First published by WeegieWednesday, 12/03/2012.
At last year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, the author Ewan Morrison debuted in his new role as an Old Testament-styled prophet of doom when he gave a talk on “the future of the book” — or, rather, whether writing will survive as a paid profession. As a concerned Devil’s Advocate, Morrison argued that it would become increasingly difficult for any author to earn anything approaching a living wage from their work — not that many do even now, of course — given collapsing advances from publishers and an oncoming generational shift towards a multi-media readership which expects all “content” to be free.
Or, to put it another way, we’re all sliding down the Long Tail where the only winners are whoever owns the media platforms: after all, if a million people sell one book each through Amazon, that’s a million sales for the company but just one sale each for the million people. It’s no way to make a living.
But it’s not just authors. Specifically, the fact that anyone can — and seemingly does — now share their thoughts on books online is a personal concern since, as a professional journalist, I’d still like to earn at least some pocket money from reviewing books. I guess it’s my own take on Morrison’s question; how can professional book reviewers gain even some minuscule financial compensation when there are plenty of people out there happy to review books for free?
OK; I’m not for one moment suggesting, just because I’m sometimes paid for my opinions, that this means they are inherently superior to any you’ll find online for free. However, I would suggest that they are written within a different context, to different standards. Clearly, I’m not alone; Anna Baddeley, co-founder of the new Hatchet Award for literary criticism, did so because she believes quality reviewing is “at risk from the growth of book bloggers and Amazon reviewers.”
There’s no doubting that there’s been an explosion of book discussion online, ranging from simple blogs, where people share their love of books and reading, to massive websites such as www.goodreads.com with millions of members. Even some individual bloggers have built up readerships numbered in the thousands, which is why publishers (indeed, even other bloggers) take them quite seriously.
Yet I would nevertheless term such people hobbyist — rather than professional — book reviewers. I’m quite sure many would agree; for the most part they write for themselves about books they love, unconcerned and unfettered by dull considerations such as word counts, publication house-styles, and looming deadlines — boundaries that, even in the 21st century, remain part and parcel of professional journalism.
I write reviews primarily for whoever commissioned me; my job is to provide them with appropriate copy that fits what they think their readers want and expect. As far as those readers are concerned, I see my job as explaining — in as fair and interesting a way possible within the given word-count — why I think the book in question is worth their time and money. I’ve no idea if people take those views at all seriously, but I’m quite clear on this point: any responsibility I have to treat the author or publisher fairly derives from my being fair and honest to the readers of my reviews. It’s not the other way round.
Yet I sense that many book bloggers think otherwise, given some experiences since I joined a LinkedIn book reviewers group last year. A few members were clearly horrified when I shared a severely negative review of a book that had been published by The Skinny. One man accused me of being “self-serving and unprofessional” for having had it published. Another said that, if they really didn’t like a book, they always gave the author the choice between having a negative review or no review at all. Yet another member wrote: “I don’t believe in crushing dreams.” I don’t either, I replied: but nor do I believe in letting anyone get away with trying to sell to the public something that, in my opinion, is absolute rubbish. And, of course, I had a deadline.
But, as was pointed out, I nearly always have a magazine or newspaper acting as a defensive wall between me and the publisher or author. That “distance” vanishes when publishers — be they large corporations, small businesses or self-publishing authors — send books direct to book bloggers. Quality of writing be damned; the reason why I’m somewhat worried about the effect of book bloggers on quality reviewing and criticism (the two are by no means identical) is that I’m just not sure that, in our brave new online world, we’ve yet developed the new level of “client relations” that’s required to maintain quality, trust and independence.
