Not a newbie any more, so now what?

Dear:

My recommendation is that you start building a network. First of all, nobody will review you if you're not reviewing them. So you need to reciprocate each and every review you received. Well, maybe not all of them. Select people who write your genre and review them back. Send them a message asking them whether they'd be interested in reciprocating, I mean, that you review them and they continue reviewing you. Until you build a network of maybe six or seven people whose work you regularly review and who regularly review yours.

The bonus point are an incentive, but some people here are millionaires in points, so they don't care about the points. But they do care if you review their work. Communicate with them through the forums. Join a group and actively participate.

That's my recommendation: build a network. Make friends. The site is friendly towards newcomers but the magic only lasts until midnight. Afterwards, you need to keep the other the other crystal shoe in the form of a network of friends so Prince Charming may find you and take you to the castle of reviews (God! Sometimes I impress even myself with what I write!)

Kiss,

Gacela

Sherry, I look forward to reading more of your chapters. Last time I looked, I only saw the first one, but today I see a bunch. My computer? My eyes? My brain? Anyway, I enjoy your writing, as you know. Meanwhile, I also had other reviewers to reciprocate with, which I've done as of yesterday, and I'm getting ready to post a couple of short pieces. I'm taking an online writing class which I'd fallen behind with as well, so I haven't been spending as much time here. A lot of juggling to do. Cheers! Karen
PS I consider myself in your network.

Thank you all for your suggestions and encouragement.  I'm not ready to give up and will continue to review.  I understand that it can be time consuming when all you want to do is write.  And then there's life which gets in the way.

Sherry

Sherry,
Some reviewers only review first chapters. I do that a lot. Mainly because no matter how good the writer, the story might not be a genre I like, so I don't want to commit. I usually tell those authors NOT to read my work because I can't promise to keep reading theirs. Of course, if they do, then I keep reading theirs because guilt gets the best of me! When I first joined the site, back in the dark ages, I read as many as 35 novels at one time. That was before I had any books published. Once you publish, you spend a lot of time marketing, blogging, on social media, doing book events, and in some cases, like mine, speaking.
It seems members just don't have the time they used to have. When I posted a story, I'd start with maybe 20-25 reviews of the first chapter. By chapter 4, that amount would dwindle to maybe 15. Then by chapter 10, I'd have maybe 6-8 regular readers who'd stay with the book until the end. If you get that many, then that's about normal.
For me, it isn't the point incentive. Like so many others who have been members a while, I have more points than I'll ever use. It's simply that new members join all the time and some of us older folks like to help them out by reading their work. It's a time constraint. It isn't anything you are doing wrong.
Heck, if you can get just a few good reviewers, then you're in good shape. In addition to being a member here, I also belong to a local group where I read my work and get critique. I suggest you do that if you have a group in your area.
Also, some of us are slow to read. So you may still get readers who started your story to come back later. Sometimes, like you say, life gets in the way, and we have to neglect the site for a while.
Hang in there. ~Ann

Oh, Sherry. One thing I did notice. You don't have any profile info. It might help if you added a bit about yourself. I know when I read, I like to get an idea about the person. Like where they're from and how long they've been writing or just some silly something that lets me see the type person they are. That's just a suggestion.

Ann - I thought I did the profile information.  I'll look into it.
Marilyn - Thanks so much for your pick-me-up. I appreciate your sticking with me.  I will be posting more. I have about 31 chapters waiting to go up.
Thanks

Sherry,
I read your first chapter a little over a week ago but haven't been back. It's not a lot of desire or that I didn't enjoy your chapter - I did. Everyone who's been here for a while is aware that I'm married to a wonderful but significantly disabled wife who requires a lot of help and attention and more doctors' visits than any human should have to endure. That takes a lot of my time. Also, I'm a professional songwriter and I have hard deadlines I must meet if I want to get paid. So, those two issues are my priority. I mostly do music for commercials, movie soundtracks and documentaries, so time is very important for all that.

I've been here since 2008 and and the site has been more valuable to me than I could ever express in words. Gacela's suggestions are spot on. And others, such as Ann Everett and Marilyn Johnson offered a little insight as to why the number of reviews can vary quite a bit. I typically review in spurts, usually between midnight and 4:00 am.

And some folks just don't read certain genres. I rarely read YA, Science Fiction, Horror, Dystopian, and a few others. Give me a good Action-Thriller, a Mystery or (my favorite) some really good humor. Heck, I 'll even read a Romance novel if it's more than mush & gush. Ann Everett writes romance but I read as much of her work as I can because she's so danged good at it .But I occasionally step out of the box and check out other genres just from curiosity.

From the chapter I read, I think you have excellent basics for your writing and, like most of the rest of us, the input from our reviewers hone those basic skills. I hope you hang around and make our site that much better. I'll be over again real soon. I make a list of folks i want to read when I have the opportunity and cycle through that list. I read new authors once or twice a week if I can. That's how I ran across you!

Anyway, keep writing and I'll keep reading as often as I can. JK Rowling was turned down by over a dozen publishers for her Harry Potter series before landing a deal - that worked out pretty good!. Best to you,

Alan

There are a couple of reasons to review. One, obviously is to gain points. The other, hopefully, is to learn and help. That alone should be enough motivation to review. One of the best ways to improve our writing is seeing other styles, how ideas are presented, blah, blah.

As a reviewer, we need to remember there is much more to look at than spelling and grammar mistakes but that’s where a majority of reviews start and stop. I guess that’s why there are different kinds of editors. A good grammarian probably won’t give you much feedback on other aspects of the story. But if we’re trying to learn how to write, we need to look at the bigger picture and pass that onto the author. I’ll confess I’m guilty of the opposite. I’m weak on many grammar points, so I focus on other aspects. I should do more, but I don’t possess the skill to tell someone where to put a comma so I avoid it. But we all have the ability to discuss how interesting the story is, or if it’s confusing, or if it flows well.

As little as it’s talked about, we also need to remember that the ability to present a worthwhile review takes effort and time. And this is where too many authors (in my opinion) are doing a disservice to reviewers. If a reviewer takes the time to write one and point something out, the author needs to do more in a reply than ‘Thanks for the review’, or ‘Glad you liked it’, or ‘Sorry it didn't work for you’. One of my favorites is to point out something that is illogical or out of sequence and have the author explain it in a reply, but never say anything about fixing the manuscript. 
For me, that’s an indication the author doesn't give jack about what a reviewer has to say. Maybe that’s why reviewers simply don’t take the time, or after a while, drift away.