Prompt 2 Response - Week 5

Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big-name author. How does this affect collection development?

The fewer reviews a book has, the less likely it is that readers are going to take notice of a book, and the less likely it is to get into the hands of a librarian and a library’s collection. However, relying on professional reviews such as those with Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, etc. makes it more likely that we ignore books that are not as popular because we’re not seeing them as frequently, especially with ebooks and those that are independently published.

I have posted two more documents in the week five files. One is two reviews of an ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from amazon. Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library?

Based on the reviews given, I’m not sure that I would select this book for my library. The Amazon review is very informal and it’s as if the author is speaking to friends and family. The blog review comes across as a bit more formal than the Amazon review and provides more detail that would give readers a better understanding of what the book is about. However, I would want to do more research to see if the author has other books they’ve written and if we have those within our collection, how well they’re circulating, and I would also want to see if I could find more formal reviews of the book, specifically ones that speak to the ‘suspense’ part. In reading the reviews, I can’t see what makes this book a ‘suspense’ novel versus a general romance.

The other document contains some reviews of Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, an incredibly popular memoir. These reviews are all from professional publications, feel free to find more on your own I just nabbed a few from the Book Review Digest database for you. How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?

I would feel confident in adding Angela’s Ashes to my collection. The reviews are professional, reliable, and extremely well done, providing all the necessary information one would need to make a decision on whether or not to add it to their collection. You can tell the authors put a lot of thought and time into their reviews, and truly enjoyed what they were reading. The emotions the novel evoke within the authors can be felt with each word as you read their reviews.

Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage? How does this affect a library's collection?  And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?

It's always interesting to me how some books generate more reviews than others. Sometimes I feel as though a book can be over reviewed, especially if it’s a fairly popular title or author, whereas lesser known books or authors, especially those of the indie variety or that are independently published, receive very little, if any. Books or authors that are not as well-known will often be overlooked when libraries are considering adding to their collections. The books could be a diamond in the rough but because they are not generating the reviews, there’s a chance they will never be added to a library’s collection unless the suggestion comes from the librarian or library staff themselves or a patron looking specifically for that author or item.

I understand to a certain extent why some review sources do not print negative content. The book review site I previously worked with, BookTrib, would not publish reviews that were completely negative. Even if we did not like the book, we were encouraged to find something within the book that could be written about in a positive manner. But, if we did not like the book and could not write any positives or if we found the book offensive for one reason or another, we were told to contact the editor and let them know so the book could be reassigned or re-evaluated for reviewing purposes.

Reviews, no matter where they come from or what form they are in, affect a book’s ability to be sold, published, or circulated. Not every book is going to be great, and I think that for publishers or review sites to withhold those reviews isn’t giving the book a fair chance to be evaluated. One person’s opinion shouldn’t influence the opinions of others. Not everyone receives a book the same way. I recently came across a YouTube video in which the creator reviewed Prince Harry’s novel, Spare, stating that ‘she reviewed it so we don’t have to read it.’ No offense to that creator but just because she read the book and didn’t care for it, doesn’t mean that’s going to be the same for myself or someone else.

I’ve read several books that I have not liked and upon reading the reviews, wonder why everyone loved the book and I didn’t. And that can be the complete opposite. I’ve read books that I have truly loved and upon looking at the reviews, no one else did. But I also take reviews with a grain of salt because sometimes I feel as though people post reviews just to post reviews, and they are not always accurate or contain worthy information.

Last week my fellow processors and I did what my department refers to as a ‘Follow the Book’ tour where we learn about each aspect of the collection development process, from who orders the books, how they are cataloged, and the final process before a book goes out for circulation to all three of our branches. In talking with two of our book buyers, we learned about how they go about purchasing materials for the library, what influences their decisions to buy or not buy a book, what sources they use for reviews when looking at a book to potentially add to our collection, etc. They rely on professional review sources such as Kirkus, School Library Journal, and the New York Times Best Seller list, but they also look at how well the author and their previous works have circulated. There are times when they will automatically buy an author or series because of its popularity, but they will also order items despite their controversial reviews because if it’s generating that many good and bad reviews, there’s a reason for it.

For my own personal reading, reviews are about 50/50 in determining whether I will read a book or not. I am one of those people who will not buy a book before reading it, which is why I am also a frequent patron to my local library. I prefer to borrow the book first so that way, if I do not like it, I won’t have spent money on it. Most of the time I will not read reviews on a book because I do not want any outside opinions influencing my decision before I’ve had a chance to read it. What I’ll typically do is Google the book to see what it’s about, who the author is if I’m not familiar with them, and maybe one or two reviews if the book is fairly new just to see how it’s being received. Some of my favorite review sources include:

Comments

  1. olivia l.February 12, 2023 at 1:40 PM

    I was also curious about what exactly made The Billionaire's First Christmas a romantic suspense, especially given how absent anything alluding to the suspense element was from either of the reviews. I actually forgot entirely that the book was described that way until I reread the prompt. Per a writer from Autocrit (https://www.autocrit.com/editing/library/unraveling-the-complexities-of-romantic-suspense/), romantic suspense is "is a novel with a story that is driven equally and simultaneously by the threat of danger and the promise of romance," though obviously there are all kinds of variations therein. Although, I felt like both reviews were devoid of anything that even hinted at suspense, even a minor one.

    It's also very interesting that you have firsthand experience working for a review site that wouldn't publish entirely negative reviews. It does feel like it would generally behoove review sites to find a good spin on each book, as it increases the chances it'll find its way to a reader that may truly love it. It's helpful to know that there are processes in place to reassign a title to another reviewer if one person struggles to highlight positives among the negative. Did you ever run into an issue where you had to have a title reassigned? Or were you usually able to find positive elements even in books you didn't like? That specific skill feels like it would be particularly useful for Readers Advisory purposes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A Book Worm and Her BooksFebruary 14, 2023 at 6:58 PM

      Hi Olivia,

      There was one particular books I *almost* had to have reassigned because I was struggling to find anything particularly positive or worth mentioning. I emailed the editor and she told me if nothing else, to focus on the place itself. There were a whole list of criteria to use or look for when writing a review, so luckily this book had a lot of description and personality related to the location it was set in, so I managed to review that as part of the book itself, focusing on the place instead of the characters and plot. I wouldn't say it was necessarily a negative review, but I think upon reading the review you could definitely tell it was not one that I enjoyed, at all.

      Delete
  2. Dany MartinFebruary 12, 2023 at 1:47 PM

    I only recommend books for purchase for the newsletters that I am in charge of and at that point Library Aware has done most of the work. Collection development is something that I would like to know more about but have no time at this current junction to work on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Erin CataldiFebruary 16, 2023 at 8:16 AM

    Excellent prompt response! You bring up so many good points. I love that you had a follow the book tour event at work. That's an amazing idea and I might have to share that with my co-workers. Great insight and full points!

    ReplyDelete

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