Editing

Let’s Talk About Book Reviews

/ kellyfbarr / 16 Comments

Photo by Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash

I would really like to generate a discussion in the comment section of this post. If you are an indie published author or someone who is planning on publishing a book independently, I hope you will comment after reading this post. I will also warn you that this will be a longer post than I usually write.

You see, I don’t understand today’s indie authors who write a book, then publish it and put it out for the whole world to see without having it properly edited, and yet, they get upset if someone writes a review they find negative or offensive or gives the book less than a 4-star rating. If you publish and release a book with lots of grammatical errors or a book that lacks a good plot or well developed characters, or any other writing problems, why would you expect all the ratings to be four and five stars, and why would you expect a glowing review with nothing but positive things about your book?

As a reader, I want to read honest reviews. As a matter of fact, it aggravates me when someone simply posts a star rating but says nothing about what they thought or how they felt about the book. Just like everything else in the world, books, including eBooks, are getting more expensive and I don’t want to waste my money or time reading a book that hasn’t been polished. Before indie publishing, you or I might have picked up a book we didn’t like after reading it, but not because it had a bunch of errors or lacked all the important parts of a good story. Our dislike would’ve been based on things like a favorite character dying, or an unhappy ending, or the problem not being satisfactorily resolved. However, published books did not have lots of grammatical errors or things like using one name for a character in half of the book and then another name for the same character in the second half of the book or any other major problems because books had been thoroughly and well edited.

As a writer who has been studying the writing craft in the professional writing world for over 10 years now, I have learned the things that are most important to a good story: well developed characters, a story written in the POV (point of view) of one or two characters clearly, without head hopping (jumping from one character’s thoughts and feelings to another’s), and written in a way that takes me deep within the main character’s or main two characters’ heads because that’s what draws me deep into the story. Also, a clear description/picture of the setting; conflict — some kind of problem (usually more than one) that the character needs to overcome; a plot line that keeps me wanting to turn the pages; a clear resolution of the problem or problems at the end of the story along with evidence that the character has grown and changed from the beginning to the end of the story. In addition, the best books evoke the reader’s emotions — I always say my favorite books make me laugh and cry. Some great extras in a book might be an unexpected surprise or twist.

Also, I am realistic. I know that whatever I publish, no matter how well written it may be, it is still bound to get some negative reviews because not everyone likes the same kinds of books. Therefore, I fully expect that there will be some people who will read my book and not like it and write a review stating why they disliked it. I am also fully aware that not everyone writes their criticisms in a kind, constructive way. That’s what all writers need to be aware of and ready to accept. The first thing I was taught in the professional writing world is: “You better develop a thick skin.” In other words, you’d better be able to accept or ignore negative and/or nasty critiques and/or reviews and not respond in kind.

So, if your book is lacking some important parts or has glaring grammatical errors, wouldn’t you prefer to have an honest review that points these things out in a kind way?

Example: I recently read a book that had major problems and should have been more thoroughly edited and corrected before publication. Here is the review I wrote without the title and author’s name or specifics about the story:

The story fails to really draw the reader into the story. It also lacks descriptions that paint pictures of the setting in the readers mind. There is also no real conflict, action, or danger, although there were a couple times in the story that the reader may suspect danger or a threat of danger ahead.

This is a very simple sweet story where everything goes well and leads to a happy ending. The story moves quickly and reaches its end without full development of plot or characters. Therefore, I believe this book has been written and published by a person who has had little writing instruction.

If it had illustrations, it would make a fun children’s book. As it is, I would recommend it for elementary age children. It is an easy read where there are no dangers and everything ends happily. It is a completely clean story.

So, I posed two questions earlier in this post I would like comments on. In addition, I would like comments on the following questions in regard to this review: 1) Do you consider this review harsh? 2) Do you see positives in the review in addition to the criticism? 3) Would you take offense to the review or consider taking another look at the book and trying to see the points made and make corrections?

Only respectful answers/comments will be posted and will get a response from me or other readers.

Self-Editing Tips

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments
Photo by ahmad gunnaivi on Unsplash

Have you written a great story but see that it needs some improvement before you publish it for the world to see?

Writing a great story is hard work. It requires time. The best writers continually study the writing craft by reading great books about writing and by attending writing conferences either in person or online. This enables a writer to keep up-to-date on any changes in the writing world as far as writing styles, suggested rules, and what agents and publishers are looking for.

“But I’m an indie author,” you may say, and many indie authors think they can do anything they want. They don’t have to follow rules or try to please anyone with their writing except themselves.

However, indie authors also want to sell books, so if they aren’t considering an audience, how will they sell their books?

Hence the need for not only studying the craft of writing, but also, the need for editing your work yourself, as well as hiring a professional editor.

“Professional editors are expensive! I don’t have that kind of money,” you may protest.

That is why I am going to write some articles to help you do a good job of writing as well as self-editing before seeking a professional editor. Granted, there are expensive editors out there–expensive because they charge so much per word or per page, thus including the properly written words and pages in your manuscript. However, I, the Thrifty Editor, charge per hour, which saves a self-edited writer money.

How? Because if you can get your manuscript in good technical shape by finding the majority of the typos, spelling and grammar problems, and usage of the wrong word in a sentence, you’ll save the professional editor a lot of time. Therefore, if that editor charges by the hour, it will cost you less money. Take me, the Thrifty Editor, for example; I charge by the hour, which saves a self-edited writer money. I only have to stop reading when I find errors I need to correct. The less errors and stopping I do, the faster I complete the job, thus saving you money.

Now you say, “Tell me more.”

Okay, I will. Here are my suggestions for self-editing upon completing your manuscript:

  1. Set your manuscript aside for at least two weeks, a month is even better. Then when you pick it up again, you will approach it with fresh eyes.
  2. Now, when you pick it up. Read it out loud. Most often, you will find many errors while reading out loud because you will be able to hear if a sentence includes a misused word or if the sentence sounds awkward and needs to be tweaked.
  3. Also, try not to read too quickly. As the writer of the story, you know what you want it to say, but as you were writing, your mind was probably moving faster than your fingers were writing or typing. This is where typos and misspellings happen. Therefore, if you read slowly and carefully and look at each and every word, you can catch most of your typos and misspellings on your own. You may even have used a proper spelling but have the wrong word and so your “spell check” feature won’t catch it, (i.e. you meant to use there but mistakenly typed their).
  4. Last, but not least, do your best to know as much proper grammar as possible. Read a book about grammar or articles about proper word usage, especially words that are most commonly misused, like lie and laid. This will help you avoid grammatical errors.

Next time, I’ll talk about bigger writing issues and how to find them.