Twitter Survey Results: How Long Do You Spend Writing Book Reviews
Yesterday I asked bookbloggers on Twitter (#bookbloggers) how long do they spend writing book reviews. As expected the answers were varied and interesting.
Prolific blogger kaolin fire (kaolin fire presents , @kaolinfire/) said: “just writing? maybe an hour, if it’s not an antho or collection of some sort; thinking about it? few more hours“.
Creative blogger iubookgril (Girl Reads a Book, @bellareads) chimed in as well: “15 to 20 mins usually“, while our resident librarian blogger Mieneke(A Fantastical Librarian, @Pallekenl) takes a bit longer: “About three hours? But I’m a slow writer!“.
Inexhaustible blogger iubookgirl (Reader for Life, @iubookgril) also joined the coversation by tweeting: “same here, unless I don’t really like or dislike a book then it might take a little longer to decide what to say“.
As for myself (@ManOfLaBook), I average between 30 minutes to an hour, a bit more if a contest in involved. That’s just writing though, I could think about the review for several hours, or even days, before I even put a word to screen.
A father, husband, avid reader, blogger, software engineer & wood worker who is known the world over as a man of many interests and to his wife as “an idiot”.
The actual writing, about an hour. But I've generally thought about it for days, even made notes, sort of a pre-write, beforehand.
It takes me about an hour too (I just wrote one, actually... just shy of an hour for that one) but I read the book weeks ago, so I thought about what to say during that time. I usually try to write the review within a couple of days, but I do like to have that time to think about the book and mull over what I want to say.
For me it depends on how much I enjoyed the book. I always have a lot more to say about a book I absolutely loved, and therefore my reviews are longer than books I didn't care for, which are usually only a paragraph. On a related note, I should really get on Twitter already.
It usually takes me about an hour to write up a review post. It might be less if I've already got some drafts started with notes of discussion points, but usually I start from scratch. If a post is taking me much more than an hour to complete I'll stop and work on it later. I try not to make the posts sound forced or rely too heavily on summary
I don't write many, and I only jot down something for those I really enjoyed (or got something pretty far-reaching). But, for those I do, it take me hours. I never like what I initially put down, and edit for most of those hours. It can stretch to days, as well. Thanks.
I'm a bit like Brenna - if I have a really strong reaction to a book (usually love but sometimes hate) it takes me longer - I usually think about those for a day or two then take 1-2 hours to write a review. If the book is a middle of the road one I spend far less time thinking about the review and might only spend 30 minutes or so writing it.
To be truthful it takes me around 30 minutes to write it, around 30 minutes to edit and format it properly for my blog (http://readalouddad.blogspot.com) and often a further 30 minutes to correct the first two stages. But, I'm still a beginner in the blogging world so I guess the necessary time will go down, as I master stages 2 and 3 over time. It helps that I am reviewing children's books, which means that I read and re-read them with my twins. So, that is an advantage for sure.
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The actual writing, about an hour. But I've generally thought about it for days, even made notes, sort of a pre-write, beforehand.
It takes me about an hour too (I just wrote one, actually... just shy of an hour for that one) but I read the book weeks ago, so I thought about what to say during that time. I usually try to write the review within a couple of days, but I do like to have that time to think about the book and mull over what I want to say.
For me it depends on how much I enjoyed the book. I always have a lot more to say about a book I absolutely loved, and therefore my reviews are longer than books I didn't care for, which are usually only a paragraph. On a related note, I should really get on Twitter already.
It usually takes me about an hour to write up a review post. It might be less if I've already got some drafts started with notes of discussion points, but usually I start from scratch. If a post is taking me much more than an hour to complete I'll stop and work on it later. I try not to make the posts sound forced or rely too heavily on summary
I don't write many, and I only jot down something for those I really enjoyed (or got something pretty far-reaching). But, for those I do, it take me hours. I never like what I initially put down, and edit for most of those hours. It can stretch to days, as well. Thanks.
I'm a bit like Brenna - if I have a really strong reaction to a book (usually love but sometimes hate) it takes me longer - I usually think about those for a day or two then take 1-2 hours to write a review. If the book is a middle of the road one I spend far less time thinking about the review and might only spend 30 minutes or so writing it.
To be truthful it takes me around 30 minutes to write it, around 30 minutes to edit and format it properly for my blog (http://readalouddad.blogspot.com) and often a further 30 minutes to correct the first two stages. But, I'm still a beginner in the blogging world so I guess the necessary time will go down, as I master stages 2 and 3 over time. It helps that I am reviewing children's books, which means that I read and re-read them with my twins. So, that is an advantage for sure.