Welcome to December’s IWSG bog post. Like many of you, I’m up to my eyeballs in preparations for Christmas. Whether you celebrate the holiday as a religious or secular one makes little difference. What’s important is that you try to bring a little light into this the darkest time of the year.
December 6 question: Book reviews are for the readers. When you leave a book review do you review for the Reader or the Author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?
Reading is a personal experience, and everyone approaches it differently. While it’s possible that one person loves a book, it’s equally possible that someone else hates it. When I read a book for pleasure, I try to shove my internal editor on the back burner. I’ll admit that sometimes doing that is harder than at others. If the book has too many errors, it’ll pull me out of the story and spoil my enjoyment of it.
That being said, I try to post something positive about the book, not just for the reader to take away, but to encourage the writer. We authors don’t have thick skins, at least I don’t. When I read my reviews, I look for constructive criticism. Let’s face it. No matter how many times you go over a manuscript, there will always be that one typo you miss.
Early on in my career, I wrote a book that was editied to death. Four rounds of painstaking edits, and yet when the publisher put it out there, they used the original unedited copy because the editor had a breakdown and never submitted the properly eited version. Once the book was out there, there wasn’t much that could be done to fix it, although I did beg them to do so. In the end, all I could do was grin and bear it.
I’ll admit some reviewers were able to look at the story beneath the errors, but others were incredibly unkind. As a result, I almost gave up on writing, but instead, I now am supercareful about editing, and since I self-publish, I can be sure the right version gets out there.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Now, go and check out what others have to say on this topic.
https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html
Living the Dream 
I answered this question that I review for readers, but you have me rethinking that. As an author, I love reading good reviews of my work. It lifts my entire day. That is reason enough as a reader to review a book I enjoyed.
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I review for both readers and authors. I only post positive reviews. Being a writer, I don’t want to post a negative review. I’ll just keep those thoughts to myself.
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There’s always something good about a book. Including that in a review is important. I liked your answer to this month’s question.
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😮 That is a horror story about your publisher! I hope nothing like that happens again. I like to provide encouragement through my reviews as well.
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