Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Definitely a good move. We don't allow reviews in exchange for free books at MR precisely because they'll inevitably be biased (has anyone ever seen a bad "honest review I wrote in exchange for a free book"?).
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I think a lot of those can end up biased, but not because they got the book for free. Just an example from me, I've ended up reviewing all three of Jason Werbeloff's new trilogy. And all my reviews are for five stars, but that's because I really,
really liked the books.
I started out already liking the author. About two years ago I read a free short story by him. At the end of that was an offer to sign up for his newsletter and get a free copy of one of his novels. I liked the short story so I signed up. Then most of last year he kept releasing new short stories, which were free on Amazon for a few days at launch. That led to me reading more of his stuff and liking it, too.
Back in July, he e-mailed his newsletter readers asking if anyone would like a free copy of his new book in exchange for a review. I was very tempted to do so. The blurb sounded good, but I hadn't made up my mind. Then he sent out an excerpt, which I liked a lot and I decided to do the review. Going in I only knew I'd get the first book for free, but each time I put up my review by the ebook launch date, he offered me the next book free in exchange for a review too. I ended up receiving the whole trilogy for free.
So I was a bit biased,
because I already liked the author and was fairly sure I was going to like the book even before I read it. I still would have given it a bad review if I hated it, but there wasn't anything I disliked enough to lower my rating. It had a good story, good character development, good editing, and good pacing. It's just a good book. I've found all three of the trilogy to be that way. I if I hadn't liked the first one, I doubt I'd have read the other two, but my review would
not have been for five stars.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden
Personally, I'm tired of seeing reviews that are so professional looking that they scream "not real" to me. Most reviews by actual buyers are likely to have at least one or more typos, not be well organized, and not really be that useful.
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I guess you'd assume all my reviews are "not real." I try to make sure everything I write looks professional, even forum posts. I write a post and then re-read it, looking for errors. I adjust and re-read it again. I do this until I don't see any typos, grammatical errors or flow problems. Sometimes I'll do five to six edit passes before posting.* Obviously the reviews I write (which isn't many) are given just as much attention, if not more. Hell, I had to rewrite the last book review I did twice because it started out sounding more like a blurb for the book than a review, and I wasn't happy with that.
So my reviews
should look professional, because I
want my writing to look professional. Typos and bad grammar make me look like an idiot, and I'm not one. And frankly, most of the reviews I see on books are that way. Frequent readers tend to have a better grasp of their language and write better,
especially if they're writing a book review.
You're basically saying "anyone who takes pride in their writing isn't worth reading" when it comes to reviews. That seems... counterproductive.
* In fact, this post had six edit passes.