Questions about my reviews

Here are just some random question I’m sure people might ask about these reviews.

1.        Will you read and review my book if I DON’T read yours?

To be honest, unlikely. At the moment I’m backed up eight stories that I need to read for trades. I doubt Lost and Found would take more than a week or two for most folks to read, and if you want me to read and review you, but can’t even do me enough courtesy to lie to me and SAY you’ll read my story, I’m probably not gonna bother. (Not that I want to be lied to, but let’s face it, it’s a possibility.)

2.        Why do reviews?

Authonomy only offers five slots for book backings and even then they offer nothing to show folks WHY you decided to back a book. This is my way of recommending material beyond the book shelf.

3.        Would you ever subject your own stories to review?

I kinda doubt it would prove anything if I did. They’re my stories so naturally I’m not going to tear into them and if I felt something was seriously wrong with them, I would just fix them, not waste time reviewing. This is a process I go through to help others and to get them to hopefully direct traffic my way. Not sure if it’s paying off, but I’m trying anyway.

4.        What gives you the right to review?

Truth is, once material is on the web and in the public, review or parody is legal. Now normally when someone asks this, they mean what gives me the right to criticize their or someone else’s work of art? Frankly, if you made mistakes, you made them and getting after me won’t fix them. Besides, I don’t do reviews without permission, which keeps me from looking like a jerk just picking on folks.

5.        Why do you ask permission to review?

See above question. ^

6.        C’mon, what would you rate your own books?

Seriously, critics get asked this all the time about how they would rate their own material. Frankly I think this is a stupid question unless the material is a currently published or long abandoned project. If you must know, here:
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Lost and Found I think was a pretty tight story. I’m sure I made grammar errors, possibly enough to warrant a ¾ rating there so, 11.75 out of 12. On objectionable material, a -2 for violence in which bad guys die, -2 for an innocent character being subjected to harsh imprisonment and finally -1 for very small amounts of blood shown only from non-fatal wounds. In all, objectionable material makes a -5.
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Traveler of the Mists has a terrible time with side characters besides Torkel and a few others, and the grammar could probably use polish, so I’d say about 10.5 out of 12. On objectionable material… oh dear. A -3 for blood and gore used to a near comically exaggerated effect. A -3 for both good and bad characters being frequently killed. A -1 for scenes meant to scare folks. And finally a -2 for glamorizing cartoonish evil. In all that’s a -9 on objectionable material, a new record!
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In my mind, that means nothing of course, since of course I would rate my own stories highly. I want to know what OTHER people think of them.

7.       Would you like to work with one of my fictional worlds in the Traveler series?

Would I?! I would love to work with almost anyone with an interesting story for Traveler. I would actually move your story to the top of the reading list for a chance to make sure Joshua has a new adventure waiting.  

8.       Have you ever read a book on authonomy you didn’t like?

Sure, I just generally don’t talk about them to anyone but the writers, or I just stop reading and move on.

9.       What does a book have to do to get a review?

Really, I just have to like it I suppose and think it has enough merit. If I think a story has a few great ideas but a review would make it look terrible, usually I just send a note to the writer to tell them how I think they need to fix things.

10.   Do you do negative reviews?

Why waste my time? There are dozens of bad books getting published every year and flaming negative reviews just get attention. No, I will not review stories for the sole purpose of beating them up. Also I refuse to post a review of a story, even one I like, if I know it will get a low score. Nothing below 6.5 will ever be featured

11.   Do you do follow up reviews for stories that got a lower score?

For score below 9 I would be willing to consider doing so, though I would generally appreciate some assurance that you’ve already read one of my stories before asking for a second review of your story.