Reviewing Standards
The members of Book Fetish are reading for the joy of it -- it is an addiction, remember? -- but it requires a certain level of critical thinking. A book review is not simply a summary of characters and plot. It should reflect an analysis of the book itself, with your commentary and opinions.
We have high standards. Every member has his or her own style but if these standards are not met, the review will be rejected until it is edited and acceptable to be posted on the site.
The guidelines:
- Keep this in mind whenever you are reviewing a book: publishers, publicists, and the authors themselves read these reviews.
- Subject and content: what is this book about? Who are the main players? Sum up the plot/action, but do not give away the ending. Teasers are fine, but keep them limited. If the book is nonfiction, give a summary of the content. Add the author's theories, if applicable.
- Your opinions should not be based on whether you liked the book because it is your chosen genre, or disliked it because you're horribly biased against, say, chicklit, or whether or not you like the author. Base your opinion on the merits of the book itself. This site is not a soapbox for your personal opinions on subjects such as war, politics, religion, etc. If you have something to say on those matters, get your own blog.
- If the author did a terrible job building the story, or proving their point in a nonfiction setting, then say so. Argue your position. Give examples of weak points; holes in the plots, character building, lack of background that left you lost in the wilderness. If the book is the next best thing since indoor plumbing, then say so. Give examples; quote directly from the book, with page number to make a point. Keep in mind that every perfect book has a flaw. Do not be afraid to give a bad review. Be fair, but be honest.
- The only high wire act is the sexually-oriented content. This is not a porn site. We review erotica, romance, and the like but it must be reviewed from a literary standpoint. We do not want to read about your aching this, or throbbing that, or how it had a positive effect on your libido. If you need examples, look up some of our reviews.
- We expect reviewers to READ THE BOOK. This is where the "critical thinking" comes into play. If it takes a week to finish it, then so be it. Yes, sometimes skimming is a necessary evil but you still familiarize yourself with the material. If it is fluff then it shouldn't take very long, but I expect an actual evaluation. I expect you to think.
- As a rule, using book jacket blurbs or product descriptions is an unacceptable practice. Write a summation of the plot, along with your opinion. Do not expect a review to be accepted for posting with random, annoying three-or-four sentences; it's a lazy cop-out. Use structured paragraphs and compound sentences. Utilize the thesaurus and the dictionary. Use your spellchecker. Check your commas, semicolons, possessives, tenses and paragraphs breaks and and and...you get my meaning. On average, it takes a staff member a hour or more to write a review.
- Note: we all have our quirks in speech and sentence structure but some things are completely intolerable. Do not use chatspeak. Overuse of ellipses for dramatic purposes, excessive punctuation (ex: !!!, ?!?) or words in ALL CAPS to make a point is unacceptable. Your review will be kicked back immediately and the full wrath of the Editor-in-Chief will rain down upon your head. Stop and think about your language and style. Would you see that style used by a professional reviewer?
- We cannot teach you how to write a review. Editors will assist; if a sentence doesn't seem right or you are not getting your point across, we will make a suggestion. We will work with you on refining your style, however we will not take your three sentences and turn it into three paragraphs. That is not in our job descriptions. We didn't read the book. You did.