Authors Electric

Who can put a value on a star? stars with numbers for a quiz You can buy a star from the internet – the standard star package is just £19.99. It doesn’t take much googling to find it. But I’m not talking about celestial beings but rather star ratings given freely, which especially delight an indie author. I’m fortunate to have picked up quite a few for my memoir and I love how they twinkle but for some reason I find it harder to give them away. star stickers from a writing workshop “You’ve never left me a review?” said a writing friend at the weekend. She was quite shocked when I told her. “Um no! I don’t mind writing about a book explaining what I enjoyed but I find the star rating difficult.” I probably tied myself in knots trying to explain my reasoning, so I thought I’d write a blog about it and see if I can untangle my thoughts and see what is going on in my head. Firstly, I HATE filling in any forms that require rating something – so often I plump for the middle answe...

 How do you choose which book to read? Are you persuaded by a fabulous five-star review?  Or does it take the personal recommendation of a friend to convince you? Perhaps you choose a book because you have read something by the author before. Personally, I know anything by Kate Atkinson or Louise Penny are worth picking up, and Elly Griffiths’ series of Ruth Galloway stories are always a winner. some of my favourite authors But when you are confronted in a bookshop, library, or charity shop with a plethora of books by unknown authors how do you choose? Do you judge a book by its cover? What a book looks like is very important. Is the cover design eye-catching? Ultimately your first impression may lead you to pick it up, turn it over and read the blurb on the back. Then you may discard it or turn to the inside pages. Presentation, the overall look and feel of a book, can be almost as important as the words themselves. They need to complement each other. If choosing a ...