What makes MostlyFiction.com stand out among so many other online review sites?
Good question! Do we stand out? I think we have good reviewers and I feel that we try to go a little deeper with our reviews. I hope that we convey how much we love to read. There are many good review sites out there, which I am glad about because it says people are reading.
MostlyFiction.com is a bit unique in that we link to other sites from our review page. Every author page has a “Bookmarks” section in which I add links to interviews, reading guides and other people’s reviews. Most sites do not do this because they don’t want the traffic leaving their site. Of course, I don’t want people to leave MostlyFiction.com either but I like helping people learn more about the author or book. I also include a complete bibliography for each author (with links to amazon.com). So it is more than just reading a review, it is sharing an enthusiasm for the author. This is the format that I settled on when I started the site and I have maintained it ever since. I do it for selfish reasons – I love learning about the authors and reading other people’s reviews as much as our own. I just hope that MF visitors get as much out of these links as I do.
I should also mention that since all our reviewers are volunteers and I maintain the site in my spare time, you can trust that we are just making recommendations and have no hidden agendas. We love discovering new authors, we love reading new books by our favorite authors and we love writing our reviews. I hope that when people visit our site that this is what they take away – as well as few good reading suggestions.
What is the most challenging aspect of running a review site?
Mainly, having enough time to do everything that I want to do with it; settling for doing what I can.
A good challenge is matching books to reviewers. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to write reviews much any more so this means when I read a book I want reviewed I search around to see who I think will do a good job with the book. Since reading and reviewing is subjective, I need to find someone who will pretty much see the book the same way I do. Usually, I am rewarded with a better review than I think I would have written. But, there are times when I pass the book on, read the submitted review and realize that the review hardly touches on any of the aspects that I thought they should and more over they say more negative than positive. Do I still post the review? Another side of the same problem is when a submitted review seems shallow – especially in comparison to other reviews out there. I’m torn between publishing the review (with some edits) to get the word out because I want to recommend the book or to not post it at all because the writing is not up to par with my expectations for the site.
Article comments
1 - c hoare
Some interesting differences in the way MostlyFiction works. I like the idea of having links to other review sites and author sites. It suggests someone visiting the site will find more detailed information on both book and author -- and the author will have more substantial exposure than a few quick paragraphs vying with hundreds of others for reader attention.
Chris H.
2 - A. F. Stewart
Great interview, it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job with your website. I loved the thoughts on including the "where" in a review, along with the "how", "what", "who" and "when." I hadn't really considered that.
3 - Margay
Wow, what an in-depth interview! Thanks, Judi, for sharing your thoughts with us. It was very informative.
4 - RG
If bad reviews are discouraged, what's the point?