In an upcoming interview with Ben Peek we talk about critical reviewing in both the Speculative Fiction scene and the wider Literature scene in Australia. I also caught the end of several twitter conversations about this because The Saturday Paper has announced intentions to have anonymous reviews. The Wheeler Centre has an article exploring the issues here.
So these are the salient points I have teased out of that article and I would like you to comment (if you can*)
Anonymous Reviews
For
- no baggage, focus has to be on the written article
- freedom to say what you feel needs to be said without fear of disproportionate reaction ie payback
- the scene is small, insular and a real potential exists to cause your career or livelihood damage
Against
- a reviewer must be prepared to stand behind their words
- a named reviewer is more likely to offer a respectful review
- a reviewer as a writer must also be prepared for criticism
- knowing who a reviewer is allows you to rate their experience/expertise
- anonymity hides minorities/disadvantaged groups, their critical voice
I think there are good points made in that article from both sides of the debate.
Is anonymous or pseudonymous reviewing the answer? I think that you can still call a pseudonym to account, by attacking the work, the critique they have given. In terms of giving a respectful or well considered review I think that how one’s respectful but less than glowing review is taken is dependant on the author. I have been privy to seeing authors,(edited because I don’t want people guessing at who – but dear reader, no one you are likely to know) distraught over what I would consider an even handed, even positive review.
You can also have profiles that list peoples gender, ethnicity, politics, experience without revealing their identity.
So I think the arguments Against can be mitigated against. You can have a critical dialogue with the reviewer through their work.
My major concern is with the payback or damage to your career or livelihood. If you are tied into the literature scene, reliant on grants for projects, what you say about certain works has the potential to curtail or end your career. It can determine the opportunities provided to you, meetings and introductions etc.
To think that people are going to be unbiased if you rigorously pulled apart their novel or the novel of a friend or partner is unrealistic. And the scene is small.
So this discussion relates to the Literature scene in Australia and I think the Speculative Fiction scene is even smaller.
So my questions to you dear reader:
Is their a place for anonymous reviewing in the Australian Speculative Fiction scene? Would it result in a more robust critical environment that would force our authors to push themselves to their limits?
I do wonder if there is a lack of interest and investment in people who are willing to take on the career of a critic, is it something we value enough to provide the money for someone to have a career exclusive as a literary critic?
Do you, if you a reviewer, feel as if your review is subject to self censorship because you know the author?
* its occurred to me that there may be a problem with many of my readers being able to answer this question since they are writers in the SpecFic community. Feel free to email me anonymously if you would like to put a point forward.
Logging you in...
tsanad 36p · 574 weeks ago
Also, I think it's easier to write negative reviews sometimes. And certainly it can be more fun. Like a reward for finishing a crap book. But I don't write that many of them because I'm usually not too far off on choosing books to read that I'll like.
I also think that if a group of us (Aus spec fic book bloggers) got together to start an anonymous group review blog (as a random example), some of our readers would probably be able to pick out our styles anyway. Your suggestion, in the context of print reviews, of keeping the critic anonymous but revealing gender, ethnicity and politics probably wouldn't work in a small pond. That alone would likely be enough to identify the reviewer, especially if they were from anything resembling a minority.
My recent post Metastasis edited by Rhonda Parrish
SB Wright 110p · 574 weeks ago
I think that some of the rewards for bookblogging is the connection you build with the writing community/authors which can affect how you review or wish to be perceived by the community. It was certainly much easier for me to be harsh when I didn't know so many people.
I am also concerned about the way bookblogging could go, where we just becoming an unpaid source of advertising for publishing companies, who start placing restrictions on what books we get and how many we should review.
tsanad 36p · 574 weeks ago
Regarding book blogging becoming unpaid advertising, I agree (although, obviously, paid advertising wouldn't be a significant improvement). This is part of the reason I refuse to participate in "cover reveals" and if I'm going to be part of a blog tour I always ask for an interview. That at least brings value content that I have some control over (I've seen some authors do really terrible guest posts that bring nothing to the blog, so I want to steer away from that risk.
On a related note, have you seen the series of interviews Shaheen (http://speconspecfic.com/) has been doing with publicists from big(ish) publishing houses? What I find really interesting is the answers to the question "What is your position on receiving reviews for books you have not sent to a reviewer?" They've mostly ranged from "that doesn't happen" to "gosh, what a nice surprise". And that surprises me. I don't know any book bloggers (although I know they exist) who review ONLY books publishers send them. So does that mean the publicists just aren't hearing about unsolicited reviews (because they're not notified of them) or does it mean they don't care about/pay attention to older books they've released (and by older I only mean a few years)? This is tangential to what you brought up, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Back to your earlier point, I'm a bookblogger partly because I wanted to build some connection with the (Aus) community. (And also because I like talking about books, of course.) I don't see it as something I will be doing permanently. At some point I would want to transition to being mostly a writer rather than mostly a book blogger. For now, though, this is what I'm doing, especially since with PhDing I don't have enough spare brain for much writing. But it's definitely been a valuable way to stay in touch with the community. My first foray into the Aussie spec fic community was more than a decade ago when Voyager had an online forum that was actually good and fostered friendships. (It fizzled out as they paid less attention to it. There's a new one now and it's crap.) I'm still friends with people I met through that but without bookblogging I think I'd feel like I was sitting on the outskirts looking in, rather than feeling like I was a part of something. (And this has gone way off topic relative to your original questions...)
My recent post Tsana's March Status
SB Wright 110p · 574 weeks ago
But yeah I am surprised at the response of some of publicists. I think its probably focused on what needs moving now. That and I think there is a fair amount of movement in publishing.
Our reasons for Book Blogging are similar and aside from a small amount of money that my blog earns I am mostly paid/recompensed with participation and membership of a community, though being an almost entirely online membership I have questioned whether more of this is in my head :)