Ever since my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, received its first review, I've felt how powerful reviews can be. Whether good or bad, what a reviewer says directly affects the author of the book reviewed and its salability. I found the following quote recently that I think all reviewers (besides book-review-editors) ought to think about when they write a book review: "Nearly every writer writes a book with a great amount of attention and intention and hopes and dreams. And it's important to take that effort seriously and to recognize that a book may have taken ten years of a writer's life, that the writer has put heart and soul into it. And it behooves us, as book-review-editors, to treat those books with the care and attention they deserve, and to give the writer that respect." - Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review editor in a "Poets & Writers interview. My Choices guest today, Nina Guilbeau, the author of God Doesn't Love Us All the Same, discusses her thoughts about … [Read more...]
Reviews are powerful
Filed Under: Book Review, literary fiction, novel Tagged With: Advanced Reading Copies (ARC), BellaOnline, Birth Order and Parenting, book reviews, Chicen Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Mothers and Daughters, Cormac McCarthy, Florida Writer's Association, God Doesn't Love Us All the Same, Leaving the Hall Light On, Nina Guilbeau, Our Family to Yours, PDF, Royal Palm Literary Award, The Road, Too Many Sisters and Too Many Secrets, women's fiction