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Are the reviews we are writing for the stories on the MEFA 2005 site
aimed primarily at the authors or are they aimed at other potential
readers first? I can certainly do author-aimed reviews at the
websites where the stories are posted and avoid spoilery comments here
if that is more appropriate.

And if it doesn't really matter, just ignore the question...

My first thought is to say they're directed at the authors. However, (and I
think it's true this year too), the reviews will become public. If it makes any
difference, I'm not avoiding spoilers, well, not much...*grin* I can't imagine
the reviews here are the same as other sites though, so it's not as important
to avoid spoilers, at least IMO.



--- C Dodd <rabidsamfan@verizon.net> wrote:

> Are the reviews we are writing for the stories on the MEFA 2005 site
> aimed primarily at the authors or are they aimed at other potential
> readers first? I can certainly do author-aimed reviews at the
> websites where the stories are posted and avoid spoilery comments here
> if that is more appropriate.
>
> And if it doesn't really matter, just ignore the question...
>

Larian

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
-Dave Barry

larian_elensar@yahoo.com
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/larian
OEAM archive http://www.ofelvesandmen.com
Archive addy archive@ofelvesandmen.com

To get right down to it, it's a little bit of both. Think of professional
book reviews. Are they directed to the authors or to potential readers?
Authors covet good ones, but if it was JUST for authors, the reviews
wouldn't need to be published in any magazine or newspaper. And since we
fanfic writers don't get paid to write, what do we want? Readers. So if a
good review entices a new reader to one of my stories, it's doubly good.

--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves," Elrond said, "for
it is Windows-compatible, and freeware at that." --H.F.

http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards

Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Larian Elensar
> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 11:28 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] It's really dumb question time...
>
> My first thought is to say they're directed at the authors.
> However, (and I think it's true this year too), the reviews
> will become public. If it makes any difference, I'm not
> avoiding spoilers, well, not much...*grin* I can't imagine
> the reviews here are the same as other sites though, so it's
> not as important to avoid spoilers, at least IMO.
>
>
>
> --- C Dodd <rabidsamfan@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > Are the reviews we are writing for the stories on the MEFA
> 2005 site
> > aimed primarily at the authors or are they aimed at other potential
> > readers first? I can certainly do author-aimed reviews at the
> > websites where the stories are posted and avoid spoilery
> comments here
> > if that is more appropriate.
> >
> > And if it doesn't really matter, just ignore the question...
> >
>
>
> Larian
>
> There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
> -Dave Barry
>
> larian_elensar@yahoo.com
> Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/larian
> OEAM archive http://www.ofelvesandmen.com Archive addy
> archive@ofelvesandmen.com
>
>
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On 10 Jun 2005, at 00:27, Larian Elensar wrote:

> My first thought is to say they're directed at the authors. However,
> (and I
> think it's true this year too), the reviews will become public. If it
> makes any
> difference, I'm not avoiding spoilers, well, not much...*grin*  I
> can't imagine
> the reviews here are the same as other sites though, so it's not as
> important
> to avoid spoilers, at least IMO.
>
>
>
> --- C Dodd <rabidsamfan@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > Are the reviews we are writing for the stories on the MEFA 2005 site
> > aimed primarily at the authors or are they aimed at other potential
> > readers first?  I can certainly do author-aimed reviews at the
> > websites where the stories are posted and avoid spoilery comments
> here
> > if that is more appropriate.
> >
> > And if it doesn't really matter, just ignore the question...
> >
>
>

This is something that I think a lot of people differ on. I tend to
write them as recommendations to other readers (which means that
there's a fair amount of feedback included, since I'm going on about
what I like). Other people write them as reviews directly to the
author. I don't think there's any rules that say you have to do one or
the other, though the first goal is to give the author feedback.
Recommendations to other readers are nice, but they're not the *first*
reason why we're writing these things.

I do remember that last year in the post mortem we decided that you
should be reviewing the *whole* story if the story is complete. Don't
just write out your thoughts on each chapter, but write a review or
recommendation on the piece as a whole. But that's probably not what
you're asking. ;-)

Marta
*****
Home is where you hang your @.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Marta Layton
> Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 12:57 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] It's really dumb question time...
>
> This is something that I think a lot of people differ on. I
> tend to write them as recommendations to other readers (which
> means that there's a fair amount of feedback included, since
> I'm going on about what I like). Other people write them as
> reviews directly to the author. I don't think there's any
> rules that say you have to do one or the other, though the
> first goal is to give the author feedback.
> Recommendations to other readers are nice, but they're not
> the *first* reason why we're writing these things.

Ah but more readers means more liklihood of feedback. Seems like a Yen and
Yang thing to me. Or chicken and egg.

>
> I do remember that last year in the post mortem we decided
> that you should be reviewing the *whole* story if the story
> is complete. Don't just write out your thoughts on each
> chapter, but write a review or recommendation on the piece as
> a whole. But that's probably not what you're asking. ;-)

Ah yes. Thanks for mentioning that. Do review whole stories (or the whole
of what you have in a WIP) and not just each chapter. Really think like a
book reviewer in a newspaper. They don't even give ego-boos chapter by
chapter. It's inflation to do that, really. Consider the whole story. You
can still point out your favorite parts and such.


Ah, and keep direct quotes down.

V.C.7. Quoting of nominate material will only be allowed "in-line" and must
be no more than 2 sentences/lines.

Quoting whole paragraphs also inflates a vote. The author wrote it so we
don't need to repeat it; readers will read it so we don't need to spoil it.
That said, you can still quote your favorite lines, just keep it to the
limit.

--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves," Elrond said, "for
it is Windows-compatible, and freeware at that." --H.F.

http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards

Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com