Sarah-Jane,
I don't really want to support Amazon's massive power over publishing, but I realize that the reviews there are probably read by more people than any poetry magazine anywhere. My goal is to urge people to buy (or even just to read in any way they can) books by poets whose work I especially admire. Since those poets tend to be formalists, that is a group that is least likely to be reviewed by most of the poetry journals. People who read a review of a poetry book on Amazon are probably already considering buying a book, so if I can nudge them in that direction, I may be able to help good poets get read. My reviews tend to be shorter than a review in a poetry journal, so the journals might not be interested anyway. When I have written more extended reviews, I have published a few of those in poetry journals, especially those online that people don't have to pay for. I try to put into a review the kind of information I would want to know about a book. If a poet already has lots of reviews of a work, I am less likely to review that book than one that has few or none, or reviews that are not much help.
Susan
|