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Exactly, Grace. Independent reader review should find a Goldilocks Zone where it is as respected and trusted as critical review in the mainstreeam (perhaps, deservingly, even more so).
Those authors who solicit circle-review might do themselves a temporary self-service, but they devalue the whole concept of impartial critique so that, ultimately, everyone from author to reader to reviewer loses.
Informal reviews will become meaningless if this abuse continutes so that the author is left without significant appraisal and the browsing reader without a reliable guide. Why do the major stores have no watchdogs in place? Neil
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