The final criteria is the time factor: If I don’t have much time, then I choose a review of a book that already has an author page so that I only have to refresh the bibliography and bookmark links when I post the review. If I have sufficient time, I will tackle one of the more prolific writers since I know the research will take longer. The well written review always has a better chance of getting published. Reviews that need a lot of editing sometimes never make it since by the time I can do the edit, the review is often no longer freshly written and it is too late to ask the reviewer to rewrite it.

Do you think there’s a lot of ‘facile praise’ among many online review sites? What is your policy when it comes to negative reviews?

I tell reviewers that they must finish a book to review it. If they don’t like a book, then let me know, but move on and find a book that they like. (Life is too short and we absolutely do not have time to read every book, so be choosy!) On the other hand, if they finish a book and by the last page decide that they do not like the book yet feel obligated to write a review to warn others away from it or to just want to air their disappointment, then I recommend that they tell the reader why they were compelled to finish the book (i.e. what is good about the book) and then say why the book disappointed.

When I am choosing the next review to post, I find that I tend to skip over the negative reviews that don’t meet this criteria and go for the ones in which the reviewer is recommending the book. However, when it is a well written review, then I do willingly post it, even if it is a negative review. If I read the book and agree with the reviewers comments, then I am more apt to post the negative review.

I basically believe that reading is subjective and one reviewer’s experience does not reflect all readers’ experience. I like a review that let’s me decide if I will like the book, whether I agree or disagree with the reviewer’s opinion of the book.

Do I think there is a lot of facile praise out there? Not among the bloggers and the ordinary people that like to write reviews. Because MostlyFiction.com links to other site reviews, I do read reviews from a lot of different sites. Certainly we all know that the Amazon.com system breeds “friends” of the authors – and sometimes I and the other reviewers are fooled. But, most people are sincere about their comments and reviews. Or maybe, I just have learned how to avoid the unhelpful reviews.