A.B.
asked
Ralph E. Vaughan:
If you write a review and your ask to rewrite one because changes where made to the book will you?
Ralph E. Vaughan
In general, no. It would involve re-reading the book. While there are a few favorites that eventually find their way back into my reading queue, I don't have the time (or inclination) to give writers second chances.
Except for a few shorter works, I tend to read a few chapters from a book, then move on to the next book in line. Currently, I have 120 e-books being actively read and about a dozen print editions. Each book comes up for another few chapters about three times a week. I usually finish some book every day or two, sometimes two the same day.
From time to time, changes are pushed to re-published e-books and they reappear on my Kindle screen (or I see a notice of a print edition re-issued), but I have found that such changes rarely make a book better (or worse) than it was the first time around. What a writer perceives as an earth shattering change for the better usually isn't.
I used to write book reviews professionally for newspapers and magazines (50+ years ago it was my first paid job as a writer), but I now write reviews simply for the enjoyment of it. Increasingly, though, I have started simply leaving ratings without comments, perhaps twice as many rating-only reviews than reviews with comments since the start of the year. It's much less taxing.
Unfortunately, the old adage about first impressions is still true, perhaps more so today than in years past. Traditional publishers have occasionally published clunkers that put me off a writer's work (I refused to read any more Stephen King after his idiotic "Tommyknockers" or J.K. Rowling at all after the first few paragraphs of "Potter") but publishing before a book is ready for public consumption seems endemic in the self-publishing community.
If writers did not publish so rashly, letting the impulse to publish overwhelm critical judgment, there would be fewer books re-published and writers could spend more time writing better, new books. And getting better reviews of what is published.
Except for a few shorter works, I tend to read a few chapters from a book, then move on to the next book in line. Currently, I have 120 e-books being actively read and about a dozen print editions. Each book comes up for another few chapters about three times a week. I usually finish some book every day or two, sometimes two the same day.
From time to time, changes are pushed to re-published e-books and they reappear on my Kindle screen (or I see a notice of a print edition re-issued), but I have found that such changes rarely make a book better (or worse) than it was the first time around. What a writer perceives as an earth shattering change for the better usually isn't.
I used to write book reviews professionally for newspapers and magazines (50+ years ago it was my first paid job as a writer), but I now write reviews simply for the enjoyment of it. Increasingly, though, I have started simply leaving ratings without comments, perhaps twice as many rating-only reviews than reviews with comments since the start of the year. It's much less taxing.
Unfortunately, the old adage about first impressions is still true, perhaps more so today than in years past. Traditional publishers have occasionally published clunkers that put me off a writer's work (I refused to read any more Stephen King after his idiotic "Tommyknockers" or J.K. Rowling at all after the first few paragraphs of "Potter") but publishing before a book is ready for public consumption seems endemic in the self-publishing community.
If writers did not publish so rashly, letting the impulse to publish overwhelm critical judgment, there would be fewer books re-published and writers could spend more time writing better, new books. And getting better reviews of what is published.
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