Tips and Tricks

[Laurie (barksbooks)]

Ok, gotcha. I've noticed I receive the most feedback when my reviews are funny/lighter-hearted than when I'm deadly serious or if it's a super popular book that they've all read. I don't set out to write a review a certain way, it really depends on my mood and the book. Sometimes they write themselves. I love those, it's the middle of the road books that I really struggle writing and my reviews for them usually come out very dull.

[Cambria]

yeah, i think being funny or lighthearted works best too. and you know i try not to read other reviews of the same book before I write mine as well. :)

[Amy Eye]

Same here, sometimes the reviews just flow one way, sometimes another. If I'm PMS'ing, it may be a little more of a serious review, if my kids have been quiet, and I didn't have to cook dinner or fold clothes, it may be a much lighter review! LOL

[Cassandra]

I am with BarkLess and Cambria on that one. I feel if I read a review of a fellow friend, then I feel like I am going to get in the mind set of what they thought as well. I don't want to seem like a peeping tom and have their ideas along with mine in my own review!

It just skews everything up! (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I am so lame! :))

[Amy Eye]

I am with you guys on that point too, I don't like to read other people's reviews before I write mine either. I always hope to have a different view point than everyone else. I don't want to sound too cookie cutter.

[Dale]

I don't read reviews first (especially if I'm critiquing, not reviewing) so as not to skew my impression. I agree, some reviews are just harder to writer than others. I think you can always tell when I'm stumped in my review on what to say...those tend to be pretty short! :)

[Cassie]

Sometimes if I get stumped (usually if I don't write the review IMMEDIATELY after reading), I might go scan over some reviews as a little reminder. Someone might mention a certain character or something, then I'll think, "Oh ya! I thought..." so that helps me finish up. I try to avoid them otherwise b/c then I'll start being influenced.

But, ya, I welcome any opinions about my reviews. I know sometimes they can be stuffy, but I try to have a little fun with them usually!

[Sarah]

Amy, great links you posted....somewhere. I saw them in the "digest" Goodreads sent me to my gmail address but with 4 pages of posts here, who knows where they are now!

I've read 1-1/2, almost 2 pages of remarks here and I just wanted to chime in--as an author who actively solicits reviews and feedback while I'm writing no less!!

When someone reviews a book and just says "I love it!" or "This sucked!" or even "This book has potential but just isn't working for me." the author probably finds it fairly frustrating. Wow, sorry about that alliteration. Not on purpose, just been doing that a lot lately.

Anyway, the reason it's frustrating, as an author, to get those kinds of comments is that it's not specific enough for me to do anything about it. I can't even think about the problem because the problem hasn't been explicitly identified. As a result, if it's an issue of style or writing techniques, I'm pretty likely to do it again (and again and again) since no one's told me it's not working. Even worse is that last one, which tells me something somewhere worked (had potential) but something else, somehow countered it so that the reader just didn't get anything out of the whole experience. I don't know how anyone does anything but shake their head at a response like that....shaken head in confusion, not disagreement.

Now, as an author I do actually read so I also read book reviews to figure out what to read and telling me, "Hey, this sucked!" really isn't giving me a clue if you and I have the same taste and are likely to share that opinion. It is, indeed, just an opinion and no one in this world has a "right" to have everyone else on the planet agree with them. Arguably, we all have a "right" to have our own opinions. That's all. I find a lot of reviewers who write summary judgments or succinct dismissals do NOT share my tastes actually.

I like to read book reviews to figure out if I should or shouldn't waste my time reading a book. If the reviewer tells me "The book starts out slowly but once you get into it, wow, it's a great read." I'm probably going to plod through the slow start. If all I read was "The slow start didn't grab me." I wouldn't have a clue if it ever gets any better. As a reader, looking at a review, that's what I want to know. Does it get better? Worse? Great from the start? Terrible and downhill from there? As an author, I'd want to know why it felt like a slow start.

Last word and then I'll stop (I sure do write a lot, don't I? Good thing I actually AM a writer!! LOL) A lot of reviewers summarize a book's plot. While this doesn't bother me, it also doesn't help me. Hopefully, the author or publisher has already done that and in fact, the summary description is the #2 sales tool (right after the cover) so that's probably what got me interested enough to read a review or three to see what others thought of the book. If a reviewer recaps the plot's high points and intersperses their own comments, now that is going to help me. A point by point review of the plot? Great.

I rarely or never buy a book unless someone somewhere has read it, loved it and told me WHY. That's what I think makes for a great book review, but that is, after all, just my opinion *grin*

[Amy Eye]

We always like to hear what the authors are looking for in reviews as well. While not all reviewers are out there to help the author get insight into their books, many of us are. Some reviewers just want to have their voice heard about something, or let other potential readers know what they thought about the book.

Then you have us 'hybrids' out there who do try to do both. We want to let the author know what they did right and wrong, what we loved and hated, and what pulled us in or repulsed us. I especially hope the authors who just have little things to fix to tweak it into a particularly engaging read really listens to the things that we are saying, nothing is more heartbreaking that a book that is 'almost there' when it comes to being a magnificent book, but not crossing the finish line because of some plot holes, unbelievable characters, editing, or pacing issues.

[J.A.]

Amy, as a first-time author I have to say that the reviews I've had from you guys are just awesome in how helpful your reviews are. The fact that I've had the same comment from several of you has showed me where I need to polish and what works which is so, SO useful!

If it's any indication, when Book 2 goes live and I have the link, I'll be going back into Book 1 to add it, and while I'm there, will be inputting a couple of tweaks resulting directly from suggestions from this group.

I'm also thinking of offering a free ebook of book 2 to anyone who reviewed book 1 and wants to do a pre-release review of the next bit - which is also getting some tweaks directly from suggestions and comments from you guys.

So do be aware of just how much sway your reviews have, esp if as authors we can have the discussion with you afterwards. We don't expect you to act as beta-readers - and most of us don't release anything that we don't consider a finished product - but if the feedback YOU give us leads us to believe that there's something that doesn't work, we'd be foolish not to want to improve it. Sometimes we can't because there are reasons for which it has to be that way - but for the less consquential stuff, your suggestions and opinions can help us to create a better, more effective story for subsequent readers.

In my book (no pun intended) that's a win for everyone!
JAC

[Cassandra]

I am once again stuck on my blog. I see other blogs that have "buttons" which is a nice way for others who like your blog to grab your button and stick it thier blogs. I am ever so stuck and not so smart when it comes to technology and hmtl. How in the world do you make these buttons?

One more question while I am here, how in the world do you put the "Find Me Here" Facebook, twitter, goodreads etc button up on your blog?

Small things that could help a blog majorly and I have no idea how to do these things! Hahaha. I swear I am lost for any hope left!

[Debra]

I don't usually read other writers' reviews either, but sometimes I do afterward, and it can be a real surprise to see how others reacted so differently to my impressions, but that's what makes reviews interesting!

The only time I'll read a few reviews is after I've read a book, but don't know quite what to make of it. It doesn't appen often, but I do find that other reviews make me figure out what I liked or didn't like about the book, which isn't to say I agree with the reviewers.

[Cambria]

Cassandra wrote: "I am once again stuck on my blog. I see other blogs that have "buttons" which is a nice way for others who like your blog to grab your button and stick it thier blogs. I am ever so stuck and not so..."

LOL Cassandra, I don't know how to do any og this either! it is frustrating isn't it? But when and if I figure it out then I will pass it along to you!
p.s. I am sure someone will come along and tell you bc the bloggers around here are so talented!

[Sarah]

Amy wrote: "We always like to hear what the authors are looking for in reviews as well. While not all reviewers are out there to help the author get insight into their books, many of us are. ... I especially hope the authors who just have little things to fix to tweak it into a particularly engaging read really listens to the things that we are saying, nothing is more heartbreaking that a book that is 'almost there' when it comes to being a magnificent book, but not crossing the finish line because of some plot holes, unbelievable characters, editing, or pacing issues. "

LOL, Amy!! Plot holes and pacing issues, not to mention unbelieveable characters are not "little issues" at all. Or not little details to fix easily. And personally, I don't think it's appropriate to ask someone to review something with plot holes or "unfinished" characters.

Pacing is an art form and it often DOES take a review/comment to get that just right. You're so right that if someone takes the time and effort to actually review a work and point out a pacing issue, the author really should consider fixing it. That, sadly, is one of the fallacies of printing on paper (DTBs). For eBooks and especially for self-published indie authors, there's just no excuse not to take the feedback to heart.

I just tweaked my first chapters on Authonomy due to a comment someone there gave me--they were specific enough about what was slowing things down for them that I could fix it, but not all reviewers are specific. That was one of my points in my comment.

Don't forget the other point I made though: I am ALSO a reader and a reviewer's remarks speak to me as a reader. Maybe authors here don't read reviews of others' works? What a shame if true! That's such a missed opportunity to learn how to improve their own writing--and better, maybe find a new great read :)

[Sarah]

Since the issue came up (this might not be the best discussion in which to post this so please suggest to me another discussion in the group that's better if you know of one and I'll cros post) I've had a question some of you might be able to answer.

If I've gotten reviews that talk about the beginning of my book being slow but it's a great read once you get into it (and for my Jewish Inspirational / RomCom Coming Home (Dicky's Story) I have gotten those kinds of comments), but I've already sold about 100 copies in the 3 mos it's been out. How do I handle making a revision (e.g., issuing a Second Edition) with regards to those 100 customers who already paid money for it?

I don't have names/email address--I wish!!--because their identities are protected from me against the possibility I might spam them in the future or something. I agree with the privacy policy but it sure makes it hard for me to follow up with my existing customer base. If I could, I'd offer them a free revised copy. Actually, if they bought on Smashwords, they automatically get one. You get access to any/all revisions the author makes to the book after you've purchased it. But I've sold on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well.

What're your thoughts on how to make changes based on reviews, reissue the book and not end up with angry customers who already bought Rev 1? That's the one thing that's held me back. Existing customers who own the original version might resent the changes if they didn't know how to get a free "update" to their eBook.

Again, there might be a better place to ask about the BUSINESS of books but I'm at a loss to figure out where. I don't know this group very well yet, so please just spin me around and point me to the right place :) Thanks!

[Sarah]

Cambria wrote: "Cassandra wrote: "I am once again stuck on my blog. I see other blogs that have "buttons" which is a nice way for others who like your blog to grab your button and stick it thier blogs. I am ever s..."

If it's a Blogspot blog, I'm pretty good with the widget-making ... I'm just not sure what you mean by "buttons" you can pick up. Show me an example (link to it) and describe what it is you see and I'll try to help.

If your blog's not on Blogger (blogspot.com) I'm not sure I can help. Wordpress, forex, is awfully complicated about things that aren't that hard. I have (had) 2 Wordpress blogs I've since abandoned because Wordpress so not user-friendly).

[Sarah]

Cassandra wrote: "I am once again stuck on my blog. [...] One more question while I am here, how in the world do you put the "Find Me Here" Facebook, twitter, goodreads etc button up on your blog? "

Cassandra, those are really easy! If you've gone to my blog (http://webbiegrrl.blogspot.com/)--and if not, why not??? subscribe to it please!--you'll see I have a bunch of these.

Twitter
First I have a nifty keen twitter feed. I got that from the twitter site, here:

https://twitter.com/about/resources/w...

Select "for your web site" and customize it. I customized the colors to match my blog and did a few other tweaks to the code to make it the way I wanted it but it's pretty good "as is" if you're afraid of touching code and breaking it--and if you erase the wrong thing, you COULD break it so be sure before you edit.

You just fill in the form and then copy the code to your RAM (Ctrl-C on Windows, Command-C on a Mac). Then go to your blog's dashboard. Assuming again you're on blogger, it's called "Design" and you choose the "Add a widget" link in the sidebar, if you have one, then scroll down to where you see "HTML/JavaScript" and choose that one.

In the title you can type "Follow me on Twitter" or just leave it blank (like I did so I wouldn't get a dark orange "title" bar for that widget since Twitter already has a border around its widget). In the main body of the widget, just paste (Ctrl-V or Command-V) the code, hit "Save" and you're done! If you want to move the widget from the top to some other place, just drag it to a new position.

When you don't type a title in, however, it will just say "HTML/JavaScript" on the "Design" screen (on Blogger, but whatever the design screen is called in your blog's dashboard). That makes it hard to remember which one is which if you add a lot of them and don't put titles in. I sometimes have to go look and check to see "Oh it's the 4th one down" or whatever just to locate which HTML/JavaScript widget I want to edit when I do.

There's another nifty button you can get from Twitter and add to your blog the same way:

https://twitter.com/about/resources/t...

That adds a "Tweet This" button so you can add that to your posts. It'll do a count for you of how many people HAVE tweeted it.

Goodreads

I also got the "My book's been reviewed on Goodreads" widget from the Goodreads site itself and like the above twitter stuff, I just added a new "HTML/JavaScript" widget (but I put a title on my Goodreads one.

Facebook

I actually have a Facebook Page. That's a little different than a personal Facebook profile so unless you have a FB Page set up already, you cannot get a follower widget like mine *sticks tongue out* Just kidding. You probably can get one for a personal profile but it won't be "like me" it'll be "friend me" or something. I got the Facebook widget from Facebook, like the others.

http://www.facebook.com/badges/

And yep, it's another HTML/JavaScript widget. The Facebook one, though, was a little quirky. I have to be logged into FB to see it on my blog. Be careful with it.

Were there any others you wanted? Badges (or widgets) are intimidating LOOKING but not all that hard to do once you've done one :) Ask again if you have trouble. You can also email me privately for one-on-one help if you like: webbiegrrlwriter at gmail dot com

-sry

[Sarah]

Oh yeah, p.s on the Goodreads badge, I got it from a page linked off my Author Dashboard so I'm not sure how a non-author profile accesses those.

[C.S. Splitter]

Hi Sarah,

I don't know of anything you could really do to get in contact with people who read the first edition before you made changes. Post it on your blog, maybe put (2nd edition) into your blurb, just whatever it takes to get the word out.

At the end of my book, I put my email address. I got a bunch of feedback to my inbox. That was nice, but they weren't reviews lol. And we need reviews!

However, because I had that "base", I was able to send out an email to those that had contacted me via email.

That's the only "mass" message (hah! Mass is such an overstatement given the numbers) I have ever sent the early readers.

I have another edition coming out but I probably won't tell the previous readers as it is just a re-ordering of the chapters and punctuation fixes (punctuation problem breed when you are not looking, you know). Those previous readers won't care about that stuff.

so part of what we can do as authors is get out contact information out there to the readers as part of the book. You probably did that, but it's a good reminder (I think...).

Splitter

[Cassandra]

Sarah R. Yoffa wrote: "Cassandra wrote: "I am once again stuck on my blog. [...] One more question while I am here, how in the world do you put the "Find Me Here" Facebook, twitter, goodreads etc button up on your blog? ..."

Hahaha! Sarah! You are a blog goddess! *swoons*
ANYWAY! Thank you sooo much for taking your time to write all that down! I really hope you didn't cramp your hand up, but THANK YOU!

About the "buttons" that I have seen are a personal thing for the blog themselves. It would be like the name of thier blog and other bloggers could paste it to their own blog for support, or because its their favorite blog. Then when others are looking at the said person's blog they can click on that button and it will take it the said blog.

Real confusing, and I am horrible at explaining things. I am confusing, I know this! :) Hahaha!

I will most definitely shoot you an email with an example after I get off work here in a couple hours.

Thank you again, Sarah!!! You have been such amazing help!

[Sarah]

Cassandra, my pleasure, plus:

1) I type about 100 wpm
2) you're almost definitely NOT the only one who'll read it and be helped by it so it was a worthwhile effort and
3) it's like a no-brainer for me (20 yrs in IT management will do that to a grrl though I am surprisingly more and more out of touch with the webbie-tech these days)

So by button, you mean a badge for your site that others put on their sites, like the way Twitter, Facebook etc. have badges that I you install (following my instructions ;-) as widgets?

I've never seen such a thing but it should be easy enough. Make a logo, a graphic of some kind and slap it onto your blog with the text inviting others to grab this button and show their support.

Send me a link with an example. If you can't do a graphic yourself--and it's simple/straightforward enough--I can do something for you (up to 30 min of my time "free, in good faith") but if you have a blog already, you should be able to just crop a logo out of your blog design. I'm working at the heavy labor day job (about as opposite from IT management as it gets!) for the next 3 days but will be back around Fri/Sat as usual.

And you can "make it up to me" for all the scripting help by reading and reviewing my chapters at Authonomy *haha* And you thought I wouldn't sneak a pitch in there somewhere. That's just so cute! *muahahah*

[Sarah]

Hey CS Splitter, thanks for the reply re releasing a 2d Ed . Yeah, definitely, I already have a substantial amount of Back Matter in my eBook. Hey, it's free, why not? And once I have more books out to advertise, assuming I want to connect them to this one (or vice a versa) I'll be adding excerpts from other books and adverts for them.

The back of an eBook is like free advertising space that is 100% guaranteed reaching a fully-pre-qualified audience. I mean these people just finished your book. They actually read the whole thing. They're still reading because they don't want to walk away yet. They are THAT hooked. If you don't take the opportunity to sell them whatever else you got, you're just not in business. You're writing to fulfill some other dream, which is fine, but it's not business if you throw away free advertising to a qualified audience.

I actually really enjoy the "Afterwords" sections that some of my favorite authors write. I crave those sections actually because it gives me more insight into the author than just the story did. Also, a very wise woman (best seller and mega-award winner, Lois McMaster Bujold) once said she hates the idea of putting anything in between the beginning of her book and her readers. A title page is necesary but everything else can go to the back. Besides, after they've read the book, they care more. Too true! Lois is a great businesswoman, esp. after 25 yrs in the business.

[J.A.]

Sarah, for those who buy on Kindle, they can just mail the support desk and ask them to delete the old copy and upload the new one. It's very easy and they do it all the time. Dunno about B&N though.

Re back matter, if there's a lot, make sure you don't include it in the word-count!! Whole thread on Amazon where people feel "tricked" because they thought they were paying for 5k words of story and got 2k words of story and 3k words of advertising. They were mostly happy to pay the same amount for the 2k story and get the ads free though.

Slightly different with a full-length book but the principle is worth following I suspect, and shall be doing myself, going fwd.
JAC

[Sarah]

JA, thanks for the warning re word count, but with Dicky's Story, my biggest problem is just the opposite. It's a VERY long book. The first draft in 2003 was 164k words. After editing in 2005 I got it down to 139k but then this winter, I converted it to romance genre--added in all the sex I'd taken out while writing or during the 2005 edits--and it's bloated up to 183k. Without exception, the length is not the issue because once the reader's about 1/3 of the way in, they don't want to put it down again. My issue is the first 1/3 of the book is "scifi" sounding and it's really throwing off my intended audience. Neither religious markets nor romance markets want scifi and the scifi readers don't typically like inspirational fiction (unless it's a made-up religion in a made-up universe) and very much don't like the sex of romance novels. I devoted an entire chapter to The Sex Scene. It's a requisite in a romance novel you know? *haha* plus I love writing really good sex scenes--love scene plus hot sex = really good to me. My style is to veer away from euphemisms so the explicit sex, regardless of the love story, would turn scifi readers right off. Throws a segment of the inspirational fiction market too actually. The romance market is the only one who's tolerant of it all--and they don't like the scifi opener either but romance readers are just too hungry for new books to not read something they started *grin*