Pages

Monday, December 9, 2013

The One Star Books...

The pain of spending money on a bad book is... Well, to me it feels like having my heart broken.
And yes, it happens; there is no way to not buy a bad book from time to time. When the synphosis sounds awesome and the cover art is amazing, you see plenty of raving reviews, you are eager to buy it. Of course what a "bad book" is depends on you personally. I can read just about anything, in fact, I've only been phased by a book once or twice. A Child Called It really got to me, especially since it's based off of a true story. I've come across many stories about abuse, rape, flat out torture... I guess when the author doesn't warn me about the content of the book is when I get a smidge upset. If I want something that is happy through and through why would I buy something I know is going to be about horrible pasts and mistreatment?
I wouldn't.
But I may very well revisit those titles at a later date when I can handle them. Just because your book has questionable content doesn't mean nobody will purchase it. But warn us!

Of course the storyline isn't the only thing that contributes to a "bad book". The grammar, spelling, and punctuation is also important. As I said before, a few mistakes are fine. But on every page, in every paragraph? I can't do it.
It tends to come across as though you are uneducated. I almost get embarrassed for the author when these things pop up.
Let's not forget about one of my biggest pet peeves: double wording and repetitive content. Example
"I opened the door to let him in. He shook my hand and I noticed he was cold. It was cold outside so I suppose that makes sense. I let him in and shut the door as a cold breeze blew by. Now I was cold but the house was warm so hopefully we would both be warm soon."
Cold, cold, cold, cold, warm, warm... Look, we get it. The outside is cold and your house is warm. Why not say the breeze was bitter? Or just get rid of it completely? Things like that really irk me and if it happens frequently I will put the book aside and label it as a waste of money.

Funny enough character development doesn't matter too much to me. I like to connect with the characters but if I don't, I don't necessarily drop the story in the reject pile. I know for a lot of people how the characters grow is important. I like to understand a little behind their motivations, but I've come across some phenomenal stories that had little to no character development in them.

The cover art, there is a lot of debate on this one. How is the cover art suppose to look? Will I deduct points on a review for a bad photo? To answer that last question, no. I might mention something about it on my review but don't judge a book by it's cover. I've made that mistake a few times before and finally learned, lol!
I think the cover art should have a little something to do with the book, but beyond that, it's all up to the author. It's their world, we're just visiting it. My only thing is that the title of the book should be easy to read. I think that's a flat out given, but you never know.

This reminds me of another thing going around- is it okay to look indie? You shouldn't be ashamed of telling everyone you're an indie author but when it comes to the layout of your book nothing should give it away. I think when it comes to anything you should put up a professional front. It's okay to ask for help when you're confused or unsure, the indie community is extremely nice and very helpful. But the final product should be as close to perfect as you can get. I might sound like a bitch for it, but this is just my opinion. I don't make any judgements when I read about how they got published. I don't deduct points for being independant. But I do for a sloppy execution of the book.

These are some things that bug me and make me toss a book to the side. What makes you put a story on the "bad book" list?

No comments:

Post a Comment