Like most – if not, in fact, all – of you, I read much more widely than just books of natural history. And just as I do with those I read for review in The Well-read Naturalist, I write reviews of them as well. My problem has been that I haven’t been able to find an appropriate way to bring those reviews to a public readership.
The trouble is that print publications aren’t interested in buying freelance-written book reviews anymore and online sites aren’t interested in paying for content; which leaves the option of simply creating one’s own website, as I did with The Well-read Naturalist. Well, I’ve now tried this with three different sites; all went nowhere. I’ve often thought about expanding the range of content in The Well-read Naturalist to include other subjects but it just never struck me as appropriate.
However I think I have finally come upon a solution that seems reasonable, will allow me to keep The Well-read Naturalist dedicated to books of natural history, and will (perhaps) allow me to obtain an audience for reviews of books that I think are worth bringing to the attention of others but that are not classifiable as natural history.
I’ve created a “plain Jane,” “just vanilla” blog in which I intend to publish full length reviews of books – most new but a few not – that fall outside the category of natural history. When a new review is added, I’ll post a note with a link to the new review here in a category simply named “John’s Blog.” Those interested can pop over and see what I’ve written; those not interested can simply ignore it.
I hope this will satisfy all parties concerned. It will provide me with a platform to review a wider range of books than just those of natural history and give attention to the I find particularly deserving of it. It will give readers of The Well-read Naturalist an easy way to either explore or ignore such reviews. And most importantly, it will allow me to maintain my original purpose for founding The Well-read Naturalist as a dedicated site for the reviewing of natural history books.
