This prompt was submitted by Page @ Pages of Perfiction:
How do you strike a balance between providing enough information to pique readers’ interest without giving away too many spoilers in your reviews?
I’ll let you know as soon as I find the balance.
What, you want more? Yeah, I guess I should elaborate a bit since you took the time to click the link.
Okay, my approach has essentially always been: what would I tell a friend to get them to pick up the book? Sure, for many of them–like me–all I need to say is an author’s name, or maybe the series, and they’re sold. But sometimes they want a little more–and I have a friend or two in mind for each genre. I’m literally writing to them–what would I say to Paul/Nicole/Tony (there are others, I don’t want to give an exhaustive list, or I’ll leave someone off) to get them to bite?
That’s basically it–I don’t want to give away too much–sometimes I think the jacket copy does, and I just don’t get it. Sometimes I can’t figure out a way to talk about about it without ruining something, so I’ll just copy the jacket copy. I’m really sensitive to this–while I know you can appreciate some books while knowing parts of the plot ahead of time, for me, there’s nothing like discovery. So I try to preserve that.
One time an author labeled one of my posts as containing mild spoilers on their website–when I had gone out of my way to not give any. And frankly, anyone who picked up the book and didn’t assume the thing I think the author was alluding to was going to happen has never read a book before. (and yes, it’s still on their website saying that)
That said, I’m not sure how well I strike that balance, and I’m always trying to do better.
What about you, reader? How much do you want a blogger like me to say?
Carol
A relevant discussable topic that plagues every reviewer! I feel the tension in every review I write! I adore the thrill of discovery! That definitely needs to be protected. I also believe in providing content warnings. Discovery and TW are often in conflict. Which do I sacrifice? Recently I learned how to hide TW in WP! Now I can include them all and readers will have to decide if they want spoilers!
HCNewton
Clever, clever.
I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but TWs can be a spoiler in a way, can’t they? I don’t often give them–but I’d have to couch it in something (like hidden text) if I did give one.