A Suggestion to Reviewers - Please Read

[Tiffany Dowell]

I see a lot of debate between reviewers, the site, the acceptance or unacceptance of reviews, the payment received, grammar, spellchecking, punction checking, etc.

I came up with a system to double-check a lot of this, and possibly, cut the conflict.

Most PCs have what is called a snipping tool. You can find it under the Windows Accessories folder in the start menu. At least that's where I have mine, but it's also pinned on my toolbar at the bottom. What it does is allow you to use your mouse to point to a place on the screen, drag, and release, much like a crop in a photo editor, and everything in that box you made gets a screenshot, taking a snapshot of ANYTHING visible on your PC screen at all.

So, here is a process to go through.

Put a folder on your desktop called OnlineBookClub, and put all this stuff in there.

1. Screenshot the Select a Book page. Take a snip of the ENTIRE visible area, then scroll, and take a snip of whatever you had to scroll to read. Now you have that for reference, you don't need to be able to go back and look at it, it's literally recorded, and you can tell if there was an author requirement or condition you did or did not meet, AND you have PROOF if there is a conflict.

2. Screenshot the confirmation page that comes after.

3. If you're reading the book online, do it through the same computer. If you notice profanity, sexuality, etc., snip it, and note it in your notes log with its page number and it CLEARLY "photographed" for proof.

4. IF you notice spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors, snip, then highlight the text in the book, and its surrounding text after you note it yourself. Run it through a spellchecker app and snip the spellchecker app's result. Run it through a grammar checker and snip the output. Run it through a punctuation checker. Snip the output. Now you have "see, told you it's wrong" photo proof.

5. I have Microsoft Editor, so I run stuff through there too.

6. Screenshot the screen when you update your status.

7. Write your review and run it through the SAME 4 or 5 checkers that you ran your book parts through to double-check your judgment on errors earlier. REMEMBER, snip, snip, snip.

7. Screenshot the confirmation when you upload your review.

8. Screenshot ALL communication that ensues thereafter between you and the review approver. Record the entire conversation.

9 Screenshot when the review is accepted or rejected.

10. If you must fix it, screenshot your fixes, and your re-uploads.

11. Snip your payment communications, your completed or not completed payments, with their dates, and ALL communication that ever happened between you and the site.

People argue, but pictures don't lie.

Once everything has been dealt with, all issues are over, everything's gone through, all complete, delete the stuff in the folder for that review period if you like, or move it to a folder called OnlineBookClub completed, and move on.

[Sharron L Hillman-Dwyer]

My sister showed me the snipper tool. It has helped me no end along with screenshots. I love your idea of separate folder for onlinebookclub.

[Shirley Ann Riddern Labzentis]

Good idea, but what about us Mac people? We do not have a snipper tool.

[Tiffany Dowell]

Mac has a built-in snipping tool called Screenshot that's located in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. You can use keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots and screen recordings:

Capture the entire screen: Press Shift-Command-3
Capture a portion of the screen: Press Shift-Command-4, move the crosshair pointer to the start of the screenshot, drag over the area, and release the mouse or trackpad button
Capture a window or the menu bar: Press Shift-Command-4, press the Space bar, move the pointer over the window or menu bar, and click
Capture a menu and menu items: Open the menu, press Shift-Command-4, and drag the pointer over the menu items
See all available options: Press Command-Shift-5