Saturday, April 9, 2011

Pinned Down to the Mat

In this case Format issues.

I have a NOOK. I love my NOOK. I enjoy reading on my handy dandy electronic reader. One thing I never gave a thought to is how a review could possibly be affected by the very venue the book is read in.

This past week, I've been searching for review angles and I found something that was never on my radar.

Here's the link: BookBuzzr

Have you ever given a lower rating to a book because of formatting issues on your electronic reader? From the sounds of this post, it's something that reviewers maybe need to turn a blind eye to. What do you think? Ever experience this issue?

I know that my NOOK has had problems with a few downloaded books and I've overlooked it. Imagine my surprise to find out that it bothers some reviewers so much, they mention it in the review.

I won't be one of them. I think it might be a good idea if other reviewers roll with it too.

What do you think?

4 comments:

Kathy said...

Formatting issues have no place in a review because formatting is the responsibility of the publisher, not the author.

Thanks for pointing this one out. It never occurred to me a reviewer would consider formatting in a review!

Xeranthemum said...

Hi, Kathy!
I totally and absolutely agree.
I was astounded by that post hence its inspiring me to write something about it.

P.S. - I think your icon is yummy!
:-)

Marianne Arkins said...

Okay ... I think that's just plain ridiculous. There've been times I've gotten ARCs printed out on copy paper and stapled together. Was it a pain to read? Yes. Did it affect my review? No.

The review should be based on the story and the writing. Period.

:::shakes head in disbelief:::

Jessica said...

For me, the print/electronic differences don't affect how I feel about a book (that I'm aware of), but I do think that hearing a book in an audio format vs. reading it in print does affect how I identify with protagonists, follow POV, and experience the story...which affects how I review and rate a story.