Thank you to everyone for getting this season off to a good start. By now many of you have discovered that the books we receive can range in quality from exceptionally good to exceptionally bad. Because the comment sections are critical to explaining the difference, I wanted to send this separate email to clear up some misunderstandings.
Purpose: The main function of commenting in each of the four sections (content, style, visual, and tech) is to give the author feedback as to what went right and what went wrong. It also justifies your scoring.
Type of Information: Please use the comment space to point out your personal observations in a few sentences, without using the wording from the scoring form questions. For instance, in the fiction content section, the question about characters gives you an answer choice of "Mostly well developed, believable, and genre-appropriate." The answer here helps reviewers determine if the author met the standards for character development. But using this wording in your comment section won't help the author. It's vague and general. Instead, be specific about the characters. e.g. "The main male character was well developed with a believable back story, but the female characters were all beautiful, vapid, and clueless. Female readers likely won't appreciate this." Again, don't simply say the plot was ridiculous, but give examples. e.g. "I found it hard to believe that the antagonist would spend ten years plotting revenge against someone who cut him off in traffic." Give the authors something concrete to help them develop their craft.
Amount of Information: Give enough information to help the author. It is not necessary to comment on each of the five questions, but go with your main observations. Also, please don't use the question numbers in the comment section to tell us which question your comment pertains to. This only confuses the author, whereas reviewers and directors will already understand which question you are addressing in more detail. A good rule of thumb is that if you lower a score, a comment should explain that, especially in the tech category. We are seeing a number of lowered tech scores without sufficient examples to back it up. While we are not editing the book and don't need to document/report every error, we need examples of what the author did wrong.
Tone: Despite some books being frustrating/boring/poorly edited/disgusting, we don't want to pound the author into the ground. Well, we might want to, but instead we need to recognize that authors spend a great deal of time and money on their creations. If you can find one good thing the author did, comment on that first. Try to couch negative comments objectively. Instead of "This book needs an editor," go with "I noted twelve misspelled words and many sentence fragments. Here are some examples of what I found..." What about positive comments? Please don't say you enjoyed the book. The goal is to determine if the book meets the standards, not if you liked it. Here's an example of a positive comment: "I appreciate how the author was able to incorporate military-speak and acronyms in a way that civilians could understand." Giving concrete examples takes the comment out of the realm of opinion and places it more in the realm of objectivity.
Eyes-only: Use this space to say anything you don't want the author to read, because the author will be given ALL of the other comments. The eyes-only space is reserved for you to vent if needed ... or gush if you want to. This section is only seen by the awards directors and the book's two other reviewers, so feel free to make your case here if you feel passionate about the book (good or bad). Also use this space to let the awards directors know of other issues or comment on medal-worthiness. e.g. "There really wasn't a question that fit my concerns about [fill in the blank] in content, so I lowered the score of question 2 to account for it."
Author Comments: This is not a required field. You can leave it blank if you have made suitable comments in the other sections. Don't use this section to repeat what you already wrote in the other sections. Do use it for other thoughts. e.g. "Thank you for sharing your story," or "I live in Alabama, so the dialogue really rings true for me," or "This was a little-known facet of World War II, and it deserves attention."
No-No's:
Please do not mention medal worthiness in any comment the author will see. Use the Eyes-Only section to convince other reviewers and let the averaged scores determine the medal-worthiness for the author.
Don't use superlatives (best/worst) in comments the author will see. Use the Eyes-only Section. What if you tell the author, "This is the best book I've ever read," and then change your score based on the findings of the other two reviewers?
Again, thank you for all your hard work so far this season. We truly appreciate our reviewers!
Betsy
(from 2/25/23 reviewer blast email)