No wonder the world is in such horrible shape, if it’s okay to abuse hardworking people because you don’t like their product.

P.

We’re told, for the most part, to keep it short and simple. Offer a quick verbal sketch of the players without giving away too many twists.

I can’t speak for every reviewer out there, but I personally agonize over my reviews. Especially the less than complimentary ones.

The last thing any of us want is to discourage an author. But I don’t write my reviews for authors or publishing houses. No–the readers are my audience, too.

And while I’ve panned my share of books over the years, I take no pleasure in belittling an author.

Why some reviewers or readers do, is beyond comprehension.

Oh…and if I’ve given you a “bad” review in the past, please don’t take it personally. It’s just an opinion, nothing more.

Actually, I rarely sing praises about anything, especially something I’ve written. I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to promoting my books because I am never satisfied with them.:shock:

And I dunno how to spell bru ha ha… Didn’t bother to look it up.

There’s always going to be editing issues with books and while some want their historicals accurate and complete, other people aren’t going to be concerned with how historically accurate a book reads, be that with clothing, voice, speech, etc, if the story pulls at them enough.

I’m not looking to fix that issue~that’s another area that is very subject to opinion and reader preference so there may not be a perfect fix.

I just wish some of the nastiness I’ve seen lately woudl quit. It’s getting old.

I’ve been reading for several decades, fiction, non-fiction, cereal boxes, anything printed. And I have to say that of all the genres I’ve read – mystery, police procedural, sci-fi, humor, general fiction – I have never seen such disregard for research, grammar, spelling, and punctuation as seems to be the norm in Romance.

There are writers who produce excellent stories–well-crafted, cleverly plotted with intelligent dialog, a joy to read. They are, sadly, in the minority.

Romance may be fantasy. It may be “entertainment lite.” But for a reader who expects fiction to be an accurate mirror of life, an historical romance that features characters in 1702 AD behaving and speaking as though it’s 1972 is not a book I’ll finish.

An excerpt that puts apostrophes in plural’s (sic), says “she wanted to go to” when they mean “too,” speaks of someone having a “discrete” affair when they mean “discreet” — I would not buy that book. If I were reviewing it, I would say that I was unable to finish because the writing was so poor. Not that the story was bad, necessarily, but that it was written with such a poor level of craftsmanship that it wasn’t worth the effort of deciphering the abuse of the English language.

Human emotions are heady stuff. Love can be the deepest, most powerful subject matter anyone can write about. But when a writer assumes that her imagination is so superior that she does not owe her readers the trouble of looking up a word or punctuating properly … I’m sorry, that writer deserves a bad review, if for no other reason than praising poor writing gives the uninformed reader the idea that this is how the language should be written.

And as for the cover art … personally, I like the simple ones that don’t feature human beings. I like to “cast” the characters for myself, and a seriously ugly cover will put me off buying the book unless I know the author is good.

And while I’m being picky, Shiloh, isn’t “brouhaha” one word?

I agree entirely that we’d all benefit from a degree of common courtesy in internet exchanges, as well as in the world at large. But when a book is published, no one expects the publisher or author to do anything but sing its praises. Since we readers do not generally have unlimited money to spend on books, the critical reviewer provides an important service for us. If a book is gramatically crippled or historically ludicrous, I want to know, because if I buy the book, I am paying the writer to continue producing inferior work, and why on earth would I want to do that?

Maybe there’s also a difference to be noted between different type of ABB; I know I react differently to what I perceive to be an author inexplicably provoking readers and an author who gets a tad defensive when she feels personally insulted. I don’t expect every author (or reader, for that matter) to take every comment on the chin, or to be ready with that good-natured quip. We all have our bad moments and some of them happen over the Internet. As for the name calling and borderline defamatory statements, I’ve see it happening for a while now between and among readers, not just between readers and authors.

There are so many issues related to this topic, aren’t there — from the way women interact, to the role of critique in Romance (is it really welcome and on what terms?), to the rise of these “anonymous assaults,” to the ways in which the Internet is changing the Romance culture (or perhaps revealing it as more diverse and complex), to the ways in which publishers mediate the relationship between author and reader (i.e. requiring personalized notes from authors to readers at the beginning of books), to writing as both a profession and an art form, etc., etc., etc.

I really hope that this column inaugurates more honest and forthright discussions of some of the issues that create the (sometimes necessary and inevitable) tensions between authors and readers. I actually think tension can be a very, very good thing, but it requires some maintainance to prevent snapping.

I avoid reading the trash talk – I hear about it through the grapevine and don’t go look, because I know it’ll upset me. Very nonconfrontational, and that goes for bystanding confrontations. When a close friend was called a cow and told to piss off, it turned my blood cold. That was a long time ago, but I haven’t forgotten, and have no wish to see anything like it, ever again. I’m just astonished at the things people will say, whether they’re readers, or writers.

On the other hand, isn’t it generally a handful of bad apples? For the most part, everyone I ‘meet’ on the Internet are likeable, good-natured people. I wonder, if no one paid any attention to the flame wars, would they die a quick death?