Gary Roen Syndicated Book Critic and Author Information for Writers

Have you heard of Gary S. Roen, a nationally syndicated book critic, and author? Reviews by Gary Roen have been running for over 45 years in different publications throughout the nation. That includes Midwestbookreview.com, bUnike Magazine, Lake Legal News, Hernando Star, Veterans Voice, and Bivouac Magazine to name a few. 

The books he has authored include Cats Cats and More Cats, Journey, Slotski’s World, The Forgotten Father and Coping with Grief.  He has been a regular on-air contributor to many different types of radio and TV shows throughout the United States.  

He reviews books as he loves reading and fell into it many years ago when he was on WPRK in Winter Park, Florida. He did the show with Patty Flanigan of WDBO at the time who wanted to expand with a show on another station about science fiction. He was the go-to person on getting books because of his connections in the publishing world for them to talk about on the show. To expand the listenership, they branched out to include print as a way to promote the show. Later they dissolved everything but he kept doing print reviews that have continued to this day.

Recently LinkedIn paid tributed to Gary Roen as he has been an author, critic, and publishing person for 47 years. During that time, he has seen a variety of changes. Some were positive, negative, or even in-between. Don’t you wish you could know what he does to help along the path to publication?

Here is some advice he offers to writers:

“Keep writing, do not get discouraged, learn your craft better if possible, by taking courses, or hook up with writers’ groups that really work with authors on their work. Keep up on what is selling in the industry, do not strive to be the next whatever but do the best work you can possibly do and always be humble. Most of all have fun.” 

Word Choice and Character Names Are Important

Roen advises writers to avoid overused words. When he reads a book with too many words such as and, or, so — he puts the book down. Be careful when writing to use less commonly used words to make an impact. He adds, “We have a Thesaurus on our tablets or other devices and it amazes him that more people do not use it.”

A grating mistake to him is characters with similar names like Sara or Sally, Jack or John who are best friends or in the same book. The reason is that people have to constantly go back in the work and figure out who is who or lose sight of them. You want your characters to be separate with no confusion by their distinct personalities as well as their names.

Many people ask him how to get reviews or interviews. Some of the ways are very simple. He says make your first impression professional while treating your work like a business. A mistake he sees all the time by authors that can be a very costly blunder is sending in writing pieces that do not follow the guidelines or rules for consideration. The point is those that get rejected immediately. Sometimes the author takes rejection personally when he or she did not follow submission directions. Authors are sometimes to blame for their own failures.

Roen is also often asked:

“As a book critic, what do you look for?”  His answers mostly apply to fiction but some nonfiction also qualifies.

He considers if the piece has a beginning, middle and an end. This also fits for True Crime books or a news story. In journalism there are the “W” questions of who, what, when, where, and if possible, why. All of these must be included in any writing piece.

We are honored that Mr. Roen provided this information both for established and aspiring authors, and thank him for his time. We hope many of you found this post illuminating.

Please find a full interview of Gary Roen on the New Book Review at:

https://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/2020/10/gary-roen-nationally-syndicated-book.html

He may be contacted through LinkedIn, Facebook, and

www.legacypublishing.com 

His books may be found at the following retailers:

Amazon

Books a Million

Barnes and Noble