Reviews given
In view of the reluctance of reviewers in general to accept work currently being submitted by others, I volunteer my services as an entirely impartial person and put on my critical hat on your behalves. I now know where this offer is going and will continue to give it my best shot.
To start with, I have no intention of building up a stockpile of books, novellas and stories to be ploughed through, which many reviewers claim to already possess. Instead, I will see how much of anything "grabs me by the eyeballs" as I progress. The free read offered by Kindle has indicated to me that there is so much dross on the shelves that the merits of any story can soon be gleaned. BUT, I learnt my lesson long ago not to judge anything too artificially: I was on the verge of dumping The Lords Of The Rings after reading the first eighty pages and am unlikely to repeat that potential mistake.
If I find that an obvious mistake is being made by a fellow author, I will tell that person confidentially where I think they are going wrong. The observations I make will wherever possible be substantiated by another person.
If a full or summary review is justified, it will be passed to the author first, for their approval. Be warned, I am contemplating designing a rating system that is unlike that used by Kindle. No one, in my estimation deserves a full 5 stars unless they are in the same league as Clive Cussler, Harold Robbins, C J Sansom, Conn Iggulden, Dickens, Jules Verne, Raymond Feist, Bram Stoker and the like.
My standard of writing can be judged from this blog and entries on Amazon. Further books are awaiting publication.
If you wish to respond, Manuscripts can be submitted as email attachments to terrytumbler@gmail.com.
Kindle, docx or pdf formats would be preferred in non-edit mode.
Best wishes and good luck,
Terry Tumbler
100 million |
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Me In the last 12 years, I’ve written 12 books and a million words. I didn’t start writing until 2012, then churned out one, sometimes two, books per year. At my elbow for much of
that time, I had the Microsoft Word team, requesting permission to use my
phraseology in their recommendations to present to other readers. One of those early books
is called Santiago Stories, based on the exploits and story-telling of a
busload of atheists, following the main Camino from France to Santiago de
Compostela. We went there, to research the area and the St James Camino. It is based on Canterbury
Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, as translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill.
Chaucer did not complete the full plan for his book: the return journey from
Canterbury is not included, and some of the pilgrims did not tell stories. I mention this because it
resulted in me being offered $40,000 of sponsorship by the Tate publishers in
the US. In all honesty, I could not accept it, since Tate is a Christian
organisation that had not fully read the book, it being blasphemous in some of
its content. I suffered the same fate as Chaucer, when two other publishers
made similar offers, but withdrew them when the financial (religious) backers
read the book in full. A fourth publisher wanted
to publish my emerging stock of books, as an ‘edgy’ writer of the style he
liked, but that too fell through when its director took it into liquidation. To cap it all, I was
curious to find out why someone called Smythe, a retired person living in
Gerrards Cross in Bucks had befriended me. It turned out that he was the
original publisher of JK Rowlings’ books and liked what I’d written. He gave me
access to his contacts, but these were irrelevant in today’s market. Finally, I was offered
the hardback services of Random House, to give me the chance to order large
quantities of my chosen books, so that I could sign them upon sale at
bookshops. Impractical, considering where I live and my age. |