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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Observation on writing a not so positive book review

Whenever I get a book from a publisher – whether they send it to me or I buy it myself – I always email the publisher and let them know when I post about it.

This, I feel is the polite thing to do and always get at least a response of “thanks” if not something longer.

That was until I posted a not so positive review and let the publisher know about it. Now, this was a book that I did not pay for and did not particular get. Even though I said so in my review, I did mention that I thought the writing was good and that I was probably not the target audience, which probably caused my lack of enthusiasm with it.

After posting the review I sent a nice email, thanking them again for the book and that I posted a review on the site. That was on November 20th, 4 weeks ago and I have yet to hear anything. The funny thing, I know they visited the site to read the review. There is a neat little tool on the blog that captures where people are from. About 10 minutes or so after I sent the email, someone from publisher visited the site and viewed the different articles about the book and then left.

Guess I only get responses if I say nice things.

I am tempted to request another book to see what happens – might make a good post

Posted by Tom at 06:30:00. Filed under: Book Review

Comments

Tom,

I read this post with great interest. I've only recently started requesting review copies of books and having publishers/authors request that I review theirs, but I haven't yet had the misfortune of reading a stinker. The publishers I've dealt with (UofArkansas, UofKentucky, UofNebraska, Savas-Beatie) have been unfailingly helpful and polite. I try to request books I think I will find interesting or that are targeted at readers like me, so that probably helps.

Your idea of writing the publisher and notifying them of your review for books you paid for is a really good idea and one I'm going to start doing as well. It makes you known to the publisher, and lets them evaluate your reviewing skills (or in my case lack thereof!) without any real commitment on their part.

Please do post a follow-up to this article. I'd be interested to know how the situation with the University of Georgia turns out.

Brett S.

Posted by Brett S. at Tuesday, December 19, 2006 09:47:02

I'm with you on how great the publishers have generally been. When I first started, I thought it would be hard to get review copies being just a "blogger" but was suprised at the positive response.

I do have a weird rule, where if there is something that I would like and it is a small publishing house or if it has been covered by everyone else in the blogosphere - I tend to buy the book. In both cases, it seems like I am helping the publisher more and if it's already been covered, most people reading Touch the Elbow have probably already read about it.

Posted by Tom at Tuesday, December 19, 2006 14:10:06

Tom,

I have that rule myself. I always buy from places like Ironclad, Savas-Beatie, Camp Pope, etc.

Brett

Posted by Brett S. at Tuesday, December 19, 2006 14:38:06

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