With the new issue of Eclectica Magazine up, I spend an hour or so contacting all the writers and publishers I can that we reviewed to let them know about it. I am always surprised by how many writers email back that are so grateful that I took the time to do this simple thing. I imagine a lot of them spend time every week googling themselves to see if there are new reviews up somewhere that they haven't heard of and it seems silly when it takes a reviewer (or editor) so little time to extend this courtesy and let them know. And the thing is, it pays back huge for the magazine. We get new readers, we get linked to, we get mentioned blogs and journals, and it all works out. So why doesn't everybody do it?
I have no idea.
Of course I don't notify folks if there is a negative review, why ruin their day? But I'm not a fan of negative reviewing anyway. I don't write them myself, I don't see the point. If I don't like a book then I won't write about it, that simple. Negative reviews always seem to be more about the reviewer than the writer, more about how someone read the book then the book itself. And they are all too often petty and cruel and pointless. Why tell the world something is bad? Paul Collins ran something a while back where he asked why you would waste time writing about what you didn't like when there are so many books that should be written about and were ignored. I'm right there with him on that. I have set aside about three or four book I requested that after reading them realized they didn't work for me - I couldn't recommend them to others because of that, but I had no interest in making the writer feel bad. I just go on to the next book and it's pretty easy to find something I do love soon enough.
Speaking of which, I finished Black Duck last night and I really really liked it. It's a unique story, lots of questions about right vs wrong (not all clear cut either) and a great ending. It is a wonderful book and I am totally looking forward to spreading the word on this one.
I have new reviews for Rocket Science, The Aquanauts, Animus and Kids' Night In Vol 2 in my column at Bookslut this month. Two science fiction, one moving book and one story collection. I'm proving myself to be nicely well rounded, don't you think?
