Guest Post

Guest Post: The View From Halfway by The Little Red Reviewer

I am writing this guest post from the halfway point.  The kickstarter for The Best of Little Red Reviewer runs for 30 days, from Jan 2nd through Jan 31st, and I am writing this guest post from day 15.  

I thought all the hard work would be before the kickstarter launched, and then afterwards if it funded.

Prior to launch, I had to figure out what exactly The Best of Little Red Reviewer would consist of, how kickstarter even worked (Thank you to my friends who answered my ten thousand questions!), identify editors and book designers, hire a graphic designer to create the cover art, film a the kickstarter video, have someone edit it and make it look a million times better than the raw footage ever dreamed of looking. Oh yeah, and I had to organize a blog tour for myself.  Sounds like a lot of work, right?  It was, but I had 3-4 months to get it all done. A few hours here, a few hours there, and everything I just listed came together fairly seamlessly.

Those three months?  That stuff was easy.

Once I hit launch, that’s when the hard part started.  The first 24 hours of my kickstarter were more than I could have dreamed of.  Funding poured in, my twitter feed blew up, the hit counter on my blog blew up, within twelve hours of launch I was a β€œproject we love” on Kickstarter.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to happy-cry, or puke.

Kickstarter, as they say, is a marathon, not a sprint.

So, here’s the best part!

Not only do I get to spend time doing my favorite hobby (blogging!), but I get to talk to people about it online all day and all night long, I get to start new conversations, I get to shine a light on the energy us bloggers pour into our hobbies.  

This is the best, most rewarding marathon I’ve ever been on! 

What is The Best of Little Red Reviewer, you ask?  Who is The Best of Little Red Reviewer for, you ask? 

I’m so happy you asked!

I have been running my book review blog, The Little Red Reviewer, since 2010, and The Best of Little Red Reviewer will showcase the reviews I am most proud of, the reviews that are a reflection of who I am as a reviewer.   I review new books, old books, science fiction, fantasy, popular titles, and books you’ve never heard of.

As for who is this book for – I recommend it for any fan of contemporary science fiction and fantasy, anyone who reads reviews online, anyone who is a book blogger or who wants to be a book blogger.   If you’ve never heard of the book blogosphere, if you’ve never heard of blogging, this book is for you simply because it will joyously blow up your β€œto be read” list.

I promise this book will give you 40 more science fiction and fantasy books that you can’t wait to get your hands on.

Ok, so how do you get The Best of Little Red Reviewer and what kind of backer rewards are there?   $5 gets you the e-book, and print books start at $15 (plus shipping).  There are backer rewards for customized books starting at $35.  Got some short stories of your own that need some looking at? I’ve even got backer rewards for professional story critiques by award winning authors and editors.  There is some fun stuff available!

What’s surprised me most so far?  

The outpouring of support has been the most wonderful thing. This is what makes this marathon worth running!  People tell me every day how much value they see in this project, that they value the time bloggers put into what we do, that book reviews are important.  The amount of tweets, retweets, facebook shares, I am grinning from ear to ear just thinking about it!

I am also pleasantly surprised how popular the customized book backer rewards have been.  They sold out so fast I had to add more!  What do I mean by customized books?  Well, it’s the book, plus me, plus some sharpie markers and colors pencils.  Maybe I’ll circle all the swear words.  Maybe I’ll draw pictures.  Maybe I’ll make you a flip cartoon in the corner.  Maybe I’ll circle or underline specific words on specific pages, so that when you put them together you get a secret message.  Maybe I’ll write my recipe for Oat Scones or Gingersnaps in the margin.   No two books will be the same, and I cant wait to sharpen my colored pencils!

I’m halfway to the finish line.  Let’s make this book happen!

 

About Andrea and The Little Red Reviewer

Hi there!

My name is Andrea, and I live in Michigan with my husband and too many books.  My favorite genres  of speculative fiction include space opera, new weird, low fantasy, and  that gorgeous poetic stuff that C.S.E Cooney and Catherynne Valente write that I have no idea how to categorize.  I read a lot of new stuff,  but I try to read a lot of old stuff too.  An incomplete list of my favorite authors includes Steven Brust, N.K. Jemisin, Scott Lynch, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Jeff Vandermeer, Iain M. Banks, Robert Jackson Bennett, Yoon Ha Lee, Will McIntosh, Cordwainer Smith, Frank Herbert, and the aforementioned Catherynne Valente and Claire Cooney.

My reviewing style is, erm, impressionistic. You know, like the painters?  All of my weird metaphors make perfect sense to me because reading is like swimming through sand,  phrases have texture and physical weight,  and songs on the radio have taste and color.  Sometimes falling through the right words is more like flying than swimming because all of my senses get mixed up.   And sometimes I β€œreview” a book without actually reviewing it at all. Sometimes I spent 1200 words trying to articulate how much I loved a book, and sometimes I spent 1200 words to explain why I think a book didn’t work. This site contains positive reviews, critical reviews, observational reviews, not-reviews, combined to over 500 book reviews.