Review Your Etiquette, Check Your Assumptions.

A ‘To Do’ and ‘Don’t Do’ checklist for people who want to get their books reviewed, by people they do not know.

I am a writer, journalist, editor and reviewer. It says so, on my professional profile. My field of specialty is language and literature.

Yesterday, I received a message via LinkedIn from a person on my professional platform. We had a fascinating discussion. I’m going to remove his name and profile picture and write about our exchange, here, because it is one of the best teaching exercises I have come across in my professional experience as an editor and reviewer.

The background is that he started by saying he wanted ‘to write an article’ on a book he wrote and launched late last year. Did he want me to edit an article he had written? No, he wanted me to write one! The book is huge — 600,000 words long. Could he send an online version of it? No, it only existed in print form.

It had been reviewed at the time it was launched, and had been written up in several papers, apparently. So … to be frank, I did not really understand why he wanted it reviewed again, 10 months later. It was not a second revised edition, was it? No. He said he ‘wanted it to be reviewed periodically’. The question for me remained: did he actually understand the difference between an article and a review? Did he understand that you can’t ask an independent professional to review a 600,000 word book, without checking first if they have any reason to wish to assist you? Was he a friend? No. Was he a colleague? No. Had we ever met or even spoken? No. Was I a specialist in the field he was writing in? No.

Want to know how this little chit chat turned out? I invite you to observe.

 

I opted for the direct approach. In Sri Lanka, many writers ask their friends for endorsements of their work, and while these testimonials are voluntary, and unpaid, they are not unbiased.

I needed to clear the ground.

First things first:

 

He wanted me to write ‘an article’. Did he know that I am a professional writer, journalist, editor and reviewer? Presumably yes, as my possession of these skills was why he had approached me in the first place. BUT. Did he understand that I had a pre-existing professional schedule, with inbuilt deadlines? For other projects? That had nothing to do with him, or his wishes and preferences?

Ah. 😬

 

Boundaries. And this assertion on my part received a surprising response:

 

Facts are facts, correct? It’s usual for an author or a publisher to send a review copy as a courtesy to the reviewer, who is not paid for their time and skill. It’s not an ‘inducement’. It’s a practical solution. If the review is published in a publication which pays the writer of the review, that is excellent. But that is not often the case. This way, the reviewer is given a book to add to their library, as a courtesy, or can choose to return it, if it is not of personal interest to them.

But:

To review a book, a person has to first read it. Right?

Did he expect me to buy the book? All 600,000 words of it? When its subject was not a field of special interest for me? What would I use it for? Furniture? 🤦🏾‍

I wanted to read it, before I reviewed it. Because — what sort of a review would be written by someone who had read only part of the book? But — how long would it take to read a book of that length?

 

At this point, he said all the review copies had been exhausted. He was getting the book widely endorsed, and had already had forewords for the book written by a legion of eminent specialists in the field. So the question arose again:

Why did he need a review in the papers? 10 months after the initial launch?

Clearly to renew interest in the book, as (perhaps) it had not achieved the success he wished? He claimed that everyone in the specialist field in which he worked referred to it, and thought highly of it, so that could not be the case. I received lists of names from him in this conversation of all the people who had praised the book. Many, many names.

So why did he need a review from me, a literature expert. For a work of non fiction?

To reach a wider public. To become known in the community, not just in his field of specialty amongst his peers. To increase the general recognition of his name, as an authority.

A review of an analytical and literary kind, printed in a large circulation print English newspaper, can reach up to 300,000 people in this country. And the people reading such a review would be politicians, corporate leaders, panel experts, organizers of seminars, potential clients, international advisory boards, and so on.

Was he able to openly acknowledge this?

Were the other ‘review’ articles written by people who had not actually read the book?

If so, their opinions were really not worth listening to. Were they? They would have only been able to write about the subject matter, or the themes. Not assess how well the writer had presented his opinions and facts, or his writing style, or his structure. In fact, they would really have written what he had told them to write. 🤨

You don’t ask an independent reviewer to do that. You ask your friends. Because you know they like you.

And then it would not be a review. It would be a promotion. 😐

 

Yes, it was indeed his ‘bad’. A writer wanting his book to be reviewed should have the discernment to choose a reviewer who is specialized in the field, or has enough knowledge to write an article promoting the book for public attention, or recommending it in the public interest. Would he run the risk of this independent reviewer being ‘a journalistic negative critic’? Yes. That’s what objective reviewing is. Weighing up what you are asked to review, and making an assessment that is of some value to readers, not only praising of the author.

 

 

Did he actually understand his own error? Or did he resort to shifting the blame for his disappointment? Was he asleep 😴 or awake? 🧐

 

The ‘problem’ was not that I was ‘not qualified’ to review the book. The ‘problem’ was that he wanted to prevent or discourage me from reviewing it objectively. He wanted only a positive opinion, and he wanted to control that outcome.

What can we learn from this case study of how not to approach someone you don’t personally know, for help?

DO NOT ASSUME THAT PEOPLE EXIST TO BE OF SERVICE TO YOU. THEY DO NOT.

Think before you ask someone to review your book. Do you actually want an unbiased, objective assessment of what you have achieved? Or do you really want a positive marketing endorsement, for promotional purposes?

Be honest with yourself.

Then select the person to approach, according to your honest need. Use the right terminology, when making your request. Try not to insult people when you are asking them to do a favour for you. It is unprofessional.

Be honest with the people you approach. No one wants their time wasted, or their professionalism disrespected.