Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

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 negative [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.