Book Reviewer and Social Media Audit

Recently I had a brief interaction with a book reviewer who was keen on doing auditing for her reviewing business. Sounds interesting. One must keep on evaluating one’s own performance from time to time. But is audit in the case of a book reviewer just about social media audit?

What's a social media audit? The one that may reveal your reach, presence, activity and expansion vis-a-vis your competitors on various social media profiles like facebook, Instagram, twitter, linkedin etc. Again, sounds good. Isn't it?

But the fact is in the case of book reviewing it's just a fringe element.

Why? Let me explain.

First of all, a social media audit does not reveal the quality of your reviews, how good you are as a reviewer? These days when so many reviewers are mushrooming around, the quality becomes an issue especially since some of them are novice in the field, some others are failed authors themselves and some others who are just doing it to get some bucks in their pocket.

No book reviewer can do justification in each and every book if he or she is reading too many books at a time or in a month. When one is reading something because one has to complete a task one is bound by the time factor. Skipping a few pages to know the story and key points would be likely in such cases.

Secondly, a social media audit would merely reveal your presence on social media. But who all are there in your network is not revealed by such an audit. Most of the book reviewers have other reviewers and authors in their network which may show their presence but are there the real readers in them, the fact that matters to the author, is not revealed.

An author at the end of the day is not interested in the number of likes or comments by your friends but the effective reach of his or her book. The clicks, likes and comments can even be purchased these days especially if an author is paying you on click-basis. An author is more concerned about the actual conversion i.e. getting readers for his or her book.

If there are 1000 likes, 500 comments against a review post of yours and in those comments more than one hundred showed interest in the book reviewed by you with comments like 'Good read', 'I'll read', 'My next read' etc. etc., that's obviously good for your social media presence but remember, if the conversion rate is not even one percent out of those 1000 likes, 600 comments and 100 that showed interest, you have failed as a reviewer from the author's (your customer) point of view.

Thirdly, a social media audit will not let you measure how much a review actually brought good results. If a review did not help an author to know one’s weaknesses or strengths, it’s just an online media game that will die sooner or later. If the reviews are repetitive in a bulk program, you need to introspect if you’re doing justification to a book or just doing it for the sake of a few bucks in your pocket. If your reviews are more of a spoiler you’re probably lacking in your professional skills.

Therefore, a true audit of you as a book reviewer is how much it helped the author in reality and thus, a book reviewer's main audit should cover the following questions:

1. Am I reading too many books or just that I can manage effectively?
2. Am I going too technical while reading rather than being in the shoes of a reader?
3. Are my reviews reaching the real crowd that would eventually help the author?
4. Am I honest in my reviews or doing compromise?
5. Am I biased while reading as I expect things to fall in line with my expectations since I'm well-read in the genre?
6. Do I get influenced by the writings of stalwarts in the area that blocks my thinking horizon?
7. Am I crossing the boundary line? What should I reveal publicly?

Once you, even if a good book reviewer otherwise, learn to audit your work from the author's and a publisher's standpoint, you would only then be a useful reviewer. You've to make a choice whether you want to be happy with some pocket money or grow it into a fruitful business in the long run.

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