We wrote The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing not only with the aspiring reviewer in mind, but for the established reviewer who needs a bit of refreshing and also for anybody — be they author, publisher, reader, bookseller, librarian or publicist — who wants to become more informed about the value, purpose, and effectiveness of reviews.
The book came out in June and already there are two universities using it as a textbook for book reviewing writing courses. I’m also proud to mention that the book was a National Best Books Award Finalist in the Writing & Publishing category.
For a list of contents, excerpt and reviews, readers may visit www.slipperybookreview.wordpress.com.
What was the inspiration behind your book? Why did you feel a need to write it?
I started reviewing books about ten years ago, and I soon fell in love with the craft of reviewing. Getting free review copies was only part of it. However, in the beginning, I did my fare share of mistakes, especially falling prey to ‘facile praise’. There were no books available to use as guides. At the same time, with the rise and growing popularity of online review sites, I noticed there were a lot of new reviewers out there doing all sorts of amateurish mistakes: some left out the evaluations; others gave away spoilers; others praised poorly written books; others wrote without clarity or even good spelling and grammar. Then, as I mentioned earlier, I ‘heard’ that voice in the middle of the night - my subconscious telling me to do something about it, to write a much-needed book on how to write honest, thoughtful, professional book reviews.
What kind of research did you have to conduct to write your book?
We spent half a year conducting several polls and interviewing dozens of authors, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, publicists, and publishers on various aspects of book reviewing. We also did a poll with a hundred readers to find out the extent of the impact and influence of reviews. Mostly, though, Anne and I wrote the book based on our own experiences as reviewers.
What message are you trying to convey with this book?
The message I’d like to convey is that as reviewers, whether aspiring or experienced, we have a responsibility to the readers, a responsibility to write honest, thoughtful, clear, well-written reviews. I hope The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing will help reviewers of all levels achieve just that.
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Nice interview, Dorothy & Mayra. Congrats, Mayra, on success of "Slippery Art."