Knowing when to review a book can be a bit of a confusing minefield for book reviewers, both new and old alike. I have been a book blogger for just over 2 years now and I still don’t know when the “right time” to review is because there are no hard and fast rules about reviewing. It is entirely dependent on the publisher/author as well as yourself!
Continue reading “Discussion | When Is the Right Time to Review New Releases?”
It’s been quite a long time since I’ve done a discussion post and today I wanted to discuss with you all different ways that we can hype and support our favourite reads outside of reviews. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about book blogging is that you have to review everything and if you’re not reviewing books then you’re not supporting those books or authors. Yet, when I recently looked back through my blog posts whilst doing my brand redesign, I noticed that I very rarely review my favourite books. I usually review most of the other books that I read, but I just find reviewing my favourites so hard, I never know what to say! Despite not reviewing them, I still get a lot of people who tell me that they read one of my faves though I never reviewed them.
So, how can we hype up our favourite reads outside of reviewing?
Last month I saw a few of these great posts going around the blogosphere where bloggers shared their current ARC shelves and I thought it would be fun to join in as well!
This year has been a fantastic year for ARCs. I was approved for some of the most anticipated releases of the year on Netgalley, had all of my blogging dreams come true when I started receiving physical ARCs from UK publishers, and also had the opportunity to work directly with some authors. Needless to say, I’m incredibly grateful for all of the ARCs I receive but on the flip side of this success, there is also a mounting collection of overdue ARCs which I feel endlessly guilty about.
Like Destiny, I think that being transparent about what goes on behind the bloggers’ computer is a great way to show the reality of blogging life (lots and lots of unread books) and builds solidarity between us by showing you’re not alone in your struggle/guilt around ARCs!
Although I haven’t purchased anymore of the Fairyloot box boxes since my first one in April, which I received as a birthday gift from my partner, I keep a frequent eye on their social media to see what each monthly theme is. For the past few months, I haven’t seen any that interested me but last week they announced their November box on Instagram – Battles and Galaxies. I was really, really over the moon because I feel that Fairyloot, and other book boxes, tend to focus on fantasy and I have been eagerly waiting for a science fiction themed book box!
Sadly I had to put my discussion feature on hiatus for a little bit as I work long hours at the weekends and am usually too tired to post on Sunday evenings (and too disorganized to schedule beforehand!), but it’s back this weekend with something that’s been on my mind a lot over the past month – negative reviews.
Of course, there will always be negative reviews of books no matter how good the book may be to you. Every reading experience is individual and every reader will take away something different, which is why reviews are so great! I love reading reviews by reviewers who have a different opinion or take on a book we both read or are planning to read to see what they think. There are times when these reviews can be really helpful, such as calling out problematic representation, but are there times when negative reviews can be unhelpful or even harmful?
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