Reviews and the library

[Carlos]

Read the other thread on this, but I thought I'd start a fresh one.

My idea is to have a reviews forum.

People post their reviews in the format of the library, which is explained by a stickie.

eg

Book: Author: Format: Pages: Publisher
Rating: As per library out of 5
Genre: eg scifi
Spoilers: Yes / No

Review

Blah blah blah.

(my second review, not bad either)


These reviews will be all over the place, ie a scifi followed by a romance, followed by a computer programming book.

However they can be extracted and dumped in the library section every so often.

This will allow people access to the review staright away, and stop the admins inbox filling up with posts requesting book titles to be added to the library or emails of reviews.

Comments?

 

[Darren]

I've had a think about this for a few days, and it's easier for people to email me their reviews if the book isn't already in The Library.

Trying to keep track of a separate forum and move reviews across to the library, and then delete/merge the threads/posts in the forum would be harder work.

I'm hoping that future versions of the library software will allow an editor login to add/approve books and authors to make things easier.

On a different note, are there any other features people think The Library should have? eg more than one rating category in addition to "overall opinion", more publisher information etc...

Thanks.

Darren.

 

[fluffy bunny]

Is there an easy step by step guide to posting book reviews here?
It's probably pretty straight forward, but an 'idiot's guide' would be nice for people confused as to how this all works.

Had a look through the reviews thus far. Book excerpts where possible would be appreciated.

What about audio books? Needs a separate subsection under fiction. I'd recommend when people submit an audiobook review to have two sections to fill in- one of the book (which could be integrated with other reviews of the book), one of the narration quality.


I'll post a few reviews once I've finished with my finals.
----------------------------
On another note
Can I recommend getting some 'exclusive content' to attract more people to the site. For example arranging author interviews etc. The forumites could even get together and bash out a few intelligent sounding articles on the states of certain genres, what the future of fiction holds, collector information, build that library, classics 'revisited' etc.

Just looking at the forum shows many potentially great articles leaping out- all we need to do is get together and polish the diamond. I'm sure enough quality could be churned out to get a lot of people stick the place on their bookmark list. Articles attract bookworms, some of whom write more articles, and you get a snowball effect (is that the appropriate analogy?).

We've got readers, we've got writers developing their skills, and we've got comedians to keep spirits high. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Darren]

Is there an easy step by step guide to posting book reviews here?

Not at the moment. I keep meaning to set up a site-wide Help & FAQ section but other things keep coming to the top of the list.

Book excerpts where possible would be appreciated.

There are a few problems with copyright here. I'll see whether I can some publishers to agree to allow us to have excerpts from their books, possible as PDF.

What about audio books?

The system wasn't set up to differentiate between formats. It was intended that the book itself would be reviewed rather than each format. I'll see what I can do as there's quite a lot of scope in the review architecture to allow some additional rating fields.

Can I recommend getting some 'exclusive content' to attract more people to the site.

The genre channels would be ideal for this. I've had a few teething troubles with the system, particularly in terms of scalability and allowing other people to add content, yet still maintain an editorial control over the site's main content. I've got a system which I'm testing at the moment which should make it much easier for content to be added by other people (if they want to). The idea would be to build up a stock of regular contributers who could write a column or something within their favourite genre(s).

For example arranging author interviews etc.

A great idea. It would probably have to be in the form of a series of questions submitted by email, and then the reply formatted into an article.


Thanks for the suggestions

If anyone wants to get more involved in writing articles for the site, then drop me an email or a pm or just post in the forum

Darren.

 

[Martin]

What kind of articles would that be, exactly? I'd love to be more involved in the Boards!

Cheers, Martin

 

[Darren]

I've not exactly thought about the types of articles. Most would be news related, but I guess the kind of articles you'd like to read in a book magazine? Perhaps some more indepth articles eg similar to the Harry Potter one posted recently. There could be a way to link the article to a forum discussion about the article. The idea would be that the genre channels would develop into a kind of online magazine.

I'm just thinking out loud here...

 

[Martin]

Sign me up, I'll give it a shot. Always enjoyed writing reviews for this place, so this should be fun too!

I'm in!

Cheers, Martin

 

[murphyz]

Is there an easy step by step guide to posting book reviews here?

How to submit a review in 5 easy steps.

1) Go to the 'Library' tab at the top of the page.
2) Search the Library for the book you wish to review.
If the author or book is not listed, you can request that they are added to the database using the Contact Us page. You can also submit your review for that book at the same time and this will be added to the database manually.
3) Click on the 'add a review' link found at the bottom of the page.
5) Enter the details as appropriate. Details are as follows:
One-Line Summary - the headline that appears in bold to briefly describe your review.
Overall Opinion - how you would rate the book.
Your review - the text of your review. Reviews must be your own work, although as your work you are entitled to use it on other sites as long as it is yours.
Anonymous review - check this box if you wish to remain anonymous.
Username - your username for thebookforum.com
Password - your thebookforum.com password.
Finally, click on the submit button.

Please click here if you wish to view a short video on submitting a review. Please note that thebookforum.com is not responsible for this video.

Mxx

 

[fluffy bunny]

A great idea. It would probably have to be in the form of a series of questions submitted by email, and then the reply formatted into an article.

Well, quite a few interviews are done over the phone now. I'd still like to sic Martin on Ian Banks

I'm up for attempting to bash out an article or 2 next month. A tad busy at the mo, but after April, I've got a few books to catch up for book clubs -War and Peace and Chiang's Stories of Your Life anthology. Then I'm at your mercy

 

[phil_t]

I'd be happy to give it a go, as long as there was a fairly good editor to rewrite it afterwards so that it makes sense Just dont expect any miracles, im not Jonathan Ross!! (and thank god for small mercies )

Phil

 

[Martin]

Don't you mean Jonathan Woss?

Cheews, Mawtin

 

[Darren]

Update

A quick update on what's been happening behind the scenes with all this.

The book channels are being overhalled to make it easier for others to add content to these - things like news, articles etc. I'm also working on integrating the library into the book channels to provide info like latest reviews and upcoming releases.

The library has had a massive injection of data. We're now able to bulk import authors into the database. The import application should detect duplicates but some may slip through if names are spelt differently. There are now over 8000 authors in our database!

We're not able to bulk import book titles at the moment. We need more book titles and reviews in the database for it to continue to grow and develop as the IBDB Project. If people can submit books that would be a big help. Even if it's just the title, that would be a start. Hopefully most of the authors should now be in the database.

I'll keep you updated as more of the site develops.

Thanks.

 

[Martin]

Well, we'll get to work, then!

Great job, Darren!

Cheers, Martrin

 

[kskyhappy]

no worries mate, already on it!

ksky