Marty the Reviewer

As I'm getting a bit of traction on my book sales, the number of reviews are increasing. On the whole I'm pleased with that. Some of them I take issue with yet I try to be open minded about whatever folks say. A fella has to have something of a thick skin when he writes for public consumption. He must as well consider that the negative reviewer may even be right in their criticisms. 

I find that most observations have been fair enough. I'm greatly pleased in fact that one reviewer caught on why I named my lead character Michael in my book Michael's Story. I chose the name very particularly and I'm pleased someone caught it.

I've taken to doing Amazon book reviews myself. Reviews help drive sales, and I don't mind helping with that. I'm going to be reading books anyhow, so why not help other writers? Yet even when I don't care for a story, or find many grammar, spelling, or narrative issues (believe me, there's a lot of bad writing out there) I really try to be kind. It's a courtesy, and charitable. Why try to be Mr. Critic, being scathing just to be mean? It's rude.

Yet there are problems which seem to occur generally. Several books I've reviewed apparently believe that you're supposed to italicize whenever someone is speaking. I try to gently point out that that's not really a good stylistic practice. Describe the tone of how they're speaking and then let the words flow. You should only use italics when you really must stress a point. To do it all the time takes away from that purpose. 

Then there are people who feel that commas, are, the, greatest, thing, since, sliced, bread. They, use, them, constantly. While they have their place, the rule of thumb is that when in doubt, comma, leave the comma out. Use them for lists, or to separate two thoughts within a sentence. Or, and this is acceptable too, use them to mark an aside within a sentence. 

See what I mean? There are other rules of comma usage, but I will not bore you with them today.

In fact, I'll bore you no more with this blog entry. Have a great day!