Book Reviewers Are The Academic Version of (Social Media) Influencers. So Why Are They Not Getting Paid For Their Services?
Academic reviewers tend not to be paid at all for their services to the profession. As a matter of fact, they are used to receiving a copy of the book that they are reviewing as payment for their work.
This notion, that the author of a book review ought not to be compensated in any way for her/his/their efforts, arguably relies on existing perceptions of book reviews as occupying the bottom of the list when it comes to hierarchical considerations of academic kinds of writing.
Writing a book review will not bring you the type of academic recognition that is expected from writing books, articles, book chapters and edited books. As a result, writing a book review is not generally considered to be an intellectually “serious” or even worthwhile activity. It is often perceived as an easily accomplished, formulaic task.
Yet, the best book reviews are the opposite of boring or parasitic. They are imaginative and compelling. They go the extra mile to draw readers in, and to challenge them. In this regard, the best book reviews are just like any other compelling piece of original, creative writing, despite the fact that they happen to be academic in tone.
Book reviews are important because they set the stage for the serious examination of the problems and particular niches of knowledge they address. They are meant to encourage theoretical dialogue. Book reviewers are critical in outlining new questions, emerging issues, novel theoretical or thematic paradigms in which to examine enduring problems.
When a book fails to be reviewed, it goes unseen. It falls through the cracks of the knowledge factory. For example, the scarcity of scholarly book reviews when it comes to children’s literature could be said to fuel perceptions of the field as not being as serious or as worthy of canonical scrutiny as other kinds of literature.
In many ways, this exemplifies the extent to which it is better to get a bad book review than to not get a review at all.
On a more practical note, book reviews can also arm librarians with a wealth of knowledge about themes and debates in virtually any academic subject or field out there, helping them to furnish our libraries with the best, most cutting-edge books currently on the market.
On the Origins of Book Reviews
Book reviews have always been written for three distinct kinds of audience: the author of the book, the book publisher, and the book readers. But before the professionalisation of book reviewing, which accompanied the spread of formal education, the expansion of a reading public, and the growth of universities, book reviews fulfilled an altogether different function.
Evelina Orteza y Miranda writes that the first book reviews were written in Athens, around 140 B.C. (“On book reviewing”, in Journal of Educational Thought 30:2, 1996, pp. 191–202, p. 191).
France saw the birth of the first periodical dedicated to reviewing in 1665. The goal was to give readers a universal account of the state of learning. At this point, reviewers were not supposed to add their own opinion or personal judgement. The goal was to be informational: to transmit an accurate and supposedly truthful account of the books that were being reviewed, to record these studies, and to inform scholars and the public of their existence.
The publication of a new journal in 1802 (The Edinburgh) was a game changer. Rather than following the comprehensive reviewing practice, The Edinburgh started selecting which works to review. Another difference was that now the reviewer was not simply a transcriber, but a producer of opinions about the books under review.
Authoritative Book Reviewers are Like Effective Influencers
Today, book reviewing is, in many ways, a genre in itself, with very specific writing rules. For example, there is restriction on the number of pages. The main goals are always to check if the book’s intentions have been fulfilled, to examine how arguments are put forward to support the thesis, and to set the work in a wider, broader context.
Does the book flow well? Is it logical? Is it well structured and well written? Does it engage with existing debate lines on the subject? Is it worth reading? Why did the writer(s) decide to publish the book and should she/he/they have published it?
Because of the very nature of the questions that are posed in a good book review, it is not difficult to consider book reviewers as influencers of sorts. Book reviews are original pieces of writing that help readers decide what to read next, and what subjects are in and out.
Both activities involve endorsements, and product placement. Both have the power to affect the actions of others by creating publishable content about a particular product.
Authoritative book reviewers, like effective influencers, have an established credibility and an audience that pays attention. They are well connected, with large social and professional networks. They play an active role in disseminating brands, ideas and trends. They are, in short, influential people digesting information and spreading it out.
It’s about time we started valuing scholarly book reviews beyond the stereotypical ideas that feed their non remuneration.
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