Book bloggers are obviously so important to authors. They give consistent reviews. They open their blogs to us. They are readers and fans! I think we should honor them more.
So this series of interviews was born! Hopefully it will help authors find bloggers and give everyone else a better appreciation of them.
Besides being a book blogger Meredith is also a senior publicist with Spencer Hill Press. We get double the experience from her interview!
What
types of books do you review? I prefer young adult,
though I do read some adult and I’m JUST getting into middle grade. I LOVE
retellings of all kinds (Fairy Tale / Greek Mythology / Classic Novels / etc). I also love
reading Psychological
Thrillers, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian, Science Fiction & Fantasy,
Contemporary and Historical.
Do
you have any guidelines for authors to follow in contacting you? A link will
work. I have an extensive review policy that I try to keep as
up-to-date as possible. That can be found here -> http://www.pandorasbooks.org/review-policy/
Do you post
anything besides reviews—such as cover art or giveaways? I love
participating in blog tours, cover reveals, author interviews and more!
Giveaways are always fun and definitely draw a larger audience to a post.
Really, I’m open to anything that’s fun, creative and helpful to the authors and
books!
How
do you find books to review or do they come to you?
I like to browse Amazon and Goodreads for new releases. I also follow my
favorite authors to see when they have new books coming out. A lot of what I
read is recommended by friends and fellow book bloggers. I’m also on several
publisher lists and I receive their seasonal catalogs and emails from
publicists with review and blog tour requests – these are great ways to
discover new books I might not have heard of otherwise
What
got you into blogging about books? I love to read and I
love spreading the word about epic books. I sort of stumbled into the book
blogging world when I started using Twitter in college to chat with my favorite
authors. I slowly made friends with book bloggers and was fascinated by what
they did, so I decided to start blogging. It’s been a great way to make friends
and even got me my first job in publishing! It’s a wonderful, inclusive
community and I wish I’d discovered it sooner!
What
elements go into a good review and how long does it take to write one?
Every blogger has a different method when it comes to reviews. Personally, I’m
VERY character driven, so I tend to discuss the things I liked/disliked about
the characters in great detail. I also discuss the author’s writing, the pacing
of the book and the plot. I’m not a very critical reviewer because I firmly
believe that not every book is for every person. And just because I didn’t like
it, that doesn’t mean someone else won’t. I never want my reviews to discourage
someone from reading a book, so at the end of my review, I almost always
recommend the book, whether I liked it or not.
As for how long it takes, it really depends on the book.
Typically, it takes me an hour to write the first draft, then 30-45 minutes to
edit and finalize the review. But some books take days to review because they
were so epic, it’s hard to put the epicness into words!
How
often do you post reviews? It depends. I’m a mood reader, so I can post
as few as 2 reviews and as many as 10 reviews in any given month.
Can
you think of any special methods or personality types that an author has used
to really help you draw close to a character? I love fierce,
kick-ass/bad-ass female characters. We don’t have enough of those characters.
Think Buffy (the TV show), Celaena (Throne of Glass series) and Alina (Shadow
and Bone trilogy). I also tend to fall for the bad boys – I can’t help it! :)
What
types of things make for an extra special book? The kind you don’t forget?
Definitely the characters. If I can’t connect with the characters or I don’t
like them, it’s almost guaranteed I’ll have to DNF. But if the writing is
gorgeous or the plot intrigues me and I’m dying to see how the book ends, then
sometimes that’s enough to keep me reading. These types of books generally end
up being 3-star reads for me.
Any
marketing tips you’ve noticed work really well for authors?
Authors who interact with readers on social media tend to do very well, in my
opinion. If all an author does is tweet about their book and ask people to read
it, they won’t get much of a response. But if they interact with readers and
build that relationship, then it means the world to me (and other readers).
Favorite
books you’ve reviewed. Favorite books I’ve reviewed throughout my
entire blogging career? Oh wow, that’s a giant list! I just binge-read/reviewed
all of Leigh Bardugo’s books and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite trilogy ever!
I’m also a huge Sarah J. Maas, Richelle Mead and Claudia Gray fan, so their
books are always fun to review. I wouldn’t have discovered Heather Lyons
without blogging, so definitely her books, as well. I could keep going, so I’ll
just stop there for now! Haha :)
Books
you are looking forward to in the next year. Remembrance
(Mediator #7) by Meg Cabot, Throne of Glass #5 by Sarah J. Maas and Heartless
by Marissa Meyer are definitely my top 3!
Do
you prefer kindle or actual books when reading?
Definitely actual books! It’s much easier to read and I love holding a book in
my hand!
If
you could only purchase one book, what would it be?
Ouch! This is a mean question! Haha :) I guess... Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone, because I never get tired of reading it! (Without
exaggeration, I’ve read it 27+ times!)
What’s
your favorite spot to read? On the couch in my living room
---------------------------------
My name is Meredith. I’m a Senior Publicist at Spencer Hill Press and Spencer Hill Contemporary. I’m also a YA book blogger and a contributing writer for YA Interrobang. I love to read YA, but sometimes I venture out into other genres. I love to write – I’ve been writing since I was in middle school. I prefer creative writing, but I also did journalism for many, many years throughout high school and college.
Thoughts and opinions are my own.
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