I'm excited to announce I've signed with Sutton Publishing (America Through Time) to publish a sequel to Abandoned Wiregrass. I will announce the title as publication draws closer, but look for a release in late 2025 of early 2026. My deadline to the publisher is September. I've got a lot to work to do between now and then. I have a working title, but I'm not going to release it until publication date draws nearer.

What I can tell you now is this project will focus on the western Alabama Wiregrass, retracing the steps of some of its earliest pioneers. The book will have on foot in the present and one foot in the past. My artistic goal with this book is to "up my creative game" on light, composition and subject.  ​This will be a larger and more ambitious project than Abandoned Wiregrass. This will be a photography book, but with a heavy history flavor. It will not exclusively concentrate on abandoned structures, but will highlight what is beautiful and new and vibrant in the Wiregrass as well. 

Abandoned can be beautiful. Rediscovering what was lost and forgotten is often the first step to renewal.

I'll be posting updates and sample images from the upcoming book. Keep checking back! In the meantime, if you haven't purchased a copy of  Abandoned Wiregrass, you can purchase it on America Through Time, Barnes & Noble or Amazon. 

​ If you’ve taken a creative writing class you were likely tasked with short writing assignments, often with very narrow topics. I call these ‘writing drills’ and they’re fantastic tools to hone one’s skills. The writing drill is roughly equivalent to an artist’s sketch – not a completed work, but an exercise. 
 
I use self-imposed writing drills to improve my craft. For me, they serve several purposes: they impose discipline, challenge my writing skills, and provide a way to capture and store ideas. Here are some seven tips when using writing drills: 
 
1. If you’re not working on a major project, then start and complete a writing drill. It keeps you in front of the keyboard.  
 
2. Set deadlines. Ideally, writing drills should be completed in a week or less. ‘Complete’ means edited and ready to present to the reader. Even though it may not be a stand-alone piece, it should be grammatically clean. 
 
3. Keep it short. Set a word limit and honor it. They should range between 300 to 2000 words.  Anything less is a glorified paragraph, anything longer is a major project. 
 
4. Find time and make it happen.  If you can’t complete a 300-2000 word writing exercise in one week you’re not trying. If you want to be a writer, then write.
 
5. Select a topic. If you have an idea burning to get onto paper, fine. Run with it. However, try to avoid using your ‘cool ideas’ for writing drills. The pitfall is getting too caught up in the idea and not in the art of writing. For example, I select drill material from everyday, even mundane, observations. The challenge is to make it ‘cool’ through the writer’s craft.
 
6. Challenge yourself. If you’re good at fiction, throw in a healthy amount of non-fiction. If you’re good at narration, then branch out into dialogue. It doesn’t matter; just get out of your comfort zone. 
 
7. Study and copy the masters. Artists often copy the works of masters to learn and improve. Writers should do the same. For example, pick a subject (scene, an internal dialogue, etc.) then ask yourself how a particular author would write two pages about it. Then write those pages to mimic that author’s style. Mix it up and try new authors. 
 
Your writing drills are your sketches, so save them for later use. From this sketch book full pieces of art can be built. A 500 word drill can be the genesis for a leading character or the starting point for a free-lance article. Completing a writing drill is like making a bank deposit.
 
Writing drills are also a great way to keep your blog fresh and updated. The more widely varied your drills, the more diverse readership you’ll draw. It also provides a great sounding board on your work. However, if you use your ‘cool ideas’ as writing drills, it’s best not to post them online.
 
The writing drill is all about staying in front of the keyboard. With every drill ask yourself ‘How can I make this piece better?’ Write the hard stuff. Invite criticism. Embrace failure as a badge of honor and start all over again if necessary. 

“...I want to say my life has been molded in rude elements, 
without any of the refining influences which an education gives. This story,  therefore, has none of the characteristics of a novel in which the imagination supplies every need and meets every emergency. It is my aim to state simple  facts, and nothing but plain truths, as they occurred to me, for I have neither the gift, nor the inclination, to fabricate a story of thrilling adventure just  to please the tastes of those who look to the novelist to meet their demand for  entertainment.” 

- Clinton  Lafayette Smith of San Antonio, 1927

This is a tale in two parts. One part is the true story of two  brothers who experienced a fantastic adventure that turns what we know about  history on its head. The other part is about the efforts of a family to preserve this true story for almost a century.  

Around 1927 Clinton Lafayette Smith, in his sixties, wrote a  true story in longhand on a Big Chief tablet. Eventually, along with his brother Jefferson Davis Smith, he recounted his tale to noted writer J. Marvin Hunter.  The resulting book, The Boy Captives, has been in publication for eighty-five years through eighteen printings, all of which has been paid for by the Smith Family. What kind of  memoir would be so important that successive generations of one family repeatedly paid for its publication? 

In 1871, eleven year old Clinton and his nine year old brother  Jefferson were captured by Comanche raiders near their West Texas farm.  Jefferson was soon sold to none other than the legendary Apache warrior Geronimo, while Clinton was adopted by Comanche Chief Tasacowadi. For over five years they lived among the two most notorious warrior tribes in North America during one of the most tumultuous eras in American history. 

The Boy Captives could be described as Forrest Gump  meets Little Big Man, but with one  important difference, The Boy Captives was real. The Boy Captives isn’t a history book; the history is a mere by-product of the  telling. This is a story of two boys and their honest account of the vanished  people they came to reluctantly love. 

The story is told mostly by Clinton. Hunter makes it clear to the reader he adheres “...as strictly as possible to the manner of expression, the style of recital and the method of description used by Mr. Smith.” You can almost hear Clinton’s plain spoken, West Texas drawl rising off the pages. But you don’t hear an old cowboy recalling the days of his youth. Instead, you clearly hear a Comanche boy named Bak-ke-ca-cho (End Of A Rope) recounting the unique moments of his life as he transforms from frightened farm boy to a deadly Comanche warrior. Clinton moves, often non-sequentially, from moment to moment with no overarching idea or theme. He bestows importance to events based on what they meant to a young Comanche boy, not on an old white man’s perspective of history. 

For example, Clinton devotes more time discussing how to properly prepare a rattlesnake for eating than recalling the time spent in the company of famous Apache Chief Geronimo, who he simply recalls as a great warrior and friend to his tribe. Clinton delights in explaining how to remove lice from a loincloth by shaking it over a hot fire and listening to the lice crackle like popcorn.  He gives scant mention, however, of standing in the presence of  the great Sioux Chief Sitting Bull overlooking the bleached bones of a battlefield where the Sioux won a victory over the U.S. Army.  Clinton’s voice is a time capsule, a crystal clear radio beacon from a lost era, free from the distortion of the historian’s pen.  

Through Clinton we are given an insight to how the Indians thought, how they viewed the world around them, and their values. When Clinton becomes a Comanche all thoughts of the past or the future cease to exist. He simply was. I would describe this as the “narrative of the moment.” The Boy Captives is a series of amazing life-and-death moments strung together and told in a matter-of-fact style that left me stunned. 

This book upends many myths about the Plains Indians, especially the Comanche. For example, conventional history says the Comanche’s range, the  Comancheria, stretched from Eastern New Mexico to north-west Texas to Central Kansas.   However, in the five years Clinton was with the tribe he describes roaming from Mexico to Canada, from Nebraska to the Pacific.

We are often led to believe the Indians were crushed by the  whites partly because the different tribes could not unite.   Yet, more often than not,  both Clinton and Jefferson state the Comanche, Apache,  Sioux, Cheyenne and countless other tribes formed alliances with great success against the whites. The  details presented in this book of the friendships between widely geographically separated tribes, which many believe had nothing to do with each other, is nothing short of astounding. 

The book also challenges many of the politically-correct myths  about the Native Americans. Both Clinton and Jefferson make it clear the primary endeavor of their tribes was raiding, killing and kidnapping white children. Modern perspectives and the illusions of cultural relativism wash away under the torrent of blood inflicted by the Comanche. The sheer volume of random, savage violence they wreak is chilling. It was often for sport, without the justifications of revenge or military necessity. In fact, the Comanche seemed to have all the purpose of a modern outlaw biker gang, only on a much larger scale and with greater effect.  Neither Clinton nor Jefferson excuse the atrocities, they simply call it what it was – killing.

In fact, neither mentions revenge for white atrocities because,  until the professional Mexican and American armies finally brought their full power to bear against the Plains Indians, whites had little success against what both men clearly describe as the tactically superior Indian. Even then, the  Indians held the soldiers in scorn at first. Clinton describes this turning point:

At first, the Indians were not afraid of these soldiers, and were inclined to treat the matter as a big joke. They would overpower the ranchmen and steal their stock, kill settlers and commit all kinds of outrages. But this was only the beginning of the end, for in time the Indian had to give in to his superior, the white man. 

This statement is haunting when in context of perhaps one of the most historically significant parts of the book, the Battle of McClellen Creek. To history, this battle is a footnote. To Clinton’s tribe, it was devastating and showed a determined US Army bent on crushing Comanche power.

All through the book I kept wondering about the extent of Clinton’s participation in the massacres he describes. One too many times he  says he “held the horses” as others did the killing. I can almost hear the  evasion in his voice. Then, near the end of his account, he says this: 

I have been asked many times, “Did you kill anybody white while you were with the Indians?” When asked this question I always hang my head and  do not reply. It pains me greatly when this question is asked, for it brings up  memories of deeds I was forced to do, taught to do by the savages, whose chief  delight was to kill and steal. It must be remembered that I was just a mere boy,  and that I had, without choice, absorbed the customs and manners of a savage tribe. I was an Indian. 

The book is full of moments like this, dripping with so much understated emotion I had to read them over and over. Two of these touching scenes were from Jefferson’s short memoir. The first occurred after he was separated from his brother and sold to Geronimo.

I was then given the Apache name of Catowhich, which in our language means “horse tail.” When Geronimo took me to his squaw she very tenderly (for an Indian) washed my face, combed my hair with a bear-grass comb, and gave me a buckskin jacket and a fox skin cap, the tail of which hung down my back; also a new breech-clout and a nicely beaded belt, buckskin moccasins, and thought she dressed me up in style. Then she painted my face red, with blue stripes up and down my forehead and made a great deal of fuss over me but I could not understand her talk.

 Then, at the end of his story, Jefferson recounts this touching scene:

When [Geronimo] was captured he was brought through San Antonio under guard, and I went to see him there. The old fellow recognized me instantly, and called me by my name, and I had a long talk with him. I met other members of the tribe at the same time, and they all wanted me to get the white people to release them and they would promise to be good. As I started to leave them they would catch me around the neck and beg me to stay with them. I told them I would come back again. 

If he ever did, he never says, as his account ends there. 
 
The  Boy Captives isn’t just a tale of adventure on the American frontier; it’s also a tale of a family fighting to keep this story alive. Quite simply, it’s a story of frontier self-publication.

I had the honor of talking via phone to Clinton Smith’s grandson, Clint Smith of the Rafter-O-Ranch in Junction, Texas. Junction lies in the same hill country where Clinton and Jefferson were abducted all those years ago. In an easy, West Texas drawl Clint was kind enough to tell me how The Boy Captives survived to this day.

The brothers told their story to J. Marvin Hunter, who wrote it down and printed 500 copies for the family in 1927. The Smith family secured the copyright and split the copies between the brothers. Clinton and Jefferson died in 1932 and 1940 respectively and their story drifted into obscurity until J. Marvin Hunter passed in 1965. 

Marvin Jr. then began selling “bootleg”copies of the book without the Smith Family’s permission. As Clint put it, “We never sued nobody,” but somehow they persuaded Marvin Jr. to surrender the illicit copies. The  Smiths then collected 50 cents from each family member and issued another  printing of The Boy Captives. The years came and went and, from time to time, they issued more printings.

Agents and publishers offered to take the book mainstream, but the family declined. As Clint conveyed, “They only offered pennies on the dollar per copy, so nothing came of it.”  Movie producers wanted to make the story, but Texas author Elmer Kenton advised against it. Elmer, whose book, The Good Old Boys, was made into a movie with Tommy Lee Jones, reportedly told the family that if Hollywood made the movie, “You won’t like what they’ll do with it.”  

The Smiths seemed satisfied keeping The Boy Captives a low-key and self-published endeavor. Until recently, it wasn’t an easy book to find. Copies could be found in  roadside book stores and museums in Texas and the Southwest, handed from friend to friend (how I found  it), and in historical societies. Recently, however, one of the family members put it on Amazon, but not in an e-book format. By keeping this book alive, the Smiths rescued a national treasure and we are all richer for it.

The next time you’re on a road trip across the U.S. stop in the local museums or historical societies and look on the local history shelves for  the self-published books. You know the ones I’m talking about, the paperbacks with antique photos on simple covers. Maybe inside you’ll find a hidden treasure, a fantastic true story from the past only known to a few. 

Now it will be known to you, too. And you will be richer for ​it.

The Boy Captives on Amazon

This book review originally appeared in Underground Book Reviews 18 June 2012. 

As a writer and a book reviewer, I’ve made some  observations and learned a few lessons over the past few years about the state  of mind of many emerging authors. If you care to listen, I’ll share a few. Take them for what they are, the opinions of an author who has published independently and traditionally. 
 
First, I think many new authors fail to take an honest account of their motivations before jumping into writing. Motivations are legion, but every writer wants their work published. It may not be the only motivation, but it’s likely the most important. I call this powerful motivation the Writer’s Drive. However, when a writer doesn’t have other goals besides publication, such as improving the quality of their work, the Writer’s Drive can become overpowering. A relentless, obsessive, and often frustrating quest for publication can cloud judgment and seriously interfere with their craft. To put it another way, too much Writer’s Drive is a bad thing. 
 
Writer’s Drive often leads to Writer’s Desperation, the overpowering desire for feedback and validation. Desperation leads to anxiety and impatience. It often comprises a writer’s work as they rush it to publication before its ready. Alas, desperation often leads to fear. 
 
Writers often fear criticism because writing is  an intensely personal experience.  To some degree or another, writers must lower their shields and open themselves up to the judgment of strangers, resulting in varying degrees of apprehension, or what I call Writer’s Fear. Like any other human endeavor, most people who try their hand at writing fail. After the sixth grade most ballerinas and  baseball players give up and become other things. Sadly, it takes more time for writers to get a clue.  Unlike sports, writers can insulate themselves from scrutiny and, to avoid hurt feelings, friends and relatives sometimes aren’t entirely honest. When writers finally hit a wall of honest, often brutal, feedback, they have three choices: quit, learn and adapt, or lie to themselves. Which brings me to my last observation: writers can be self-delusional.
 
There isn’t a writer out there who hasn’t suffered Writer’s Delusion. We’ve often ignored a golden nugget of advice that a manuscript might need major work. People naturally hear what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. It reminds me of the movie Dumb and Dumber when the Lauren Holly tells Jim Carey he only has a one-in-a-million chance of ever going out with her. He smiles and says, “So you’re telling me I have a chance!” Yep, that’s us writers. 
 
There you have it - A strong, unchecked drive to publish often leads to desperation, fear, and self-delusion. In other words, it leads to a very frustrated writer. So I come back to the point about motivations. As a writer, if you’re honest about your motivations you can often find other reasons than publication. Getting published is a natural, long-term goal, but there is more to writing than seeing your book in print. Improving your craft, for example, is an important and attainable near-term goal. 

Bottom line, you need something to keep you motivated on the long road to publication that doesn’t stress you out, keeps you writing and moving forward. Find reasons that are uplifting, relaxing, and positive. This will give you patience and peace of mind. It also beats the hell out of fear, desperation and delusion. In time, one way or another, the publication thing will take care of  itself.
​

Originally published 26 October 2012 in Underground Book Reviews. It has been updated for this blog. 

​Marketing- that word often sends indie authors diving for cover  faster than a tornado siren.  You  poured your heart into your novel, its edited, beta-read, and edited again.  You’re ready to publish, but you have no idea how to get the word out. The  blogosphere is abuzz with advice columns on how to market your novel.  Consultants bombard your inbox and Twitter account with spam promising they can  deliver hordes of readers.  This humble columnist’s own experience with marketing has been hit or miss, but I’ve learned there are three resources critical in marketing a novel: Time, money and  friends. 

As for  money and time, I don’t have a lot of either (yet), so I’ll save those topics for future columns. Today, let’s stick to the subject of friends. Writers need  friends, most notably other writers, like Oreos need milk (creamy whole milk,  not that healthy 1% crap). Collective marketing is when authors team up to  advertise their books, and is perhaps one of the most effective strategies one can pursue. 

A  writers’ collective is not a communist literary colony, it is when two or more indie authors join forces on a common platform for the purpose of expanding their readership. Platforms vary  dramatically. They can be indie publishing groups, book blogs, writing circles,  or simply a common Facebook page. Each author brings their own social network, skills, and talents to the group. The objective is success by association; to integrate, leverage and  grow your social network, and hence, your readership.

Success via collective marketing doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a cumulative, long-term  process. The key is to start early, even before you’ve finished your novel.  Before you step down the collective marketing lane, there are eight questions  you should ask to avoid common mistakes (or at least the ones I’ve made). 

Question One: What do you bring to a collective marketing organization? Take a personal inventory, including your social media and platforms. Begin building your platforms well before your first novel is  completed, even if you don’t plan on joining a marketing collective. Lay the  groundwork via a website, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, Pinterest and  whatever social media you think might help. Get an online presence before your novel is finished. To use a cliché, prime the pump.

Research should be a key part of your personal inventory.  Accomplish your marketing homework as you write. Once the novel is complete,  you’ll be eager to publish. That isn’t the time to start researching these elements. Once you’ve built the platform framework, consider adding these elements to your network: 

1) Reader forums in your genre (duh).
2) Other writers  in your genre (they bring readers).
3) Quality, affordable editors.
4) Quality,  affordable cover artists with experience in your genre.
5) Potential marketing collectives, of course. A strong personal inventory and market research will make you a valuable asset to any writers’collective. 

Now that you’ve answered Question One, take a long look at your list of  collectives. Even if you found a few you like, there are still seven more questions to answer before jumping in.

Question Two: Do all or most of its authors write in your genre?  It’s one thing to be in a writing circle with authors outside your genre, but  once the novel is finished you must reach YOUR intended audience. Some variety is good, but too much and you’ll dilute marketing effectiveness.  

Question Three: Is their writing any good? Read some of their stuff before even making contact. A good writers’ collective must have standards and selective membership. If they don’t meet your literary standards, then association may be detrimental. Once you join, your work will be associated with the group, so know what you’re getting into. This leads into the next question.
​
Question Four: Do they have a leader? Writers are cats (except for me, I’m the token dog) and are notoriously difficult to herd. A common platform must have a leader, or it will splinter, lose focus and fail. The leader is also the focal point and filter for quality control. 

Question Five: Is it a quality platform? The collective may be  chalk full of brilliant writers and great books, but if their public presentation sucks, it doesn’t matter. Whatever the platform (websites, blog,  Facebook, X, etc.), it must strive for a professional, and appropriate,  presentation for its genre(s) and target audience. Once again, be careful, because once you join, you and your work will be associated with the group. 
 
Question Six: How aggressively do they market their work? If  they aren’t out hawking their wares, you’re wasting your time. Does everyone  pull their weight, or are only a few carrying the load for the others? Watch  them, Like them on Facebook and Twitter, and keep track of their members. (Not like a stalker, but more like the NSA). If you’re satisfied and it's an equitable  arrangement, proceed to Question Seven. 
 
Question Seven: Are you and this organization are a good fit?  This is a personality test. Exercise caution when inviting someone into your  life and around your precious novel. Always remember this is a business arrangement, not a social club. Eccentric, flamboyant, and fun personalities are great in a writers’ collective. Jerks are not. Make sure the people are stable, mature, positive, and will help, not hurt, your marketing efforts. Once again, this goes back to Question Four: a good leader should filter these personalities out.

If, at this point, everything looks good and you want to join, ask yourself the next question.

Question Eight: Can you commit? Are you ready to step up, pull  your weight and push the work of those in your collective? You will have obligations, be ready to fulfill them. 

Collective marketing leverages a small, emerging web presence by creating dynamic outcomes that can propel a book, and its author, in unexpected directions. But it’s not a magic bullet, and it’s not for everyone. Before you commit to a common platform, do a little research first, and ask yourself these eight simple questions. 

This article originally appeared in Underground Book Reviews 17 May 2014.  I have updated this article slightly due to market and technology changes.

Tip 1: Take writing reviews seriously. Make it worthy of your  time and effort, as well as that of your fellow readers.  
 
Tip 2: Use a word processor first, and then paste the review into the website’s form. This technique inhibits impulse reviews and gives you latitude to save it and let it “cool” before posting. It also aids in spell checking and proofreading.  (Update: AI makes a great spell check, but that's about it. See Bonus Tip below.)

Tip 3: Always be respectful, even when being painfully honest. 
 
Tip 4: Profanity has a place in literature, but not reviews about literature. It’s a bad idea, and may not make it through the website’s content filter. 
 
Tip 5: Never make your review personal, derogatory, mean-spirited or bullying. 
 
Tip 6: Be cautious when employing satire (not recommended) and humor (best know what you’re doing before taking this leap).  Remember, the written word can easily be misinterpreted by the reader. 
 
Tip 7: It’s good to discuss how a book made you feel, but not  how you felt when you read the book. In other words, it’s a book review, not a  diary. No one wants to know how you felt the day you read it, if you had the flu, or you had just broken up with the love of your life. 

Tip 8: Shorter is better. If your consumer book review runs much longer than the book description/back-cover synopsis, then it’s probably too  long.  Around 300 words is a good rule of thumb. 
  
Tip 9: One way to keep it short is to avoid rehashing the plot unless it’s absolutely critical to your piece.  
 
Tip 10: If you rehash the plot, then avoid spoilers. If you delight in blowing the plot for the next reader, there is probably little I can say to change your mind, other than please don’t do it.   If, however, you find it absolutely critical to include a spoiler in a  consumer book review, please be kind and add “SPOILER ALERT” as the first two words in your review. 
 
Tip 11: Never say anything like “I usually don’t read this kind of books, but...”  You read it or  you didn’t. Your opinion is as good as anyone else’s. 
  
Tip 12: Unless a book is mechanically or structurally broken, don’t review a book if you didn’t finish it (see the previous installment for  more on this). If you didn’t finish a book just because you didn’t like it,  writing a review reflects more on you than the book. 
  
Tip 13: Buy the book whenever possible.  Seeing “Verified Purchase” above your review bestows instant credibility.
 
Tip 14:  If you received the book as a complimentary review copy, then state so upfront. This doesn’t ruin credibility, but in some markets this may be mandatory. (Update: In some places its legally required to disclose if you received a complementary copy.) ​

(Update, Tip 15: artificial intelligence (AI) "summaries" are becoming common for book reviews. Never let an AI write the review for you. Large Language Models (LLM) AIs can only recognize and regurgitate word patterns. A purely AI review is a review written by other people and, essential, plagiarism. Choose your words careful, as your review may be plagiarized by AI and forever get caught in the "Matrix." If you copy and paste the review on multiple website, the AIs statistically be more likely to use it. )

​For writers, getting reviews is part of the job description and, occasionally, an occupational hazard. However, what people often neglect to consider is how a book review reflects on the reader who posts it. A well written review, whether positive or negative, commands attention from both fellow readers and authors. Such reviews reveal intelligent, thoughtful and serious readers. Poorly written reviews are quickly dismissed, the reader often not taken seriously. 

I’m talking about “front-line”reviews, posted by readers on sites like Amazon or Goodreads, not formal reviews like you’ll find here at Underground Book Reviews. Books presented in magazines like ours are heavily filtered before they are even considered. One and two star-level books don’t make it into the magazine, so the quality scale has been “shifted” right, so to speak. Filtered, formal reviews have their place, but front-line reviews are critically important, too, because: 1) They are often from paying consumers; 2) They represent direct communication between authors and readers; 3) They are raw and unfiltered. 

A reader's book review is a personal thing. Let me be clear, I'm only offering practical advice to empower your front-line book review. Goodreads and a few blogs offer some very generic guidelines on how to review a book, but otherwise its a free-for-all. This series offers the reader a more detailed toolkit. Doesn’t something this important deserve care and attention?

In the next three articles I’ll offer some easy tips and guidelines on writing effective consumer book reviews.  Today, I’ll provide some examples of appropriate review statements, but I’ll save the bulk of the suggestions regarding writing good accompanying narratives for part two. In part three we’ll talk about how to sift through other readers’ reviews when trying to make a decision on purchasing a book. In this installment, we’ll dissect the common five-star rating, the most prevalent graphic rating scale.

The star scale is the first thing a consumer sees when considering a book. Some authors hate it, many consider it a necessary evil. Readers often find ratings unhelpful for various reasons.  It's clearly subjective and often doesn't translate well between genres. Like any numeric assessment scale, its subject to inflation. Five-star reviews litter  the literary landscape, and, sadly, many are undeserved. On the other hand,  there are plenty of undeserved “OMG, I hate this book!” one-star reviews, too.  

However, Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari and many others use variations of this device. While imperfect, the five-star system is here to stay and perhaps the most convenient tool to quickly rate a book. With that said, here are some suggested guidelines when assigning meaningful, more objective star-ratings.

​TWO-STARS denote strong dislike for an otherwise properly written book. You hated it, but why?  Did the characters not come to life? Did it drag? Did it offend? Was it unoriginal? Did it rip off another novel or idea? Since your dislike is clear,  powerful statements should be easy to write, such as, “The ending was a total  disappointment,” or “Dragged all the way through,” or “I could not relate to a  single character.”

​FOUR-STARS are the opposite of the two-star rating; a solidly  good book. There may be some elements you didn’t like, but the overall  experience falls squarely in the positive. Once again, back it up with clear  statements as to why. Comments may ring something like, “Started slow, but really came through,” or “Satisfying read, I’ll buy the sequel,” or “Ranks with some of the better novels in the genre,”or “I’ll look for more by the author.”