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Taryn Araksi's avatar

Absolutely LOVED this discussion - would love to hear more from the two of you in the future!!

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Sara Hildreth's avatar

Noted!

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Natalia Chouklina's avatar

Amazing episode! Loved the discussion about negative reviews. I don’t know what you mean you are not a personality Sara, I swear by your recommendations and reviews!

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Sara Hildreth's avatar

Thank you, Natalia!! I do know that I am, I just don't tend to think of myself that way 😂 But talking with Traci helped me realize why it might be helpful for me to share even more about what doesn't work in my reading for readers who really identify with my taste!

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Emily Ritter's avatar

Loved this conversation!!

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Lauren Flanagan's avatar

Loved this discussion!

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Kristin T. Lee's avatar

This is amazing!!! What a team!

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Sara Hildreth's avatar

It was so fun to talk with Traci about this!! BTW, Kristin, your reviews are top notch!

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Books on GIF's avatar

Traci is amazing! Looking forward to listening!

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Sara Hildreth's avatar

Agreed!

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Kathryn Saulinas's avatar

this was so stimulating! thank you Sara and Traci!

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Sara Hildreth's avatar

So glad you enjoyed it, Kathryn!

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Claire's avatar

Wow, wow, wow! I’m so glad this ended up being a conversational podcast as opposed to a question and answer newsletter. I could not agree more with Traci’s take on book synopses heavy reviews. I want to know what worked and didn’t work for the reviewer. I can find the synopsis a million other places. Great work, Sara!

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Michelle Martin's avatar

What a great discussion with Traci, Sara! I really loved what you both said about the parasocial relationship with reviewers. Context is so important when listening to someone's opinion and we don't get enough of it in the book review world!

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Deedi Brown's avatar

I’m so late on my substacks, and I just listened to this. What a great inspiring pod to come to me at the perfect time 🫶🏼

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Emily Henderson's avatar

This was a fantastic discussion! I wonder if our reluctance to publicly say when we don’t like a book is because of the constant fear that the publishing industry will suddenly disappear. I feel like I’ve been hearing “books are dead” my whole reading life. We can pan Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest movie because we don’t worry that the studios will fold... but in publishing we hear about massive layoffs all the time... I think Traci is right that we need to change the way we talk about books as part of the culture rather than above it.

Thank you for sharing this conversation... I’m going to be thinking about it all day!

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Anne's avatar

Fantastic conversation! I learned so much.

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Chatti Brown's avatar

I’ll listen to anything Traci is on. Fangirling. I used to listen to a bookish podcast that I’ve since stopped. I felt it was bland because as someone who will give a negative review passionately, it was too “I love it” every episode. This was a great listen. Love you two!

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Sherry A's avatar

Excellent interview. I appreciated your conversation.

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