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Tahlia Newland

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What kind of review is this?

July 13, 2013 by Tahlia Newland

I don’t expect everyone to approach reviewing the way I do, and there’s a place for readers who just say what they like and don’t like, but take a look at this one, written about Ariel’s Dream, one of my free short stories,

Posted by Anonymous on B&N, June 19th. They  gave it 2 stars.

” Oops

Sorry I really just could not get into the story. I was bored after the second page. Maybe I will come back to it and maybe not.”

It was the only review! That’s a bit mean, don’t you think? I will post low starred reviews if an author has a few higher ratings to balance it, but I’d never post a low star review if there were no other reviews. I couldn’t get into ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ either, but I didn’t leave a review telling that to the world. Duh! I wonder if it’s the free mentality thing as well, the oh it’s just a freebie so it’s probably rubbish anyway kind of attitude.

Then again, perhaps it is just plain boring. That would be defeating the point of having a free story out there. It’s supposed to make people want to read more of my  work. If it’s that dull then I’m better of unpublishing it (no skin off my nose there; I’ve done it before). I’ve looked at it too often to be able to be objective anymore, so I’m offering it to you. Download it and read it, it’s only a few pages and let me know if it makes you want to read more of my work or not. If it doesn’t then I’d be pleased for you to tell me and I’ll take it off the market.

Download Ariel’s Dream   in PDF here . If you want it in epub form it’s on Kobo and you can see the offending review (and mark it unhelpful if you think it’s not very helpful)  if you pick it up at B&N   Unfortunately for those of you with Kindles, Amazon hasn’t made it free yet, but if you wanted to donate 99 c (out of which I will get 35c) you can get it from your local Amazon store by clicking here.

Do do me a favour, read the story and be brutally honest.The story isn’t bad. It wouldn’t have been AIA if it was, but it may not be strong enough to fulfill its purpose, so be honest. That’s being kind.

See the target on my chest? Ready, aim and fire. Seriously, unless it makes you want to read more, I’d rather not have it out there. I freely admit that it’s not my best short story. It was written for younger teens because the casual sex in my very wonderful short story Run is too much for me as a school teacher to suggest that the under 15 yr olds download it.

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Filed Under: Book talk Tagged With: book reviewing

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Comments

  1. Tasha Turner says

    July 13, 2013 at 8:08 am

    After watching a number of friends do freebies I’ve noticed an interesting reviewer habit. People are more likely to write a review if they got a book for free and they did not like it than if they pay for a book or if they like the freebie.

    But the review left tells potential readers nothing. We have no idea why she found it boring so its a useless review.

    Most people who are not in the publishing business have no clue what reviews are about. Snugs. May your weekend get better.

    • Tahlia Newland says

      July 13, 2013 at 9:03 am

      I’ve noticed that too which is why I’ll never make one of my novels free (other than in a give-away). I figured it didn’t matter so much with a short story, but figured there would be good ones to balance out any like this.

  2. kk1128 says

    July 13, 2013 at 8:14 am

    I really enjoyed Ariel’s Dream and thought it was a very good introduction to the Diamond Peak series, Tahlia. In fact, I think those who have already read other books in the series will also like it, just because it was extremely interesting to see more of Ariel’s “pre-mountain” life. I’ll try to have a review up over the weekend.

    I’m not sure why some readers think that that kind of comment, which says nothing about a story at all, constitutes a review or that it could in any way help other readers decide if the story might be for them, but I’ve seen plenty of odd ones just like it, unfortunately.

    • Tahlia Newland says

      July 13, 2013 at 9:07 am

      I’m glad you enjoyed it. I do think the mind state we’re in when we sit down to read affects how we feel about a book, and sometimes if you’re feeling bored nothing will jolt you out of it, but to think that’s a reason to write a review about it is ….incomprehensible to me. They can’t be thinking about helping others, just unloading the contents of their mind.

  3. Kayla says

    July 13, 2013 at 8:15 am

    I see reviews like that all of the time! It makes me so angry because I’d never review something if I didn’t finish it unless I got a good way through it . . Not to the second page! Especially on Barnes and Noble where I usually just glance at the box where it shows the star ratings for the books. I wouldn’t think to look at the review and make sure that it isn’t something like this. Bad reviews to me only make sense when they specifically explain why they didn’t like it, not like this. :/

    • Tahlia Newland says

      July 13, 2013 at 9:09 am

      Yes, it’s worse on B&N than on Amazon, because the way the page is laid out on B&N the star rating is really obvious and it’s not that easy to actually find the review. As a reader, I would dismiss a review like this as a waste of time, but unfortunately that 2 star rating sticks out like the proverbial dog’s balls.

  4. Mardel says

    July 13, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    I read the short story just now. It wasn’t boring – I’m not sure how anyone could think it was boring with all the shadows and sense of danger, etc. For sure, the first few pages cannot seem boring to anyone. I liked it. the only thing I wondered about was the wording the fifteen year old used, She sounded more like a grown up than a fifteen year old, but the story itse’f wasn’t boring, it was pretty good. 🙂

    • Tahlia Newland says

      July 13, 2013 at 6:19 pm

      That’s a relief. I agree that Ariel is a pretty mature teen in many ways. She’s based on my daughter. The question is though, were you impressed enough to want to read the series?

  5. Rammy says

    July 13, 2013 at 6:43 pm

    Read your short story and Tahlia, dont doubt yourself. It’s very well written. I am so tired of reading YA (no I don’t read much of it, just picked up a few) that involves endless eye rolling, snorts, grunts and terrible dialogue. Your work is very good and flows seamlessly. Love your descriptions. And would I read more. Yes, I want to know more about the old man and the golden boy. As writers we can’t please everyone, so don’t let “Bored” hold you back.

    • Tahlia Newland says

      July 14, 2013 at 6:53 am

      Thanks for reading it and feeding back Rammy, it’s good to hear, and I’m glad I checked. I’m waiting for Amazon to make it free before spreading the word about it and Amazon don’t do that until Apple does & Apple are being very slow. I didn’t want to move to the sharing stage without being sure.

  6. Tahlia Newland says

    July 14, 2013 at 9:30 am

    If any of you would like to leave a review, i’d appreciate it. The links to the main stores are in the post. I really appreciate your feeback on this.

Trackbacks

  1. How does Amazon work, I wonder | Jaye Em Edgecliff says:
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