Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Hi Melissa,

you might want to consider www.bookpleasures.com

they offer free reviews on books..

Best regards,

Tarek

Tarek, do you know authors who've been reviewed by bookpleasures? What was their experience?

I just spent time going through their reviews in some fiction genres and every review was the essentially the same: a summation of the story, followed by "must read", "magical", "outstanding", or some similar overly effusive comment. I'm sure some of these novels deserve the enthusiasm, but ALL of them? In the 40+ reviews I skimmed through, the closest I found to an evaluation of the writing were along the lines of "wonderful characterizations" or "descriptive prose".

All of these seem like weak and generalized comments by apparently very knowledgeable and skilled book reviewers. Surely they have better insight (and vocabulary) to delve a bit into the plot development, characterizations, interplay, dialogue....something?

I doubt every book submitted is a "5 star read"...I know it's free so do they just not post reviews for novels that were average? I know it seems silly to complain, but I'd rather have a true critique and this doesn't feel like it. But I could be wrong. I admit I fell to skimming through after the repetitiveness of the first 10. I'd like others' opinions..

Well Julie,

I personally tried them and spoke to the founder Norm Goldman, from our chat what happens is that for example an author e-mails them asking to be reviewed, Norm checks if the book is worth it and accordingly if he does he contacts the reviewers on the site who read and review this Genre. Also some of them have background for example about the genre of the book , like for example the reviewer of my book Sandra Schwayder is both an author and reviewer , and she's an ex-Federal Attorney specialized in civil rights and domestic violence, so for my novel for example , this fell right into place.

Of course I am also quite new in the whole writing scene, so this is what I came up , being from Egypt and trying to promote my book abroad is not really the easiest thing to do. I've tried reaching the Guardian newspaper for example in the UK and after succeeding they told me they only review books published in the UK only. So actually most of my finding for reviewers so far are people like Bookpleasures.com or Erin O'Riordan who write their book reviews on their blogs. And many others I've come across through twitter who also blog about their readings

It would be useful to share the different experiences..

Thanks Tarek! That's exactly what I meant by sharing experiences. It is so very hard to gather reviews (a people really look to see several, not just one or two) yet reviews aren't helpful if they don't firmly respond to the novel.

Even reading a so-called 'poor' review, rated lower because 'the story had too much XXX and I don't like XXX' let me know what was going on in the book and I've bought just because I've thought to myself "heck, that's MY kinda story!". That's why I wanted feedback on them. On the website Mr. Goldman sounds professional and the bios for his reviewers as well, which is why I wondered if perhaps authors who received a bad review simple chose to keep them withdrawn.

Well you can actually get in contact with Norm directly and he will definitely be willing to take this up with you.. My dilemma is perhaps doubled than the rest of you folks, since I am from Egypt and am trying to seek or focus my exposure outside of Egypt which is difficult because I have absolutely no idea where to go or who to talk to :)

Hey John - sounds like an interesting idea. What does that practically mean (sorry to sound simple here!)? We read each other's books and give a review that we can then paste into our books?

Hi Vered,

Well not necessarily , we are more of looking to find professional Reviewers, because it gives more credibility and accreditation to the book.

However sharing other's opinions on blogs and social networks this can come in handy too