Am I a Critical Reader?
Despite what people may think, doing an honest and comprehensive review of a book isn’t as easy as it may sound. Sure, anyone can say, “Oh, that was a great book.” Or, “I hated that author and will never read their books again.” But there’s so much more to it than that. A reviewer has a huge responsibility to their reading audience to share their “truth” about a book that may or may not give someone a reason to purchase that very book. And then, authors depend on our reviews, good or bad, for the possibility of future purchases. If you could only feel the weight of that on our shoulders…
Did we like the book?
Obvious to most, the important part of a review is whether we enjoyed the book or not. The difficult part is that enjoying or not enjoying a book is truly subjective. Therefore, it’s important to discuss the elements of a story that worked or didn’t work, so that potential readers can decide for themselves if they should purchase the book.
Elements
There are a variety of elements that come together to make up a story and the questions one might ask to determine whether or not they were done well. For instance, the characters “are everything,” according to shenovel.com: were they well developed? Were their personalities well developed? Did the description of the clothing fit the storyline? Was there a strong or weak protagonist? Did you believe in them; root for them; hate them; love them? The setting: the world the author did or did not build around said characters. Did it fit the storyline? Did the character fit in the setting? Oh, the questions go on and on. The moral of this story is that just to say you liked or hated a book is typically one sentence out of an entire review.
These elements are only a few of those that need to be paid attention to when reading a book. There are others like genre, plot, theme and such. If all of the aforementioned elements meld together well, the odds are that you have a pretty good story. But, if you have a male alien who lives in Kentucky, has tentacles and purple skin like plastic, goes to high school, wears a cheerleading skirt and top, and there is no explanation as to why or how said alien is surviving on Earth at minimum – of course there are probably a billion other questions you would want to know the answer to – you might feel the story elements are fighting one another and despite how good the storyline is, opt to give this book a lower rating than the perfect the story actual would have earned it.
Did the writing work?
In my opinion, whether you like or dislike the book…that’s the easiest part of a review. The most difficult part boils down to, as shenovel.com refers to it, language analyzation: like but not limited to grammar, sentence structure, mistakes in consistency, spelling and such.
Language analyzation is so rough. The reason I say that is because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read an amazing story, only to have to give it a low rating simply because it needed a good edit. Please don’t misunderstand, I am not so picky that every single comma out of place is a mark against the book. But whether you believe it or not, it really does make a difference. The last thing I want to do is reread a sentence ten times to simply get the meaning.
Editing
I realize that finding a quality editor at a budget price isn’t easy, but they are out there. Rest assured that I speak the truth when I say, it is next to impossible for you to edit your own book no matter what you keep telling yourself. Professionals are professionals for a reason.
What you may not be aware of is that there is an entire book full of rules and requirements when it comes to writing fiction called the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). These rules are what agents and publishers are looking for – as well as reviewers who have a background in editing and/or writing. That isn’t to say you need to study the book and memorize every rule: I’m saying that an editor knows this stuff and that’s what they’re there for.
Proofreading
If editing is something you absolutely can’t afford, try finding an affordable proofreader. They can oftentimes find a lot of the obvious errors that perhaps would drive a reviewer or reader crazy. Believe me, it does happen. We had a book today that had an amazing storyline, but because it was so badly written (structurally and grammatically) it just couldn’t be read. It is so frustrating to read over and over each sentence to try and get what was meant by it. If this author had only had a proofreader, perhaps the storyline could have carried it the remaining way to a rating. As it was, we had to return it to the author incomplete.
In Conclusion…
So you see, every time you read a book review please remember that it isn’t easy to thoroughly tell a reader and author your view on said book. We have quite a bit to take into consideration – at least most of us do. We want readers to know what they’re getting into and authors to know what they did was awesome and what they could do better on the next book. I know that I simply try to be honest and hope it’s appreciated on the other end.
Good luck to all authors and readers that you write/find your perfect book!
Written by A. Fae for Truth About Books by A. Fae with reference to “How to Read Critically and Become a Better Author!” from shenovel.com. Thanks Kristen!