BBAW Guest: Andromeda Romano-Lax, Author of The Spanish Bow

(Ok, I have to admit this is one of my favorite posts I received. Andromeda donated two copies of her books as giveaways. To be eligible to win one, leave a comment about the last book you read that you couldn't put down. Open to all. Also, be sure to visit her very awesome book blog for the Alaskan perspective.)

Book Bloggers, an author’s perspective

By Andromeda Romano-Lax


Yes, the New York Times Book Review coverage of my debut novel THE SPANISH BOW, published one year ago, was exciting (and terrifying). Without national reviews, I might have had trouble garnering respect in this dog-eat-dog book world.

But can I be honest? The book bloggers really got my novel. Their reviews -- in some cases, more than many print reviews -- captured my novel’s multiple facets. Their honest, unvarnished reactions would have told me, as a reader, whether or not I wanted to buy this new novel, one among millions clamoring for attention.

An author is supposed to be up in her tower (or in my case, remote Alaska cabin), confidently oblivious of how the world is reacting. But that’s unrealistic. We want to be read, discussed, mentioned to friends. The blogosphere is facilitating that, and though as an author I am supposed to be alarmed about the loss of print review coverage (and I am alarmed), I am also grateful that online book reviewers are keeping the passion for books alive.

What does a book blogger say that a convention-bound print reviewer often can’t, or won’t?

The blogger at One Good Thing mentioned that she’d given a copy of my novel to a coworker, whose husband had taken the book away and locked himself in the bathroom to read it. “He won’t give it back to me until he’s done,” the coworker complained.

Book Sandwich compared my book to “dark rich chocolate” and like many bloggers, admitted that the subject matter (politics, Spanish history) wasn’t her usual thing, but that the book surprised her. Bloggers always seem more comfortable saying that – “I resisted this book at first, but…” They’re also more likely to tell you that a book sagged, or just didn’t work, even when they’re not sure why.

I recently read a major print book review of a nonfiction book I had enjoyed immensely. I couldn’t tell if the reviewer liked the book, disliked it, envied it, or just wanted to show off his own intellectual pedigree. By contrast, blogger Ex Libris started her review of THE SPANISH BOW with “Stop what you are doing and read this book.” That’s nice and clear.

Moonrat at Editorial Ass (with whom I’d had no prior connection of any kind) made it her “inexplicable personal crusade” to champion my book. She praised it as a book about friendship, which I appreciated. (The print reviewers thought it was a book about music and politics.) She gave away copies and started a “Buy a Friend a Book Week” to encourage other people to buy books for friends.

I love the fact that book bloggers interpret a novel through the lens of their own experience. Where one person sees a message about art, sacrifice, or morality, another person sees a story about love, or the difficulties of parenting, or something else entirely. Where one person sees something serious and dark, another sees humor. (Bloggers seemed to realize, more than print reviewers, that parts of my book were meant to be funny.)

I can share more examples, but you understand, because you already read and write your own reviews. What you may not know is that we authors are out here, sniffing around online (perhaps more than we should – it can become a vice), hoping to find the readers who understood, who responded, who cared.

We don’t want you to shower us with adulation. (Okay, we do want that. But we shouldn’t need it.) What we want is more of what you are already doing so well, with honesty and integrity. You are unsung literary heroes. We read you. We need you. And we appreciate you, every week of the year.

Andromeda Romano-Lax is the author of THE SPANISH BOW (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007), and a blogger at 49writers.blogspot.com and thespanishbow.blogspot.com.