..at Love Bytes (reviews) ?
is there something specific you like to see ? or what would you like to see more or perhaps even less?
I am always very curious for feedback and suggestions so please let me know what you think in the comments
Have a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gc donated by T.S McKinney by answering the question and leaving a suggestion!
I would like to see more excerpts from the books that are being reviewed or when an author comes to talk about their book. An excerpt gives me a better idea about writing style and usually I find after reading one, I want to read the book more than just a blurb on what it is about.
I always like things you can take part in so maybe some more polls or something. I also love reading some character interviews or one off small stories so maybe some of those if authors are up for doing them. It’s always fun learning more about characters and what happens after a novel. 😀
I would love to see more about the progress of making a book. We often get to see the authors and see how they create the story, but i woud love to see/hear more about for example the cover artist how they come up with the insperation/idea of making a cover for the book or the editor how they work or the beta readers what is it that they all do before a book is published
I’m always interested in hearing about authors, what projects they have for the future, what they are working in right now. I also would love it there were authors offering teasers or snippets of their characters…. Some of my favourites I can’t never get enough 😀
I love seeing more from the authors or publishing industry. More reader interaction as well would be great.
I’m curious if you have same or different opinions when reviewing book (digital or print) AND the audio. It’ll be interesting to see a sort-of package review of both types in one post.
I would like more excerpts from the books, because that gives me more an idea of writing style. Also I like reading more about the birth of a book: from idea till finished product, character casting, research. And I like author interviews.
I really like “Flashback Friday”. I wouldn’t mind more than one “old” book once in a while.
With this celebration I’ve found many things I like on this site (so good job there!). At first I thought I couldn’t add anything, but then a couple ideas came to mind.
I like your Flashback Fridays; what about building on that with more reviewers and different focuses, like past reviews and classics. For example, what about a Three-Year Throwback (since you’ve been around 4, and I liked the alliteration :-). You know how facebook says this is what you posted a year/5 years ago. What if you went back and asked a few reviewers (each month?) to pick one of their very top favs from 3 years ago to recommend and share what they wrote then and think now. Something that has stood the test of time, so to speak. Or a Classics Callback (again, the alliteration). A really good book that’s not recent but might be considered a classic (just as an example, The Frontrunner series). For those who already know of it, it’d be nostalgic, and informative if you haven’t heard of it yet.
Another idea came to me (it might not work, but it was a brainstorm) when I saw one of the Q&As about polls. I don’t vote on those, because I haven’t read that week’s or month’s releases. But what about a poll of what book I’d most want to read out of those that have been reviewed. So it’s same set of books as in your regular poll, just a different question.
I really enjoy the polls – so how about some more like favorite all-time author, favorite all-time series (or just for a time period) or most-looked-forward to upcoming release, favorite narrator etc.
I would also like to hear more about the other people behind getting a book or audiobook produced – editors, publishers, narrators etc. Maybe guest posts or interviews.
Thanks!
I love all of the reviews. Especially when you introduce new to me authors and I find some I really like or even love. I would like to see more audio book reviews and some voting on the audio of the week or month. I like to see what other readers are reading this week or this month. The reader polls are very interesting to me.
“Challenge Yourself” theme. I always think this to be both “challenge” and “adventure” because who knows maybe I will get GREAT books out of it.
So each reviewer should do something outside their comfort zone. Either reviewing genre they are not really in favor of. Or listen to audiobooks. Or something 🙂
“Friday Five” –> top 5 anything from authors or reviewers and ask readers to participate.
Occasionally it would be good to see reviews of same-sex movies or shows, because so many are either totally vapid or truly depressing.
I loved reading through everyone’s suggestions. I love with Dee and Purple Reader said about the Flashback Fridays. I do always feel bad that more backlist stuff gets forgotten. I know related posts are down below but maybe actually in a review, put a specific link to another book of the authors that was reviewed on the site. Like give a special spotlight to something from their backlist.
I don’t know if you’ve done this before but what about “Quick Bytes” reviews where you either summarize previous reviews to share backlist recs or where you give new books the QB treatment, keeping the wordcount to a certain number with just a barebones but informative review. I don’t know how to keep my wordcount down so this isn’t something I’d be good at, but when I’m at a loss for time sometimes those short pieces can get me reading instead of saving a piece for later when I have more time and then forgetting about it.
I wouldn’t mind seeing reviews for anthologies and a break down of each story (blurbs for those that don’t have one). I know it’s done but it feels few and far between.
I really like Flashback Friday. There are so many books that I missed before I started reading in the genre, and it’s a great way to find those books. Maybe reviews of old books more than once a week could be added.
I like the authors’s posts, if more authors could post not only about their books but also about experiences in and out of the mm community, about the things that made them the authors they are now.
I agree with many of the comments already posted, so I’ll just “second” (or more) a few:
More author posts in general. Maybe some, if they are willing, where we learn more about them as a person and not just about their latest release, including maybe a link to their website for more info, backlist titles, etc. I like blog tours where each post is different, not just an excerpt. Character insights, music featured or as motivation, location details, stuff like that within the book makes me more inclined to want to read the book.
Definitely like the Flashback Friday ideas, where older books are discussed a bit now with the original review included. Has the reviewer’s opinion changed since the first read? Has it become a “keeper” that they have/will read again? I’m pretty new to the M/M genre, so everything is new to me, lol.
I personally wait to begin a series until a few books are already published, because I have no patience waiting for the next book if I’m enjoying the author’s work. I can read 5-6 books while waiting for the latest release, and I know it must be good if the series continues that far.
Polls are fun, as are puzzles and such. Maybe they could become semi-regular features? Polls on favorite / worst covers of the month would be cool and be fodder for interesting discussions amongst us all, reviewers and readers. Different small puzzles like crosswords, scrambled titles or author names, featuring the month’s reviewed books would be nice too.
Overall the blog is great, and there isn’t much I don’t like, other than if dual reviews are not written independently. Each review should be solely the reviewer’s opinions, unaffected by a fellow reviewer who happens to be reading the same book. Dual (or triple) reviews should simply be reviews of one book published on the same post. No comparing notes until afterwards.
Sadly I also don’t vote in the book-of-the-week polls nor the monthly one because I don’t read every book featured. If the poll was more like, “book you most want to read this week” or something then I’d vote, because I do try to read the reviews and some reviews really make me wanna make my TBR pile taller!