We appreciate your willingness to serve and to help other authors with constructive feedback. We receive expressions of gratitude each year from many authors when they get the comments (both positive and negative) we provide at the end of the season.
Because it's so important to our Awards and Reviews program, we wanted to remind you of several things regarding scoring comments as we start this new season. Please consider printing this email and keeping it for reference when you score books.
As you know, reviewer comments are required for Content, Style, Visual, and Tech scoring sections. Comments are NOT required in the Author Comments section. At the end of the season, authors receive ALL reviewer comments other than EYES ONLY, but not scores. What does this mean for what you should (or should NOT) write in your comments sections?
DO:
Do summarize your thoughts in each section. Write a few sentences that let the author know the weak points and strong points of the content, style, and visual aspects.
Do be kind while pointing out negative aspects.
Do note tech problems by listing misspelled/wrong/extra/missing words (with page numbers or Kindle locations). This helps us justify a low score.
Do show examples of tech problems that are awkward sentences, consistent misuse of punctuation, capitalization issues, etc.
DO NOT:
DO NOT copy and paste or use the same language as the questions. (Be original and summarize without using the numbers from the questions.)
DO NOT regurgitate your same answers (copy and paste) from other sections into the author comments section. (Needless repetition is annoying, and you do not even need to add author comments if you explained things in the section comments. You may use author comments to encourage, thank for service, make generic suggestions.)
DO NOT comment on medalworthiness in ANY comment section except EYES ONLY.
DO NOT mention your opinion of the author's other works in ANY comment section except EYES ONLY.
If we all follow the above guidelines, it will mean less work for the awards directors and also provide meaningful feedback for our authors. If you have any questions about this, let us know.
Thank you so much for reading until the end.
Betsy