There are a plethora of book-related sites, many of which allow you to track your reads, your To-Be-Read list (TBR), and post your own reviews of books. Today, I’d like to take a moment to promote Storylace, the one I like best, where I post my book reviews.
All authors are readers. You can’t possibly do a good job of writing if you aren’t reading. Before publishing, I had entirely under-appreciated the importance of reviews and ratings to authors, and I probably gave less than a dozen ratings to books before 2023. Now that I’m published, my eyes have opened, and I realize two things.
First, the only possible way for good writing to become promoted by online platforms is if people provide feedback on those platforms. By not rating and reviewing, I had been “all take and no give.” Yes, I paid for the books, but by not expressing my opinion in the system, I was failing to reward good work and help others find it. This is probably a legacy of developing reading habits long before the internet even existed. It took a bit of a mind-shift to realize that I now had the power to influence the market and help other readers after reading the book. Times change, and I needed to adapt.
Second, the process of writing a review cultivates a level of critical thinking about various aspects of writing. I quickly realized that practicing this type of thinking will help me self-evaluate my own writing. I can already see it helping me notice what works and what doesn’t, and giving me aspirations to write scenes that are as effective and evocative as some of my specific favorites. For example, I really admired the reconciliation between Reorden and Kurata in Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris, which converts her from a menace to an ally. That was really well done and satisfying to read. If I can make my readers feel like that at some point, it will be a “Good Thing”.
And so in late 2023, I resolved to write a review for every book I read. There are many sites, but I wanted something that gave me more than 5 stars with which to express myself. Amazon itself is too platform/vendor specific, and I also felt significant dissatisfaction with the poor stewardship of Goodreads by Amazon. I had issues with the way technology features were implemented on others, and I also encountered some author hatred on yet another platform that seemed to have attracted users who view authors as spiteful manipulators incapable of anything but interfering with readers.
When I found Storylace, I knew almost immediately it was a good fit. It’s very creator-friendly and seems to have a deep-seated belief that we are all creators of some sort. They have features for sharing reviews and artwork and are supportive of authors and artists, providing them with tools to tactfully direct readers to the relevant commercial outlets. Some folks only create lists or reviews, others create art or written works. It genuinely feels like all are welcome.
If you want to see what I’ve read recently and my thoughts on other works, feel free to check out my profile on Storylace (login required). My reviews are mostly spoiler-free, and if there is a mild spoiler, I generally tag it so that you have to click to read it.
If you are an author, please be advised that I am an author first and reviewing is only a sideline. I do not currently accept review requests, nor do I plan to any time in the near future. Honestly, you should be seeking reviews from a much more popular YouTube/BookTok/Bookstagram channel than me anyway.
If you are a reader, please bear in mind that overall ratings are not strictly calculated from section scores. Books differ in how important the plot is versus the characters versus the setting. The editing/narration section is mostly there to complain about trivial stuff that got missed, and only has a significant effect on the score if there are missing or incomplete pages or other disasters. There is no single ratio among sections that appropriately represents every book, so the overall score is a general feel, not a mathematical computation. I also have a policy of not putting a number or recommendation on anything I DNF before 50% and not mentioning anything I DNF at less than 20% unless it is traditionally published by a major publishing house. We all deserve a mulligan. To learn, you must fail and then understand why you failed.
If you do check out my reviews, I hope you enjoy them and find them helpful. Feel free to comment on them directly, critique them as a whole here on this post, or share what your favorite review/tracking platform is.
