How to do Reviews

How to find items to review ▼

Below the Review Requests headline below, you will find a list of authors requesting reviews.

Click on any of these author names, and you will see the items for which they are reqesting reviews.

What to put in your review ▼

Reviews should embody the PRIME principles:

Professional They are professional in both content and manner.
Respecful.. They respect the authors and their creative instincts.
In-depth. They provide an in-depth discussion of the art and craft of writing.
Motivating. They motivate authors to achieve excellence in the art and craft of fiction.
Encouraging. They encourage authors at all levels to achieve their best.

If you use a review template, you might consider pre-loading headers to help you organize your review. Typical things an in-depth review might discuss include

what the reviewer especially liked about the story
What the author did especially well
Things the author might consider for improvement
the frst paragraph
         Did it hook the reader?
         Did it establish POV?
         Did it orient the reader, i.e,
             Did it answer the Who/What/When/Where questions?
character arc, including goals, stakes, and obstacles
plot
voice and point of view
line-by-line comments.

Suggested header

{image:2321278}
{b}Item Reviewed:{/b} {litem:###}
{b}Reviewer:{/b} {user:NNNN}

Note this includes the graphic

{image:2321278}

Alternatively, there is another graphic available to Roundtable participants which you could use as a review banner or as a signature in emails.

{image:2321277}

Finally, there is also a small version of the Roundtable banner:

{image:2321284}

When clicked, the first two of these graphics link to the applcation form "Join the Short Fiction Roundtable" . The last one links back to this Roundtable, which is only visible to Roundtable members.

What to NOT put in your review ▼

Do NOT copy the entire story into your review and then insert comments. If necessary, for example in line-by-line remarks, you can copy a sentence or two and comment on that, but please do not copy the entire story into your review.

Do NOT make your review public unless you have prior written consent from the author in an email. Roundtable reviews are intended as a discussion between the reviewer, the author, and--potentially--other participants in the Roundtable.

Never share the passkey to another author's item.

What to do with your review ▼

Of course, you should send your review to the author. Before you press "send," though, copy and paste the contents of your review to a new message in the Roundtable so that you can also post it here. Your message in the in the Roundtable should have the subject "REVIEW of <TITLE> by <AUTHOR>."

Reading reviews others have written is a way participants become both better reviewers and better authors. Sharing your reviews with other Roundtable authors is one of the ways that we interact with each other.

Do NOT make your review public unless you have prior written consent from the author in an email.

Never share the passkey to another author's item.

Do not share your review or links to the item you have reviewed beyond the membership of this roundtable without the author's express permission.