{Image: Book Cover for The Wrythe and the Reckoning, ARC}
Dear visitors,
I’m writing this message to inform would-be authors and readers to beware of the reviews and opinions of skim readers. In this era of long lists and large piles of TBRs, skim-reading may potentially become a problem. This post is in regards to coming to this realization after reading one of the reviews for my debut novel The Wrythe and the Reckoning. When I published the ARC version of The Wrythe and the Reckoning on a well-known platform, I received the usual love it or hate it reviews. That was fine. I write for the potential fans only. So, I don’t particularly mind negative reviews. However, when a review is cruel and dishonest, such a reviewer becomes a problem. One of the readers of the ARC reviewed the book as if she had read most of it, but in her review it was evident that she had instead skim-read it. In her review post, she even admitted to having skim-read most the novel, but she reviewed it as though she had read it in its entirety.
For one, it was an ARC. Anyone familiar with ARCs knows that such books are not the final version. I even made that clear at the beginning of the ARC novel and also at the end of it. In addition, when I posted the book, I posted it as having a cliffhanger. In other words, the story was posted in partial form (approximately 1/3 of the entire book), and readers were informed that when it’s published, it would be published in its entirety. Never-the-less, a lot happens in that portion of the book. So, there were those obvious warnings. However, this particular reviewer missed a lot of what happened.
What tipped me off especially was the reviewer making statements that implied when the characters get to ________________ (a certain location) nothing happens. Ha! Excuse me? Any reader who has read The Wrythe and the Reckoning knows that when they get to that location a lot happens. It’s the main setting of the story. That statement alone gave it away that the reviewer skim-read most of the book and only captured a small amount of the content. However, there was no mention of her having read only bits and pieces of the book, in actuality having read the book only briefly. But yet she reviewed the book as if she had read it in its entirety or at least most of it. It’s as though she was giving the impression that she knows it well, but she hardly knew the story at all.
To make matters worse, she then posted her review on Goodreads and also on her blog. When she posted her review on Goodreads, there was again no mention that she read the ARC only briefly. She gave the impression that the review was for the entire ARC novel. Like I said, I don’t mind negative reviews because different readers like different sorts of books. There are always fans out there who will appreciate your story. But when someone steps all over my story, and they’re being dishonest in doing so (in this case not having read enough of the ARC book to post a thorough review), I feel obligated to warn others of this behavior. When such a case occurs, the reviewer appears to be a troll. They appear as though they had ulterior motives in posting the bad review, or at the very least are inexperienced with reading a variety of books.
The book will survive, because it’s an excellent story. Regardless, I felt obligated to stand up for it, because it was treated unfairly. My point is, readers and authors, beware of reviews from skim readers. They may have missed most of the story, and in doing so much of their review may be inaccurate. Like I’ve mentioned elsewhere, The Wrythe and the Reckoning is not a book that can be skim-read to satisfaction. There’s a lot that happens in each chapter, including character development and important themes. If a reader skim-reads the novel, they will have missed most of the story. I’ve learned a lot from this experience, and I may not post an ARC of future novels because of it. By the way, I’ve taken a screenshot of the review being referred to in this post, not only on the reviewer’s blog but also on GoodReads. This is incase it’s later removed and I need to post it for evidence. Take care everyone, and have a fantastic day!
Yvonne Le
[Yvonthia Leland, author of The Wrythe and the Reckoning. Novel Publication October 25th, 2019. To be available on Amazon and in local book stores.]
