I asked you a variety of questions about the book reviews on this blog and these were your responses.
From the results below I take it that you generally like the reviews, find them useful and they steer your purchasing decisions a bit – at least a bit.
Q1: My blog, Standing up for Nature, reviews wildlife and environmental books through the year (usually on Sundays). Do you read those book reviews;
From here, the results discard those respondents who say they never read the book reviews (only 4%) because they can’t really be influenced by the reviews, if they never read them.
Q2: Do the book reviews on Standing up for Nature blog influence your purchasing of books?
The results below chime with what I am told by publishers and book sellers – the readership of this blog is not immense but it is big enough that a good review here will do a book’s sales no harm at all.
Q3: Have you ever bought a book primarily because it was reviewed on my blog?
This is a killer result for publishers and publicists – favourable reviews here will tend to make people buy books. Have a look at the comments to Question 4 for some more feedback that suggests that buying decisions of the readership of this blog affect book sales,
Q4: Do you have any comments on the book reviews published on the Standing up for Nature blog (selection of books? style of review? length of review?)
What you said:
Really love them – one of first things I look at on Monday morning – fairly wide selection of books covered, with what you feel is honest appraisal (not automatic 5 stars!)
They are not an important part of Mark’s blog.
They’re about right
Comprehensive reviews, objective and worthwhile reading
Superb reviews; greatly enjoy and learn much from the subsequent comments.
no keep going – would never have read Cottongrass Summer without your review
To be honest, being a writer and reviewer myself, I find that the shorter reviews work best for me. In all genres I find the obligatory first paragraphs telling me what’s in the book are the ones I skip. What I want to know is, is it accessible, well told or a bit of a plod, will it brighten my day, will I learn something new.
I think they’re more or less fine.
They are usually informative enough for me. I don’t read them all, as often I can see from the title they are not my thing. But I have bookmarked your ‘reviews’ section, and sometimes go back to that if I find out about a book later from another source and want to see what you thought about it
I think the reviews are fine as they are.
Sometimes the books are more in depth than I expect.
I really like your reviews Mark, they stand out for their directness, they tell me what I want to know. I like them for what they are not, as well as what they are. If you are fundamentally only publishing broadly favourable reviews, as I think you are, that seems appropriate to me
no real comment, other than to say I enjoy them & often find them useful
Find reviews interesting and informative, for which Thank You!! Length = just right to give a good feel of how the book is written. Good variety of specialist and more general. I would buy more of them, but would never have time to read them, and it would get a little expensive!! Even if I don’t buy a copy, it’s good to know what’s being written about and why.
Usually well written and balanced.
Perfect. I really enjoy the reviews.
Recently bought (and read and passed on to my bro) the Book of Trespass your recently recommended.
good style and length – always helpful
All seems about right. There are plenty of reviewers writing about traditional/mainstream conservation/ecology but I doubt I would have discovered the Purple Feather, for example had I not read your review.
The reviews are always interesting even if I don’t buy the book – and I have found some really interesting books I might otherwise have overlooked. Please keep it up!
Loved the end of year summary of your favourite books – made me buy two of them. Thanks
I really like the book reviews just as they are – varied in style, eclectic in book choice, never ‘spoiling’ the read. I sometimes wish that the most influential books were revisited later, when more of us have actually read the book and would like to comment on it.
A colleague forward me your annual round-up of books. I thought it was ace and purchased Cottongrass Summer after reading your review. Will certainly look out for your reviews in future – the digest / round-up style is particularly handy!
Keep them short and sharp
This probably reflects the inequalities in publishing but I would love to see more books by female writers please
I enjoy them pretty well as they are. I like that they are a well informed personal view.
Sometimes a little bit of a flavour of actual facts in books is missing.
Great selection of books
I like the book reviews as they are worded well and usually raise some interesting points and questions. Also they are honest.
Longer, more detailed reviews would certainly be appreciated by me
The reviews always seem honest and insightful, the right length to make a decision to find out more or not.
The reviews are the right length for me, and read honest, informed but personal responses without hidden agendas.
You review so many books and I know that I will never read most of them but occasionally one of your reviews catches my eye and then perhaps I might buy the book. I prefer short and snappy reviews so you get the gist quickly, which generally I think you do.
They’re good & several of them have gone on to my personal Christmas listas well as giving me ideas of what to get as a gift for others.
They are perfect and have introduced me to several books I’d otherwise not have known about. Thank you.
They seem just about right.
I really like the reviews – all three of those things are perfect for me. And though I don’t think I have bought a book because I’ve read about it on your blog, I have put one on my wishlist and got one (at least) from the library.
Very enjoyable reviews that usually match my outlook, ( maybe thats why I appreciate them).
I generally find the reviews very helpful. They are often quite detailed so I generally only read beyond the first few lines if I have already heard about/am already interested in, unless something in the first few lines really grabs me! Occasionally, when Mark knows the author, I think he can be guilty of reviewing the author rather than the book (e.g. the review of Cottongrass Summer). Even a great author is capable of writing a bad book so this is not necessarily helpful!
If the book subject catches my eye then I read your review and generally find them informative and readable in both style and length. They don’t tend to influence me to buy the books simply because I already have a reading backlog and not enough time to clear it.
Usually enjoy the reviews – length is ok, longer would be good – but then I appreciate they’d take longer to write, which might not be what you need! It’s appropriate that the reviews are of nature based books of course. Maybe choice could be more eclectic? Didn’t see a review of Frantzen’s The End of the End of the World for example.
Spot on really for a blog. Short and light-hearted though with a clear indication of whether you think it’s any good or nnot.
I really enjoy the reviews and for the past few years I have used the reviews to suggest what my three kids can buy me for Xmas.
Sometimes too superficial although I appreciate Mark’s campaigning work is by far more important.
Always a good concise review, not afraid to be critical when needed.
I generally enjoy those reviews I do read. Those that are critical, rather than adulatory are the ones I often like best.
Please continue as you are! Thanks, I usually buy the top two or three. Probably a good idea to have two or three reviewers giving their thoughts, I will be adding antlers of water to red 67.
To be honest they’re not that interesting to me on the whole, certainly not compared to other articles.
I would have thought it was time-consuming to read and review a book thoroughly. Perhaps you could free up some time by subletting more reviews and being very selective about the books you do review. Maybe you enjoy it, in which case you will, no doubt, carry on as you are.
I like them!
Costs me a lot of money, but I’m rarely disappointed.
I think you have it about right. I like their appearance on Sundays, it’s like a Sunday supplement to the blog.
Thanks for your comments and feedback. I like reviewing books – it makes me read them! I think I have developed a reputation for honesty in book reviews. I don’t say every book is brilliant, and if I think a book is flawed then I will say so. The other side of that is that if I praise a book, it really means that I like it.
Of course, that does not mean that it is a ‘good’ book – only that I liked it. But I would claim that my ability to like a book is quite broadly-based – I’ll like books with which I disagree if they are well-written and/or well-argued (I feel the same about people with whom I disagree).
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