Etiquette?

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quicklime

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I think you did the right thing. I am getting so frustrated with people telling me my writing is wonderful. I have poor grammar and I know this. If I put something on Amazon and it had a lot of errors I would want someone to tell me. I had a friends wife edit one of my stories for me. She has a masters in English. I found so many small errors in my story after she edited it. What if this person paid someone to edit their book and didn't realize the person did a poor job. When you have bad grammar its hard to know if the editor knows what they are doing. I think you did the right thing.


the question is if this view would be universal, especially whrn the crit came unsolicited.

OP, I think you got very, very lucky. You could very easily have acquired a reputation, instead of a beta.
 

Wordwrestler

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So I browse through friends and friends of friends writing on Amazon. I like to help support fellow writers by buying their work. (If it is something I tend to enjoy reading)

I found a book which is full of error after error. Everything from grammar issues to incorrect word choice and spelling.

Now I sent them a kind message warning them, since if I were to put out a book full of errors I'd prefer someone tell me. Then I became worried that I am being 'myself.'

Nosy. Rude. Intrusive. I honestly only wanted to help, I had no malicious intent, but did I go too far? Should I have left it alone? They had eight reviews, seven were 5 star, one 4 star.

So now I am feeling self doubt and am thinking I am a troll. Or I am being over critical. What would YOU have done?

Okay, maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but the part I bolded above made me think the OP bought a product (or at least was contemplating buying a product and sampled it). Commenting on a product that is for sale is not giving an unsolicited critique, as it would be if the OP stumbled across unfinished work, or work that was not meant for public consumption.
 

Phaeal

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Glad to hear it all worked out for the best!

Here's my equation:

The more fixable the work is (still in MS, in a correctable e-format) the more likely I am to point out errors. Another factor: How well do I know this person? Not at all? I'm probably keeping my mouth shut.

I would always point out technical errors in private, not in a posted review. I'm not worried about protecting the reading public -- most books on Amazon put up a sample of the writing. So, caveat lector -- always read the sample.
 
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tiptoetwirl

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Like a lot of people have already said, I personally prefer someone to let me know about the mistakes I made. It keeps an author honest when people leave good, constructive critique and something like than can only ever help you improve. If you publish a book you are leaving it open to critiscm and it is up to the author to sort out the contructive critiscm from that which is just meant to hurt.
Personally I think you did the right thing and if I were the author I'd probably be glad you pointed out the mistakes so I can fix them and avoid further embrassment because, honestly, mistakes caused by laziness (which is what lack of proper editing is) is nothing but embarassing. That's my opinion at least :)
 

D.M.Drake

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Ok, I want to point out a few things. :)

I did not post a review, I sent a personal message via Facebook which there was a link to in the author bio with the book.

I did not know the person, I came across his book because it was linked from a friend on Twitter. (a source I trust for books I have liked in the past)

I saw and read the book, found it to be full of errors and was only receiving positive reviews. The 'story' itself was very good, the voice amazing, but it was full of technical errors.

I would hope someone would point out errors in my book, simply because that is embarrassing, and I sure as heck don't think any writer who is worth their salt would come down harshly on a polite, if critical review. Don't we all want to put our best work forward?

I am now working with him to help with some of the errors, and now that I have gotten to know him he is a nice person. I am glad to be helping. Would I do this again? Maybe, depends on my day. Would I worry about earning a bad name? No. If a writer can't handle a bad review and labels me it really doesn't reflect on me, now does it? My intent was to help him, not be a big meanie. I used positive, constructive criticism, he saw that and responded positively.

I agree I am lucky, but it is a sad day that someone gets angry over an honest review. One 'Nicky' is enough. lol.
 
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