... only the other day, in a reply to comment by James Aach on this post I managed to prove myself either remarkably perceptive or remarkably out of touch. Take your pick: The De Facto POD Review Ring Chart. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, of course.)
Cool. I was aware of a couple of these reviewers, but not of this site. A good link to know. It's nice of anyone to do these reviews. The obvious difficulties are 1) they get swamped and close up quickly, 2) their reviews may not be widely read (some are more than others), and 3) they don't have the seal of approval that a mainstream print reviewer has. The last item isn't so important for romance and light-entertainment fiction, but it gets a little tricker in other genres and non-fiction, of course. All together, the net is still a less efficient buzz-generating machine than having Paris Hilton briefly carry your book under her arm in front of the paparazzi. (I do wish she'd return my calls.) But still - it's an outlet that wasn't there a few years ago. And it seems to be more influential all the time.
I think it all comes back to the "If I only had the time" thing for readers. We have to pick and choose what we read and we may not have much time or energy to research our choices. We look to the mainstream media to help us with that - at least for the time being.
Cool. I was aware of a couple of these reviewers, but not of this site. A good link to know. It's nice of anyone to do these reviews. The obvious difficulties are 1) they get swamped and close up quickly, 2) their reviews may not be widely read (some are more than others), and 3) they don't have the seal of approval that a mainstream print reviewer has. The last item isn't so important for romance and light-entertainment fiction, but it gets a little tricker in other genres and non-fiction, of course. All together, the net is still a less efficient buzz-generating machine than having Paris Hilton briefly carry your book under her arm in front of the paparazzi. (I do wish she'd return my calls.) But still - it's an outlet that wasn't there a few years ago. And it seems to be more influential all the time.
ReplyDeleteI think it all comes back to the "If I only had the time" thing for readers. We have to pick and choose what we read and we may not have much time or energy to research our choices. We look to the mainstream media to help us with that - at least for the time being.