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Saturday, December 1, 2018

What The Judges Had To Say

Honest feedback is a gift to any writer who wants to improve. I advocate for reviews and feedback because sometimes what I hear back from my readers about my work are eye-opening. It is through feedback that I discover hidden facets to a character or a different interpretation of a scenario. Not all feedback is positive, but sometimes they give me an idea of the reader's reasoning behind their decision.

Discussions with friends and strangers have often led me to ponder on the idea of re-visiting my work. No, not to change the plot but to make it clearer and richer in content. It's also good to know that things I had excluded before publishing it, might have been better if had included it. It is the feedback that tells me all of these and I'm grateful for them.

I might end up deciding to leave the books be but I have to edit them again. There are typos that have sneaked past the watchful eyes of skillful editors. There are areas that I would love to improve the grammar. So, I have created a big project for myself. I will slow down on working on my fifth book and focus on cleaning up the ones you already have. This will be a huge, time-consuming task, but it is necessary and will be rewarding.

Why now? I have thought about this for a while but the time wasn't right. I had to work on my skill and learn more. I had to make sure I had the right resources available. And lastly, I needed to get great feedback that pointed at the sore spots that needed work and I did. I got a helpful feedback from judges of the 2018 Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Some authors won't want to make their result public if they don't win, but I have decided to do it. It isn't a bad result. I left the commentary part just because there were lots of spoilers and it would do a disservice to those who haven't read the book yet. Just know that the commentary was very entertaining for me as the writer. In fact, I liked the mind of the person who wrote it because he or she came up with many conspiracies that made laugh. A follow-up book was requested and I have to say that I am thinking about it.

I'm all ears for advice, feedback, and suggestions if you've read any of my books. Please leave a comment below and thank you in advance.

Judge, 25th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards


Entry Title: Notice Me
Author: Emem Uko
Judge Number: 55
Entry Category: Mainstream/Literary Fiction

 A few quick notes~

  • Books are evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning “needs improvement” and 5 meaning “outstanding”.
  • The 1-5 scale is strictly to provide a point of reference; the scores are meant only to be a gauge, and are not a cumulative score, nor are they tallied or used in ranking. 
  • A "0" is not a negative score. Our online review system only recognizes numerals during this portion of logging evaluations.As a result, we've substituted a “0” in place of “N/A” when the particular portion of the evaluation simply does not apply to the particular entry, based on the entry genre. For example, a book of poetry, a cookbook, or a travel guide would not necessarily have a “Plot and Story Appeal, and may therefore receive a “0” - indicating that the rating was not applicable.
  • If you wish to reference this review on your website, we ask that you cite it as such: “Judge, 25th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.” You may cite portions of your review, if you wish, but please make sure that the passage you select is appropriate, and reflective of the review as a whole.


Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 4

Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 3

Production Quality and Cover Design: 5

Plot and Story Appeal: 4

Character Appeal and Development: 5

Voice and Writing Style: 4


Judge’s Commentary*:

It’s a super-cool idea. In the world Emem Uko has created, teenage talents are discovered and whisked away by a giant corporate agency to their headquarters in a faraway country. Teams of experts costume, groom, and train them to make audiences happy — and control every aspect of their lives...

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