Saturday, January 11, 2014

What do you look for?

After my recent blog post about book reviews, it's got me wondering. What do you look for in a book review? What entices you to read a book based on the book reviews? Obviously "This book rocks!" doesn't exactly do it.
For me, I look for a number of things. I look at the star rating, where does it place? If it's 3 stars or less, chances are I won't pick it up. Why? Well, chances are it was a flop. Now, if it is only 2 stars yet only has one or two reviews, it might make me think twice.
 
Next I look at what the bad reviews complain about. In fact, I find that more often then not I read more of the bad reviews than the good. Why? Well, I try to find out if those bad ratings are things that I have a problem with when I read a book. Sometimes, I don't care about half of the things this nit picky person does and it turns out this 3 star book is actually a 5 star in my eyes.
 
Lastly, I look at a couple of good reviews, very very few, maybe 2 or 3. I try to find out what worked for people in this book. If it worked for them maybe it will have worked for me.
 
When I write a review about a book I have read I try to be very thorough and I try to think of what I would want to know about the book. I would love to hear what makes you want to purchase/read a book based on the reviews. Maybe your view will change the way I do my reviews!!
 
Thanks for reading. Don't forget to subcribe to my blog.
 
CM

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Brutal honesty...

One thing that I have come to dislike about the writers community in general is the brutal honesty. Now I'm not talking about the constructive criticism that we as authors all need and truly want. It's the honesty and brutality of when someone vengefully gives a bad review or bad-mouths a book simply because they wanted to or they had a bad day.

For example, I recently finished reading a book that I found very interesting and to be a page turner. It was the second in a series of, I think six. Upon reading the reviews I discovered that quite a few people completely downed the book. Why? Grammar. Yes, it had quite a few grammatical errors. Yes, it could have been proof-read better. But must we give a book only one star because there were a couple mistakes in the writing?? Regardless of the grammatical errors was it a good book? YES!

Why must we only focus on the faults of other writers? Have our mothers taught us nothing? If it isn't constructive then you shouldn't say it!

Ultimately, what really matters is the story and we as writers need to remember that because the majority of our readers don't focus on the fact that you didn't put a comma here, or you put 'it's' instead of 'its' so why should we bring down a really good books' star rating over things that are minuscule.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to subscribe to my page!

CM

Monday, January 6, 2014

Creativity in the minds of writers...

Writers find their stories in just about anything around them. While I don't have any one method for getting those creative juices flowing, I was introduced to a new way in my class last semester that I would not have come up with on my own. I simply would have walked past that discarded paper laying in the street, but not anymore.

If you google "found post its" a plethera of websites come up as well as images of little notes that have been left behind in the streets or elsewhere. These may say some of the most random things in which can create a new story in your mind. Below I have posted a link of one of the websites I found that offers a gallery of these little forgotten notes.

http://foundnotes.tumblr.com/archive

This approch has given me a reason to look at the world different and not only look at random papers I find that have been discarded, but it has also given me cause to look elsewhere as well.

If you find this interesting enough, I'd like to challenge those reading. Go find a note whether it be through a search engine or from one of the websites like I listed above, find a note that strikes you fancy. Write a short story and share it! I'd love to see what you come up with!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to follow my blog.

CM

Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Year, New Goals

The holidays are over and 2014 has just begun. My overwhelmingly busy semester of managing home life, writing, and taking a writing class is over and many lessons were learned. I am looking forward to getting back to writing book #2 which is currently written up to Chapter 5! It had been on the back burner while I took the time to write short stories for my class.

My first book is in the beginning stages of being indie published and I am super excited!

My writing goals for this year are to have my first book published and available for purchase, to complete my second, and to have it to at least the final stages of editing by the end of the year.

I hope everyone has a great start to the new year and that they have just enough of everything this year!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to follow me!


CM