So, How Are We Doing?
It’s been a month and a half since Blythe, Rachel, Lynn, and I took over joint publishing responsibilities at AAR. In that time, we’ve instituted a few changes, including:
- Streamlining the message boards and loosening moderation.
- Recommitting to reviews.
- Retiring At the Back Fence.
- Introducing the new AAR News and Commentary Blog.
- Launching author podcasts starting in August of this year.
- Re-introducing advertising.
You should also know that we are looking into introducing RSS feeds for site content. This isn’t as easy as it sounds and Rachel has gone above and beyond the call of duty in working on this one. Feeds are already available for both blogs and, the techno gods willin’, site content will follow in the future.
In the meantime, we’d also like to know if AAR readers would be interested in News and Commentary Blog reader-written entries and in those written by authors, as well. Turning the column over to guest voices was a grand ATBF tradition and it’s one we’d like to continue.
We’d love to know what you think. If you’d like us to know how you’re feeling about the changes we’ve made to the site, please answer the poll questions below. If you have any additional thoughts or ideas, just let us know in the comments section.
-Sandy AAR
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For Susan Ross- Just so that you know, Harlequin and Silhouette do not send us their series books for review, so unless the authors send those to us directly, we simply don’t have them in our pool for reviewers. There is certainly no slight intended against series romances and in fact, many of our reviewers enjoy the series books.
For Amy – I’m sorry you’ve been noticing more editorial errors. If you see any in recent reviews, please feel free to notify us using the contact form.
I know that some readers have missed ATBF. However, altering the site allows us to publish items more frequently and to stay current with the industry as the pace of reporting has changed greatly in recent years. We do plan to keep many of our familiar features, though, and on that note, we will soon be launching our Annual Poll so that you can vote on the best and worst of 2008!
This site was always special to me because it provided in-depth, interesting information. It was unique because the reviews were solid and not just a re-hashing of the plot (which is what many other sites out there offer). I miss ATBF and the other features that made this site *special* on the internet. I can find and participate in blogs all over the internet, so I don’t find the current changes outstanding. They are just a general shift away from what made All About Romance a must-visit site. As for the reviews themselves, I am finding many more editorial errors such as typos, questionable grammar and incomplete sentences. I value the years I have visited the site to give it time to adjust and grow, but I have to admit that I do not rely on it like I once did.
I miss ATBF and the depth of discussion found there.
I really did like ATBF – blogs don’t go into as much detail – I still want more reviews for companies like Harlequin and Silhouette – I rarely see reviews on these authors unless they have written longer novels. I ocntinue to love the book reviews, and I enjoy having the search engine.
You have left me in the dust. Cannot understand anything you say anymore. Blog? I don’t want to blog. Just want to read reviews by women who like alpha males and to enter my favorites occasionally in the 100 best. I think we have a big generational gap here.
PS, I forgot to say the advertising is fine–we’re all capitalists here, aren’t we?
AAR gals and guys, I love the commitment to reviews and have been thrilled to see how frequently new ones come on board. I’ve been reading AAR reviews forever it seems and trust the reviewers’ recommendations. I’m not a blogger nor a message boarder, so I don’t have feedback to you on that, but I do miss ATBF and before that, Pandora’s Box. Keeping my fingers crossed we’ll see Buried Treasures this year.
One question though, if “”Heartsick”” is not a romance as the reviewer states, why is a review of it on AAR?
Happy holidays! Keep up the splendid work.
I’m ambivalent. I liked the old AAR discussions; they added a lot to my knowledge about romances and the publishing industry in general. I’m a writer myself, so such things are important to me. OTOH, I do like the loosening of the message boards, and the blogs are interesting, and full of tidbits. I think you’re stepping in the right direction here, but more owrk is needed, as always.
Anne G
Mark, I don’t know if this will help, but I added a sidebar widget for Categories, so that should make searching like blog entries and older blog entries easier for readers – so they don’t just “”disappear.”” The blog is a work in progress. We will be addressing these issues over time to make it the most user friendly that we can.
lbk, I see what you are saying about divided conversations, but I think many, if not most of the blog entries here won’t have this problem. There really is no way right now to integrate the blog and the message boards as the message boards are hosted separately on an entirely different server. I will think further about this issue.
Thank you both for your comments. And for all the feedback from everyone!
Overall, I really like the changes, particularly the board integration and steady stream of reviews.
However, I agree with Mark about the blog vs. message boards. It seems like it would function to divide your traffic (and I would imagine lessen revenue stream if you are driving people to a blog that is apparently not supported by any advertising).
I definitely like the idea of having a blog, it would be nice if it could somehow be more integrated into the site (perhaps with a sidebar for the entry on the homepage with the entry, rather than just a notice about a new entry), and it would be nice if conversations about the posts would happen on the message boards, rather than on the posts themselves. I realize this isn’t the usual blog format, but I think it would help generate more discussion by keeping conversations together on the boards rather than fragmented between the blogs and the boards.
Thank you for this site. I have counted on your reviews for 7 years.
I just want to say i absolutely love the new AAR. It really feels as if as if much more work is being put in the site especially with the recommittment of the reviews. Overall, i think the site is very well run and the new management has done an excellent job of making a great site even better. I really appreciate the hard work that the site requires and i wish you all the best.
I feel that the message boards are much easier to navigate
I like the changes made so far, quite a bit. I really like this new blog – very interesting posts & topics thus far. (just too much purple for my tastes. ;^)
Yes, yes, yes! to RSS feeds for content. I’d especially love a “”new reviews”” feed.
I like the board consolidation, but feel that the blog is a move in the opposite direction. Is there any way to archive the blog to the main site, including the comment threads? As it is the blog topics vanish faster than message board threads and blog comments are much less convenient to reach than message board threads.
The blog entries are more frequent and topical than many issues of ATBF, but they miss the in-depth aspect that some ATBF had. Can you restore an occasional ATBF-replacement column? Rather than putting reader and author contributions in the blog, use them as intermittent columns. Possible names for an ATBF successor: Discourses & Diversions, Visitors’ Voices, Visitors’ Visions.
MMcA – I can add the Wild, Wild West Board to the home page, no problem, and Laura, Laurie added the Google searchability of the most recent reviews before she retired. Basically, all the reviews from this point on should be Googleable. The ones from the past, though, would require some tech maneuvering that isn’t on the horizon right now. Perhaps in the future. It would be great if we could accomplish that.
Michelle – that would be an improvement to the database we can consider for the future. It’s a pretty intricate piece of coding, and it would be great if we could tinker with it in the future to fine tune and make it do further wonders. For now, though, we are just grateful to have those almost 7,000 reviews accessible and searchable in so easy a fashion. I hope you can bear with multiple page searching for the now.
Janet W – Thanks for the multiple pieces of feedback. We appreciate your comments and suggestions!
I’ve noticed that some AAR reviews come up in Google searches, but not all of them do. It’s really convenient because it means if I’m wanting to include links to a a whole load of reviews of a particular book, I don’t have to go and search for the AAR one separately. Is this a new development? In the past when I’ve looked for AAR reviews via Google, none turned up at all. Now it seems that some do, but others don’t. I hope this is a new development and that all of them will end up being searchable via Google.
I love the site! I really like the renewed focus on reviews. It keeps me coming back every day.
One suggestion for improvement (and this may be just wishful thinking) – I sometimes search for reviews by an author or by a partial title, and I hate having to click through multiple pages of results. Is there anyway to include a link to “”View all results on one page””? I often copy and paste the results into a spreadsheet so I can sort, delete, etc., and this would make it so much easier!
Thanks!
Gotta start my day but I’m OBSESSIVELY reading your DON Threads … wow! OK, here are my comments, other than GO You, you’re doing a great job and I adored it before too — you started from a great platform!
Streamlining the message boards and loosening moderation: like that — the combo Books board really suits me!
Recommitting to reviews: Wonderful to see so many … and unlike every other site (correct me if I’m wrong) you won’t allow the same reviewer to keep reviewing one author’s work: keeping it honest! Thanks :)
Retiring At the Back Fence: I loved it but it was time.
Introducing the new AAR News and Commentary Blog: be careful about turning it over to either authors or readers — that imo subverts the intent of this blog … “”maybe”” it would work, just be careful. Also, there’s already so many other places to read author/reader reviews … how would yours differ and improve on the situation?
Launching author podcasts starting in August of this year: don’t listen but yeah, great for those that do!
Re-introducing advertising: it’s colourful and not intrusive. As long as you have editorial freedom, works for me.
You’re doing a great job … keep it up! And please tackle some of the huge controversies in RomanceLandia … not to single out an author … there may be others … but JR Ward is now not writing, in many people’s opinion, the books she originally started out with … disconcerting to some, no problema for others. But it’s certainly a story with a lot of legs :)
Thanks for all your hard work. I’m happy with the changes – was sorry that ABTF had to go, but this blog then compensated for that.
Minor, minor quibble – I tend to use the drop down menus to negotiate round the site, and ‘The Wild, Wild, West’ board doesn’t show on the MB menu. You can get to it through the ‘Message Boards Index’ but a direct link from the front page would be nice.