Book Reviews, Short Stories & Such

One of the weekly features of my publishing website will be book reviews. In the end, I would like to specialize in self-published e-books. However, at the beginning, we may have to review any book we can get our hands on.

I have contacted a few book review bloggers who said they would give us names of ones looking for reviewers. But, they won't do that until we have our service up and running.

ZillaGirl gave me the idea that we as a group could review the same book, almost like a book club. You could also think of this as a collaborative book review, something that isn't present in most book review blogs. We could do something different than everyone else, in other words.

However, since I would like to post a review a week, we would need to probably do more than one book a month. I won't have time to read more than one a month. In fact, I may not even be able to do that even. In order to pull off a weekly review, there are a couple of ways to do it.

1. The first week we have a traditional book review. The second week we post an interview with the author.

2. As a group we read at least 4 books a month. (We can get a head start before this website gets off the ground, but eventually we would need to read so many a month)

Option 1 will be great once we are reviewing self-published e-books. I am sure people would love to be featured twice. And, if there is enough interest, I don't mind posting more than one book a week. More the merrier!

I would also like to include some kind of rating system with the book reviews. Here's a pic of a simple bar that could be used to indicate the maturity level of a book.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2nh43ti.png

I figure that about half way would be the same as a PG-13 rating for a movie. I don't want to feature R-rated works for sell, but some mature stuff could leak through on book reviews. I would love it, though, if we can keep to a lower maturity level for reviews as well.

Another rating we could give the book could be like Protag's rating system, which would be based upon how well the book was written and how entertaining it is. A similar bar could be used, or we could use a number system like on Protag.

I will post more info on a possible rating system at another time.

If anyone is interested in doing a collaborative review right now, let me know. Someone (sorry for not remembering who at the moment) gave me the idea of reading classic novels, many of which are free for download from http://www.gutenberg.org/

I am going to start reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. If you would like to read that with me, let me know.

Questions? Comments? Ideas?

Let'em come!

I've designed an online form for submitting book reviews. It should be self-explanatory, but if it isn't, please ask questions.

http://iberan-masquerade.blogspot.com/2011/07/masquerade-crew-book-review-form.html

EDIT: The other form is still valid. The same form is also on the new site. I have also added a field for sub-genre. You can fill in whatever you want here. I haven't decided how I will use it. There is also a spot to explain why you rated the maturity as you did. This is meant for more the higher ratings.

http://masqueradecrew.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-form.html

Looks awesome Mark!

I've changed a few of the descriptions on the book review form which I posted earlier. The basic format is the same, though.

I have also posted a test book review on the site. I would like to get everyone's opinion.

Do you like how I have formatted it?
Is there anything you would change about it?


The one thing that I can think of at the moment to add is keeping track of genre. I don't think I want tons and tons of genres and sub genres; that would only bog down the site in my opinion. However, separating our reviews into a few basic genres might be a good idea. This may not affect the actual book review, though.

Anyway, here's the link:

http://iberan-masquerade.blogspot.com/2011/07/time-machine-by-hg-wells.html

I've added a new field to the book review form: genre. Right now there are three options: general ficton, mystery, science fiction/fantasy. If we are interested in keeping track of sub-genres, I suggest we create another field. However, the more sub genres we keep track of the harder it will be.

I added another genre to the form. Young Adult.

Can you guys think of anything else that might be a major genre?

By tag do you mean like checkboxes so that you could label something as young adult and mystery at the same time?

I will look into a tag system.

Ok, I entered in a book review. Not sure if it's entirely to your liking though (especially the format)

Very nice review. Once you see it formatted on the blog, you will see how well you've done. In fact, I threw it together right now just to show you and everyone else. This wont be the final version as I am making major changes which I will describe in another post (plus there were a few grammar things I needed to fix but didn't worry about in this test post). However, the following post demonstrates the general format.

http://iberan-masquerade.blogspot.com/2011/07/nineteen-minutes-by-jodi-picoult.html

I also need to work on a schedule system so we all know what reviews are coming up and when. Stay tuned.

Hehe good that it works :D I was afraid the other comments sounded too much like a synopsis... Fix up my grammar errors for me please, I kinda just threw the review together while I'm on a break from maths hw xD

By the way, schedule sounds good :)

It does read a little like a synopsis of the character's background. I think it works. If you want to make it perfect, though, you could shorten this background paragraph:

Peter Houghton, a lonely boy, had been the target of bullying ever since his first day at kindergarten when his Superman lunchbox got thrown off the bus. Befriended and protected by Josie Cormier, his best friend since forever, Peter made it through most of elementary school with his spirit intact. However, when Josie realised that she wasn't too bad off herself but was only shunned because of her association with Peter, she decided to ditch him in fifth grade to hang out with the popular crowd. The shock of Josie's abandonment left Peter virtually friendless, and he tried desperately to befriend her again.

How about:

Peter Houghton had been the target of bullying ever since his first day at kindergarten. He made it through most of elementary school with the help of his best friend, Josie Cormier. The true test to Peter's spirit begins after Josie abandons him in the fifth grade.

It's enough detail to grab a potential reader without giving away too much, I think. If the last sentence in my example needs to be reworded to match the book, let me know.

I reckon that's good, except the last sentence could be:

But things got worse for Peter as Josie abandoned him in the fifth grade.

Yeah, I wasn't sure how to word the last sentence since I had not read the book.

Consider your change made.

And, hooray for you! You are the first one to officially turn in a book review.

Where are the rest of you? ;-P

Hehe! And I thought I was going to be the first to hand one in! I'm working on my Lies of Locke Lamora review now, almost finished it actually. Just got to find the actual book so I can put the blurb down in the synopsis box.

If you can't find the blurb, you can either pull something from online or create it yourself.

Technically, I was the first to use the form. Then, I helped my mother turn one in. Nadia was the first of the rest of the crew to use it.

You, Dot, have reviews on your blog that will probably be used at some point, so don't feel too bad. Ha!

I know exactly where it is, I've just got to find the energy to get out of bed and unpack my suitcase to find it!

Quick question about the 'mature' rating section of the review - when it comes to drugs and alcohol, what would be considered mild? Locke Lamora doesn't really deal with drugs but alcohol is there and consumed on a regular basis but not in a way I would really call mature.

I wouldn't call it heavy. That's easy. So, it's either mild or moderate.

If it were a movie as it is written, would it be PG or PG-13? Would you feel uncomfortable sharing the alcohol passages with a minor who is not able to drink? Does it encourage such ones to drink? Is the use of the alcohol responsible? It sounds like it would be, so maybe Mild/PG.

Thanks - I marked it as Mild/PG because there is only one incident including alcohol and it isn't as bad as I thought now I've looked it up in the book.