Rediscovering My Voice as a Book Reviewer

 There’s a page on my website that lists all of the books I have reviewed in the times I have spent as a professional book reviewer. Some of these gigs were paid while some of them are unpaid. (The standard in the book review industry is that the free book offered to the reviewer serves as payment. However, when I have been paid for my reviews, I make attempts to not only turn them in faster, but also to make them as thorough and in-depth as possible. There’s something to be said about getting paid for your time and effort!) What people won’t find on there, though, are reviews I wrote for a publishing company seeking in-house reviews of their books.

 

Maybe that is a good thing, because there was one review I wrote of an author’s book which wasn’t very favorable of her book. And, sadly, she later committed suicide.

 

This news of her death was devastating. I did not know her personally, but I did occasionally communicate with her through social media. Her life was so short and she is still very missed.

 

Meanwhile, I was dealing with a personal issue in relation to her death. I didn’t talk about it openly, because I didn’t want MY problems to interfere with the mourning period her family, friends, associates and fellow authors were going through. But, later on, I did talk about it.

 

And I need to talk about it again here, because things have since changed.

 

For a long time after this author’s suicide, I couldn’t review another book. I felt so terrible about the review I wrote of her book, that I started to wonder if it played a factor in what drove her to end her life. I know it probably didn’t, but that was how I felt at the time. It was awful. I was ravaged by guilt. I even vowed to never review another book again.

 

Well, obviously, that has changed. I did start leaving small reviews of books I read on Amazon. They were all very short reviews and I tried my hardest to make them positive. I gave 5-star reviews to books which I really felt did not deserve five stars, but I was worried that anything less would be hurtful to the author. I just didn’t want to make anything negative of those mini reviews that I wrote.

 

Anyway, after several months of this, I found the strength to publicly share book reviews under my name again. I started a book review blog – first on LiveJournal then on Blogger – and then I decided it was time to review books professionally again. First I tried one online book review service, but the owner was pressuring members to review his book (one which I was not interested in reading!) and the editors of the reviews were rude. Plus, it would be several weeks until the reviews I wrote for them finally appeared on the site – although there is one that I wrote several months ago that was never published. I didn’t stick around there for very long!

 

Then I remembered a site my friend, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, had mentioned in her many communications with me through the years: Reader Views. I checked out the site and liked what I saw. I noticed they even had a presence on social media AND they reviewed self-published books. I decided to give them a try and applied to be a book reviewer. Fortunately, I was accepted. The two ladies operating Reader Views are lovely. They have promptly answered my emails, were always kind and considerate, and the reviews I wrote were promptly included on their site and in their socials. I have been happily reviewing books for them ever since.

 

I don’t know if it was the act of writing those mini reviews that helped me to regain the confidence to write book reviews again, but I know it certainly helped.

 

Also, I have been more mindful of the reviews I write. If I don’t like the book, I won’t review it, even if there is one thing about the book that I DO like. (Thankfully, as an ARC reviewer for a publishing company and some authors I know, I have only received books to review that I actually liked.) But if I don’t like the book, I decline the review. I am grateful that this is an option. I know there are ways to still write a positive review of a book you don’t like, but I’m still not comfortable doing that.

 

And I know I am not doing the authors any favors by giving a 5-star review to books that are not exactly 5-star books. I have since changed that bad habit as well. I’m not so negative with my reviews of books I don’t give five stars to, but at least I am now more comfortable to be more honest about how many stars that I personally feel a book should receive.

 

And “personal” is the keyword here. All reviews of books are just that: a personal opinion about a book. They are not meant to be a way of lashing out at an author or a universal statement about what kind of book this author has written. They are only personal opinions about a book. (Sidenote: This is true in MOST cases. I am aware that there are so-called “book reviewers” out there leaving negative reviews of books simply because of what they know about the book’s content, even if they haven’t read it, or as a means of leaving hateful comments against an author currently in the news for a crime or something similar. There was one author who was accused of killing her child and people left angry and hateful comments about her on Amazon where the reviews go, and another author who was murdered ended up having people who knew her leaving sentimental and thoughtful comments on her book pages on Amazon where reviews are supposed to go.)

 

The bottom line is, not everybody is going to like a book. There WILL be readers out there who don’t like the same book that everybody else likes, and readers that do.

 

As to that one author, I DID like her book. The only thing I pointed out were certain mistakes she made about things in her story (they weren’t writing mistakes; they were mistakes about certain items the characters used). But overall, the story itself was good. And I think that as long as the author manages to tell a good story that readers enjoy, then a mistake or two in their story doesn’t really matter.  

Dear book promotion sites: Please stop spamming authors

Recently, I started receiving emails that were obvious spam. “Obvious” because, in the subject lines, there was a title for either one of my or my daughter’s books and it came from someone I had either not contacted or did not know. It was one of those out of the blue emails.

As someone who has worked in marketing to promote authors, I understand the reasoning behind the subject line. Even so, it just wasn’t enough to grab my attention. It was enough to get the email deleted. Why?

I don’t do business with people who think it’s okay to spam others.

For some time now, I have networked with other authors, book publicists, marketing reps and book bloggers. I have spent some time communicating with them, getting to know them, and creating some kind of relationship with them to the point where they have earned my trust. These are people whose names I KNOW and if I get an email from any of them, I just might respond to it! Well, that can’t be said of everyone I have worked with. Some work relationships went south because I learned the person was shady or we have unresolved issues that are not going to magically disappear just because they popped into my life again with an offer to work together again on something new. Also, if I just accepted your friend request or followed you on Twitter, throwing your promotion services at me right then and there is not going to win me over. I also follow book promotion sites as well as book bloggers on Twitter because I hope to establish a connection with them and get to know more about them should I ever take interest in their book-reviewing or book-promotion services. I want to get comfortable with a person first and get to know them better as well as what services they offer before making the next move.

That said, anybody who is in the business of promoting authors or marketing books who I DO NOT KNOW and who sends me an email offering to promote my book is simply wasting their time. Those emails either get no response or they are deleted.

Not only this, but why would I all of a sudden get all excited about promoting a book that was published over 3 years ago? If the book has been out for a while, I seriously doubt anybody’s going to care if I all of a sudden start promoting it again. An exception is made with books which have evergreen topics – like my book, 365 Tips For Writers. Every December, I spend some time promoting this book because I am hopeful someone who hopes to get more writing done in the new year will see this book and consider buying it. The same goes with my breast cancer ebook; it usually gets touted in October (along with anything related to Halloween). But if one of my books wouldn’t serve that purpose, then it usually doesn’t get another promo push after I finish my initial promo campaign after the book is released. (Sometimes, though, I just don’t have the energy for those promo opps. I have to deal with the occasional funk!)

It’s nice to think that someone took notice of my book and wants to promote it, but in the real world, I know they are only trying to sell their promotion or marketing services. They really don't care if their promotion or review of my book means it will spark sales; they are only interested in getting money from me and hoping I'll be naive enough to give it to them! 

Maybe there are authors out there who are okay with being spammed by these services and have no problem shelling out money to get their book listed on some website or reviewed on some blog, but I am not one of them. If you want to promote one of my books, maybe we should try communication first. Connect with me through Facebook or Twitter and let me know who you are. Let me see your pages or newsfeeds for myself and let me decide if I would like to take you up on your promotion services. I’m not one of those authors who will pay for a review, but I am interested in other things like blog tours, and if I know who you are and what you do, I just might want to click on your links myself to learn more.

Tenth and final stop for Shadow of Samhain blog tour: An interview and a review!

This is the very last blog post about my blog tour for my novel, Shadow of Samhain. I am very excited about this blog tour! It's been a fun experience and I look forward to doing another one for another book in the near future.

I have been interviewed at The One Saga, which is the blog of author Mathew Bridle. You can read it here. 

Also, Shadow of Samhain got a nice review on the Page Turner Book Tour site. You can read that review here. It's interesting the reviewer said that at the end of the review, because I have entertained the idea of writing a prequel about those very two characters!

Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, as well as the review, and thank you to Mathew Bridle for the interview!

Ninth stop for my virtual book tour for Shadow of Samhain: A review at Publish or Bust

The blog tour for my novel, Shadow of Samhain, is almost at an end. I am very excited about this blog tour! It's been a fun experience and I look forward to doing another one for another book in the near future.

I'll pop in here at the blog to share where I'm appearing for each day of the tour.

For today, my novel has been reviewed at Publish or Bust, which is the blog of author Leona Bushman. You can read the review here.

Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, and thank you to Leona Bushman for reviewing my book!

Happy Read an E-Book Week!

It's Read an E-Book Week! I am very excited about this week. It’s a great chance to download some free or deeply-discounted e-books, check out e-books I may not have otherwise known about and read the work of authors I would not have otherwise known about!

To learn more about Read an E-Book Week, go here.

To celebrate this special week, I will be reviewing e-books on my book review blog, Dawn Reviews Books. I have changed the policy on that blog to include all kinds of books, not just family-friendly or PG-only books, because I felt that limitation was putting a damper on being able to share about some good books I have read that are not otherwise family-friendly. The whole point of that blog is to share about some good books (and e-books), so I decided to open the reviews to include all kinds of books.

You can read the first e-book review here.

Aside from that, I’ll be posting excerpts, covers and synopses of e-books here on this blog. I have two e-books of my own published so far, both of them published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing, and more are scheduled for publication in the near future.

The next post for this blog is scheduled for tomorrow, where you’ll get to check out an excerpt from my horror poetry e-book, Songs of the Dead.

Happy e-book reading!

Two or three? Two wins!

Ordinarily, 3 is my number. Don’t ask me why, but I like the number 3. I have liked this number for some time. It is one of my favorite numbers (the others are 17, 25, 27 and 103). I like doing things in threes and trying three times. I also like using three things as examples when I am writing (and editors who hated sentences with serial commas have often grumbled over this habit of mine in the articles I’ve sent them).

However, I have noticed something this year. With the new year, I decided to work on two things at a time each day, instead of three. I want to make room for other things I am planning to do this year, so I figured the best way to do that was to cut out one of the things I’d be working on each day. That third thing was a book I’m reading AND writing.

I have a system: I’ll work on a book then read a book before moving on to other things in my day. This is how I am able to write books AND review them at the same time. The books I’ll read are usually fiction/poetry or research/nonfiction, but this year it’s nonfiction and fiction. The book I choose to read after I work on a book depends on the type of book I’ll be working on next. Usually, I work on fiction in the evenings, so in order to avoid copying anything from a fiction book I am reading – and you’ll notice I didn’t say “fictional book” (haha!) – I’ll read a nonfiction book early in the day.

So this year, it’s two-and-two. Two books I am reading at a time and two books I am working on at a time. That’s my plan, and it has been going very well. Because I am working on several nonfiction books at once, I rotate between the nonfiction books, depending on when there is work for them. Sometimes, though, I’ll be working on a nonfiction book for a longer period before moving on to another one, like if there is A LOT of work to be done for it. (This is the case with one book I have been working on. The part I am writing for this book is taking me several weeks to complete because it involves A LOT of research. Aye!)

I also try to fit in work on the current poetry book (in this case, the soldier poems book, but I also write poems for any old thing as well) and last year I completed what would be the children’s book for this year. All the same, I do work on other poetry and fiction books (not “fictional books” – natch!) but only after I completed the previous one. I do have yet another children’s book complete for NEXT year, except it just needs illustrations. I’ll be moving down through my list of fiction books (wait for it!) after I finish completing the previous one on the list. (And, yes, there is a list! Why I ever thought it was okay to write several novels and just let them sit on my hard drive, I will never know.)

But I have noticed that two at a time is working out much better for me instead of three at a time. It’s less stressful, to be sure, and the kids are happy that they get more time to play games on the ONE computer we have in this house.

Whether or not 2 will become my new favorite number remains to be seen. But, as a method, working on 2 things at a time just works out better than doing 3. Especially since I’ve taken on a gig as a marketing rep for a publishing company, so I need time for that, too. Perhaps doing two things at a time is a system that I will keep.

(Ha!)

On writing bad reviews

When I started reviewing books on the Internet, I never once thought that it might be a good idea to use a pseudonym. On one level, I no longer use a pseudonym because I feel it is like I am ashamed of what I am writing. On another level, I won’t use one because, in the past, I’ve had to defend that I WAS indeed the author of something written under a pseudonym and I just don’t want to go there anymore. However, as I have written book reviews for quite some time now, I am beginning to think that maybe a pseudonym would have been useful for when I have to write a bad review of a book.

Being an author myself, I know that reviewing books on a public forum places me in a position where an author unhappy with my review of his/her book would lash out at me via a bad review of one of my own books on Amazon.com or something. Yes, this kind of behavior is childish and unprofessional, but it can and probably does happen.

Also, as an author, I know how painful a bad review of my book can be. I work so hard on my books and take them through several edits, revisions and critiques until they are satisfactory. And my editors have worked their magic, as well, God bless ‘em. But a bad review of one of my books is inevitable – it goes with the territory – and I know it would be a little hard to swallow. Still, I respect that reviewer’s opinions. I won’t respond to bad reviews and I will acknowledge that you just can’t please everybody. Really, you can’t.

I hope that a certain author will think the same thing when my review of his book is posted online. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the book. At all. I TRIED to like it and I even actually pointed out the novel’s one strength. But I just didn’t like it, and so my review of this book is not a very positive one. In fact, I’m giving it one star when I turn the review in. But I hope that people won’t see that one star and think they should avoid reading that book. Reading my review will clue them in as to why I didn’t like it. I tried to be restrained with my opinions. I tried to still be nice even though I called his book “filth” and “brain poison.” I still felt terrible writing a bad review. I don’t like writing bad reviews. Believe me, if I had the choice of passing on reviewing the book in order to avoid writing a bad review, I would have done so. But I HAD to read this book because it is a print copy, and I HAD to review it.

If only I had that pseudonym handy….

This reminded me of the scene in that movie Ratatouille, where the food critic struggles to write his review after he learns the chef who prepared his food was a rat. What can we do? What do we say? How can we say it without hurting anyone or anything?

I really struggled with this. How could I write this review without making it seem like this book isn’t worth anybody’s time? And how could I say the things in my review that I wanted to say? This was a Hugo Award winning author, after all! Who was I to say such things about his latest creation?

But, I have to remember that it is my job to review the novel. To only share my opinions about it – and it is just ONE person’s opinion! I am not trying to say the author sucks. I am not trying to put him down or put down his other work. I actually haven’t read his other books and they may be good stuff! What I am trying to do is share my opinions of this particular novel. Not this particular author. Just THIS particular novel.

I don’t like writing a bad review. I’ve done it before and I felt terrible after the review was posted. (And that review was actually the watered-down version of what I REALLY wrote.) But I took on this role as book reviewer and, in some cases, there are times I cannot pass on reviewing a book which I find distasteful or unappealing. These are the times I must swallow that lump in my throat and share what I think about that book. Not that author, just that book.

Perhaps in future I would do well to review ebooks instead of print. At least in that case, should I want to pass on reviewing a book, I will be allowed to do so.

Do I have what it takes to be a copywriter? Am I already one?

Recently, I made the decision to walk away from freelance writing for good. That’s not to say I’ve given up on writing/submitting articles. I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing articles! (That is hard to turn off.) But what I mean is, I am no longer going to approach markets I have not been published in before. This is not an act of snobbery, but more of frustration. I got tired of my queries and submissions being ignored. So I said to myself, why bother?

But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop submitting altogether. I’ll still submit, but to editors I have worked with in the past. Editors who had the decency to reply to my emails. (Say what you will about unanswered emails. I think it’s just plain rude to not reply to emails – IF the person emailing you is not being negative. A recent spat with hate messages reminded me it’s not worth the energy in responding.)

One other choice I made was to give up the writing gig for Demand Media Studios. It just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. In fact, the gig started to own my life, and I hated that. Some articles I wrote took days to write; others, hours. It just wasn’t worth it. (I also had certain creative differences with the CEs, but that's for a whole 'nother blog post.) So I said “goodbye” to that, as well. I am grateful for that experience and for the opportunity to be published on eHow. I learned a lot as a writer, self-editor and researcher.

Still, even with these changes, I realized something: I didn’t NOT like working from home. Truth of the matter is, I have been working from home for so insanely long, I am just so used to it. It’s what I know. I’ve always been a work-from-home mom. And I feel guilty if I’m NOT working, even from home. This picture just doesn’t look right.

So I asked myself, what now? I wasn’t prepared to go back to the writing gig. I’m not yet in a position to be a full-fledged book editor for a publishing company, which is my ultimate goal (and even as a freelance editor, clients are few and far between). Freelance writing for articles was out of the picture. What? Now?

Then I remembered something. For several years now, I have been tiptoeing around the idea of being a copywriter. The only thing that kept me from doing it? I. Hate. Advertising. Seriously, I don’t want to be the kind of person who tells people, “Buy! Buy! Buy!” I’ve got a frugal side to me that is anti-consumerism. More power to self-sustainability! *cue me shaking my fist*

But as I thought on this earlier today, I realized, being a copywriter is not so much about encouraging people to spend their money on MORE stuff. It’s more about telling people ABOUT stuff.

Book promotion is the same way. I’ve written articles for the purpose of getting the word out about my books. If I want to sell books, I gotta let people know these books even exist! How will people know there is a book about haunted houses unless they hear about it? That’s book promotion – and copywriting – right there.

I’ve written blurbs for other author’s books – again, similar to copywriting, because I’m endorsing a product.

And what about book reviews? I carefully word each book review so that the author has some quotes to use for promotion AND the review tells readers good things about these books. Just like with copywriting.

Of course, I know this is not enough for me to just jump into copywriting with the claim that I know all about what a good copywriter is. But I’ve realized that, should I make this choice, should I take this leap, it would seem I have had a good amount of practice writing the way a copywriter would write. Benefits, features, headlines – I am so there. Been there and done that already.

And in a way, it makes the choice easier. At least if I do this, then I will have had some practice. Some kind of idea of what kind of writing it takes to succeed.

All I need to do now is read everything I can get my hands on about copywriting. Read the books, check out the web sites and read the newsletters. Get a better feel for it.

Because I am not prepared to walk away from writing from home altogether. Before I throw in the towel on earning income from my writing, I want to at least give copywriting a shot. Stop asking “what if?” and just DO it. The time for indecision on whether or not I will give this a shot is over with. It’s time to decide – and I’m leaning towards saying “yes.”

Fathers in Fiction

When it comes to Father’s Day, a common “Dad icon” the media looks for are the dads we see on television. Mike Brady, Ward Cleaver, Al Bundy, Archie Bunker, Steven Keaton, Cliff Huxtable, Sheriff Andy Taylor, Howard Cunningham, Jason Seaver, Charles Ingalls, Homer Simpson and Danny Tanner. But what about the dads we read about in novels? There may not be a lot we remember, but there are many fathers in fiction I think are worth mentioning.

One father in fiction that stands out is Atticus Finch, the widowed father of two children in To Kill a Mockingbird. I love this novel and I can still remember how Scout’s father often patiently and lovingly talked to his children about the things they were going through and especially the things going on in their lives. The children tried to understand the reasoning behind the hatred spewed at a black man put on trial, and I thought Lee’s portrayal of Atticus during his role as a lawyer and as a loving father were straight on.

Another father in fiction I liked reading about was Denny Swift in Garth Stein’s unforgettable novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain. Denny is an up-and-coming race car driver, and after his wife dies, his in-laws fight him for custody of his little girl. I had to admire the mature and intelligent way Denny handles this situation, even going so far as to encourage his daughter to stay with his in-laws so there won’t be any conflicts while custody rights are being handled in court. I was impressed with how he handles himself even after his in-laws set him up for a sex crime, all in their attempt to make him look like an unfit father in court.

In The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, Padraic “Paddy” Cleary is the firm, loving and hostile father all wrapped into one. The one thing I remember from this novel (and the made-for-TV movie) is the hostility between him and his adopted son, Frank. (Frank doesn’t know Padraic is not his real father until later in the story.) Despite his flaws, Padraic works hard to support his family and keep his family together during hard times.

It’s not just dads who became fathers the usual way I enjoyed reading about in fiction, though. There are the men who became dads after marrying a woman who already has either a child or children. Take, for example, Bernard Fine, in Danielle Steel’s novel, Fine Things. Bernard is enchanted by a little girl and falls in love with the child’s mother, Liz, who is recently divorced. The two marry and welcome another child into their small family, but tragedy strikes when Liz is diagnosed with cancer and later dies, leaving Bernard to care for the two children himself. Even though Bernard does seek out another wife, he is still a devoted father to the children, even taking the time to talk with his daughter who is angry that her mother is being “replaced.”

These are just some of the dads who come to mind when I think about fathers in fiction. There are also the dads in books I have had the privilege of reviewing: Howard Walters, the comically paranoid former NASA-man in Leanna Ellis’ Once in a Blue Moon; Joe Tucker in Carla Stewart’s novel, Chasing Lilacs, who calls his daughter, Sammie, “Sis” and struggles to keep the status quo in his home despite Sammie’s mother suffering from a severe case of depression; and Michael Seymour, the wise and gentle father in Lisa Samson’s novel, Resurrection in May, who acquiesces to his college-age daughter’s insistence on staying at Claudius’ farm after surviving a horrible ordeal in Rwanda (can’t say I don’t blame him, given his wife’s failing health and his need to care for her more than his daughter).

I especially think about fathers in fiction on this Father’s Day because, at this point, I am editing the last part of my novel, Shadow of Samhain. I think of how two fathers are portrayed in this story: Pearsons Ratham, the father of my main character, Malissa, and Dean Charleston, Malissa’s husband. I modeled Pearsons after my own father and Dean after my own husband. (They are NOT exact replicas, however. These characters just have bits and pieces of these two men in my life. I thought that, given this novel is based on actual events in my own life, it was appropriate to do so.) I am especially thoughtful about this given the part I am at now, where I had to go online and ask a bunch of dads, “What would you do if your daughter was missing and you suspected a psychic had kidnapped her?” Quite a few dads replied on how they would react and what kind of actions they would take. This contributed to how I ended up writing that scene (thanks, dads!) but I had to really wonder over how these dads sounded VERY protective of their daughters and some of them even said they’d get medieval with the psychic if they suspected the woman had harmed their child. I know we parents must set good examples for our children and try to live a life free of violence, but I could really see how, when it came to protecting one of their own, these dads were ready to roll up their sleeves and physically fight for their families.

Thanks, real-life dads, for stepping up and doing what dads are supposed to do for their homes and families. Thanks, TV dads, for making us viewers take a moment to thank the good Lord we don’t have a goofy dad like that or appreciate how our own dads were patient, whimsical and understanding like that. And thanks, fictional dads, for helping us readers analyze how your portrayal in fiction shapes our views and expectations of fatherhood, and how some fathers out there can reflect on just the kind of dad they, too, want to be.

This "book review blogger" thing

Several years ago, when I was reviewing books for Crescent Blues E-Magazine, I started communicating with an author named Irene Watson. I wrote up a review of her book, The Sitting Swing, yet unfortunately Crescent Blues ceased publication before her review was posted. Irene and I kept tabs ever since and I’ve been a reader of her Reader Views newsletter for quite some time.

Her most recent editorial in Reader Views concerns book review bloggers. Being one myself, I read it with interest.

She pointed out how some authors should do some background checks on book review bloggers who ask for free copies of books to review. I totally agree with this suggestion. As an author myself, I’ve heard from people saying “I’ll post a review of your book on my blog if you send me a copy!” but that never happened, even months after I sent them the books. At that time, I didn’t check out these so-called “reviewers.” I just said “sure!” and sent them a copy. Then I heard nothing.

However, ever since I started being a little more careful with which reviewers I send books to, I have actually seen results. I normally ship a copy of my new books to my friend and fellow reviewer, Carolyn Howard-Johnson. She reviews books for MyShelf.com and has a newsletter. A title of mine has been mentioned in her newsletter a time or two. And I have done reciprocal reviews with other authors I know.

But for those who I don’t know, yes, I have looked at their sites. I have seen if they post their reviews elsewhere. If things don’t add up, it’s a good idea to pass on sending those people a review copy.

I must note that, as a book review blogger, I never ask for free copies of books. Sure, I receive some voluntarily from people I have networked with in the past. Peter Bowerman has me on his mailing list just for this reason. And sometimes authors on Twitter who see my tweeted links of books I have reviewed ask me if I’ll review their books. But I don’t go around telling authors, “I’m a book review blogger! Send me free copies of your books!” I don’t do this because my own book review blog is just a hobby. Something I do in my spare time. I don’t make it a “side thing,” which is why I don’t use SEO as a way to attract followers. Sure, I post the links of reviews on Twitter and Facebook, but I’m not DESPERATE for an audience. Also, I may take a while to read a book, because I already review books for Night Owl Reviews and The Dabbling Mum where I DO have deadlines, so I don’t want to get angry emails from impatient authors wanting to know where my review of their book is at.

As to reposting reviews on Amazon and B&N, to be honest, I hadn’t thought of it. I think I should start doing that. Wouldn’t hurt. I used to do that on Amazon, with books I bought from there, but stopped after I created the book review blog. Now my reviews go there. But maybe they should go elsewhere, too. If it’s allowed, anyway. I inform authors who have personally contacted me when the review is up and I give them all the green light to repost my reviews of their books on their sites, blogs, etc., as long as they include the link. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to do the same on Amazon and B&N.

This journey as a book review blogger has been a learning experience. Perhaps someday I’ll start using SEO. Perhaps someday I’ll get around to spiffying up my book review blog to make it appear more professional. Perhaps someday it will become a side thing, rather than a hobby. And I can open the doors to more authors getting reviews by inviting them to send along their review copies. But until then, this book review blogger is going to use her blog only as an outlet for sharing my thoughts on books and indulging in my joy of reading books at leisure.

Here is the link to my book review blog and more book reviews.

Editing mistakes

One thing I have learned to live with as a book reviewer is that, sometimes, editing mistakes happen in books. There is nothing I can do about it. The missing period or the dialogue missing an ending quote mark are little things I have no trouble overlooking, but some mistakes just seem to stand out.

Recently, Saga Books has contracted to publish the haunted houses book I have co-authored with Martha Jette. We have been performing surgery on this manuscript before it goes to print. Martha noted to me that, as she has worked on this manuscript, she has found mistakes we missed when we took it through the editing rounds with the last publisher we had this book with.

That is disheartening, but not surprising.

When I edited the BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL manuscript, I read it several times. I read it until my eyes started to bleed. Yet even after it was published, I caught a few mistakes that slipped through. This probably would not have happened had an extra pair of eyes given it a read, so I’m grateful that, this time around, this book has been edited by more than one person. I’m especially confident about this since Martha is also a professional editor.

All the same, editing mistakes tend to slip through. The occasional mistake is forgivable. It’s the mistakes that happen over and over again, however, that drive me batty.

This is something Martha can relate to. “I review many books that are basically good reads but all the errors just drive me crazy.”

Errors that keep showing up in a manuscript are the ones that I have gripes about. For example, one book I am currently reviewing has characters noting whether it's a.m. or p.m. when they give the time. This is a bad idea because, first of all, people don’t say “it’s 5 p.m. “ if you ask them the time. They just say “it’s 5” or “it’s 5:00.” The first time this happened, I rolled my eyes. The bazillionth time it happened, I was ready to tear my hair out. It was especially annoying when a character said that it was “10:30 a.m.” and, in the same paragraph, noted that a particular character was still in school.

Well…duh. Of course it’s “a.m.” if someone is still in school. Teenagers don’t normally attend school in the evening.

What’s worse is that this book is NOT an ARC. It is not a manuscript. It is a final release.

I mentioned this to an editor I know and it seemed to touch on a nerve. She complained about “lazy editing” in so many books.

This also reminded me of something I have heard a lot. A lot of publishers and editors won’t exactly take it upon themselves to “edit” an entire manuscript they are going to publish. These days, that responsibility rests on the author. An author must have their manuscript as print-ready as possible in order to pass the scrutinizing eyes of an agent or acquisitions editor. It must be as complete, revised and edited as it can be. One editor at a publishing house I know mentioned to me that she can tell when a manuscript is a first draft. Sadly, it’s manuscripts like these she normally rejects.

In my Revisions book series, I encourage writers to get their manuscripts edited by a professional editor. Or at least have a fellow writer look it over. Yes, editors are expensive, but trust me, they are so worth every penny they charge. Of all the editors I have worked with, I thank my lucky stars for all the mistakes they have caught in my manuscripts. As it is, one editor pointed out a glaring POV mistake I made on the very first page of a novel. After I saw that, I slapped my forehead and wondered how on earth I missed that. (A short story I recently had published also had a POV mistake which I didn't catch until after it was published. Whoops.)

This is how those mistakes happen. Sometimes, we miss things. But if we have a professional editor help us with our manuscripts, chances are good the amount of things we miss during our own edits will be smaller.

This is something that Martha likewise encourages. “I keep reminding authors that they MUST review their work many times and/or get a professional editor to do it for them because most publishers today simply do not do it.”

At least this book is in the hands of two different professional editors. You can't accuse us of "lazy editing" here! Still, mistakes tend to slip through. And that might happen even still, with this book. That's just the way it is. The most we can do is give our manuscripts the best editing work we can.

Awesome review of the Tips book!

A book usually gets reviewed shortly before or after its release. This time around, however, I've put new energy into promoting an old book of mine, mainly because it was recently re-released as an E-book. I am especially delighted to see that sales of the E-book have been impressive, because this can only mean that this book, published in 2004, is reaching a whole new audience of readers and writers who could find the book helpful.

Fellow author Lillie Ammann, who is also an editor, took the time to review 365 Tips for Writers for her blog, A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye.

You can find the review here:

Review: 365 Tips for Writers

Thank you so much for your fantastic review of my book, Lillie! I am excited to see commenters asking about it and expressing interest. Your review was superb and it totally made my day!

Notes from a book reviewer

One of the joys of being a book reviewer is not that you get free books to read but that you have a golden opportunity to read new books on the market (on the other hand, some books I have reviewed were published a year or more ago). This is information people who are not book reviewers are not ordinarily apprised of. Of course, there are the book reviews published online, in newspapers and magazines. All the same, some books do get reviewed and some don't.

In my case, one particular book I was planning to write a review for will not get a review after all. Because it is for my book review blog, I have the choice of whether or not I'll review this book. The reason why I am not going to write a review of this book is just one of many things I wish I could tell authors but, alas, don't have the opportunity to send them a note. However, since this blog is meant to enlighten, educate and inspire writers, as well as discuss writing in general, I will post my thoughts here with the hope that writers and authors may see these words and take them into consideration.

And because I'm not allowed to reveal the titles of books I have complaints about, and because I'm supposed to stay neutral as a Night Owl book reviewer, I will refrain from divulging that information. They didn't teach me the secret handshake for nothing.

• Make readers care about your characters. When I take the time to read somebody's story, even if it is a fictional somebody, I want to really know that person. I want to know them better than I know myself. What is their greatest fear? Why did they choose the vocation that they have chosen? What kind of house or apartment or trailer do they live in? Describe it. Show me their world. But, more importantly, show me their emotions. Show me a character breaking down and weeping after her child has died so that I can weep with her. Make me feel her heart pounding in her chest as she flees from an attacker. Show me your characters instead of telling me about them. This will help me to care about your characters. Don't forget that "character" starts with "care" and if you make readers care about your characters, they will want to keep reading that character's story to the very end.

• Don't overdo the cute stuff. In one scene I read, the two major characters kept throwing sarcastic barbs at each other. At first, it's funny. We can relate. People do those kinds of things in real life. But if it keeps going on and on and on, with the characters acting like a smartass with every single thing they say, it gets really old really fast. This kind of thing just doesn't move the story forward. Instead, it makes me want to sit down with a bowl of popcorn and just watch the whole thing. It doesn't have me on the edge of my seat, turning the pages for more.

• Bring your world to life. Those very words are the title for a chapter I have in the Revisions book in the section for revising articles but I'm beginning to think I should create a similar chapter in the section reserved for revising fiction. BRING YOUR WORLD TO LIFE. This is not just a message I want writers of fiction to put to use in their stories but especially the writers of fantasy. If you're going to put me into a whole nother world, at least give me a map. Help me figure out what this world is all about. What does it look like? What do the residents look like? What kind of environment does it have? If it's not an environment where humans can live, then how are the people who live there able to breathe that environment? What's used for currency? What is the food like? Is there animal life? Show me, the reader, what kind of world you have created just for your story. Remember, readers do not know what the writer knows. Put everything into words.

• Keep it real. This is reserved for writers of nonfiction. Even if you are writing about a new, blissful kind of philosophy of life, find a way for readers to apply it to their lives with real world standards. The book I was reading is nice, and interesting, but it just doesn't apply to the real world. It's not like I can read that book and say, "What a great book! Now I'm going to go outside to have tea with my leprechaun then ride around on a unicorn!" News flash: We, the readers, live in the real world. The real world is not all roses and rainbows. The author did cover certain sticky situations in which using his advice would be difficult, but instead of tackling them with solutions or offering ideas on how to handle them, he just glossed over them and threw out generalities. Fail. Real life doesn't work like that. In real life, people with a problem need solutions. They need guidance. They need answers. Not ideas. If you write nonfiction, make sure you write for real people living in the real world with real issues and problems they need solutions for.

• Don't shove your beliefs down readers' throats. The nonfiction book I was going to review is heavy on Eastern thought and Buddhist teachings. As a Christian, this made me feel a little uncomfortable. I understand everyone has their own beliefs and that some of those beliefs can seep into what we write, but if you overdo it and keep at it again and again, it can be a huge turn-off for readers. In essence, you are limiting your readership when you try to make your book's message a preachy one. I had to wonder if that book was meant for Buddhists and not someone interested in the message or looking for answers to a sticky situation. Nobody likes being preached to or having a certain religion or belief held over their head.

I'm not saying these things to discourage writers from trying to write a book or get their novel published. On the contrary, I would like to encourage writers to keep writing. Keep being creative, sharing your stories and making your dreams of publication a reality. Just keep the above tips in mind so that when your book or story lands on the desk of a reviewer, that reviewer will have positive and encouraging things to say about it.

U.S. book reviewers wanted!

An editor I know is looking for book reviewers based in the U.S. She is a deputy editor for a British magazine called Disabled, Pregnancy & Parenthood international (DPPi). Here is their Web site: http://www.dppi.org.uk/

She is looking for U.S. book reviewers interested in reviewing books on disability topics. The DPPi is a charity, so this is a non-paying arrangement. If you'd like to review books for her, please contact me at DMCWriter(at)gmail.com and I'll include your contact info in the list I am sending to her.

Also, if you know of any other U.S. book reviewers who might be interested, please feel free to forward the link to this blog post to them so that they can contact me with their information. I'd really appreciate it!