The Wife by Meg Wolitzer Book Review

The Wife 
by Meg Wolitzer
Pages: 228
Kindle, $8.99
ASIN: B00ADSC5KC 
Paperback $10.11

• ISBN-10: 1982106360
• ISBN-13: 978-1982106362
• Scribner; Media Tie-In edition 

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer has become a popular book and movie with rich possibilities for literary group discussions. Actually, there are questions for book clubs to discuss in the back of the book, so a reader needs to look no farther than inside the book for a discussion guide. It is very smart for publishers to include questions in their books and make it easy for people to have access to them. Also, readers can review the questions before arriving at the discussion which should enrich possible thoughts and answers.

The Wife book begins describing the lives of a husband, wife, and children without revealing very much about the complete situation. The timeline flashes back and forth from the award the husband is going to receive back to when they first met. In one such flashback, the children hold out their arms to the wife wanting attention when she is busy helping her husband edit, but it is not until very near the end of the book we find out she is a "working mother." The couple meets when he already has a wife and newborn baby. As a professor, he asks his then student to babysit. She does so, already feeling like she is falling in love with him. Events progress and they marry. The truth of the reasons they do so involves the way women writers are perceived and treated during those times, as well as probably being in love. What do they each get out of the marriage? From the beginning to the end, how do the books he publishes progress?

One person who wants to write a biography of Mr. Castleman, the famous author who will receive the Helsinki Prize, is annoyingly perceptive and asks the wife (Joan Castleman) many personal questions. She reveals little to him, but he forms a theory anyway. In the book, the couple travels to Finland and the want-to-be biographer is independently also on the plane. The wife is making up her mind to leave her husband on this trip.

The movie differs as the couple and hopeful biographer are on the plane, but also their son travels with them. The daughter is about to have a baby and does not travel or attend the ceremony. The three family members have enough drama to sort through. Cue the sad violin music for much of the movie. The wife has a drink with the biographer and says a little too much, but is strong enough to not divulge everything. The son, in the movie, also meets with the biographer and thinks his theory might be correct. The son confronts his parents while still overseas.

In the movie, liberties are taken and the award will be for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Swedish girls dressed for Santa Lucia day enter their hotel room and sing beautifully. The couple is still in bed having traveled so far and not quite being able to be on a schedule the first day. This little part of the movie is so nice with the beautiful harmonies it is worth listening to again. 

I am trying not to give spoilers, and readers of this blog might already know the painful surprise ending. I knew before I read the book, but it was still engaging and very interesting. The very ending of both the movie and book are memorable with so many different emotions conveyed. 

Thank you for reading, 

Carolyn Wilhelm of Wise Owl Factory

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MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Guest Post: The Big Lie About Book Reviews

Today's guest post by loannis Tsiokos debunks one of those myths authors hear about reviews but also offers a new resource--one you don't want to miss! Watch for future guest posts on this blog from this new force in the world of book reviews. If you are having trouble getting book reviews, try #TheNewBookReview's Lois W. Stern's free book-review-getting service by going to https://bit.ly/FreeBookReviewMatchingService on this blog. Use the link or go to the tab at the top of the home page. It's part of Lois's #AuthorsHelpingAuthors project.

 

The big lie about book reviews

By loannis Tsiokos

Here is the big lie they told you about book reviews.

“You need sales to get reviews”

You most certainly need reviews to get sales, but the reverse is not true. In fact, book sales is the slowest process when it comes to reviews.

To get reviews you must put your book in the hands of Book Reviewers. That simple.

The three kinds of book reviewers.

Professional reviewers, book bloggers and casual reviewers.

Book bloggers and casual reviewers are almost always interested in the content of a book. They don’t care much about the publication year or publisher’s name.

The good news is that, although professional reviews can be a lot harder to get, casual and blogger reviews can be just as valuable.

The bad news is that finding casual reviewers to review your book on Amazon is still not easy.

That is perhaps because, you are not supposed to find them.

They need to find you.

Sure, you can give a book to somebody and ask them to review it, but if they were not already looking for that kind of book (and the chances of that are slim), getting them to read it and review it (for free as per Amazon’s terms) is not going to happen.

Note that I did not say that it’s hard to give away free books to people and ask them for reviews. People will happily accept freebies, but you will need to push several thousands of copies to get a handful of reviews. And to do that, you need marketing dollars and marketing knowledge.

Don’t get me wrong, there is no way to avoid marketing. The idea is to make is cost effective and worth the effort.

So, how do you get reviewers to find your book?

Think of the perfect reviewer. No, that’s not the one who would leave you a five-star review although I see where you are coming from. The ideal reviewer is the person who would have bought your book even if it was not a free review copy. Therefore, the ideal reviewer is nothing more than your target reader.

Once your target readers finds your book, you can offer them a free copy and ask for a review. You cannot offer a free copy “in exchange” as per Amazon, so be careful of the language you use here.

By free copy, I mean one of three things. You can either send them the ebook file or you can send them a Prepaid Amazon link, or a Gift Amazon link. The first one is self-explanatory. Amazon pre-paid and gift links are basically secret Amazon links where somebody can claim a free Kindle version of your book.

Prepaid and Gift links are not the same although they appear to be. One important difference is that prepaid links cannot be exchanged for credit whereas gift links can. Therefore, with prepaid links you can be 100% sure that the recipient will get the book (and you will also get the royalty payment back). However, prepaid links result to Unverified reviews whereas Gift links result to Verified reviews.

Getting your review copy to the hands of your target reader will also require a marketing budget and marketing knowledge. However, you will end up spending way less per review.

So, what’s your next step?

Unfortunately, you cannot use Amazon ads to offer free review copies in exchange for reviews. BookPub does not allow links to lead funnels so that can be restrictive. That leaves you with Google and Facebook ads, but you have to know what you are doing.

If you use Google, you will have to host a page where you kindly ask for a review and offer a free review copy.

If you use Facebook, you could ask for people to get in touch with you through your page. A better strategy is to ask readers to simply comment on a post and have a bot reply back to them with the review copy. This process, and even the follow up, can be automated entirely.

Finally, you might just want to try Fiveabook, a website that I started to help authors and publishers get reviews for their books.

MORE ABOUT TODAY’S GUEST BLOGGER

Ioannis Tsiokos is a programmer, author, book publisher and entrepreneur. He has published over 100 non-fiction titles. He owns and is managing director of Fiveabook.com,  a website that connects authors who want reviews for their books with readers that enjoy free books. Find him on Twitter @fiveabook.

MORE ABOUT THE BLOG, THIS BLOG AND ITS BENEFIT FOR WRITERS

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everything from Amazon Vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you a badge similar to this one to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too! 

Lois W. Stern Offers a Path to a Free and Ethical Reviews

Lois W. Stern, an author advocate and former educator, is a frequent contributor to this blog and she now offers readers of #TheNewBookReview a path to getting free and ethical reviews for their books. No kidding!  She explains how to do it below and you'll learn more about her other projects that help writers in her biography below that. Please feel free to let those in the publishing industry know about this service.

Lois W. Stern Helps Authors Get Ethical Review--FREE!

FreeEthicalReviews

Marketing is a huge part of a book's success, and getting reviews is a huge part of marketing a book or any other business. If you don't believe it, ask a plumber who has had poor reviews on Yelp!~ excerpt from page 18 of How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

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Get your review request listed here on The New Book Review blog (no charge). Send Lois the elevator pitch describing one of your books and asking for a reviewer for it. The pitch should be no longer than 50 words. Follow the format below and send your request and description to tales2Inspire@optimum.net with REVIEW WANTED in the subject line. Make sure the book is already listed at Amazon.com. 

Author or Publisher Responsibilities: 

Authors or publishers must be willing to send a book (in whatever format(s) you list in your application as outlined below as well as promotional materials to anyone who contacts you. 

Please note: Those who offer paper copies of their book are more likely to attract a reviewer.

Reviewer Responsibilities: 

Reviewer must :

• Commit to writing a review within 30 days.
• Post it on the author's Amazon buy page.
• Give the author permission to post it on The New Book Review blog.
• Follow submission guidelines outlined in  the left column of this blog.

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KINDLY USE THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:

TITLE:

SUBTITLE (If any):

GENRE:

DESCRIPTION: (Your elevator pitch - (Maximum 75 words)

AUTHOR'S NAME:

E-MAIL:

NUMBER OF PAGES:

FORMATS YOU ARE OFFERING FOR REVIEW: (PDF, E-BOOK, PAPERBACK or HARDCOVER BOOKS)

AGE/INTEREST LEVEL:

AMAZON URL: 
___________________________________________________________________

SUBMIT YOUR REVIEW REQUEST TO LOIS AT: tales2inspire@optimum.net

PUT TNBR Review Request IN THE SUBJECT LINE.

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It really works folks! 

I posted a Review Request notice on the New Review Blog Spot for the newest book in my Tales2Inspire Collection, and got this fabulous review . What makes it even more special is that this reviewer,  an author herself, comes all the way from South Africa!

She began with the heading:.  

If I could give this book 6 stars, I would.

and continued with the words:

If you want to be inspired about our future on this planet, and if you need some perking up about the condition of the next generation, please read this book. You will be well-rewarded with good, good news about young children  teenagers and (young) adults who are sincerely making a positive difference in our world." ~ Terry Atkinson - South African author of A Love Story from the Heart and Bob and the Bully

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In the tradition (and memory) of our beloved friend and author advocate, Dan Poynter,
The New Book Review wants to help our readers get credible reviews,
so continue to send us your REVIEW WANTED requests as outlined above.

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ABOUT LOIS W  STERN

   

MORE ABOUT YOUR TRUSTED REVIEW COORDINATOR

Tales2inspire was a kernel of an idea Lois W. Stern started in 2012. It has grown to proportions she didn’t dare to envision. Lois's innate curiosity about potentially fascinating human interest stories was the spark that ignited this idea, but it was the confused state of traditional publishing that propelled her forward. Tales2inspire delivers exactly what it promises as both an authors-helping-authors project and a contest. Winners get their stories published in print, e-book, and some even in video formats with their names, headshot photos, and mini-autobiographies. Then Lois spreads  the word about the winners and their stories on her blog, in her monthly newsletter, and on her social networks. Free to enter, this competition is open to talented newbies and seasoned authors alike. 

Lois is a multi award-winning author whose work has been featured in The New York Times, on Local Access TV, and in live presentations in many varied venues. She has now published eight Tales2Inspire books of her contest winners' stories. Fans of Chicken Soup for the Soul are particularly enamored of Tales2Inspire books, because aside from their inspirational themes, they are filled with original photos to enhance the power of each story. Lois invites interested readers to get a FREE Tales2Inspire sampler book at: www.tales2inspire.com/gift  and to learn more about entering the next Tales2Inspire contest at: www.tales2inspire.com/contest. She is also a regular contributor to this blog. Learn more about her at:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tales2inspire

Twitter: www.twitter.com/tales2inspire2

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MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read  and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.