THEY don’t work for newspapers or magazines, they’re not writers or professional critics, but a new breed of amateur book reviewers is making the publishing trade take notice.
The internet giant Amazon’s practice of grading its online reviewers has led to the rise of a clutch of increasingly influential armchair critics. Some of the most well known post thousands of reviews and are now sent armfuls of free books every month. Publishers such as Canongate and Penguin are looking at ways to participate in the trend, believing that by harnessing the strength of online groups and communities they can unlock greater sales. Just as television book clubs such as Oprah in the US, and Richard and Judy in the UK, can have a huge impact on book sales, online reviews have that elusive “word of mouth” quality, which was such an important factor in the success of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books. For authors and publishers, another of the great advantages of online reviewers is that they often lack the acerbity of the professionals. Rebecca Johnson, who is fourth on Amazon’s US list of top reviewers, is known for her “relentlessly sunny” reviews. Publishers send Ms Johnson advance lists of books and as many as 60 free volumes a month. “I tend to be able to analyse books really efficiently. Authors say I’m insightful and I have a gift for extracting the essence of a book. I feel like I’m part of the reviewing community,” says Ms Johnson. She dislikes nudity, swearing and violence and has been known to return a book unreviewed rather than write a cutting critique. Anyone can submit a review to Amazon, which invites readers to share with other customers “helpful, honest, tell-it -like-it-is product information”. Readers are then invited to go back and grade the reviewer on how helpful they found that analysis of the book. Reviewers are graded according to how many “helpful” and “not helpful” points they get. Pru Rowlandson, the publicity manager of Canongate books, said there was no doubt authors were drawn to read their own reviews, no matter where they appeared - but that negative comments were not always unwelcome. She said Canongate author Dan Rhodes regularly quoted scathing reader reviews of his novel Timoleon Vieta Come Home. “It is a love story between an elderly queen and his mongrel pooch.” One Amazon reviewer said that “after reading it, book burning doesn’t seem sacrilegious”. Another said that when he read it he ‘stuffed it down the toilet and tore it up’ - which Dan likes to point out sounds rather messy and maybe the person should have torn up the book first. “If you read a review like that I don’t think it would put you off the book,” Pru Rowlandson said. She said Canongate, along with other publishers, was considering incorporating reader reviews on its own sites, and creating an online community of its own. Penguin Books is also looking in to online communities. Steve Bohm, the research director of British Marketing Ltd said publishers would be wise to pay attention to the online book market, which now accounts for 8 per cent of sales and 6 per cent of spending on books. In 2000, online book sales accounted for only 5 per cent of sales. Mr Bohm said online communities and reviews were “an important way for publishers to understand the market”. Marc Lambert, the chief executive of the Scottish Book Trust, said any public forum where books were discussed was a positive thing. He said utilising the power of ordinary readers could be a beneficial development for an industry which has long been used to the views and reviews or professional writers. “It is a very good thing. It’s an initiative on the part of the public and it offers that elusive word of mouth recommendation that can make or break a book.” Mr Lambert added that online book sites were also becoming increasingly important, and that authors such as Terry Pratchet, Neil Gaiman and Tom Robbins had a number of fan websites devoted to their work. Meanwhile, Cool-Reads, a UK website where children are invited to send in reviews, is becoming increasingly influential, suggesting a new generation of amateur reviewers is waiting in the wings. Amazon is justly proud of the popularity of its online reviews, saying it was one of the things that made shopping online a unique and personal experience. But earlier this year it emerged that authors had been tempted to join the online reviewing community to plug their own books. A glitch on Amazon’s Canadian site revealed the real names of people who had posted reviews online. Dave Eggars, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was unmasked posing as “a reader from St Louis”.
The full article contains 822 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
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