Tips n’ tidbits

Hi, kids–

Heads up! Tomorrow is International Talk like a Pirate Day! Every September 19th, it’s perfectly acceptable and even encourages to run around and talk like a freakin’ pirate. So go on. have some fun. And check out the official website RIGHT HERE.

In honor of that fab event, R.G. Emanuelle and I will be giving away a copy of our edited anthology, Skulls and Crossbones: Tales of Women Pirates over at Women and Words. That’s tomorrow, kids! WOOOO!

source: Bedazzled Ink

Okay. Hope you come by Women and Words tomorrow for that awesome-ness.

And now a tip. Readers, it’s awesome that you share your thoughts about a book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and other sites like that. However, keep in mind that sometimes an issue you have with a book is something that you need to work out directly with the publisher or with the retailer who sold you the book/ebook, and not something you use to diss an author or a book.

Giving a book a low-star rating because your Kindle file, for example, was screwed up isn’t really how those review sections work. Those review sections are designed to allow people to assess the plot, author’s style, and writing structure of the story, not to completely diss a book because something was wrong with the formatting in your efile.

So here’s a tip. If you get an efile of a book and the formatting is all icky and it makes your reading experience sucky, PLEASE contact the retailer and the publisher rather than dissing the book in the reviews. Especially in genres like lesfic, which are small enough that it’s way easy to go to a publisher’s website, get the email address, and let them know that you got a crappy efile. That publisher will most likely be more than happy to provide you a new efile or a gift certificate or something to make up for the crappy file, and they’ll probably check it out with the retailer. Or the retailer will give you a new file.

Don’t give a book a bad review because you got a bad efile. That’s not necessarily the author’s fault, and dissing his or her book because of a problem that has nothing to do with the plot, characters, dialogue, writing style, or writing craft disrupts what those review sections are supposed to be used for.

By all means, let the retailer know and let the publisher (sometimes the publisher IS the author) know that your efile or print book was flawed. Give them a chance to rectify the situation. Because that bad review you gave, that had nothing to do with the story the author wrote, is a little unfair. Diss a book because you thought the story sucked, the writing style was bad, the grammar was terrible, the editing was terrible, the characters were wooden, the craft was bad. That’s what those review sections are for. Not to give an author a bad review because you got a bad efile and ended up not even reading the book.

So in the future, if you get a screwy efile (or even a flawed print book), contact the retailer and the publisher to let them know, so they can check the situation, reimburse you, and correct the issue so you, in turn, can actually read the book and review it on the basis it should be reviewed: what you thought about the quality of writing and the story.

Happy reading and happy Sunday!