Reviews

Hi Ray.

Here's my two cents worth. I welcome any and all comments. I've received reviews that were obviously written with the reviewer's lips firmly planted on my butt cheeks, and I've received reviews that completely brought my head out of the clouds and slammed it brutally into a hard dose of reality. Both have helped me improve my writing, and I'm thankful to each and every reviewer who took the time to look at my work.

I personally prefer that a reviewer begin at the beginning and go through the entire work, chapter by chapter. If I don't want any more input on a particular chapter(s) or short story, I'll change it to inactive status where no further reviews are possible. As long as you as a reviewer can access the work, rest assured that any and all comments are still welcome. I don't discount those who begin reviewing with Chapter 947 but usually find there are comments made that would have been readily explained had the reviewer read the previous 946 chapters. But I don't ignore a reviewer's input because they choose not to begin at the beginning. When I say 'any and all comments welcome,' that's what I mean. But that's just me.

Bobbie

Ray, you seem to be publishing one book for each chapter. There's no need for that. Each book can have as many chapters as you like. There's an Edit button (near the Inline button) when you look at your own posted chapters. From within the Edit wizard, you can add chapters to an existing work, make a chapter active or inactive (i.e., show or hide it), etc.

Be warned, there's also an edit LINK further down the page of each posted chapter that is used solely to edit chapters, not the book.

Congratulations on completing your novel. For me.that's the hardest part, as my reviewers know.

As to jumping in and reviewing a novel from the middle: many consider that a no-no, for exactly the reason you've given. I once received a review criticizing me for not describing the table, the meal and the surroundings. What the reviewer didn't know was that all that had been done in the previous chapter; the characters were now engaged in an after-dinner discussion.

It's best to start at the beginning, so you don't miss out on any crucial details, particularly if the story is a mystery. On occasion, I have read several chapters at one sitting. It gives the feeling of enjoying a book the way readers will, eventually.

That's my opinion, anyway. Don't know how other writers feel.  JP