Off-topic posts removed from review, Feb 28

[moderntimes]

Agreed, owlie

[bookowlie]

Oops..sometimes I type too fast for my own good. Edited my last post for grammatical errors.

[moderntimes]

Not to worry. We all create tpyos wien we post messages. Thakfully it's not the sameasw hen we are writng a storie.

[rssllue]

Nice.

[Flingerz]

I'm just curious as to why anyone would suspect that this site has sinister review politics involved. I just can't imagine that the reviewers here are anything but fair and impartial.

[moderntimes]

I don't know either. Mr. Zlotnik should know, as Scott says, since he's had books reviewed here too.

As you can see from his post, he was quite critical of some elements of my book, which is is prerogative. But perhaps he was trying to find out why my book was given an enthusiastic 4 stars?

I checked the reviews of his books and I think all of them also received 4 stars, so a tinge of jealousy can't be the cause.

Incidentally, Mr. Zlotnik and I exchanged PMs and then emails, and he sent me his book, which I thought quite good. But insofar as our personal emails were concerned, they were 100% cordial and there was no conflict. He did criticize some of my writing style, but otherwise, nothing negative crossed between us. So I'm as mystified as anyone else.

[bookowlie]

The only thing I can think of is sour grapes. Maybe Mr. Zlotnik didn't receive an overwhelmingly positive review for his own book, so he is upset that another author received a glowing review. I don't know if this is the case, but comparing reviews is like comparing apples and oranges - different book, different author, and, in most cases, different reviewer. Also, it's better to accept constructive criticism since I would think it helps a writer in the long run.

[moderntimes]

Mystifies me, owlie. The reviews he received were quite good, and 4-star too.

Oh well, on to greater glory, ha ha.

[bookowlie]

Mystifies me, owlie. The reviews he received were quite good, and 4-star too.

Oh well, on to greater glory, ha ha.

Your comments made me curious about the author's reviews so I did a search of them. While one book received 4 stars, the other two received 3 stars. In my opinion, a 3-star rating is still very positive, but some authors are unhappy with anything less than the highest rating.

[moderntimes]

I see that now. Again, I can accept any criticism of my writing -- it's a free country.

But what still confuses me is how he thought that I'd primped for a positive review. In NONE of my many postings have I ever made the slightest reference to pressuring the reviewer (if I were even somehow able to do this) --- as you know, the reviewer is not disclosed to the author, so there'd be no way I could try to get a better review. And Mr. Zlotnik knows this.

He's not the new kid on the block, either. He's a mature man with a long personal history of military and other work, and knows how the real world functions.

But sometimes writers get wrapped up in their own "product" and become overly protective or defensive. I know that he's written mysteries but my own novels are within the subgenre of private detective stories and therefore are in no way "competition" to his books. So I still am puzzled. Oh, well.