Hi there!
I've been poking back around on here and realized that I last posted almost a year and a half ago, right before NaNoWriMo took over my life for a little while. I bounce back from that every year, but this time a good distraction appeared-- my existing editing work with Spencer Hill really stepped up, freelance clients popped up everywhere, and this blog took a backseat to writing detailed stuff for authors.
But book reviews have been calling my name recently after I had great luck with several books a in a row, two of my biggest projects are off with the almighty superheroes who do the layout work, and I'd like to see what I have time to write again these days. The break has really brought home what I do and don't miss.
The long reviews were draining me a little-- sometimes I had great points for what worked that I really wanted to talk about and the shortcomings were a struggle, and sometimes the book was so awful that I had four easy paragraphs of issues and almost nothing nice to say. With my old format, I felt compelled to hold things to the same length for each category in the interest of fairness unless the book was over four stars or barely scraping one, but I think it led to some clunky posts.
I do miss the "this is why this works and what other bit doesn't" approach, but for some books it's just one thing that kept me riveted and the only thing I really want to talk about. Going forward, the goal is more free-form reviews at a schedule of more like "when I feel like it, but maybe twice a month" and some posts about the inside aspects of editing. The past few years have taught me a lot about tightening up my critique and jumping blind into styles and genres I didn't feel comfortable editing before, and I'd love to dig into that.
If you have questions about how to ask for what your book needs, editorial pet peeves, or anything in that vein, drop me a line or hit me up on Twitter @redpenreviews.
