Appendix B
Content-Related

Marketing/PR Campaign Summary (Example)

As DISCUSSED IN several sections of Booklife, you can have a say in the marketing and publicity for your book. The best way to present your ideas is through a simple, concise document that isn’t longer than a few pages. This standard applies even if you are developing the document for your own use because your project has a non-standard path to publication. Here is the document presented to Tor Books in support of my novel Shriek: An Afterword. The original document I submitted was ten pages long and much more verbose. My editor, Liz Gorinsky, helped me trim it down, and explained that the document would be presented to both their marketing and PR departments. Not everything mentioned in the marketing summary could be implemented successfully, but that wasn’t for lack of trying. This document also helped introduce me to the marketing department.

Every document of this nature is going to include a few unrealistic things, and every plan, from the perspective of a year or two later, may seem ridiculous in some detail. In this particular plan, those “ridiculous” things weren’t as obvious as they might seem. For example, the virtual video/film book parties took place and were often successful. However, the attempt to leverage the novel both to mainstream as well as genre was at most a mild success, at worse a mild failure.

After the campaign for a book, always go back to the plan you presented to the marketing/PR department and determine what went right, but also figure out what went wrong, and why.

MARKETING SUMMARY

SHRIEK: AN AFTERWORD

Jeff VanderMeer August 2006 Hardcover

TALKING POINTS

Shriek

Jeff VanderMeer

TOOLS FOR SELLING SHRIEK

City of Saints & Madmen (Bantam Spectra Edition)

The City of Saints PR efforts and PR page (http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/city/) will raise reader and bookseller awareness of the Ambergris setting. Parts of it can be re-used for a Shriek PR page in August 2006.

Limited Edition Shriek “Box”

VanderMeer is in the process of creating limited edition Shriek wooden boxes for devoted fans that will house Ambergris beer, a copy of Shriek, and other Ambergris-related novelties. Three of these will be created early to send to chain buyers along with copies of the ARC.

Action Item:

Open Issue Needing Tor’s Input:

Rough Guide to Ambergris Movie

Humorous introduction to VanderMeer’s fantasy setting, housed on his website. Can Tor think of other marketing or PR uses for this film?

Shriek Internet Movie

An Internet movie based on plot elements from Shriek. The movie will feature original music by legendary rock band The Church. It will be finished by June 2006. The idea is to create a “viral video” that people will link to. This movie will be self-contained so that viewers don’t need to know anything about the book to enjoy it.

Leverage:

Open Issues Requiring Tor’s Input:

Shriek Internet Trailer

The trailer will be a one-minute version of the Shriek movie that advertises the novel. It will be housed on the Shriek website but will be a small enough file that it can be emailed to individuals targeted for sales or PR purposes.

Leverage:

Open Issues Needing Tor’s Input:

Shriek Web Site (www.shriekthenovel.com)

Publicity about the Shriek movie will lead to additional traffic to the site.

Shriek Resource Page

VanderMeer has created a resource page (“fun stuff” and press kit) for the Bantam release of City of Saints (http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/city/). Elements of this page can be recycled and/or changed for a page devoted to the Shriek release.

White Box / Red Box Promotion

Bantam has included City of Saints in the BookSense “white box” promotion, which sent 900 independent bookstores a flyer that focused on City of Saints but also had information on Shriek and showed its cover. In August, Tor will reciprocate by doing a “red box” promotion featuring Shriek but also mentioning City of Saints.

Banner Advertisements

VanderMeer has reserved banner ad space on Locus Online for August and September 2006 ($400 per month). Tor has indicated a willingness to pay for these banner ads. Is there final approval for this expenditure?

Reader/Reviewer Contact Database

A very important yet often intangible element of VanderMeer’s book promotion focuses on networking. VanderMeer has an impressive array of contacts in genre and the literary mainstream. This database contains 350 to 400 reviewer/media contacts, 40 to 50 bookstores, 500 emailable VanderFans, 700 + snail mail/email VanderFans, and other miscellaneous contacts.

“Virtual” Book Tour

Although this tour is still in the planning stages, VanderMeer hopes to leverage the Shriek movie into a series of same-day 20 or more book release parties in major metropolitan areas on the day Shriek is released. Each will feature the film, a video from Jeff, liaisons with local writers, and follow-up blogging by the VanderFans on the ground who helped organize each event. What subsidiary support can Tor provide in the form of help booking readings; production of business cards, bookmarks, postcards, etc.?

PAST MARKETING/PR EFFORTS

Several books written by VanderMeer appeared in the independent press before being picked up by major publishers in the United States and United Kingdom. VanderMeer did his own PR and much of the marketing for these indie releases. From this experience, VanderMeer has found that the following statements are generally true.

The Internet Provides VanderMeer with the Most Leverage

Marketing efforts that use the Internet tend to be very successful because VanderMeer has a heavy Internet presence already, with a blog that gets between 4,000 and 10,000 unique visitors a day. VanderMeer is also able to assist with such efforts much more easily. Most of VanderMeer’s sales in the indie press came from Internet bookstores such as Amazon rather than brick-and-mortar stores, where the books had limited distribution.

Marketing Aimed at Genre and Mainstream Is Most Successful

VanderMeer is most successful when he reaches both a genre audience and a more general audience. Editing books such as The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, getting high-profile gigs at literary festivals, and being reviewed by mainstream journals such as The Review of Contemporary Fiction have all increased his visibility outside of genre. As possible, Tor should attempt multilateral marketing of VanderMeer’s name and work. Although it is easier to market VanderMeer’s work as fantasy to a genre audience, any inroads made into the literary mainstream ensure greater interest and sales over time.

Personality Positives Should be Accentuated

VanderMeer’s high Internet visibility, confidence, and drive are three of his greatest non-writing assets and should be leveraged in all marketing and PR efforts. The more bookstore buyer/seller contact VanderMeer has through email, telephone calls, and personal visits, the better his books do.

QUESTIONS

Podcasts

At least as many people listen to or watch news as read it. One advantage is that you can multitask in a way you can’t while reading the same information. Offering an excerpt from your book as a podcast — assuming you have publisher permission — may allow you to reach some people who wouldn’t take the time to read the same excerpt as a download. What is a podcast? It’s basically a spoken-word blog featuring a series of audio recordings (a feed) made available on the Internet. People subscribed to your feed receive new installments automatically.

Podcasts can be as simple as a recording of you reading from the book, or as complex as a full-cast audio drama complete with soundtrack and special effects. But to get started, all that’s required is a microphone and recording software, which you can download from the Internet for free (try AUDACITY. SOURCEFORGE.NET). YOU can make podcasts available on your site. You also can submit your feed to Apple to be included in the podcast directory of the iTunes store.

Publisher Victoria Blake believes that podcasts “are starting to have real traction. I have huge faith in them as a way of building and gaining an audience.”

Some writers have started out as podcasters and built a huge audience. Check out the websites of successes like Scott Sigler and J. C. Hutchins to get a sense for the podcasting subculture. Sigler’s aggressive approach created a rabid fan base, with his podcasts leading to book deals for his fiction from major publishers. He’s now a best-selling author.

Because you don’t need much equipment to get started, podcasting can seem deceptively simple. However, as this advice from New Zealand writer and podcast narrator Grant Stone shows, it has hidden complexities:

The most important thing right from the very beginning is getting high quality audio out of your hardware. You’ll want to take a good look at where you’re recording. Echoes bouncing from your walls or desk need to be avoided. Does your computer have a noisy fan? You’ll find out soon.

When recording, here’s what I do: start a track, then just read. If I make a mistake, make a loud noise that will be visible on the waveform — I just smack a pencil on the desk — and record it again. If you do this you end up with all of your takes in a single track, and it’s just a matter of cutting the stuff you don’t want. Because of that pencil on the desk, you’ll be able to see your mistakes easily. Editing can take a while. Sometimes I’ll spend three times as long editing as I spent recording, and I’m just doing a straightforward narration — special effects or music will add a lot of time.

As TIME magazine noted in a recent profile of Sigler and Hutchins, the investment of effort in self-defining as a “podcaster” and devoting your time to podcasting means that despite the huge success of a few this area probably shouldn’t be your main focus. Better to use podcasting selectively, and try to leverage your work through successful podcasters who have already done the hard work of building up an audience. As Grant puts it, “Podcasting is a major timesink.”

Another option would be to create an audio promo where you talk a little about your book, use a good soundtrack (make sure you have the rights to the music, many indie musicians online will be happy to work with you if you contact them), and tell them where they can find out more. Then approach podcasters you admire and ask if they will play your promo.

Lastly, there are many shows that focus on books, writing, and writers, and are happy to interview you for their show. Do a search online or in iTunes to find the names of these shows, listen to a couple, and contact the host.

There are several ways you can leverage podcasting in your Booklife, and not all of it requires you to be a DIY audio engineer. For example, PODOMATIC.COM provides an easy way to record a podcast online and find an audience for it.

PR Plan (First Draft Example)

Below find the initial draft of the high-level PR plan for Finch, my latest novel. Although I believe in transparency, I have deleted a few sections and redacted information to protect confidentiality. Still, I think this public glimpse into my own strategizing is fairly unique. I’ve also included my initial back-and-forth with my editor, Victoria Blake at Underland, based on her reaction to the elements of the plan. As you might expect, there’s no way to include the detailed plan that comes out of the finalized high-level plan — in part because too much of the information would be confidential and in part because the deadline for Booklife comes before my deadline for finalizing the detailed plan for Finch. Although I could include the high-level plan for Booklife, the problem is that it’s less exemplary of the type of document due to Booklife’s unique qualities.

FINCH PR PLAN
Document Created by: JeffVanderMeer

Pre-Publication

Advance Blurbs

We decided to focus on three or four groups: fantasy writers, graphic novelists, mystery writers, and literary mainstream writers (in that order).

** = top ten

Early Adopters

The following bloggers, core fans, and others with gatekeeper status across the Internet have enthusiastically said yes to receiving a PDF of the finished novel, preferably by May. They have been told that any pre-publication coverage should be short and reveal no spoilers, and that they will be nudged in November for longer coverage. The point of early adoption is to make sure the book is on their radar, since sometimes books in November get short shrift, and because some of them do their best-of lists well before the last two months of the year. In addition, it makes sense for them to have Finch at the same time as some other noir fantasy titles — we might pick up some additional pre-pub publicity embedded in the reviews of other novels.

I am happy to send the PDF with appropriate verbiage to the following people who signed up:

Advance Reading Copies

Preferably, we would have access to between 150 and 200 ARCs so we can properly cover all applicable high-profile media outlets (traditional and non-trad) in fantasy/SF, mystery, mainstream literary, and pop culture contexts. Some might also be useful as freebies to influential booksellers at large independent brick-and-mortars, in addition to people like the books editor at Amazon.

The ARCs would also include the Murder by Death Finch CD (provided at-cost by the band), and a half-page press release explaining the genesis of that project, in addition to the main press release for the novel. If the Finch movie project is far enough along, that should be mentioned in the press release.

Although Underland Press’s policy is to use a thumbnail of the cover on the ARC, we might be better off running the front cover at full-size, given the enthusiastic reaction to the art and design on the Internet. At thumbnail size, most of the details will be lost.

If budgetary constraints don’t allow for 150 to 200 ARCs, then we’ll need access to more finished copies for some venues.

On/After Publication

 

Finished Copies

Depending in part on the number of ARCs available, we will need to have between 50 and 100 copies of the finished book to send out as follow-up to reviewers. Typically, about half of these will be personalized by me and sent out by me. If this is an issue, I’ll need some kind of discount to procure some copies myself. I can absorb postage costs regardless.

Finch Soundtrack by Murder by Death

Murder by Death plans to finish a 20-minute instrumental soundtrack by early June. It’s meant to be included with the limited edition. In addition, Murder by Death will sell the CD off of their website and at their gigs. I will also have it available at my bookstore appearances, wherever possible.

The cost of the CD is being absorbed by Murder by Death. For the limited, a fair price should be negotiated that gives them some profit.

Murder by Death has a website here: www.murderbydeath.com.

Finch: The Web-Based Movie

Geoff Manaugh, founder of http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/, may be doing a short Internet film based on scenes from Finch. I will provide the script. He will provide the still photography from his huge archive of amazing urban scenes. I can provide the voiceover as necessary. Some of the music by Murder by Death will be used in the movie, so this project probably won’t be completed until August or September. Initial plans include to possibly leverage it through GeekDad, but even if it’s just leveraged through SF/fantasy blogs and through Bldg Blog, it should get good coverage. Manaugh has a book on cities out from Chronicle Books over the summer, and he wants to use this project to leverage that book as well. This project won’t cost Underland Press anything.

Book Release Party

The World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, California, is the natural place for a book release party. Volunteering to host a party in the con suite for a couple of hours would mean the venue would be taken care of; all that would be required is promotional materials from Underland and enough decent food and drink so that no one is disappointed.

At the moment, vague plans would include teaming up with Weird Tales so that Ann is represented, along with a couple of friends who may have books being released then. This would cut costs and create additional interest, with the spotlight still firmly on Finch. However, this would mean that copies of the book must be available by that weekend (the last weekend in October).

World Fantasy would also kick off the book tour proper for Finch.

Endurance Tour

The proposed endurance tour for Finch would need to begin before World Fantasy, with three-to-four layover stops on the way to San Jose. (This would mean the book needs to be in bookstores.) Theoretically this leg of the endurance tour might receive some kind of support from: Men’s Health, Delta Airlines, Amazon, and major blogs.

After World Fantasy, I would then spend roughly a month traveling back across the country by car, probably with one or two other writers. We would do a series of bookstore events and reading series at universities, depending on the opportunities. The trip would be run roughly diagonally, from San Jose up to the Northeast. Costs would be minimized by staying with friends and fans. We would team up with local writers for added interest. This would also serve as cross-promotion for Booklife.

For both legs of this endurance tour, the main issue is setting up the events earlier enough in advance, making sure the timing issues make sense (for car travel especially), making contact with local authors, and ensuring a place to stay in each location. Potential costs include the plane ticket, gas for the car, and food. I would also blog about the experience while traveling, and might be able to do so on various book blogs as well.

Additional Leverage

Other potential ideas for leverage include but are not limited to:

Other Ideas (currently on back burner)

 

The Booklife Immersive Experience

[For timing reasons, this idea has been redacted here, but will be fully explained and archived via the Booklifenow.com site.]

Finch: The Video Game

A web-based three-dimensional video game allowing players to experience the world of Ambergris and the mystery plot central to the novel.

[And here are Victoria’s responses, with my comments on her comments all in caps.]

Pre-publication

—Advance blurbs: Doing them now.

   CHECK!

—Early Adopters: Yes. The PDF in May won’t be of the finished book, but pretty darn close.

   CLOSE ENOUGH FOR EARLY ADOPTERS, MOST DEF

—Advanced reader copies: Yes, of course. Those are in addition to the 100 or so I’ll be giving to the sales reps.

   GREAT!!

On/After Publication

—Finished book to reviewers: I’m not sure what the difference between this and the galleys / arcs are. But I’m willing. Regarding the number of copies, I’m not sure how to handle that. The contract says that you can buy as many as you want at distributor’s best discount. I go back and forth about this. I might be fine with you paying the actual per-unit plus the drop-shipment charge, making it a wash for me.

   I CAN’T REMEMBER THE CONTEXT IN MY DOC, BUT IT’S MOSTLY ABOUT NUDGING PEOPLE WHO GOT THE ARC BUT DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WITH IT, AND THEN SOME MOP-UP A LOT OF TIMES, PUBLISHERS GIVE ME AN EXTRA 20-30 BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE EFFECT I CAN HAVE.

—Finch Soundtrack: I need to talk to MBD about the cost of the soundtrack.

   YEP.

—Web-based movie: Great.

   YEP.

—Book release party: Good thinking. I’m down for hosting in conjunction with Weird Tales. I’m planning on having a table in the dealer’s room.

   GREAT. I CAN DO INITIAL RESEARCH ON THIS.

—Endurance Tour: What do you need from me?

   ANY INTEL YOU HAVE ON BOOKSTORES OR OTHER VENUES THAT MIGHT BE AMENABLE TO THIS, AND ANY GENERAL OR SPECIFIC THOUGHTS ON THE IDEA AND EXECUTION, INCLUDING WRITERS TO TEAM UP WITH.

—Additional Leverage:

*Interviews: Yep.

   CHECK.

* Legacy reviewers: Good thinking.

   CHECK.

*Virtual and hardcopy advertising: I’ve printed postcards for the sales reps and for BEA. I’m not a fan of advertising. I’m not sure it actually works. I’d much rather spend money on co-op stuff.

   THAT’S YOUR CALL, OF COURSE.

* Viral Guerilla: Sure, but how?

   THAT’S SOMETHING FOR MATT STAGGS AND ME TO BRAINSTORM.

*Podcast of the novel: I’m super stoked about this. I have a podcast side of my website ready to go right now. We could start with the chapter releases before the hardcopy book release, to stoke interest.

   WORKS FOR ME.

* Book festivals: Excellent. What do you need from me? I’m assuming a number of copies of the book for sale. If you want, I’d be willing to do this on consignment with you, so you don’t have the shell out the cash and guess at the sales ahead of time.

   MOST OF THEM WILL HAVE ASSIGNED BOOKSTORE SELLERS WHO WILL STOCK THE BOOK SO THIS ISN’T AN ISSUE.

Other Ideas

—Booklife: It is a fantastic idea. Truly. But it seems to me that there could be a larger-than-life size for this project, and there could be a human size. The human size: A very honest group blog about the process. We’d organize it by milestones, starting, as you say, 3 months before pub date. I’d be willing to commit a blog or two entry every week, from the publisher’s perspective. But this seems a bunch more manageable. And by opening up the process to everybody, I think we’ll be living the central lessons from Booklife (and the central philosophy of Underland online). For those who want to pay, they could go to the conference.

   YES — I AGREE. MORE ON THIS SOON.

—Video game: I’m 51% against this, 49% for. How much would it cost? Should I write Atomic Pistol and ask, or should you? I don’t know any third party off the top of my head who would want to finance, and I’m not sure looking for special project funding is a good use of time / resources. But I’m open to the idea, if we can make it work.

   I JUST LEFT IT ON THERE SINCE WE’D DISCUSSED IT AND BECAUSE LARGE PUBLISHERS HAVE HAD SUCCESS WITH THIS. WE PROBABLY SHOULDN’T DO IT.

My thoughts:

—I’m exploring some co-op opportunities with [my distributor]. Some options: tables at stores, face out shelving, newsletter mentions, reviews, etc. Amazon bundling, etc. Amazon newsletter, etc. Co-op, co-op, co-op. Part of what we can do depends on what the sales reps can get us. But co-op isn’t cheap…

   AGAIN, THAT’S UP TO YOU. GIVEN THAT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT CHAIN PENETRATION WILL BE LIKE, YOU ALSO NEED TO LET ME KNOW IF PR EFFORTS SHOULD FOCUS ON DRIVING PEOPLE TO CHAINS, INDIES, OR AMAZON FOR THE BOOK.

—Portland conference: I’ve been talking to venues. I have two that are fantastic, and very close to each other. One has a full kitchen — a pleasant, open bar that hosts readings. We could do a morning session there, staying for lunch, then migrating over the other place, an old ballroom, for the afternoon breakout sessions, adjourning for dinner, and then doing some smaller sort of social event at then night. Anyway, totally do-able. And I’d love to do it.

   OKAY — WHAT TIME? EARLY IN 2010?

I need to put a full marketing budget together for this. With the galleys, then the finished copies, the Murder by Death soundtrack, the mailing costs, the drop shipments, and the co-op stuff, we might be really pushing the limit of what I can afford…

   YES, IF YOU PUT TOGETHER THE FULL BUDGET AND THEN TELL ME WHAT YOUR INCLINATION IS RE WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD, THEN WE CAN DISCUSS HOW TO ACCOMPLISH THE REST AND WHAT TO DROP

Victoria To Do:

1) Talk to Murder by Death.

2) Pin down co-op with [the distributor]. (I’m going to a sales conference on the 15th. A lot will be talked about then.)

3) Continue getting blurbs.

4) Get room reserved for World Fantasy. Does Ann have a day she’d prefer?

   WE DO [AGENT] DINNER ONE NIGHT> WILL HAVE TO FIGURE OUT. MIGHT BE BETTER TO HOST THE CON SUITE.

Press Releases (Example)

A press release should be concise. A press release should provide basic information about the book (who, what, where, when, why): author, title, publisher, ISBN number, general type of book, description, author information, advance blurbs (or appropriate comparisons to other writers), and the release date. A good press release should provide the reader with interesting facts about the book as “event” and why we should care about the author and the book. It should mention any promotion or publicity for the book, if unusual or different, especially: unusual and interesting facts about the author (or about author’s expertise for writing this kind of book); a quote from the author and/or publisher about the book; anything timely about the book. It should also explain anything that might be difficult about the book in a way that makes it simple for the reader to understand.

Ideal press releases change for the audience. When I was running an independent press called The Ministry of Whimsy, we published The Troika, a book by Stepan Chapman. Chapman had published in literary magazines and in the fantasy markets. We created one press release for mainstream media outlets and one for the fantasy outlets. We also created a third press release for his local media in Arizona that stressed his roots to the community there.

Always give the important information up front, than include the less important details, just like in a standard inverted pyramid newspaper article. Slant the press release to the book or the author — i.e., if you need to introduce reviewers to the author, then slant it toward the author; if the author is established or the book is more important than the author’s identity, slant it toward the book. Remember to mimic what you like in other press releases. It will also help to write a mission statement about what you want to the press release to accomplish before you begin writing it.

A good press release has an authority that a reviewer finds difficult to ignore. It positions the book in such a way as to emphasize its strengths while claiming it has no weaknesses. In many cases, a busy reviewer will just mimic or steal from the press release.

Here’s the press release for Booklife. How well does it describe this book? How well do you think it would go over with a reviewer? Is there anything missing? If you think you could write a better press release, try to as practice for writing your own.

Tachyon Publications
1459 18th Street #139
San Francisco, CA 94107

tachyon@tachyonpublications.com
www.tachyonpublications.com
415.285.5615

Contact: Matt Staggs, Publicist
matt@tachyonpublications.com / 601.259.7779

for immediate release

Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer Jeff VanderMeer

The first book on writing that addresses the
challenges facing writers in the new millennium

The world has changed, and with it the art and craft of writing. In addition to the difficulties of putting pen to paper, authors must now contend with a slew of “new media” outlets including blogs, social networks, mini-feeds, and podcasts. This has forever altered the relationship between writers and their readers, their publishers, and their work.

In an era when authors are expected to do more and more to promote their own work, Booklife steers readers through the bewildering options. What should authors avoid doing on the Internet? How does the new paradigm affect authors, readers, and the fundamentals of book publication? What’s the difference between letting Internet tools use you and having a strategic plan? Most importantly, how do authors protect their creativity while still advancing their careers? How do you filter out white noise and find the peace of mind to do good work? Award-winning author, editor, and web-entrepreneur Jeff VanderMeer shares his 25 years of experience to reveal how writers can go about:

“Jeff VanderMeer has written a fascinating book on managing a writing career…. Recommended for anyone who writes, wants to write, or has written and now wonders what to do next.”

—Nancy Kress, author of the bestselling Write Great Fiction

Trade paperback / $14.95 /326 pp. / 6 x 9 / November 2009 / Nonfiction / 978-1-892391-90-2

Planned Media: Print Advertising / Co-op / National Author Tour Dedicated blog at Booklifenow.com & affiliation with Publishers Weekly Booklife.com Booklife West Coast/East Coast Endurance tour: 6 weeks, 20 cities, including readings and workshops in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

Highlights: The Hugo House in Seattle, MIT in Boston, and the Library of Congress in D.C.

Distributed to the trade by Independent Publishers Group

Book Reviews

As more and more individuals become content providers through self-created platforms like blogs, it’s important to re-state a few basic protocols for reviewing books. Also, book reviewing can be a modest but useful secondary stream of revenue in support of your Booklife.

The same things that bother me in reviews of my work that I think are unfair or poorly written, beyond simple errors of fact, are also things I try to avoid in reviewing other people’s books. Although a one-paragraph summary of a book on your blog by no means constitutes a “review,” anything longer becomes a potential influencer to your audience. You owe it to the writers being reviewed, and to your readers, to take your reviews seriously.

Here are things that I try to avoid doing as a reviewer, either on my blog or in my work for the New York Times Book Review, Huffington Post, the Washington Post Book World, and many others. Some of them are easy for me to avoid as a reviewer. Some are less so. But with every review, I think seriously about these issues.

BRINGING AN AGENDA TO A REVIEW THAT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE REVIEWER TO APPRECIATE WHAT THE WRITER INTENDED WITH HIS OR HER BOOK. In most of these cases, the reviewer proceeds to hang the book on a gallows not one timber or thread of which came from the book itself (or, conversely, piles on undeserved praise). Thus, the review is a kind of closed system displaying certain aspects of the reviewer’s mind — a psychological portrait of the reviewer, not an analysis of the actual book: a kind of alternate reality; ironically enough, a fiction. Since this is perhaps the number one or number two most annoying thing to encounter in a review of one of my own books, it is something I work hard not to do when reviewing.

MAKING A (VEILED) PERSONAL ATTACK ON THE AUTHOR. The easiest way for a reviewer to launch a personal attack is to imply base motives to the writer — to insinuate through word choice. Sometimes, of course, there are outright personal attacks, but these are usually so roundly denounced that the stealth attack has become the norm. As a reviewer, the easiest way to avoid personal attacks, if you have some issue with the writer that you cannot overcome, is to not review the book. The most ethical approach, however, is to recognize your bias, your particular weakness, and do your best to see the book as independent from the writer. This is the approach I try to take, although, admittedly, this sometimes leads to me being too easy on a book, perversely enough. As a writer, I find the personal attack bewildering, mostly because I could think a particular fiction writer is a jerk and it wouldn’t affect my review of their book one iota. So, I wonder, “What did I do to piss this person off? Why’d they do this?” A personal attack makes a writer less sure of their place in the world and of their relationship with other people in the field. It’s an awful thing to weather, although if you’re in the business long enough you learn to live with it.

PLACING YOURSELF AT THE CENTER OF THE REVIEW. Overuse of first person and cloying personal anecdotes in lieu of penetrating analysis typify the kind of reviewer who believes, for whatever reason, that imposing their persona is more important than actually reviewing the book. In the case of an overblown ego, the reviewer tends to see reviewing as a way to garner leverage and power (however limited in scope). As a reviewer, I try, for the most part, to be nowhere in sight, unless as in my review of Erickson’s Zeroville for the Washington Post Book World, a personal anecdote lends itself to discussing the book or easing the reader into the review. As a writer, though, I just find this approach hilarious — like watching a campy bad movie — and I’ve parodied it several times in my fiction. It can be entertaining, especially if it happens to someone else.

ENGAGING IN TERRITORIAL DEBATES. Every area of writing has Gatekeepers of the True Way, people who insist on engaging in territorial debates over whether something fits a particular genre or subgenre. This tends to involve generalizations about other territories — for example, a genre reviewer making generalizations about the literary mainstream, or vice versa. But beyond the fact that generalizations are usually false, the real problem with this kind of reviewing is that it clutters up the review with material that is ancillary to the book. As a result, such reviews tend to be less comprehensible, and readers often come away from the review having either no idea what the reviewer actually thought of the book or a sense that the reviewer liked or disliked the book for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual book itself. Every time I find myself drifting in this direction, I also tend to find the review harder to write, and, ultimately, writing the review becomes simple as soon as I strip away anything of this nature. As a writer, this kind of review is exasperating because I’m left with the feeling of a wasted opportunity — that the reader of the review will get no sense of the book at all.

EMPLOYING INAPPROPRIATE/SELF-IMPORTANT DICTION AND APPROACHES. Of all badly executed reviews, the worst in my opinion are those that cloak a core emptiness with “academic” terminology and references. The reason for this is that a poorly realized review in this guise has the appearance of authority — it trades the real authority of engaging a book honestly for the false authority of elevated vocabulary. It can be very difficult to unravel the language to get to the point where it’s possible to see that the review actually has very little to say. It’s for this reason that, except in analytical essays, I don’t employ elevated or academic vocabulary. I believe there is an art to writing a good review, but, unlike in fiction, the range of prose styles is more limited by the need to be purely functional. As a fiction writer, I can’t say this approach does more than give me darkly humorous amusement, although it makes me take the reviewer less seriously in future.

MAKING SNARKY, TANGENTIAL ASIDES. Sarcasm is not a welcome thing in any review, except in those rare cases where the book is itself sarcastic, thus opening the door (and even then it’s not recommended). However, the worst kind of sarcasm or snark is the aside in a review that doesn’t pertain to the book except in a tangential way. In these cases, the review writer cannot refrain from barking out some personal prejudice or pet peeve. Such a concern may be legitimate, but a snarky aside is not a legitimate way of expressing it. Whenever, as a reviewer, I feel the need to engage in this kind of behavior, I instead try to deal with my concern head-on by writing about it as the actual subject of a review or article. As a fiction writer, I hate this kind of zinger because it gets under my skin and colors the world around me. It’s in a sense another form of personal attack.

ENCOUNTERING THE PROFOUND EVERY TIME OUT. Some reviewers feel the temptation to make a profound general statement about every book they review. These reviewers will never be content with engaging intimately with the book at hand. Each book is instead an opportunity to display an understanding of the Big Picture. Sometimes, this means the reviewer begins to have a thesis written before even reading a particular book. Sometimes, this means the reviewer believes he or she is more important than the book. The result is, oddly enough, a vast simplicity — a reduction of the book before the all-mighty altar of the Idea. Most good books, however, are complex, contradictory, contrary things. The best are not reducible to profound general statements. Admittedly, I can be as taken with my own pomposity as the next person, and so I’m on the lookout for this kind of thing as a reviewer. Which isn’t to say that sometimes a grand, far-reaching approach isn’t warranted, but a reviewer who does so every time out begins to seem oddly…desperate. As a writer, my reaction to this kind of review, whether positive or negative, is simply to parody it in my fiction (when the opportunity presents itself).

TRYING TO INTUIT PERSONAL DETAILS ABOUT THE WRITER FROM THE FICTION. Some of the very worst reviews, in my opinion, attempt to guess things like the writer’s political motivation from evidence in the book itself. Obviously, when reviewing certain kinds of nonfiction this is unavoidable, even desirable. But when analyzing fiction, reviewers who make statements about the writer based on the actions of character or the machinations of plot or what they think they know about the writer are making a terrible mistake. The mistake they are making is a fundamental misunderstanding of the word “fiction.” They also make a fundamental mistake about the relationship of a writer to, for example, even the text of an interview. I know from personal experience that during an interview a writer may say anything that comes into his or her head, may make things up with a kind of innocent honesty of wanting to be interesting — or simply do not want to engage some aspect of the book publicly, and thus misrepresent or change their real intent. Which is why reviewers should ignore most public statements by the author about their book, just as they should not apply their own attempts at playing amateur psychic. There is the book and there is you, the reviewer, and any positive context or experience you bring to the experience. (For example, you review a novel set in 1800s India and you have a background in the India of that era.) That is all, and that should be enough. I don’t believe I ever make this mistake in my reviewing because, as a writer, knowing my own motivation for things and the effects I’m going for, it drives me nuts when I see it in other people’s reviews — in either a positive or a negative context.

In addition to avoiding these kinds of mistakes, there are a few other things I try to keep in mind as a reviewer.

First, I always try to tell the truth as I see it, regardless of how others may perceive me or the review as a result. Admittedly, there are good reasons sometimes for revealing the truth gradually, or allowing the reader of the review to do some work in interpretation, but you must tell the truth.

Second, telling the truth doesn’t require me to be mean. A good negative review should be written with respect and affection — and even praise where it can be applied. The fact is, writing any book is a gargantuan accomplishment, a huge application of time and resources on the writer’s part. That some turn out to be lesser than others should not be a cause for a tone of triumph, elation, or smugness on the part of the reviewer. (My major flaw as a reviewer would be an unwarranted overenthusiasm at times; my mixed reviews tend to be more nuanced.)

Third, writing a positive or glowing review is as strenuous a task as a mixed or negative review. Nothing is worse than a positive review where the reviewer, for any number of reasons, manages to misunderstand the book. Most writers hate misguided positive reviews more than negative reviews.

All of this is simple. All of it is straightforward, and most of it has to do with being fair, honest, and forthright. In my opinion, reviewing a book ought to be a simple thing. You read the book. You think about what you’ve read. If you have time, you re-read the book. You think about it more, take notes. Then you report back to the reader your thoughts about the book. In doing so, you make sure to tell readers enough about the book to give them the context to understand your opinion…but not so much summary that readers feel they’ve read the book after reading the review. In your review, you analyze and synthesize what you’ve read, taking as your cue, your foundation, (1) what you think the book was trying to do, (2) whether it was done well or poorly, and (3) whether what the book tried to do was worth doing. In a skillful review, nothing in the middle should come as too much of a surprise after reading the opening. The writing should be clear, clean, almost invisible, and follow logical progressions. These things must be accomplished before a reviewer can think about going for more complex effects.

Traditional wisdom tells us that fiction writers shouldn’t do reviews for fear of it hurting their careers. However, this approach ignores a rich history of past discourse and often raucous argument about books between various authors — in print. It also ignores the diversity created by the cross-pollination and interconnectivity of the Internet. More importantly, the health of any field requires open, transparent, honest, affectionate disagreement and discussion in order to strive to become better, more ethical, and more human.