book reviews

Publishing Trends: Platform and Publishing

/ rtrube54 / 4 Comments

We talked yesterday about the role of editors in acquiring good writing and identifying writers with talent. Actually, according to a recent blog on Platform and Publishing by Scot McKnight, at least in the Christian publishing world, it is increasingly not the quality of your writing and your ideas, but how many people “follow” you on Twitter, Facebook, your blog and the like, as well as how many people go to your church if you are a pastor.

I should mention that this blog is not an effort to enhance my “platform”. If it was, I’ve got a long, long way to go. However it is interesting that one source from which I’ve received some free e-galleys of new books encourages you to create a profile with much the same criteria–your blog, numbers of friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I actually get this. You don’t want to give stuff away unless it will actually be reviewed and the reviews will be seen by a reasonable number of people with similar interests to the reviewer.

The problem with this platform thing in self-publishing is that the people who self-promote well are probably not the same people who produce the great works. In fact, I wonder if they might be more or less mutually exclusive categories. It would seem to me that many great writers are those who really give themselves to their craft, and building platform is a distraction of time and energy from what they are truly great at. Consequently, a book proposal from such a writer without platform may never get looked at.

The reality behind this is that book promotion is no longer the work of publishers by and large but by authors and those who will post reviews for them on Amazon. By the way, I don’t review on Amazon for this reason. I guess I would prefer to remain “independent”, write for my friends and those who are interested, and not do Amazon’s or the publisher’s work.

At the same time, the web and social media do provide a way that good authors can find readers. It appears that part of the trick is not so much building your own platform but rather identifying online bloggers and reviewers who have a platform of followers for the genre in which you write. This Huff Post article on The Shifting Landscape of Book Reviews chronicles the world of getting your book reviewed if you are an Indie writer. Now it seems, the challenge may be getting publishers to shift from looking at author “platforms” to looking at the reviewer response to their books. Of course, that presupposes that most new authors will publish independently and hope to get recognized.

That, I suspect is still a fairly perilous enterprise, but then I guess it always has been…

Bob on Books in 2014

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment

IMG_1933We changed the calendar on our refrigerator last night before turning in. For many it seems January 1 is the day for New Year’s Resolutions (and from the viewer response, it appears a number of you are including “read more” among those resolutions!). Personally, I’m not one for resolutions but I thought I might share some thoughts I’ve had about the blog in the coming year.

1. I hope my son and I can do another conversation on our blogs. No guarantees here but we’ll see what comes out of our Tuesday nights at Chubby’s!

2. The question of how new technologies will impact reading, discourse, learning and the world of higher ed is one I hope to continue exploring. I think we are in a new Gutenberg revolution and I’m alternately intrigued and disturbed as I think about how this might affect literacy and thoughtful engagement with the books we read (or even the prevalence of reading).

3. I’m also intrigued by the intersection of reading, which is often a solitary activity, and social media and its potential to create new forms of learning communities, ranging from virtual book groups to online engagement among those sharing a professional interest.

4. I will be reading more books in the area of higher education because of a project I am working on related to my work in campus ministry.  Look for topical posts in this area as well as reviews of individual books, and a cumulative review post at some time in the first part of the year.

5. GoodReads and my shelving choices also make it possible to identify other categories where I’ve read a number of books on the same general theme. I’ll probably figure out a few other cumulative review posts–perhaps on biographies, American history, sports, books on Christianity and culture, mysteries or sci-fi. And I’ll probably save some for future years!

6. The posts “on life” are the least planned part of this whole thing. They arise out of something I’ve read, some personal life experience, or something that is happening in the world that I feel I have something I want to say about it. This is totally unpredictable.

7. I will continue to post writing on reading in general. I assume that many of those who consistently view or follow this blog love reading and are as interested as I am on how books may not only enrich our interior lives but how we might be enabled to live well through the books we read.

8. There will be those reviews! Generally those aren’t the most popular posts and not all the reviews will be of interest to all who follow me. I review a number of books that represent “a thoughtful approach to Christian faith” that reflects the university world I work in and my own passion for a seamless connection between our love for God, for his world, and our closer and more distant “neighbors”. Even if you don’t share my beliefs, I hope you will find some books that touch on interests that are common to us. I’ll be reading other things as well–history, biography, and fiction (some literary, sci-fi, and mystery especially), and a good baseball book here and there and an occasional science work.

9. At some point in the year look for a Teddy Roosevelt marathon! I have a couple volumes of Edmund Morris’s biography of Roosevelt on the stack and received The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin for Christmas. I’ve always loved reading about Roosevelt and love anything I’ve read by Doris Kearns Goodwin so this will be a marathon I look forward to!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on reading this year, and on anything you’d like to see me explore in the blog. I’m still learning about this stuff and those who view and comment are my best teachers!

Your Favorite Posts of 2013

/ rtrube54 / 1 Comment

I thought it would be fun (and an interesting learning exercise for me) to share my top ten posts in terms of views from this past year. They are listed in order of the number of views:

1. Ten Things Columbus People Do When Snow is Forecast. People in Columbus go bonkers when it snows. Apparently a number of you love to read about our fears of “snowmageddon”.

2. Writing on Reading. This was my very first post written back on August 13 with a photo of a stack of books. Since then, I’ve read a few of them!

3. 3 Steps to Reading Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. This was a re-post of a BookRiot post with some additional thoughts from me posted just the other day!

4. Best Reads of 2013. And this was just posted yesterday and consists of all my 5 star GoodReads reviews.

5. Mr Rogers Was Right. I reflect here on recent neuroscience research and how Mr Rogers approach to TV was good for the emotional and cognitive development of children.

6. Review: Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning. This is the only one of my book reviews to make the top 10! I suspect the title attracted at least a few views, and maybe a few others from people who needed a summary of the book for education classes.

7. You Lost Me, The Conversation about Creation Care. One of a series of blogs my son and I did on David Kinnaman’s book, You Lost Me. Fascinating that the issue of creation care was of such interest.

8. How I Review a Book. This is a surprise to me. My guess is that students writing book reports reference this!

9. Confession. My reflections on ways the church leadership of my generation has failed Millenials that sparked the idea of the blog interchange with my son.

10. The Strange Act of Forgiveness. Ironic that this follows the previous blog. It actually was some reflections on forgiveness in the light of the death of Nelson Mandela.

“Bob on Books” has been an interesting venture into the world of blogging since I began last August. I’ve learned quite a bit from other bloggers, including my son. I’ve been able to post most every day (this is post 136) and as of today posts on the blog have been viewed over 3200 times since the blog’s inception. Yesterday was my best day ever for views! Thanks to all of you who have read and especially those of you who have commented. Blogging is one form of online learning community that brings together for me my loves of the world of education and of forming communities. Writing helps me think more clearly about the things that are the theme of this blog: books, reading, and life, and a good part of that is interacting with my readers! So thanks to all of you who have joined me on the blogging journey! I look forward to our conversations in 2014!

3 Steps to Reading Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

/ rtrube54 / 1 Comment

3 Steps to Reading Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (from BookRiot.com) has some great ideas if one of your New Year’s resolutions is to read more.

I often get asked how I read so many books (although I was humbled by the person in this article who reads 2-300 books a year). I would agree with everything written here. Here are a few other thoughts.

1. I would amplify the idea of avoiding distractions. Read where and when you are free from TV, social media or smartphones.

2. Carry a book or e-reader with you for unexpected free moments–waiting for a flight, eating alone, while you are waiting to meet someone or on public transportation. I’ve probably read a book or two just in airports this year!

3. If you are working to cultivate a reading habit, don’t start with the most demanding, dense stuff you can think of that seems “profound”. Start with authors you like, or books in a genre you like.

4. Find book reviews or blogs on the kinds of books you like and see what others like. Goodreads is a great tool to find out what your friends are reading and what they think about their books.

5. After you read a book, try to capture in a few sentences what you liked about the book, a favorite quote, or something you want to remember from the book. Again, the Goodreads site is a great tool for this–you don’t need to be lengthy–think of this as just putting down what you want to remember about the book.

6. If you are a person who likes goals, track your progress through the year. Probably one of the few things I remember from my behavioral psych class from many years ago was that when you track a behavior, you increase that behavior if it is desirable, and often decrease it when it is undesirable. Hopefully reading is the former for you!

7. Read something “off the beaten path” for you — a different genre, an international author, a perspective you don’t think you agree with. Pick up a book at your bookseller’s that they are recommending that sounds interesting that you wouldn’t otherwise read.

Happy reading!

“You Read So I Don’t Have To”

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment

A colleague of mine made this comment to me recently.  The comment was partly joking and mostly appreciative. He was saying that my reviews of books were helpful to him in becoming aware of books that are relevant to our work but that he did not have time to read.  Part of me was glad to hear this while part of me felt a bit sheepish about being “out there” as a bookworm.  Alas, it is true!

It is also true that I’ve always had a passion for learning things so I can share them with others to their benefit.  It seems that books, like all good gifts, are meant to be shared.  When books were hand printed and primarily the property of the monasteries, reading was a social activity, done aloud for the benefit of the whole community.  With the Gutenberg revolution and the rise of literacy, books became available to the masses, and reading became a more solitary activity.

Reviews are one of the ways the riches (or lack thereof) of the books we read can be shared with others and serve as one way of maintaining a communal practice of reading and talking about books.  Blogs and social media like GoodReads and Amazon reviews make this possible for more of us on a wider scale than we may have imagined.

Truth is that others read so that I don’t have to.  The reviews others post or write for various reviews help me to be conversant with books I’ll never get around to reading. Indeed, one of the most sobering thoughts is even with good health, I probably won’t read more than a couple thousand books in the remainder of my life.  One post I came across estimated there were 129,864,880 books in the world as of 2010. Obviously, there are a few I’ll never get to reading!  Reviews are one tool that helps me identify what is worth reading, become aware of other worthwhile books I am not able to get to, as well as some of the books that it is just not worth my time to read.

So I guess I should be glad when someone finds a review helpful–even if they don’t want to read the book.  And if you also review books, thank you for reading for me and sharing that experience!

So what reviews do you follow and what do you find most helpful in a review?

How I Review a Book

/ rtrube54 / 11 Comments

I was asked a while back by some colleagues how I review a book.  I feel I am still on a learning curve about this and so would love to interact with others who both write and read reviews.

1. First of all, I really do read the whole book.  I don’t write a review until I finish the book.  Maybe I’m compulsive, but it somehow feels like cheating to review something I don’t read.

2.  I often “lead” in the review with something that particularly intrigued or interested me in the book that I think might connect with others.

3.  I usually summarize the contents.  This comes in part from my original purpose of writing reviews–providing myself with a reminder of what the book was about.  I find this also seems helpful to others in deciding if they want to read the book.

4.  Often, I will briefly engage the book–what I like (or more rarely dislike or disagree with) about the book.  This could be a matter of plot development in fiction or particular ideas in the book with non-fiction.  I do sometimes highlight good or bad writing.  I must admit to detesting writing that is convoluted and obscures what I think the writer is trying to say.

5.  Sometimes I will include a recommendation for which audiences a book might be useful.

6.  Most of the time, I keep reviews to 3-4 relatively short paragraphs.  I’m writing for online rather than print audiences.

7.  I write my reviews on my GoodReads page, which I now have linked to this blog.

I’d love to know what other reviewers and readers of reviews think about this.  And as you read reviews I post here, I would be glad to get feedback about how to make these more useful.

************************************************************************

I originally wrote this post over a year ago. Since then there are a few things I would add to what I wrote here:

1. Since I’ve shifted to blogging, I’ve tended to write longer reviews but usually in the 800 word range. This format seems to allow me to cover at a greater depth the book’s content and my critique.

2. Reviewing in this context means that my reviews are seen more often by the authors (and sometimes editors) of the books I review. It has made me more conscious of what I think a reviewer’s responsibility is, which is to attempt to understand the book, to be honest in one’s critique while trying to be fair and generous to the author.

3. Reviewing is no longer simply my way of remembering what I’ve read. I’ve come to see it as a dialogue with readers and potential readers (as well as with authors and editors) about the books I’ve read. With rare exceptions, I hope others will borrow or buy at least some of the books I read.

4. Finally, I realize none of us can read everything. What I want to achieve in reviews is to give enough information about a book to help someone decide whether it is worth reading for them, and, even if not, to give them enough to be conversant about the book where that is useful to them. Other reviewers do this for me. Hopefully I can return the favor!

Thanks for reading and, when you like what you see, reposting these reviews and other posts on this blog!