Authors Lounge discussion

Ok I need some good advice on whether or not to post my review by Kirkus. I has some posatives but the negatives seem to be stronger.

In my experience I often see a small excerpt of a review on peoples books and in ads and I have never actually checked on Kirkus to see the full review so I am wondering if it would still be good for me to have them post the review so that I can do that using the good parts that they mention or if I should not because it is a somewhat negative review...in my opinion. I just don't know how often everyone else in the world checks the full review.

What do you think?

If your not familiar with Kirkus they are a very reputable company and you have to pay to get a review from them. Once they send you the review if you like it you can choose whether or not you want them to post it on their site.

My debut middle grade, "A Smidgen of Sky," is due out in November and my publisher recently sent a copy of it to Kirkus for review. I'm curious as to how you know if they've reviewed it? Do they send a copy of the review to you, or just the publisher. As to whether or not to post a mediocre review, I've heard that even a negative one rarely hurts a book. It's still exposure. Plus, even though Kirkus is very reputable, it still represents just one opinion. I think your agent or publicist would be the best person to answer the question you've posed as to if it's okay to just post part of their review.

Agent? Publicist? I wish. But to answer your question they do send you the review after it is done so that you can decide whether or not you want them to publish it on their website. I'm not sure if you will see it since your publisher sent it out. Plus it may be different for published authors. I sent mine in to their Indy review dept.

Thanks for the response. I am leaning toward letting them publish it. Like you said, it's still exposure and there are good things in it that I can highlight.

Why would you let someone read neg's dude. Has some one else read the review and said it's too negative.

If you want to use reviews for sales, then no. There are plenty of other places to get a review, twitter is full of em, as is here. If the book is good, people will like it. Organic reviews are better than paid ones!

Jedidiah,

I just recently read in a writer's enewsletter I receive (not sure which one, I get so many) that Kirkus may not be as significant as they once were. In fact, the article eluded that they may be becoming insignificant in the world of reviews.

If you think that the review has more negative tones than positive ones, I'd forego it and leave it out.

Jonny nails it when he says that there are other places to go and get reviews. In fact, the article I referred to indicated that the future lies with the common bookworm.

A rule of thumb that I've always been told is to always use positive publicity--and when all you have is negative publicity, find something positive about it and use it.

Ken Lang

Thanks for the insight everyone. It's been very helpful.

Jedidiah,

Firstly, I have found that as the author of a book, a review might seem negative to you, but not to others. I discovered this when reading other authors' 'negative' reviews which they posted for comments. I didn't actually think the reviews were that bad at all. So, firstly, I would get some second opinions on whether or not the negatives outweigh the positives. As long as they say your story line and writing are good, that's the most important thing.

After all you paid for the review )o:

Secondly, I have spent hours reading the Amazon forums, which although scary and quite aggro towards indie authors, are very insightful as to what regular readers and reviewers think! I have discovered that most readers only rate 2-4 star reviews as holding any weight. They reckon that 5 star reviews are friends and family and 1 star reviews are often ridiculous! They say they like to read the positives and negatives before deciding whether or not to buy a book.

Sometimes, honest, well written 'negative' reviews will actually encourage sales rather than discourage them.

I hope I'm making sense as it's very late here (o:

Leila