Tag: discussion

BlogTalk: My Blog’s Vital (And Not So Vital) Statistics

whatcathyreadnext9 Comments

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Recently WordPress was kind enough to alert me to the fact I’d published 1,000 posts on What Cathy Read Next since its inception in November 2016.  Woohoo! This prompted me to have a little delve into the other statistics available on WordPress…

Posts with the most views: My review of After The Party by Cressida Connolly (1,466 views) followed by my review of Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon (496 views)

WWWWednesdaysMost popular day for views: Wednesdays (that will be down to the WWW Wednesday meme hosted by the fabulous Sam at Taking on a World of Words)

Average comments per post: From 1.6 in 2016 to 6 in 2019 (Don’t you all like to chat…)

Most faithful follower: Jill at Jill’s Book Café (since 1st December 2016).  Thank you, Jill!

Chatterbox (Most number of comments left, excluding myself): The lovely Nicki at The Secret Library with 66 comments

Strange but true search terms:

– is the word is murder a true story                         (Er, no)
– what is the third things about elsie                        (Sorry, no spoilers here)
– “feel his ankle” + fiction                                            (No idea either)
– is alex dahl author married                                     (This is a book blog, not Tinder)
– personal message to stressed blond woman        (???)

Views from far flung places (countries that generated 1 view):

Aruba             Liberia                        Gambia
Benin              Botswana                   Reunion
Cape Verde    Vanuatu                      St Kitts & Nevis

What fascinating or curious facts do your blog’s statistics reveal?

Blog Talk: Should bloggers act as proofreaders?

whatcathyreadnext22 Comments

One of my pet hates is books with loads of typos, such as spelling and punctuation errors, or other editing issues. (I’m aware this means people will now be scouring this blog post for errors – but I’m not an author trying to sell you their book!) I make a point of stating in my review policy that books which haven’t been proofread properly (or at all) will get a poor review, if indeed I actually finish them.

From time to time, I still come across books with lots of typos and it got me wondering –  what is the best response in those circumstances?

  • Provide a few examples of the typo’s you’ve noticed to the author and suggest they have the book professionally proofread and/or copy-edited (or ask for their money back if they reckon it already has!). 
  • Give the author a list of all the errors you’ve noticed. However, this means you’re doing a proofreader out of a job and, unless you’re a professional proofreader yourself, you’ll probably have missed some anyway.
  • Don’t inform the author but reflect the issues in your rating of the book and mention it in your review.
  • Ignore (or in my case, try to) the errors and concentrate on the plot, characters and other aspects of the book.
  • Chuck the book away unfinished and move on. However, this means leaving unsuspecting future readers to experience the same issues.

I’ve probably done all of the above at one time or another but what’s your view?