I’m in the midst of working on a few book reviews– Daina Chaviano’s The Island of Eternal Love,
David Lida’s First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, the Capital of the 21st Century, Kiss the Hand You Cannot Sever by Adrienne Brady, and Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer by popular travel writer, Rolf Potts– so I’ve got book reviews on my mind.

In an earlier article, I explained how you can request review copies. In this article, I explain how one writes a book review, focusing primarily on identifying the criteria you should take into consideration while reading the book you’ll be reviewing.

As with any genre, the more you read book reviews, the better you’re likely to become at writing reviews.

One of my secret pleasures is reading New York Times Book Review each Sunday. The reviewers–writers themselves, and likely just as sensitive as their subjects– are never ambivalent: they lavish praise or heap criticism on authors in full page meditations… and I must admit that I’ve kept this particular pleasure secret until now because I find the critical reviews especially appealing.

Why?

Well, because a good review is, like any good writing, cognizant of what words mean, how they should be treated, and what we, as readers, should expect of them, how we should feel after we take them in and turn them over like a prism in the light. When a book possesses shortcomings, book reviewers call authors on the gaps in their work and demand that they do better. I like reading the reviews because I’d like to think they make me a better writer and editor…and a better book reviewer.

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Reading a book in order to write a review requires a bit more attention and purpose than you’d devote as a casual reader. When reading in order to review you want to take the following ideas into account:

-What is the subject of the book? And in answering that question, you need to ask another: What has already been written about the same subject? How will this author expand the reader’s understanding of the subject (if it’s been written about extensively before)? Does the author offer new insights or an innovative articulation of an already well-treated subject?

-What is the author’s background? What makes the author uniquely qualified to write about the subject? What has the author written before? The answers to these questions vary in their relative importance depending on the genre, but are worth asking when approaching any book.

You don’t necessarily need to share the author’s background with the reader of your review. Sometimes, though, doing so is particularly appropriate. Consider, for example, David Kamp’s introduction to his review of Jules Feiffer’s Explainers, published last weekend in the Times:

“At this point, there’s an entire generation of parents and kids who know Jules Feiffer solely as a children’s book author…. It’s been eight years since he stopped doing his weekly syndicated comic strip for grown ups….”

All this information sets the reader up for a comparison of Feiffer’s new book, an anthology of 10 years worth of his work, to his existing body of work, providing the reader with useful information.

-What does the author establish as the thesis (for non-fiction) or the narrative hook (for fiction)? And then, does the author fulfill the promise implied by that thesis or hook?

As the reviewer, you may wish to even lead into the review with your own summation of the narrative hook…without spoiling the plot and its resolution, of course! Take for instance, Andrew Miller’s review of Jose Saramago’s novel, Blindness:

“Traffic at a red light. The lights change, the cars move off, all except one that remains blocking the middle lane. A man inside is shouting the same three words again and again: ‘I am blind.’ Distraught, he is accompanied to his home by a kindly stranger. But this good Samaritan is also a car thief. Having taken the blind man home, he steals his car. A short time later he too is blind.”

While Miller could have opened his review by saying, “Saramago’s novel is about a whole town that goes blind, save one person,” this opening is far more engaging and interesting.

Finally, you’ll need to consider:

-How well does the author write? Authors with a particularly unique narrative style might deserve special mention. I like Jennifer Egan’s description of Jim Harrison’s writing in her recent review of Harrison’s novel, The English Major:

“Jim Harrison’s writing is oddly mysterious. His prose style is plain, even flat. His sentences unspool casually, and are often comma-free to the point of sounding almost hapless.”

The reader of Egan’s review is preparing for a withering commentary about Harrison’s novel.

And then, she makes an abrupt turn:

“Yet they fuse on the page with a power and a blunt beauty whose mechanics are difficult to trace even when you look closely.”

Egan goes on to call Harrison’s writing style a “straw-to-gold technique” that characterizes his work. Egan isn’t just sharing her opinion about Harrison’s writing; she’s helping the reader of her review to approach Harrison’s style and access it in a new way.

Miller’s review of Saramago’s novel is similarly adept at preparing the reader for Saramago’s inimitable style–one which is often frustrating to readers new to the Portuguese writer’s work. Miller wrote:

“The prose, with its minimal punctuation, its flickering of tense and subject so that we glide between first and third person, between stream of consciousness and wry objectivity… takes a page or two for the reader to settle into…; the denseness of the long polyphonic paragraphs appears slightly daunting at the first encounter. Soon, however, we are caught up by the sheer momentum of the narrative. The unencumbered language hurries us forward at such a pace it is difficult to do justice to the subtlety and occasional beauty of its architecture, as if we were driving headlong through a great city at night.”

Miller’s review is almost as lyrical as Saramago’s novel, and if I hadn’t read it already, I’d be headed off to the library to check it out.

Does the book review ultimately reflect the reviewer’s own literary preferences and prejudices? Of course. But by paying attention to these basic criteria, you have a point of departure for your reviews, and a set of standards to which your readers can hold you, just as you have done with the author whose work you’re reviewing.

Now get reading!

Photo: swiv (Flickr creative commons)

If you’re a writer intending to publish your work, you will eventually need to develop research skills. Even the most beautiful, deft narrative pieces occasionally require the information and insight that only research can provide.

The Internet has made research easier than ever, providing information that’s no farther away than a keystroke or click of the mouse. But as an editor of two very different types of writing–academic and travel-related–I can confirm that the Internet also raises some serious concerns about its use for research purposes, regardless of the genre.

The concerns can be sorted into two main categories. First, there’s the problem of accuracy and reliability. Where are you getting your information? Where did your source get its information? How dated is the information, and is it possible for you to corroborate your findings? Are you checking multiple sources? And if so, how are you reconciling divergent facts? For instance, while working on an article about Juan Antonio Picasso last week, Francisco wanted to verify the date when Pablo Picasso’s grandfather arrived in Cuba. One source indicated 1846. Another reported the date as 1848. Still another gave a different year. Which source was right?

Second is the issue of legitimacy. What makes an Internet site legitimate? Wikipedia has become wildly popular as a source of information for writers in a variety of genres. While the site can provide a quick overview that gives you background information about a topic, Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. First, the pages are written by people you can’t identify and whose credentials are not substantiated. Second, the “sources” cited in Wikipedia articles are not always legitimate themselves. There’s primary research information and secondary research information. And then there’s tertiary research… and Wikipedia falls into that category.

So where and how does a writer begin to research a subject?

The answers to this question will depend upon the subject of your piece, the publication in which you’re aiming to place it, and your intended audience. The general tips and resources I provide here, though, are useful for many writing projects and should be added to your mental or electronic library.

-The Library of Congress: The bricks-and-mortar library has long been a place where academic researchers have ensconced themselves amongst stacks of books, documents, photographs, and other archival material. But you don’t need to visit Washington, D.C. to take advantage of the vast, impressive collection of the Library of Congress. An incredible amount of the LoC’s holdings have been digitized and are available–for free–online. You can even set up your own personalized virtual archive here.

If you’re doing historical research, American or otherwise, the LoC’s website is an excellent starting place for accessing primary source material.

-Questia: Questia is a virtual library with an extensive collection of full-text scholarly texts, journal articles, and magazine and newspaper articles on thousands of subjects, including history, business, social science, politics, and much more. All of the material is in English. While the service isn’t free–it’s membership based–writers who need to conduct research regularly will find Questia worthwhile.

-New York Public Library Database: The NYPL has 94 databases you can search from home… if you have a library card. If you don’t, reach out to an NYC friend and see if they might help you out. Database subjects range from the broad and comprehensive EBSCOhost (full-text journal and newspaper articles) to more subject-specific collections, including African American History, American Indian History, and the AP Multimedia Archive. There’s a database of 150 Chinese language journals and at least three Spanish language databases.

-Google Books: What Google lacks in design appeal, it more than makes up for in functionality and utility. When researching, don’t just Google; check Google Books, which offers both full-text and limited preview editions of popular and scholarly texts.

-Twitter and Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forums: Looking for information or opinions about a place from people who know it well? Travel writers, in particular, are using Twitter and other online forums and social networks, to survey other users, to line up interviews, or to search for contacts and information. These online communities can definitely expand the reach of your research.

What resources do you use when conducting research? Share your tips below!

Photo: andercismo
(Flickr creative commons)

As a writer, editor, and translator, I spend my days (and nights) surrounded by words.

I’m lucky: I love what I do and I’m regularly reminded why I love writing and why I think it’s important. Just today, for instance, I received a submission for Matador Travel from a writer whose opening lines read: “As the rooster announces the arrival of morning, Grandmaster Dai Kang’s slippers hit the concrete. It is 4am.”

It’s a perfect opening: the details are plentiful, yet the phrasing is tight. There’s an economy of language that confirms the writer’s skillfulness while successfully putting the reader in a specific place and time. The writer also introduces a character and provides just enough intrigue to engage the reader.

I knew the piece “worked”, but I sent it to a couple of other editors for their input. “Amazing,” one e-mailed. “I actually read it twice.” Another editor responded, “Fantastic.” Everything about the piece was well-crafted, and we look forward to publishing the piece so that other readers can enjoy it as much as we did.

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For every moving, entertaining, or informative piece I read, though, there are many that fail to impress, that fall flat and leave me wondering what can be salvaged and reworked. As an editor, I view my job as including the tasks of determining whether the piece is thematically and stylistically consistent with the format, vision, and interests of the publication for which it has been submitted; asking the question: Will this be meaningful to a large readership?; and nurturing the writer’s own voice and style while making sure the piece meets the preceding two criteria.

It’s not always an easy task, or a fun one–many writers are notoriously sensitive to criticism and rejection. But it’s through my own experiences as a writer that I’ve come to understand my work as an editor. It’s in that spirit, then, that I offer the following observations and tips for writers who are hoping to be published:

1. Trim the fat. I once heard a writer refer to revising and editing as “killing my babies.” As someone who writes long, Saramago-esque sentences myself, the metaphor resonated with me… it can be painful to cut the words we’ve worked so hard to birth onto the page. It’s true that some stories and subjects warrant 3,000 words. Many, however, do not. And in either case, even the most devoted, enthusiastic reader has a limited attention span.

When I say “trim the fat,” I don’t mean that you should force your piece into a word count (unless the publication requires that). Don’t kill rich details. Don’t omit a crucial character. But read through your piece before submitting it and ask yourself: Is every word absolutely necessary? Does every word advance the narrative? If the answer is yes, keep it. If the answer is no, start trimming.

2. Read with a critical eye. So how do you separate the lean from the fat? Simple. Get rid of filler words. So many words we use in everyday speech are unnecessarily imported into our writing: this, that, these, those, them, there are, there is, it, and etc. are just a few examples. Take a sentence with filler words and look at it critically: what can be eliminated without sacrificing detail? Try this tip consistently. I promise you’ll be surprised by how many words are simply unnecessary.

3. Write with precision…and passion. I recently landed a contract to write a guide to Mexico City for an online travel planning company. I was given a style guide to follow; though it was strict, it was not constraining. I was confident about my subject–I know my second home well–and I completed the guide with passion. I was satisfied with what I’d written and sent it off to the editor, sure it would be accepted immediately with praise and no requests for revisions.

I was wrong. “I just have a few revision requests,” the editor wrote. When I opened the document, I could see red marks all over my draft, the editor’s frustrated notes electronically penned into the margins. “WHY IS THIS PLACE GREAT?!!” she wrote with evident exasperation. “WHY IS THIS RESTAURANT ‘CELEBRATED’?!” I could almost see her, sighing and rolling her eyes, and I felt chastised by her feedback.

As I sat with the draft and reviewed it with fresh eyes and an open mind, I realized she was absolutely right. Words like “good,” “great,” “must-see,” and “celebrated” have no meaning for a reader who has never been to Mexico City. I knew the places I’d included in the guide were good, great, celebrated must-sees, but I hadn’t taken the reader there. I had to be more precise. The second draft–and the final product–were better because the editor pushed me to get rid of vague adjectives, forcing me to be precise.

So here’s the tip: Avoid “good,” “great,” and all other vague adjectives that mean nothing. Remember the 5 “Ws” of writing: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. WHY is the place great? Pushing yourself to be precise won’t just benefit the reader; you’ll become a better writer and you’ll fall in love with your subject all over again as you struggle (and succeed!) to articulate precisely why it’s so important to you.

If you find precision challenging, ask a trusted friend to read your draft. Can he or she understand the place or experience you want to convey? If not, what would the reader like to know that’s currently missing?

4. Be yourself. Recently, I had the painful experience of working with a writer who was simply trying too hard to channel her voice to fit the vibe of our publication. I could sense the talent underneath her words, but so much of her writing felt stilted. Something simply didn’t ring true, though it was difficult to express this to her.

Writers are constantly trying to fit their resumes and themselves into the varied visions and expectations of editors and the publications they represent. Don’t. Be yourself and always channel your authentic voice. When you force your writing to be something it’s not, the reader can sense the inauthenticity. And besides, you’ll be left with the yucky feeling of defeat and compromise. If the piece doesn’t fit, don’t force it. You’ll find your place. In the meantime, keep writing.

What tips do YOU have about improving as a writer? Please share your comments and experiences below!

Photo: thorinside (Flickr creative commons)

I did a quick Google search and confirmed my sneaking suspicion: Good spelling is no longer important in America.

Enter ‘”why good spelling is important” and you’ll see what I mean. Four entries are retrieved, and not a single one of them is truly a defense of good spelling.

Maybe it’s the fact that I won the spelling bee in elementary school–triumphantly taking home my very own hardback copy of a red fabric-bound Webster’s Dictionary– but I really do still believe that good spelling is important. I find people like Jeff Deck and his Typo Eradication Advancement League to be nothing short of heroic.

I know. I’m nerdy.

As I’ve been thinking about why good spelling is important, none of the predictable, conventional explanations seem too relevant anymore. One doesn’t necessarily need to spell well to communicate his or her message. In fact, the sad fact seems to be that few people notice or care when a word is spelled incorrectly. Increasingly, no one buys the argument that good spelling reflects anything important about one’s intelligence, and few people accept the idea that good spelling indicates, at the very least, that the writer isn’t lazy and can at least run a document through spell check.

But here’s why I think good spelling is important. Good spelling affirms that you respect yourself, your reader, and your subject. Spelling well shows that you’ve taken the time to review your document, that you want to present your ideas in the clearest manner possible, and that you care about the reader’s standards (even if they’re low).

Above all, spelling well shows your respect for the power of language, its power to name and describe and explain. No, the world won’t fall apart (hell, it might not even notice) when you write “it’s” when you really mean “its,” but trust me, the world does become a little bit clearer when your spelling is as powerful and as precise as the message you want to convey.

For a few quick guides to common spelling errors–and how to avoid them–click here, here, and here.

Photo: dawn m. arfield (creative commons)

As a travel or place-based writer, you’re not limited to telling personal narratives about the places you’ve been. The popularity of travelogues and memoirs continues to expand, and more publications, both print and electronic, are including book reviews among the content they offer readers.

As an established or emerging travel writer, you can request review copies of recently published books directly from publishing houses or authors’ agents. Publishers and agents are eager to stimulate book sales through reviews, and you can expand your own library while adding a new skill to your writing repertoire and resume.

Below, you’ll find a sample e-mail/fax that you can use to contact publishers to request review copies. First, though, a few pointers:

*Do not request review copies unless you (1) actually plan to review the book and (2) have a publication that has agreed to publish your review. Publishers are willing to send you books for free, but they want to be reasonably assured that you’ll write the review in exchange.

*Do direct your request to the correct publishing house representative. Each publishing house has an individual or department responsible for handling review copy requests. Once you’ve learned about a book you want to review, visit the publisher’s website and perform a keyword search for “review copies.”

*Do be specific–and honest– about your publication credits and the credentials of the publication in which you expect the review to be published. Publishers and agents want to know: (1) your publishing history, especially of book reviews; (2) the name of the publication to which the review will be submitted for publication; and, (3) most importantly, the circulation or total readership of the publication in which the review will appear. If the publication is electronic, citing the number of RSS subscribers is also helpful.

SAMPLE E-MAIL/FAX:

Hello-

My name is ______ and I am a writer for ______________.
I am writing to request a review copy of [author name] [book title], for which I plan to write a review for [name of publication]. My contact information and information about the publication appear below. If you require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you in advance,

[Your Name]

Contact Information: [Your Name]
[Your Address]

Phone:
E-Mail:

Publication Information: [Name of publication] is an [online/print] travel magazine that [is published with what frequency]. [Name of publication] currently has a circulation of [number of suscribers; if online, mention RSS feed and, if available, number of unique daily visitors who are not subscribers]. The most recent book review I published was [author name/book title], published by [name of publisher].