“I think people love to get lost in a story and forgot their own problems for a while.  Reading can transport you to so many wonderful places and meet great characters.  I would be terribly sad if for some reason, I couldn’t read anymore.”

~ Debra Martin 28 May 2011

About Reviewing

How did you get started?

I never thought about reviews until I became a published author.  Now, of course, I realize how important they are especially to indie authors who don’t have as much as exposure as a traditionally published author.  I’ve read many excellent indie books so in the summer of 2010 I started a ‘REVIEW’ feature on my blog, Two Ends of the Pen.

How do you review a book? Is it a read first, and then make notes, or do you make notes as you go along?

I usually make a few notes as I go along especially if something interesting or pivotal happens in the book.  That way, I don’t have to keep going back and forth between the pages looking for that spot.

What are you looking for?

I’m pretty open to reading many different kinds of books for review except horror, true crime, memoirs, YA or children’s books.

If a book has a great plot, great characters, but the grammar is less than perfect, how do you deal with that?

If the book is riddled with typos or grammatical problems, I will definitely deduct points for that and state that in my review.  A few minor typos can happen to the best of us so I try to write to the author privately to let them know about it.  If the typos or grammatical issues are horrendous, I will stop reading the book and notify the author that I cannot do a review for them.

How long does it take you to get through, say, an eighty thousand-word book?

Having a day job really puts a crimp in my reading time plus all the work I do for my blog also takes up an enormous amount of time so I would say it can take me anywhere between 2-3 weeks to finish a book.

How did you come up with your rating system, and could you explain more about the rating system?

My rating system is pretty much like many of the other reviewers – the star system with 5 stars being the best.  Readers are used to this system and the whole point of a review is to get the book in front of readers so let’s not make it hard for them to figure out your rating system.

What advice could you give to authors looking to get their books reviewed?

I would say make sure your book is the best you can make it.  Have beta readers review your book and if you can hire an editor, that’s even better.

Do you get readers emailing you and thanking you for a review?

Yes, all the time no matter what I’ve rated their books.

My advice to authors on getting a “bad” review (hasten to add that might mean a perfectly honest, well written, fair review – just bad from the author’s point of view) is to take what you can from it and move on. Under no circumstances to “argue” with the reviewer – would you agree with that?

Absolutely, let it go and move on.  It’s hard to remember that a review is just one person’s opinion of your book.  Every author wants readers to like their book, but every reader is different so it’s easy to see why all the different reviews for the same book.

About Reading

We talk a lot about writing here on the blog, and possibly not enough about reading, which is after all why we’re all here. Why do you think people love reading. We’re seeing lots of statistics that say reading as a past-time is dying – do you think that’s the case?

Absolutely NOT.  I think people love to get lost in a story and forgot their own problems for a while.  Reading can transport you to so many wonderful places and meet great characters.  I would be terribly sad if for some reason, I couldn’t read anymore.

About Writing

What are the most common mistakes that you see authors making?

Not having a beta reader or an editor take a look at it.  Some of the mistakes I see could easily be fixed if another set of eyes had looked at the book before it was published.

We’re told that the first page, paragraph, chapter, is absolutely key in making or breaking a book. Agents typically request only the first five pages of a novel, what do you think about that; if a book hasn’t grabbed you by the first five pages, do you put it down?

Not necessarily.  Of course, every author wants to grab the reader right away, but sometimes it doesn’t happen within the first 5 pages.  I would hope though that it would happen in the first chapter at least.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the price dropping to 99 cents, what are your thoughts on that idea?

I think the .99 concept is a great way for an indie author to get his/her book noticed initially or if it’s the first book in a series.  Ultimately though, I think it’s not a good thing for authors.  With so much time and effort spent on writing a novel, selling it for .99 over the long haul is just not financially the best thing for an author.  Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule and there have been some best-sellers from indie writers with this price tag, but overall, I think authors deserve to be paid more money for their books.  Before ebooks became popular, readers paid $7.99 for a paperback and thought nothing of it.

Is there anything you will not review?

Horror, true crime, memoirs, YA or children’s books.

About Publishing

What do you think of the oft quoted comment that the “slush-pile has moved online”?

Unfortunately, yes that is true because anyone now can upload a book to Amazon or B&N.

Do you think attitudes are changing with respect to Indie or self-published titles?

I certainly hope so because there are some fantastic authors out there and I’ve read quite a few of them myself.

Do you have any ideas or comments on how the industry can “filter” good from bad, aside from reviews?

Not really, reviews are one of the best ways for readers to judge a book by especially from indie authors.

End of Interview