To get your gift copy through Amazon, simply email me at richardwrites@live.com or send me a tweet (@RichardAllenRH) with the email address you use for Amazon and I will get it to you. The book is a little long so I am not expecting you to post immediately, but a timely manner is appreciated. If you are new to reviewing, have a look at B.S. Meyers's review here.
As you can see there are no spoilers and he sticks to main points. As I mentioned, this is a request for honest reviews. I cannot and will not offer payment or additional merchandise of any sort just to get a good review. I will also not fault anyone for giving a review that's less than stellar as long as it's honest and points out the faults of the story properly. I'm not setting a length requirement as long as the review gets it's point across. That being said, a review that is really, really short isn't very helpful so feel free to write a bit if you like. Keep in mind I am also using these reviews to improve my writing so if you find a fault, feel free to mention it. Pointing out grammar errors (which do happen on occasion) is not helpful.
To give you an idea of what a bad review is, please click here.
As you can see, the reviewing doesn't give examples as to why she felt the book was bad. All she did was spout nonsense and never once mentioned why she felt the book wasn't worth it. This review is in no way helpful to the writer or anyone else looking to purchase the work because it gives no solid clue to anything having to do with any faults.
As I mentioned, I do not consider only positive reviews to be good reviews. Take this review about Fifty Shades of Grey for example. While I admit the reviewer does go a little overboard on listing actual numbers concerning the repetition she sees in the book, she does make her point. Her first paragraph is especially helpful as she points out that the author may not be very familiar with American English based on her use of the language, noting that many of her uses are more closely associated with British English. The review was a one star. Not a good rating for the book, but a decent review all the same. If the author had seen this, they may have tried to brush up on their American use of the language a little more and also work on different ways to implement character expression.
I don't have an unlimited number of free copies, but I will try to get out as many as possible. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section as I do check those daily.
This is a great! Unfortunately my reading time is rather irregular, so I can't participate because I can't promise a timely review, but I think this is a neat idea. Giving away review copies isn't something I've done for my books yet, so I should consider that.
ReplyDeleteGreat examples of well-written and poorly-written reviews. These annoy me as a buyer, never mind a writer, because they are incredibly unhelpful! (If not a bit uncultured.) It's worth noting that a review like the second one you linked to isn't helpful even if it's positive. "Oh my this is AWESOME! I love this and read it like TEN TIMES!! This should so be a bestseller!" is nice to hear if you're the author, but it's not really helpful for anyone else because it doesn't tell us what to expect from the book. Just my 2c.
I hope you get lots of takers!