Reviewers are presented with the same situation, over and over again. Beginning writers – and some not so beginning – insist on making the same mistakes. Either they don’t know any better, or they don’t care, or it’s their God-given right to write any way they like, and who are you to tell them different? But it’s a competitive world out there, and fixing basic problems is a good way of improving your chances. It’s also a good way of showing your professionalism.
Please don’t be offended at these. Reviewers have no personal grudge against you or your masterwork. It’s just that if we didn’t have to keep commenting on the same errors over and over, we would have room to say something more important about your work. Continue reading “Top 7 Book Reviewer Complaints”
We’re writers. Our weapon of choice is words. We use them in ways that evoke emotion, that educate, that take our readers on a fantasy journey, that incite, excite, satisfy, and shock. In order to do this, we must make sure that our words come together in a way that keeps the reader’s interest, that keeps the reader willing to suspend disbelief and go along with us on our odyssey.
I’m lucky in that I’ve got a wonderful pool of friends, fans, writers, and readers with whom I can bounce off the latest ideas for my most recent book. I can either post in secret groups to get a wide-ranging opinion on a book cover idea or a blurb draft, or I can elicit specific feedback from a select few, depending on my need. And why do I do that?
Shortly I’m going to tell a true story about a man who is using a false premise to get publicity. This story is full of generalized and vague statements that will break most rules of telling a good story. When you get there, you’ll understand why. But before I even dive into the story I’m going to take a short tangent. (If I’m gonna break rules, I might as well go all out.) Even worse, that tangent is about politics.