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[Shashi]

Over a period of some years, I have been writing reviews of new authors at my blog which has more than Half Million hits and read by 700+ readers every day and selected by respected blog aggregators as one of the top 50 blogs in the world.

Initially I reviewed most of my friend’s book but now I would like to do so more comprehensively, in order to help new authors to reach out to their target audience.

Hence I started a regular feature at my blog “Shadow Dancing With Mind“, displayed at the top right corner of my blog as SPOT LIGHT to promote new authors and help them to reach their target audience.

It is for FREE but I intend to be very selective about the books I going to feature in the SPOTLIGHT and give an honest review, as and when I do it.

So if you are interested, please check out the below post for the process...
http://themonkkey.com/calling-authors...
... and write me an email at shashidhar.sharma@gmail.com to take it forward.
Cheers!!!
___
Shashi
Author of Songs of the Mist

[Juliette]

Shashi wrote: "Over a period of some years, I have been writing reviews of new authors at my blog which has more than Half Million hits and read by 700+ readers every day and selected by respected blog aggregator..."

Hi Shashi, my memoir Juliette's Angel fits your criteria. It is well written with extensive professional editing. It explores the non-fiction genre of spirituality, psychology and is packed with fast paced drama. And it ends with the most startling evidence.

I will email required information for the SPOTLIGHT process. Thank your for offering this valued service to Goodreads authors.

Energy & Angels, Juliette Power, author of Juliette's Angel & Juliette Power's Little Book of Angel Inspiration

[David]

A few weeks ago, I started a discussion on the merits of reserving 1 star, 2 star, and 3 star reviews of ebooks as "advice to the author" rather than actually posting them on the product page, on the assumption that the author would use such reviews as opportunities to revise the work and republish, and that only 4 star and 5 star reviews should actually be posted to the product page if the unrevised work merited such reviews.

I got this idea from the "Reader's Favorite" website, which has this approach and I thought that it made good sense, partly because of the problem that the same work can receive good or bad reviews from different people, and partly because after revision and republication, a bad review might no longer be relevant to the work, yet it would still be there, and the work would still be judged by it. One of my own books, for example, got a 3-star review, on the basis of which I revised and republished, yet the old review is still there.

Nevertheless, I received universally negative blowback on this idea from Goodreads people.

Having thought about this for a while, I've come to a different conclusion. If a book earns 1-, 2-, or 3-star reviews, the author has three options: do nothing, revise and republish, or (and I didn't consider this before) revise and republish under the same or a different title as a new book, in which case, all reviews would be lost, and the new work would need to begin the review process over again. At this point, despite the loss of any good reviews on the unrevised work, I think that this third option is probably the best. How do others feel about this?

[Denise]

David wrote: "A few weeks ago, I started a discussion on the merits of reserving 1 star, 2 star, and 3 star reviews of ebooks as "advice to the author" rather than actually posting them on the product page, on t..."
Hi, David! I am no expert; I have started to post my reviews just 6 months ago, but I believe that we will never please everyone; a rating goes from 1 to 5, and as long as the critics are constructive, I don´t see any problem in rating 1-3 stars, to be honest. Of course, reviewers must be ethic enough to reflect whether the book was not so well-written or criticize something on the structure, rather than simply say "I did not like the story, so I will give it a 1".
Anyway, I think your point is valid when you say that "because after revision and republication, a bad review might no longer be relevant to the work, yet it would still be there, and the work would still be judged by it"; although when I search for a new book to read, I always read some reviews and comments, specially those that are too different from the others - too good or too bad. But you are right, the book is already published, so unless there is a very famous reviewer rating it badly, it will make no difference at all.
Hope this was not too confusing =)

[David]

Thanks, Denise! Not confusing at all.

BTW, I'm taking my own advice and am re-publishing my fairly successful 2013 novel, "Eustacia's Secret: A love Story" after a lot of revision and expansion. It's not up on amazon yet, but will be soon. I'll be looking for reviews, and if you're interested, I'll send you the file gratis.

It's about two teenage boys who fall in love in the late 1960s. One is a transgender girl (Eustacia) and the other is a homophobic boy, who naively isn't aware that his true love is transgender. This makes for some confusing and stressful but amusing interplay between them and among those who know them.

[Denise]

David, it would be a pleasure to review your book! My email is mypapertrips@wordpress.com; please feel free to contact whenever you want. Warm regards

[Denise]

Ahaha sorry, David! I sent my wrong email; it is mypapertrips@gmail.com. WordPress is my blog lol
:)

[Alistair]

David wrote: "A few weeks ago, I started a discussion on the merits of reserving 1 star, 2 star, and 3 star reviews of ebooks as "advice to the author" rather than actually posting them on the product page, on t..."

Hi David, I'm on your side with this. I've been asked to jump-in as an alternate reviewer a couple of times and I turned-down the first book because it really 'wasn't my thing' which meant I would be reading something I wouldn't normally read. However hard I tried, I wouldn't be able to offer a fair response, as I wasn't the 'target market'. Different genre and niche readerships expect different book styles; deeply internalised first person works or vast swathes of description don't float my boat, so I end-up skip reading that type of work - even by very highly regarded authors. With one such established author I missed whole chapters, which were written from a creature perspective that I felt added little to the story.

Another book I was offered and accepted for review had a great story premise, but was written in what I felt was a 'newbie' unskilled manner - in fact it was possible, with that author, to see their writing skill improve as the novel progressed. The obvious next-step for the author, was to go back and rewrite with that new skill set. Repeating until the whole novel was as slick as possible. There were also a whole pile of small craft issues that needed addressing, none of them unsurmountable, but they were there in the text. Had I reviewed the novel on the strength of the work I had in my hand, I could not have given a fair response - either to the author, or any reader who came after. Instead of reviewing, I gave the author a private response of a detailed guide to what I felt needed fixing. Basically, from my perspective, the book was missing its 'polishing' stages.

Of course, if after addressing all the craft issues and producing a polished piece of text, the actual 'story journey' is flat and uninteresting, then the author needs to know that as well. So, morally, do you give them a two star rating saying; 'Well written, but a slow, boring and unengaging story.' - or do you cop out and say not my thing, or do you feed-back honestly saying why you felt the story didn't work?

From my perspective, a publication-ready work should not be scoring anything less than three stars. Bringing a non-publication-ready work for review to a review forum is just asking for trouble. I also feel that reviewers should excuse themselves if the work is not within the genre and style that they normally read for pleasure. Giving a well-written work a low score because you didn't like the subject matter or style of writing is not something an author can fix.

Alistair Alistair Potter
The Box of Tricks The Last Trollid The Counsel of Wizards Bort's People

[David]

Alistair wrote: "David wrote: "A few weeks ago, I started a discussion on the merits of reserving 1 star, 2 star, and 3 star reviews of ebooks as "advice to the author" rather than actually posting them on the prod..."

Thanks, Alistair!