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A HERO'S SPARK: the final book in the Wicked Women series!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Author Kelly Moran on Book Reviews

Hello my friends!  I have a really special treat for you all! 

I'd like to introduce you to a woman I'm proud to call friend:  Kelly Moran.  Kelly is an author of several published books, recipient of an Editor’s Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement, inducted into the Who’s Who Book of Americans, placed as a Finalist in the 2008 Best Books Award, a Finalist in the 2009 Indie Excellence Book Awards, a respected reviewer for Bookpleasures, a former staff writer for Poetic Monthly Magazine, and a Romance Writers of America member. 
In short, when it comes to writing, Kelly knows her stuff!

She also interviews authors on her blog and offers Manuscript Critique Consultations. Though most of her family is in the Carolinas, she resides in Milwaukee, WI with her husband, twin sons, and black lab.  (Oh yeah, and she's expecting another happy bundle soon!)

What brings us all together today is Kelly's newest book, "SUMMER'S ROAD" brought to us on FRIDAY, the 25th by our friends at The Wild Rose Press.  I'm so thrilled to be able to share this with you all!  (But I'll let Kelly give you some more details herself!)


One of the things Kelly is passionate about, in fact the very reason we met, is book reviews.  Today she's talking about just that thing and tomorrow she's allowing me to fire off some hardball questions for your reading pleasure.  And, in the end, when the dust settles,  one of you lucky folks who sends us a comment  (And contact info) is going to get yourself a FREE eBook copy of "Summer's Road."

Oh I have your attention now, don't I?

Well, my friends, sit back and take a listen...Kelly's got some words of wisdom!


Big, big thanks to a fellow author and friend, Sarah, for letting me guest the next couple days. After my guest post and Sarah's Q&A, she'll pick a commenter to receive a FREE eBook copy of my new release, SUMMER'S ROAD, coming March 25th wherever books are sold. 



I have quite a few guest blogs coming up, so here I think we'll discuss reviews! Reviews? That's what I said! Reviews.


As all of you now know, I am an author. I am also a book reviewer for Bookpleasures, judge a number of writing contests, and I interview authors on my Blog at Blogger.


Let’s start with my bad experience. (Drum roll.) Awhile back, a friend of mine from a social media site alerted me to a negative review on Amazon about one of my books. Intrigued, I went to check it out. It was, in fact, not a negative review, but a slam on me. It was apparent that said reviewer had not read the book and was interested only in slamming me. This probably wouldn’t have bothered me, except said reviewer put words in my mouth that I did not say, which was of concern. I contacted Amazon, and they removed the review. This person then went about setting up a Blog to ridicule me and further put inaccurate words in my mouth. After the support of friends and family, I just let it go and said reviewer has been mute.




What did I learn from this? Never provoke crazy? Oh yeah, that too. But seriously, as a writer, don’t let it get you down. It has always been my opinion that when you put yourself out there as an author to be reviewed, you have to be able to take the positive and the negative. Not everyone is going to like your work. Simple as that. And reviews are just opinions. Take the advice and criticism, and use it to better the next book. Of course it was my reputation that concerned me at the time, it dawned on me afterwards that no one would have taken it seriously anyhow. Not to mention, negative reviews can have as much of an impact on sales as positive ones. We are human. It hurts when a bad thing is uttered about our precious pages. But remember, this too shall pass.


I have reviewed small press, self-published, and large mass market authors alike, positively and negatively, through Bookpleasures. The bottom line, they all thanked me. That is my advice to you as a writer. Thank the reviewer for their insight and time, and move on.


However, if you do not review professionally and are an avid reader posting reviews, please remember, good or bad, that there is an author behind every page. Try to be constructive and tactful, and for the love of all humanity, make it about THE BOOK!


Best of luck to you! XO

Thank you Kelly for a great point of view!  Now, friends, if you've got questions for Kelly about her book or book reviews, go ahead and ask below.  Remember to leave a bit of contact info because one of you might just win an ecopy of Summer's Road for FREE!

10 comments:

  1. Thanks so much again, Sarah, for having me!

    Just so commenters know, you don't need an e-reader like KIndle or Nook to enter. The book will be emailed to you and you can read it right on your PC.

    Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Sarah's Q&A. Follow her blog too, because she posts some hilarious stories!

    XO

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  2. PS- I had to change my blog, long story, but please pop over and refollow me!
    kellymoranauthor.blogspot.com

    XO

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  3. The person who was slamming you obviously was not reviewing a book. I don't understand people like that. we recently had a big window in out house broken. Someone was throwing rocks at it. We probably will never find out who did it but the slam that you received makes me think of the broken window. Sometimes, people just pick us out to hate and we never really know why!

    When it comes to doing a review, and I don't feel very positive about a book, I do try to offer what I think might help, like fewer characters, more development of characters and so on. Without that how can a person improve. If just negative comments are made, nothing constructive then I think that the reviewer is lazy!

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

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  4. @ Carol, exactly. People don't realize there's a person behind there writing. Plus, reviews are opinions, but they should be about the book. That sucks about your window. What's wrong with people? xo

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  5. Carol you make a great point, and Kelly, I want to thank you for sharing your experience. Who on earth could slam you, or your writing? :)

    Come on folks! Leave a comment, you might win and eBook! :)

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  6. @ Sarah, thank you. That was nice of you. I assure you though, the guy said some interesting things, lol. xo

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  7. I've already read Kelly's amazing tale of romance so wish to not have this comment included for the chance to win the ebook...

    I am so glad I've been following Kelly's tour as I'm learning and discovering more great writer's along the way.

    About negative reviews... We all find it hard to deal with them, whether or not we admit to it, and author's always say to learn from them and make the next story better. I just wonder if we should take into account how many great reviews we receive to counter act the negative and if we should consider that the negative reviews are simply written by people who don't like our style.

    That being wondered... of course I take the words into account but don't believe I'm ready to change my ways and risk getting the first fans upset and writing negative comments. :)

    Glad you "got rid of" your nasty commenter, Kelly.

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  8. Hi Sarah. Glad you could stop by. Yeah, I feel most reviews are opinions, and unless a lot of people are saying the same thing, I usually just store it in mind. This particular instance wasn't even about the book though, but me, and it was false. Reviews should be about the book, and tactful. XO

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  9. I've been writing a lot of book reviews recently, and really, I have to thank the authors. Okay, I don't like everything, but looking for best in everyone else's writing helps me look more closely at my own writing too (and see the worst in me:( ) Reviews should definitely be about the book, and should definitely be tactful--never write what you wouldn't say face to face maybe?

    By the way, I love your book cover--we were talking about covers in our writers' group and it really stands out.

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  10. @ Sheila-- thanks! Glad you like the cover. I was pretty happy with it. And you are so right about reviews! XO

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