Reviewers

RT Blogger Con Announcement

RT Blogger Con Announcement

It’s official: the RT Book Blogger Convention is on the RT site, and we have a registration form ready to go!  REGISTRATION LINK. A few important points: 1. Registration is $30.00. Registration is not confirmed until payment is received. The fee covers breakfast, lunch, and a full day of panel discussions. 2. We’re handling payments(…)

Monday Midday Links: Agents can increase the dollars earn as a self published author but less than half reach $500 in royalties

Monday Midday Links: Agents can increase the dollars earn as a self published author but less than half reach $500 in royalties

Self-publishing: ‘under 10% of authors earn living’ – “Self-published writers who have an agent, or who use the DIY route to get a traditional deal, earn much more than the average self-published writer, according to a survey of more than 1,000 self-published writers. But only a minority (less than 10%) make enough to live off their earnings. The(…)

Thursday Midday Links:  Stanza Not Dead, Reviewer Sued for Defamation, Amazon Acquires TTS Firm

Thursday Midday Links: Stanza Not Dead, Reviewer Sued for Defamation, Amazon Acquires TTS Firm

In the UK, a self published author is suing a reviewer for panning his book. Chris McGrath, an online entrepreneur from Milton Keynes, who wrote and self-published a little-known book entitled The Attempted Murder of God: Hidden Science You Really Need to Know, has launched libel proceedings against Vaughan Jones, 28. He claims Mr Jones(…)

Amazon’s Review System Needs to Be Changed

Dear Amazon: Perhaps you know that there was a bit of scandal involving the Amazon review system that erupted in the past couple of weeks. An author, Deborah MacGillivray, was found to have been the leader of a group of people who worked systematically to make their reviews the top rated ones and to get(…)

NBCC Looking Online for Talent?

The NBCC is pretty much anti blog so I won’t be nominating myself (and I certainly don’t deserve to be nominated either) but the National Book Critics Circle is accepting nominations for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing (yes, Dorothy, there is a prize for everything). You must be a dues paying member(…)

All The News That Is Fit To Print. For the Rest, There Are Blogs

There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in the publishing realm over the downsizing or wholesale elimination of newspaper print review sections due to lack of advertising dollars. Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Book Review section was the latest casualty. AJC’s decision to terminate Book editor, Teresa Weaver, started a print and blogging(…)

Romantic Times Responds

When I spoke with Carol Stacy on Wednesday, she educated me about the Romantic Times reviews. I came away with a sense that RT does the best that they can to ensure that their reviews reflect an unbiased opinion of their reader reviewers. While some reader reviewers have favorite authors, like we do here, that(…)

Even the Big Guys Do It

But it doesn’t make it right, of course. Harry Hurt III reviewed Suze Orman’s latest get rich book by opening with an ad hominen attack of Orman’s looks: There are many things more flammable than the subject of mammon and women, but most of them come in steel canisters stamped ‘hazardous materials.’ Among the substances(…)

It’s a Trainwreck and I can’t look away.

Mrs. Giggles, the first reader blogger in the romance community (est. in 1999), has come under attack by authors who send her books for reviews. Apparently, authors are sending her books and when Mrs. Giggles gives a review that is less than glowing, the author makes a public claim that she never sent the book(…)

If you can’t make money as an author, sell book reviews

Slate reported that print on demand publisher, BookSurge, offers a positive review for $399 from NYT bestselling author, Ellen Tanner Marsh. You can even make suggestions about what you want in your review. BookSurge was recently acquired by Amazon. At least Klausner does it for free. Via Slate. Send to Kindle

More Evidence On the Unreliability of Amazon Reviews

Maybe if the whole writing a book thing doesn’t pan out, professional writers can supplement by writing amazon reviews. “Ken” wants 5 reviewers to write a 1-3 paragraph review with the a 5 star rating. The reviews have to be aproved by the company, but once they are approved, you get to post them at(…)

Amazon Reviewers Get Paid to Review

According to the Forbes article,Donald Mitchell, a top Amazon reviewer, has made $20,000.00 reviewing books at Amazon over the past seven years. Who know? Send to Kindle

Bonus Non Sequitur of the Week

I think that we reviewers are the HR department (killing the fun) and authors are Michael Scott (hating us for it). Send to Kindle