• Babyland,  Writing

    My First Real Rating for Babyland was 2 Stars–Here’s How I Felt About it

    / December 27, 2021
    black and white typewriter on table
    Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

    I’ve been craving reviews for Babyland long before its publishing date. I’ve done my research: have beta readers review it,
    seek out book bloggers, take your book to a reputable website that accepts books for reads and reviews.


    While some choices I made worked, and others didn’t, I was left with the same feeling altogether: disappointment. A combination of lack of funds, missed deadlines or the need for heavy blog usage on my website were just a few reasons I missed out on sending my book out for a review.


    What did work, though? Reaching out to book bloggers was my best choice! I didn’t get much feedback from professional review services, suffice to say.


    I reached out to maybe fifty book bloggers, asking if they’d like to review my book. I’d say maybe 98% DID NOT RESPOND. The 2% responded with a polite no thank you or thanks but left an excuse. Others greatly accepted.


    However, keep in mind when one accepts your book to read it in exchange for a review, you may not hear from them again. Take this as they’re busy, they did not like your book after all, or they’re plain rude.


    I suggest you email them to make sure they received the copy of your book (whether digital or print is up to them). If no response, try again a week or two later. Still no response? It’s possible they’re too busy or lost interest. If you know they’ve read your book then, and haven’t left a review yet, remind them with one email.


    Onto with the rating I’ve been meaning to write about. I reached out to a book blogger, she gladly accepted, she read my book, then it took her about two months to post the rating.


    She emailed me her rating for it, at last. I wasn’t too surprised when she didn’t care for it. She did however, give it 2 stars over 1. The first rating I received was a star.


    In so many words, she was excited to read it. Once she started to read it, though, she got bored with it and didn’t understand what the pictures were describing.


    On a positive note, she first stated how it’s definitely not for kids. She loved how it was dark humor because she likes that, and she couldn’t spent hours looking at the drawings.


    I could have gone out of my way to read the 1 star review, but that reviewer did not come off as nice as this reviewer did. If I can, I look for reviewers who are honest, not blunt, when reviewing books.


    Best of all, the reviewer who earned my book 2 stars said she did not want to sound rude. She did just that.


    I suppose I’m up for accepting (mentally?) reviews as low as 2 stars as long as the reader/reviewer found something likeable in my work. Especially so if I don’t find a nasty reivew. Authors get that their work won’t be loved by everyone on the planet. I don’t think it does much good (least for the author) to shout from the roof tops how awful a book was. If Twitter existed in the time of Jackson Pollock, something tells me his paintings would see the worst reviews ever. Maybe I branched off a bit.

    Enjoy the rest of the year! Feel free to ask any questions! I highlighted where you can read the review if you’d like!

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    • Writing

      Unnecessary Words To Take Out of Your Writing

      / December 21, 2021

      Let me delve into this blog post by saying this: I’m not writing this to claim I am the perfect writer. There is none. No writer can pull off the most spotless, no-rules-broken piece of literature. It would help if you had your spelling errors corrected, sure, and grammar corrected as well. I, for one, have my writing rules that I follow and believe are an amount that must be followed no matter what.
      Okay, so what words should you avoid at all costs in your writing?

      1) Suddenly
      Please, doesn’t everything on Earth happen suddenly? The toast popped up from the toaster, the baby popped out, the pigeon crapped on my head, I slipped on ice and cracked my ribs? Maybe it’s your lucky day if that’s all you broke open. If all!

      2) Try and
      Try and make my day by writing grammatically correct. You’re better off with, “Try to.” Read this sentence: “Try and stop me.” Now this one: “Try to stop me.”

      3) The reason is because
      Both “reason” and “because” are transition words connecting to consequences. To have two of them in the same sentence is redundant. You’d either write, “Because” or “the reason is that.” See? They’re twins, but they don’t need to share a sentence.:)

      4) Same exact
      Haven’t we been here before? Again, we’ve run into twins? Fraternal twins, rather. “Same exact” is redundant. Choose either “same” or “exact” for a sentence. You can do it!

      5) Each and every
      Similar to “same exact” and “try and.” Pick either of these, not both. I know, it must be like when you order at Starbucks for a frappuccino refresher. Yeah, I don’t order crazy drink combos often.

      6) A single individual
      I believe an individual is single. You don’t go around saying, “I’m a single individual,” or do you? If you are single, is what I’m getting at here.

      7) Just
      This word is often overused. “Just” should be used when defining something that happened a moment ago or an exact amount. It’s a word you use sparingly. Did you just get off the train, as in a minute ago, or was that an hour ago? How about just a dash of salt–not a tablespoon but a sprinkling?

      8) Same difference
      Now here’s an oxymoron. You can’t have something that’s the same and different. Scratch out these two words altogether.

      9) End result
      Results often are the end. In transitional phrases, you have an example of “in the end.” “End result” is redundant, as I mentioned a few specific words in this post. You could substitute “end result” with “in result.”

      I won’t hunt you down and kill you if I ever see cringe-worthy mistakes in your writing. Learn from them, as you learned from dumping that trashbag of a boyfriend. Feel free to break the rules, too. These might best come in handy for character dialogues, but hey, not for your dissertation.

      Laters, peeps!

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