To Use or Not to Use?
I guess that’s a question every author faces when they receive a review of their book. If the review is not favourable then I guess an author won’t use it in promotion. I’ve had that experience once. I thought the review did not reflect the generally favourable opinion of my second to last novel.
My last novel (Death on the Quay) has recently received the following balanced review:
“This paperback book is an easy to read murder mystery “whodunnit”. Suitable for over 18 years of age as some details of violent acts are quite graphic. However, these are necessary for the story and a mature reader will understand this.
“The story begins with a young freelance journalist, Adam Adair, walking to work along Lambton Quay in Wellington, when a woman collides with him and overbalances. Adam eases her fall and in the process of trying to sit her up, a bystander notices that she is bleeding from a knife wound in her back. The woman fixes her eyes on Adam with a desperate, pleading look before losing consciousness. Adam soon learns that she dies in the ambulance before reaching hospital.
“Adam is haunted by the young woman's desperate attempt at communication and decides to investigate, as the Police do not seem to be making any progress, putting him and his closest friend in great danger.
“Meanwhile, fashionable socialite, Cynthia, is being stalked, but hides her fears as she has a great secret that she cannot risk being uncovered. The plot thickens as some unsavoury characters are introduced.
“The author keeps the reader wondering until the end of the story as events start to link in with each other, highlighting the stark differences of behaviour and attitudes between social classes. The author has the ability to make the characters become quickly familiar to the reader which makes for easy reading. The author also has a great knowledge of the City of Wellington and describes the locations of events very well, so even a reader not familiar with the city would get a good picture of Wellington and environs. If I had any criticism at all, it would be that occasionally the author slightly overdoes the details of road and area names.
“Altogether an enjoyable quick read book with a good story line, written in a fairly simplistic manner which makes it the easy read that it is. I would recommend this book as a ‘put your feet up’ holiday read.”
The reviewer (whom I won’t name here) is maybe an older person, for all I know, because she refers to the 37 year-old lead protagonist as “young”. She also thought the book should have an R18 rating, which surprised me. I’d been very careful, in writing the story, to limit detail of violence as I’m not a fan of such descriptions. I think I achieved my intention when compared to many other popular novels I’ve read (including one I’m currently reading). Her opinion was therefore a surprise.
A male beta reader of my novel, pre-publication, had even commented on how I had “played down the violence”. Perhaps the reviewer was more sensitive to literary violence than he or I am.
“Easy read” is a phrase used by many book reviewers (e.g. the New Zealand Herald review of the Fifty Shades novel series). It might sometimes appear dismissive about the author’s style.
In the review of my book, above, the reviewer links “easy read” with the book being written in a “fairly simplistic manner”. That is somewhat pejorative.
What measure has she used?
Bror Tranbacke of the Easy-to-Read Foundation suggests “easy read” means "easy to understand" because difficult words are avoided”, but also “because the presentation as such is made specific and easy to follow.”
He gives useful “examples of criteria or guidelines that can be used to make a test easy to read and easy to understand”:
• “Write concretely. Avoid abstractions and transferred concepts.
• “Be logical. The action should follow a common thread with logical continuity.
• “Action should be direct and simple, without long introductions and without too many characters involved.
• “Avoid symbolical language (metaphors) that may be misunderstood by the reader.
• “Be concise. Do not place several actions in a single sentence. Place the words of the same phrase on the same line.
• “Avoid difficult words, but attempt to use a language that is adult and dignified. If unusual words have to be used, they should be explained by context clues.
• “Even rather complicated relationships can often be described and explained if this is done in a concrete and logical manner, where events take place in a natural chronological framework.”
I’m quite happy for my writing to reach that standard.
My last novel (Death on the Quay) has recently received the following balanced review:
“This paperback book is an easy to read murder mystery “whodunnit”. Suitable for over 18 years of age as some details of violent acts are quite graphic. However, these are necessary for the story and a mature reader will understand this.
“The story begins with a young freelance journalist, Adam Adair, walking to work along Lambton Quay in Wellington, when a woman collides with him and overbalances. Adam eases her fall and in the process of trying to sit her up, a bystander notices that she is bleeding from a knife wound in her back. The woman fixes her eyes on Adam with a desperate, pleading look before losing consciousness. Adam soon learns that she dies in the ambulance before reaching hospital.
“Adam is haunted by the young woman's desperate attempt at communication and decides to investigate, as the Police do not seem to be making any progress, putting him and his closest friend in great danger.
“Meanwhile, fashionable socialite, Cynthia, is being stalked, but hides her fears as she has a great secret that she cannot risk being uncovered. The plot thickens as some unsavoury characters are introduced.
“The author keeps the reader wondering until the end of the story as events start to link in with each other, highlighting the stark differences of behaviour and attitudes between social classes. The author has the ability to make the characters become quickly familiar to the reader which makes for easy reading. The author also has a great knowledge of the City of Wellington and describes the locations of events very well, so even a reader not familiar with the city would get a good picture of Wellington and environs. If I had any criticism at all, it would be that occasionally the author slightly overdoes the details of road and area names.
“Altogether an enjoyable quick read book with a good story line, written in a fairly simplistic manner which makes it the easy read that it is. I would recommend this book as a ‘put your feet up’ holiday read.”
The reviewer (whom I won’t name here) is maybe an older person, for all I know, because she refers to the 37 year-old lead protagonist as “young”. She also thought the book should have an R18 rating, which surprised me. I’d been very careful, in writing the story, to limit detail of violence as I’m not a fan of such descriptions. I think I achieved my intention when compared to many other popular novels I’ve read (including one I’m currently reading). Her opinion was therefore a surprise.
A male beta reader of my novel, pre-publication, had even commented on how I had “played down the violence”. Perhaps the reviewer was more sensitive to literary violence than he or I am.
“Easy read” is a phrase used by many book reviewers (e.g. the New Zealand Herald review of the Fifty Shades novel series). It might sometimes appear dismissive about the author’s style.
In the review of my book, above, the reviewer links “easy read” with the book being written in a “fairly simplistic manner”. That is somewhat pejorative.
What measure has she used?
Bror Tranbacke of the Easy-to-Read Foundation suggests “easy read” means "easy to understand" because difficult words are avoided”, but also “because the presentation as such is made specific and easy to follow.”
He gives useful “examples of criteria or guidelines that can be used to make a test easy to read and easy to understand”:
• “Write concretely. Avoid abstractions and transferred concepts.
• “Be logical. The action should follow a common thread with logical continuity.
• “Action should be direct and simple, without long introductions and without too many characters involved.
• “Avoid symbolical language (metaphors) that may be misunderstood by the reader.
• “Be concise. Do not place several actions in a single sentence. Place the words of the same phrase on the same line.
• “Avoid difficult words, but attempt to use a language that is adult and dignified. If unusual words have to be used, they should be explained by context clues.
• “Even rather complicated relationships can often be described and explained if this is done in a concrete and logical manner, where events take place in a natural chronological framework.”
I’m quite happy for my writing to reach that standard.
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