Something New
One day a week or so ago Wendy and I were talking. Actually, we were complaining about the limited number of sites that review romance novels. Sure, there are some and some of those are great (See: Smart Bitches, some of the links on my sidebar links and some of the links off RTB) but, really, there just aren’t that many. We decided that was a bad thing. Rather than continue to complain - although we do love complaining - we decided to step out and try something new. To set up a review site. A place we could go to talk about the romance novels everyone is reading, some that are more obscure, new releases and some old favorites.
Now, this is risky. The general mood in the romance community seems to be that it is wrong to even hint that there may be an imperfect romance novel out there somewhere. The thought process is: if we admit some books aren’t as great as others we’ll never get respect as a genre. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This mindset does romance readers and writers a disservice. We’re smarter than this. We can take it. And, frankly, if we aren’t willing to open up and seek honest critiques of our work, we may as well just forget the publishing and start printing free stories on our blogs instead.
With that in mind, we’ve started Paperback Reader. We’ll review romance novels of all subgenres and in all formats, and see how it goes. First up is Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie, which was perfect because I’d been looking for a reason to dig it out of my TBR pile.
Please stop by.
June 12th, 2005 at 10:05 am
I love the idea — and the new blog is now on my list of RSS feeds that I follow every day.
I think it’s wrong to give reviews that only praise books and don’t discuss what works and what doesn’t. Not only does it not do service to the readers who might be looking for something new, I don’t think it does service to writers. The way we learn is discovering what doesn’t work (we need to discover what works, but I think discovering what doesn’t is the first task).
I just finished a book where I truly enjoyed the main characters, thought they had great chemistry together — but the rest of the book left me somewhat unsatisfied. But looking at the reviews out there — they’re either glowing or trashing, with no middle ground to say “This was fun, but this didn’t work.”
June 12th, 2005 at 11:13 am
Gulp
June 12th, 2005 at 11:54 am
I think a good review site is a great idea and is needed. The only truly entertaining, critical review sites are AAR (grrrr), Mrs. Giggles and Smart Bitches.
To be entertaining (and get traffic), you’ll need to be highly critical and amusing too. Yep, I’m definitely going to need to make some more author calming visualization aids.
As an pubbed author, there are some pitfalls though. Don’t kid yourself that some won’t resent a review that hurt their feelings and you’ll be rubbing shoulders with those folks. It’s not just romance authors either. Even high falutin’ lit fic folks get their panties twisted.
June 12th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
We Love Trouble
My sister-in-law Wendy Duren has teamed up with fellow romance novel fan HelenKay Dimon to launch Paperback Reader, a blog born out of
June 12th, 2005 at 1:31 pm
Thanks Caro!
Wendy - I’ve done that a few times myself today. Do you think today’s earthquake was an omen?
Monica - We have to be amusing? Wendy didn’t tell me that… But, I agree this is risky. Wendy and I talked this through for a few weeks before jumping in. I figure if certain writers are determined to be hurt and angry by constructive reviews, there’s nothing I can do about that. I’ve learned that much from having a blog. People get pissed about the strangest crap. All I can do is be honest and then submit my own work for the same treatment. And, really, we’re talking about book reviews not assigning grades for people’s looks or bedroom performance. For good or bad, critiques are part of the writing game and I’d rather have someone who cares about romance novels look at my work than someone who thinks romance is lame. Let’s hope other authors feel the same.
June 12th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
Um, omen? Nah, I’m blaming Monica. The earth did move at the exact moment she was threatening me on my blog…
June 12th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
Yep, I’ll send my books for a review. But be warned. Do y’all prefer fat, old or just plain ugly ACVA’s?
Here’s a great idea! What if you added a free, handy-dandy ACVA to the bad reviews? Maybe a meditation page to click to with a relaxing scenery background and soothing music as one happily muses on Wendy squishing Tod’s face?
June 12th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
I’m excited to visit your new blog tomorrow morning, especially since I read the book and have recommended it.
Would write a long comment here, but I think I’ll take it to my own blog because it’s mostly about me and how I wring my hands about this whole blogging about books that didn’t work (for me) by people in the blogosphere. I find it really awkward but I’m glad there are others who don’t.
June 12th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
Jorie - I agree. It’s hard and more than a little scary. A lot scary, actually. We aren’t going into this lightly. Panic will now be our full-time occupation.
Monica - Why, I always enjoy a just plain ugly ACVA. And, we’ll work on the meditation page ’cause I’m going to need it.