This week I am going to be starting something new on my very infant YouTube channel. I am going to be doing video book reviews from local (mostly Indie) authors. The reviews will be going up on a weekly to bi-weekly basis on Sundays. They will each be added to a specific playlist, and will all follow approximately the same format.
Format Overview
- Introduction and disclaimers
- About the Author
- Book Details
- Length
- Formats (Paperback, Ebook, Audio, etc)
- Languages
- Availability (Amazon, iTunes, B&N, etc)
- Series information
- Ratings
- Design
- Exterior
- Interior
- Premise
- Characters
- Worldbuilding
- Plot
- Writing
- Design
- Final Thoughts & Overall Rating
Ratings Breakdown
The Ratings section is broken into four categories (there may eventually be more, but we’ll see how I feel after a few reviews). The book will be given 1 to 5 teaspoons of tea leaves in each category, and then an overall score.
and this book is a good, strong cup of tea
and this book has a lot of flavor
and this book isn’t my favorite, but it’ll do
and this book is a weak cup of tea
and this tea might as well be water
I decided against doing a star system, because, really, reviews are entirely subjective. I may love a book, and you may hate it. It really all comes down to what kind of story is your “cup of tea.” I would also like to point out that in the unlikely (I hope) event of a book actually receiving 1 teaspoon, that does not make it the worst book I’ve ever read. I have intentionally read some of the worst-rated free books on Amazon, and attended “Readings in Terrible Fiction” at Anthrocon. I have seen the worst that there is, and we shall not speak of it.
Each book that I review by video will also get a follow-up blog-post that is a transcript of the video. All follow-up blog posts will be categorized as “Review” posts and tagged appropriately for the book being reviewed. An abbreviated version of the review with the overall score converted to stars will be posted to Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, etc as applicable. Links to the books will be included in both the YouTube description box, and the follow-up blog post. I will also try to include links to the authors on social media, their websites and/or their blogs.
