A Day in the Life of a Book Reviewer; How a Little Research Can Save You a Ton of Embarrassment!

I had just finished two book reviews by the same the author, sent out my copies to both the author and my e-zine, and printed off my monthly newsletter. I decided to give a copy of my newsletter to a family member before sending them all out in the mail.

First, just let me say in my defense that I usually do not review poetry. But, there is no excuse for not doing a little research before beginning your review. This can save you a major embarrassment!

In my case, I was spared a major embarrassment by a family member who just happened to recognize the subject of my author’s poetry. My author was writing a poetic letter to a person that I just assumed was a fictional character, or was perhaps nature and earth being personified. I was wrong. Had I just googled this person’s name to be sure, I would have easily discovered that this person is an internationally famous writer, poet, and humanitarian.

In any case, I cannot stress enough how important it is to do some background on your author and his/her subject. Ideally, it is best to ask for a media brochure from your author or publisher.

In summary:

Like pulling a band-aid off a scrape, I quickly emailed my author and apologized for my ignorance and lack of research. I have since retracted some of my words in the review and have had to re-print my newsletter before sending it out to my readers; but I would rather find out now that I had made a mistake, than after my audience could see how stupid I am. After all, if only one person could pick out this error, imagine how many other readers more worldly than I, could see this error too?!