Review: Solid Common Sense
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 12, 2013
Most authors are a little nuts about their reviews. We read them, slaver over them, believe them (both the bad ones and the good ones, all at the same time), and desperately covet them. We can go from perfectly normal, nice, sane people - to crazy, narcissistic, manipulative whackos. Mostly, this is because we simply don't understand how the system of reviews is supposed to work.Rogers does a nice job of demystifying that system in this quick read. He reminds authors, first and foremost, that seeking reviews is about marketing - and, as such, needs to be treated with the appropriate amount of professionalism (versus rabid desperation). That's an obvious point, but one that a lot of authors need to be reminded of from time to time.Beyond that, Rogers offers common sense guidelines for querying reviewers and responding to reviews - good and bad - in general.For me, the most interesting and useful aspect of the book was his explanation of an Internet subculture I didn't even realize existed: that of the *serious* amateur reviewers. Although I review regularly myself, I had no idea how Amazon's reviewer ranking system worked, or that many top reviewers were chummy in forums. What I learned in this section was as interesting to me *as* a reviewer as it was to me as a writer hoping to be favorably reviewed.Most of what Rogers has written here is basic common sense that most of us should be able to figure out on our own. But, considering how emotional authors can often be about their reviews - and the related fact that common sense often goes flying out the window - I would highly recommend that authors spend an hour or two reviewing this very solid info.