Like it or not, the Internet has turned out to be a leveling force in our culture, shifting cultural power away from the elites who used to run the art and publishing and entertainment worlds and re-distributing to formerly voiceless people with computers. I know, because I was part of the publishing elite, a network of newspapers, magazines, publishers, bookstores that controlled the selection, distribution and review of books. Musicians, artists, shoppers will tell you the same thing.
The Web blew the old system to hell and back a few years ago and we former elitists have been scrambling ever since to to hang onto the ledge before it crumbles in our fingertips. I was never really accepted into any club, surely not the literary one, so in some ways I feel more comfortable outside the tent than it. But The New York Times used to review my books, the best NPR shows had me on every year to talk about them, snooty bookstores all over the country displayed my books and recommended them. None of that occurs any longer. The New York Times Book Review and a score of independent bookstores used to be the most important review outlet in all of publishing, I haven’t even read it in several years.
Amazon began this process by permitting ordinary readers (gasp) to review books, it quickly became apparent that their agenda was very different than the literary critics who used to determine the fate of most writers and books. Reviewers have always been good to me, it has been fascinating to see this shift in power. I am getting lots of nice reviews in newspapers and magazines, I appreciate them. Ultimately, those Amazon numbers will tell me the story about my book. They are good and staying up there.
Today, arguably, I would say Amazon reviews are one of the most important factors in determining the life of a book, if you can’t get on the Today Show or get noticed by Oprah. Public reviews are different, they are spontaneous uneven, often enthusiastic, and completely unfiltered – some reviewers are both disturbed and angry, and unless they are pornographic or violent, Amazon leaves them alone. Many are quite thoughtful and intelligent, some are simple and direct. My new book “Second Chance Dog,” is getting some of the earliest and most enthusiastic reviews of my writing career. As always, there are some nasty ones too, they are worth looking at, they tell us a lot about our world.
One reviewer is outraged that there are people in the book, another thinks Maria is a gold-digging slut, a third thinks the book is the lament of a horny old man looking for sex (definitely something accurate in that.) Understanding the new reviews are part of the new book tour, I have to say I have grown to like the new reviewers, they are genuine and often give valuable information about books that the old reviewers wouldn’t think of: are they too long? Too expensive? Too depressing? Online reviewers prepare readers for the books – does a dog die? Is the language accessible? Is there a happy ending?
Most people like the story, they laugh and they cry they root for the three of us as we try and crawl from the dark into the light together.
The old reviewers could be plenty nasty too, and they had the power to break writers – bookstores depended on them when it came to ordering books, a nasty New York Times Book Review could snuff out a book in a flash. As Jeff Bezos of Amazon understand, the literary world was profoundly elitist and insular, the new reviews have broken open that system. At this point in my book tour, my blog and social media pages have done their job and banged the drums for my work, now it is, in many ways, up to the reviewers like the ones on Amazon to spread the word – or not. I think these reviews are selling a lot of books for me, I think Jefferson would have loved the texture of the individual voices and emotions that they reflect.
For the last few years, I have begun interacting with the reviewers, thanking them for the good reviews, commenting on the bad ones, speaking up for my book. I appreciate the opportunity to dialogue directly with reviewers, something never before possible. The nasty reviewers get quite unnerved.
There are online reviewers in lots of places, on lots of blogs, Amazon’s have the widest audience of any. In an odd sense, Amazon has replaced the New York Times as a make-or-break place for many writers. I think I would rather put my fate in the hands of the new reviewers than the old.
Technology is always disturbing and disruptive, it can be liberating and exciting as well.
(There is still time to order “Second Chance Dog” from Battenkill Books for Christmas, Battenkill is my local bookstore, and Maria and I will sign and personalize any books purchased there. You might also win a free book, bag of dog food, photo or potholder. Free stuff is a mark of the new book tour. The book is catching on as a Christmas gift, it is a happy book and ends on Christmas Eve. You can order the book from Battenkill’s website or call the store at 518 677-2515. Very close to 1,000 copies sold there.)