Reviewing with River

If you visit my site, you'll understand a bit of what I say here.

First off, take a look at this page: http://philip-p-ide.uk/doku.php?id=blog:book_reviews:sci-fi:andrew_bannister:sto...

As you can see, this is a review of a novel by Andrew Bannister, a relatively new author. In the treeview on the left, which is in effect a site map, you can see I have a section for book reviews, and this is further divided into genres and then authors, and then individual novels.

The author sends me the book, I review it, post it on my blog, repost it on my FB page and if the book is available on Amazon, I'll add it to the reviews on there. This encourages authors to send me their work.

The treeview helps people to find book reviews - both authors and readers alike. All this is part of the blog. I can add a new page anywhere in this hierarchy, and it will be added to the top of the feed-page (the home page) like in any other blog.

I have several rules I apply to myself when reviewing:
1. No spoilers
2. Critique the story, rather than the technical aspects of the writing
3. If the review could harm their career, I won't post it
4. Be honest - don't hype a story unless it deserves it

This still allows me to make comments about negative things. For example, the current novel I'm reading has two issues that really ought to have been dealt with. The first is layout - the text isn't right-justified, so looks jagged and unprofessional. The second is the grammar isn't great - good enough to not detract from enjoying the story, but could be improved. People wouldn't trust my reviews if I didn't mention these things, but I don't have to make a big thing about them because the story really is a great one and these things don't kill it.

I'm also bearing in mind that this is a review for readers, and not intended to help the author improve their art and craft. If the author wanted that kind of critique, they'd have sent me their manuscript, not a printed book. I might privately email them with advice, if I think it would help and if I think they'd be receptive.

So, in answer to your question, you can easily do book reviews in a blog. If you want those reviews to always be visible, you'll need to create a blog that allows a hierarchy, and a treeview to make that transparent. Alternately, you can create an article on your site for the review, then add a post to your blog that has a link to it.

The main problem with blog posts, is that as you add newer posts, the old posts move further down the list until they're no longer on the first page of the feed - after that, they get forgotten and are unlikely to ever be read again. My site allow the posts to be ordered and structured and always visible via the treeview, encouraging people to browse older stuff. Oh, and I also get a lot of free books out of it

A little bit of news on Bannister's novel Stone Clock, reviewed in the link above. In February, it was nominated for a BSFA award, one of the big five in the sci-fi genre.