and you.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 02:32:34
A list of authors’ backlisted books when they are released as e-books would be great.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 03:20:54
DA is great! I agree that I would like a better way to search reviews author and reviewer.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 03:47:45
I love Dear Author, so my only comment is more along the lines of a request for more than it is a criticism. I’d love a regular series of “Forgotten Classics” posts – reviews of great romances that aren’t recent but deserve a larger audience. I often feel like my romance reading is excessively current, if that makes any sense. I’d love to get a deeper sense of really great romances of past decades.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 04:23:57
It was really hard to find somethin wrong with DA, but sometimes the tagging is inconsequential and the If you like… posts could be more frequent.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 04:49:07
I really think you guys do an excellent job alreadfy. Can’t really think of anything you could do better. Seriously!
I’m relatively new around here, but already I see all bases covered, except, maybe (and I might be wrong here, considering I’m new), I think I don’t see links to the author’s websites, when you make a review.
If that’s the case I think that would be an imprivement (in case the website exists).
I do find it really great that you’re doing these giveways as a thank you for your readers. It shows that you care even more.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 06:10:30
I visited the site a few times about a month ago and I found that the ereader section was always the same; with little to no changes. The info on the page was not something that seemed a little outdated to me. On recent visits, however, I see some new stuff. I like it. I like news about new releases, etc but also like news a out different formats as well. Keep up the good work.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 06:49:07
I enjoy reading your posts every day. You have a nice variety of different information. I don’t know of anything I would add but I know I would enjoy more reviews since they give me a very good idea of whether or not I would enjoy the story.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 07:23:49
Overall, I think you guys do a great job covering a lot of different topics. I love the midday links and would like to see even more of those. I’d also rather have another book review on Fridays instead of the film review. Also, when you guys review a book in a series, I think it would be helpful to list the rest of the series and the reading order at the bottom of the review.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 07:55:28
@ruth Thanks for your interest in being a reviewer. We don’t have any openings at this time.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 07:56:35
@DeeCee Definitely try out the new advanced search feature. I think it will provide better results.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 07:57:02
@wade2121 Try the new advanced search feature. Enter the author’s name and then choose “book reviews” as the category.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:08:43
I really like the coming soon page with all the book covers, but would it be possible to add available here links to the books, like at the bottom of reviews?
Also, sometimes the tagging doesn’t seem consistent but thats not a huge thing. I think you guys do a great job here, and while I might not read the movie reviews and miss the If You Like posts, I think that the range of content you manage to cover is great.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:08:55
I love DA, not just for the reviews but for the insightful and thought-provoking articles as well! I just have a few suggestions for improvement:
a) I’d really like a place to find all the reviews at once, with alphabetized links. Sometimes I want to check if DA has reviewed a specific book but using the search box is useless – it gives results that seem to be unrelated to my search.
b) I’m with Ridley on more proof-reading for Jane’s reviews and articles.
c) This is not a suggestion for improvement but just saying: I don’t like Friday Film Reviews and First Page Saturdays; I never check them out.
Keep up the good work :)
Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:32:25
I would also like to see more reviews of “forgotten classics” especially if they’re books that are being reissued digitally.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:44:50
@Jane: Thanks for the Advanced Search function; I tried it and it’s so much better than the regular search :)
Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:45:13
All my suggestions have already been covered – mainly, make the reviews more accessible, with better tags. The search box is too vague.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:47:14
I’d like it if DA did indie reviews, I am finding some new authors on my own but prefer to read indie’s that have been reviewed by sites I trust.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:47:45
I love the midday links and I have a love-hate relationship with the archives/search function. I’ll try the new advanced search though. As for the rest, I’d love if you could stick with romance-related almost everything. I don’t mind book reviews in sci-fi, or YA, but I’d really love if those still had a romance vibe/theme. I’d rather you not spread the butter/jam too thin, so to speak.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:04:41
I love DA! I check it out everyday (along with SBTB), my day never feels complete without looking to see if you have any new reviews on books, movies, gadgets, etc.
I don’t really have much to complain, you’ve already contributed to much of my well-loved books. I was hoping to have a more alphabetized Reviews section/by genres/better tags, I sometimes have a problem with the Search bar. But all in all, you guys are already doing a fantabulous job!!! Keep it coming. Please.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:08:09
I think the format of the site is a bit messy and could have more variety in book reviews.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:15:29
I enjoy all the posts.I can’t think of anything that I would suggest changing.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:19:13
This is definately a go to site multiple times through the day for me.
The thing I would change has already been said but would be less HQN reviews or maybe more full length books to balance them out? I am not much of a HQN reader due to length.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:39:45
I’d love to be able to sort reviews by reviewer, and/or genre even.
Also, the thing I have the hardest time with – after I’ve read an article and want to reference back to it, it’s so difficult to find again. I usually remember tags or keywords, but the search function can be cumbersome. I’d like to be able to see/choose from a list of the tags for things I want to look at. I think this would help me find more things that I may not have seen before as well.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:49:31
DA is my go-to blog for industry news and juicy gossip that happens in romance land. I usually check it three or four times a day. I love the honest reviews and opionion letters. I do, however, noticed that I when I search for old reviews by title it doesn’t always come up first.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:49:36
I would love more If You Like… posts, too. The industry news is really helpful and honestly I could read a post about that every day.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 09:51:27
I love reading the reviews on Dear Author, even when they’re about books I’m not interested in getting. What I’d love to see more of would be the ‘If You Like…’ features though, can’t recall the last time there was one.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:08:32
I’ll add my voice to those requesting more consistent tagging.
I think I prefer less branching out to other genres, but a bit more diversity in the romance sub-genres.
Wouldn’t mind some more digital first, or more books from non Agency publishers.
I have the most gripes with the coming soon feature, because I think it could be immensely useful, but the way it’s formatted could definitely be improved. For instance, more than half of the times when I ctrl click on a cover it doesn’t open in a new tab, but insists on opening in the same one. The Goodreads links on the book pages link to the wrong book a lot of times (I think that’s because it searches for title only, and ends up linking to an older book with the same title). There’s a lot of double entries as well, and I miss titles by Samhain and Carina Press on there.
I love DA, and have discovered a lot of great books here. I like how long and detailed the reviews can be. I love the midday links.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:08:57
About threaded comments…I don’t think they’d work well here. I like them in smaller blogs but posts here get so many comments that it would get confusing. And I’ve noticed some funky formatting issues with threaded comments in other blogs, where the reply of the reply of the reply, etc., ends up being made up of one-word lines.
I don’t remember ever seeing threaded comments here, though, so maybe it wasn’t a problem. I’d be happy to see a trial period.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:31:10
I recently found the DA site and find myself coming more and more often. I haven’t completely explored the entire site as of yet. From what I have explored, the thing that could use some improvement from my standpoint would be the coming soon section. I’d like it broken down into release dates, or at least have release dates along with the covers.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:32:14
I like the variety of the reviews, I don’t usually read Historicals for example, but have picked up a few decent one from the reviews/recommendations on this site and from the comments.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:35:25
I would like to see fewer spelling errors. When I read a book review and see a misspelled word, the review seems less legitimate.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:38:20
DA is one of the few sites I visit every day. One thing I love about DA reviews is that the reviewers have the craft knowledge to explain WHY a book did or did not work for them. I can then assess my own likes and dislikes in context. (I’ve lost count of how many books I’ve bought after reading a so-called neagtive review.)
I”m not a huge fan of the Friday movie reviews. I’d prefer to see that space used for even more book reviews.
Thanks again, and keep up the good work!
Aug 08, 2011 @ 11:06:22
I would have said, how about a First Chapter, but clearly I’m out of step with everyone else and I understand DA’s reasoning for keeping the entries short. I also happen to enjoy the movie reviews.
How about The 100 Best Romances Ever? Or Romance Novels That Should Have Been Bestsellers But Weren’t?
How about I go have some breakfast before engaging in serious thought?
Aug 08, 2011 @ 11:08:33
DA has become the one blog I know I can go to for unbiased information about the business side of publishing. The link round-ups tend to be my favorites and I love the helpful information regarding e-readers.
Which leaves me with the “issue”… if DA is a romance review blog but I’m not finding many reviews here of books I’m interested in. I noted another comment pointed out that a lot of the reviews seem to be the Harlequin series (skinny) books and I seem to have the same thought but also that very few of the reviews seem to be in genres I have much interest in. It seems like very few PNR or YA romances get much attention here. Now that’s okay of course, it’s just the one thing I feel like an increase in would appeal to me more.
Generally speaking DA is amazing, truly setting a standard for book blogging and reviewing. Keep up the great work! :)
Aug 08, 2011 @ 11:10:39
I love your site and come to everyday.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 11:22:28
I think your blog is wonderful. I dont think it needs changes. Tore923@aol.com
Aug 08, 2011 @ 11:50:57
I read DA daily and enjoy the site especially when a good discussion gets going and the commentariat is really engaged
Favorite parts are:
1) Midday links
2) Industry news & happenings
3) Open thread for readers & authors ea. month
4) reviews, of course
would like to see:
More diversity in reviews. I know things come in waves but it does seem lately that a lot of reviews are of Harlequin/Silhouettes or M/M. I mean looking at the ribbon up top, the most recent reviews show 3 categories & 3 M/M books. While I have & do read both of these sub-genres, it just felt like every time I clicked on the site recently there was a yet another review in those areas.
Also, maybe a spotlight review of a new, unknown or lesser known/discussed author? I enjoy the site because more and more I have discovered new authors here. And it is even nicer to get a thorough review (for instance, loved the review of Ten Ruby Trick by Julia Knight and bought the book on the strength of it).
Reply
Aug 08, 2011 @ 12:17:04
I would like a post on Tuesdays (the day most new books come out) that has links to any early reviews that were done on the newly available books.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 12:36:20
I like most of the previous suggestions, especially the one about tagging where in a series a book falls – I hate starting to read a book and then realizing that it’s number 4 out of 7. I also really appreciate how “clean” the site is. There is another book blog I visit that, while the information is good, it has so much else going on that it’s a bit distracting.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 12:48:20
I’m not sure if this is a criticism or an area for improvement…One things Dear Author does not do well is focus or head light new authors. I am seeing more online about ebooks so maybe more on that too.
I love Dear Author and it is one of the first blogs I read every day so I really hate to criticize.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 12:52:49
I think the website is actually very well designed. The only thing I wish was different- and I think you use to have- are tagging the grade reviews. Yea, it gives away the grade before we read the whole review, but it would be nice if I could find other other A & B reviews through the tags.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 13:12:24
DA is one of 2 sites I can depend on for industry news and interesting book news. The only thing I’m not big on is the “first page” posts. I skip em.
My favorite stuff is the author interviews/guest posts (I enjoyed Jennifer Ashley’s post most recently),the reviews (and I’ll look for DA recommends), and the posts where book/publisher-related legal or industry happenings are explained. I’d never figure that stuff out on my own. Also love the heads-up on ebook freebies and $2.99 or less! Thanks for those:)
Aug 08, 2011 @ 13:15:53
Agreed, as long as it doesn’t turn into those promo posts that are all over the other book blogs to drive the traffic to the site through contests and other giveaways 12 times a week.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 13:20:23
This is such a cool giveaway.
As for how to improve DA, just keep delivering honest reviews about books. That’s what we love you guys for!
Aug 08, 2011 @ 13:21:48
oh and idk if it’s relevant b/c I know DA is a romance-focused blog but I’ve really liked the few times y’all have featured YA here (like The Hunger Games posts!) so I’d love to see more YA; especially if it has a romance in it.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 13:46:03
Thank you for the giveaway. Long time lurkr here. I would love for DA recommends books. I go to DA to check for books to read.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 13:54:53
This was the first site I found when I started looking for romance blogs and it is still the best. You do such a great job in covering romance books and the industry behind it. Please don’t start adding more YA. There are what seems like millions of YA focused blogs out there, so that information is widely available elsewhere and I love that there isn’t a whole lot of it here. I think you’ve got a great balance of mainly romance with just the occasional YA, mystery, suspense, or other non-romance thrown in for variety.
You’ve already addressed the one thing I had asked for (easy links to the current month’s open threads – thank you so much for throwing them up on the main page!). I think that I’ll add a vote for more of the “If you like this….” types of posts. Those tend to generate lots of great comments and I find lots of recs from those.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 14:26:45
I think having more author interviews would be great! And so would more If you like…
Aug 08, 2011 @ 14:47:41
I’d like to see more author interviews.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 15:39:01
Seeing a spoiler in a book review stops me from reading it. I know if I start reading I’m going to want to read the entire piece.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 15:44:11
Hope I’m still on time for the giveaway. It will take some trying to change my habits from lurker to commenter.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 15:54:52
I love this blog and check it daily (and soetimes much more often).
I’m not crazy about the Friday film reviews and don’t read them at all. Love the mid-day links and the industry news.
And I’m ashamed to say that I miss the First Sale stories.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 16:35:13
-Better tagging/categories. I know it’s hard to go back and do and would never expect that, but I like the idea of putting in place a more standardized system for the future.
-Being able to search for reviews by reviewer.
-I’d like to see some reviews of cheap books ($2.99 & under), or even indie books. I love the posts about the cheap reads/bargains, and would like to see a review of maybe 1 a month. Also, there are so many new authors publishing indie books now that it’s a little overwhelming, especially since the quality is all over the place. Still, I like knowing about professionally put together indie books, and two that you did recently that I really enjoyed are Courtney Milan’s “Unlocked” novella and “Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold”.
-My favorite reviews are the dueling reviews. I also prefer to read a dueling review than multiple reviews by DA authors of the same book. I know that some books are so wonderful or controversial that every reviewer wants to review it, but if a book generates a lot of interest from reviewers ahead of time then it might be nice to see of those reviewers would be willing to do a dueling review.
-I’d also like to see more books with romantic elements outside of the romance genre. For example, thriller or fantasy novels that also have a romance in them, or mangas. In some cases I’d like to know ahead of time if they have a happy ending/the couple gets together or not, but if that was done it should probably be done in a way that isn’t a spoiler.
Aug 08, 2011 @ 17:42:43
You all do a wonderful job at DA. I check back several times a day to see what’s new. I appreciate First Page and Film Reviews even if I am not always in the mood to read them. Searching for reviews by author was a problem but you seem to be addressing that — thanks!
One request: at the end of the list of comments (and I appreciate the numbering) there used to be a previous/next thread directional tag. Now I have to scroll back up to the end of the article to find my way to the next or previous topic, unless I am missing some short cut?
Aug 08, 2011 @ 18:34:46
Can I defend the first page Saturday? I actually like reading the pages. I don’t get much from the criticism, but like seeing works in progress. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of Friday film reviews.