Responsibilities
Hi, everyone. I have had a post bubbling around in my head for a while, and I think it's time to make it.
As authors, we have a responsibility to write the best books we can. When we present them to the world at large, they should be a finished product: well-edited, visually appealing, professional. We have put a lot of work into our stories, and should have put as much work (if not more) into the package. That's our responsibility to the reader.
As reviewers, we have a different set of responsibilities. I'll use myself as an example here so that I'm not talking out of turn. I spoke in a different post about my methodology for writing reviews, and yet another about the difference between a review and a critique.
I think that our primary responsibility to review readers is to be honest about our thoughts. While not everyone will like the same things, we still need to share our opinions frankly. My "helpful" rating for Amazon reviews is 83 percent; because of that, Amazon invited me to be part of their internal cadre of reviewers (the Vine program). While I do not post all of the reviews I write to Amazon, I think that the rating speaks volumes: people appreciate honest reviews. Honest reviews help people make all kinds of decisions, like whether or not a book would be an appropriate gift for a friend, something they want to read for themselves or any number of things we may never know.
And what about the readers? What is their responsibility? I am astonished to report that I have seen authors write about what they expect their readers to do, think or say. You know, it just doesn't work like that.
Like any other form of two-way communication (in this case, between ourselves as authors -- via our books -- and the reader), the recipient will funnel the information through what he or she already knows. That means that each reader is going to examine the same piece of work through a different "filter," for lack of a better term. That filter will consist of education, values, cultural mores and a whole host of other things that vary from person to person.
It would take a huge amount of hubris to expect a reader to disregard his or her filters when reading a book. In fact, I think it would be impossible for a reader to actually do that; one cannot pretend *not* to know something.
The reader doesn't actually owe us anything, to tell the truth. Believe me, we as authors are grateful to each and every person who reads our work -- whether purchased, from the library, etc. -- and who takes the time to review it. However, you don't owe that to us.
It is we, as authors, who are indebted to you for taking the time to read our books. I thank each and every one of you.
As authors, we have a responsibility to write the best books we can. When we present them to the world at large, they should be a finished product: well-edited, visually appealing, professional. We have put a lot of work into our stories, and should have put as much work (if not more) into the package. That's our responsibility to the reader.
As reviewers, we have a different set of responsibilities. I'll use myself as an example here so that I'm not talking out of turn. I spoke in a different post about my methodology for writing reviews, and yet another about the difference between a review and a critique.
I think that our primary responsibility to review readers is to be honest about our thoughts. While not everyone will like the same things, we still need to share our opinions frankly. My "helpful" rating for Amazon reviews is 83 percent; because of that, Amazon invited me to be part of their internal cadre of reviewers (the Vine program). While I do not post all of the reviews I write to Amazon, I think that the rating speaks volumes: people appreciate honest reviews. Honest reviews help people make all kinds of decisions, like whether or not a book would be an appropriate gift for a friend, something they want to read for themselves or any number of things we may never know.
And what about the readers? What is their responsibility? I am astonished to report that I have seen authors write about what they expect their readers to do, think or say. You know, it just doesn't work like that.
Like any other form of two-way communication (in this case, between ourselves as authors -- via our books -- and the reader), the recipient will funnel the information through what he or she already knows. That means that each reader is going to examine the same piece of work through a different "filter," for lack of a better term. That filter will consist of education, values, cultural mores and a whole host of other things that vary from person to person.
It would take a huge amount of hubris to expect a reader to disregard his or her filters when reading a book. In fact, I think it would be impossible for a reader to actually do that; one cannot pretend *not* to know something.
The reader doesn't actually owe us anything, to tell the truth. Believe me, we as authors are grateful to each and every person who reads our work -- whether purchased, from the library, etc. -- and who takes the time to review it. However, you don't owe that to us.
It is we, as authors, who are indebted to you for taking the time to read our books. I thank each and every one of you.
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William wrote: "Interesting thoughts, Sharon. Reviews can be tricky. What do you do when a colleague asks you to review their latest book, and you don't like it? Would you write a bad review or would you simply..."I always tell people who ask me to review their book that I am going to be honest about what I like and don't like. I have been very pleasantly surprised on numerous occasions (and not so pleasantly surprised a few times as well, I must admit) by the books I've been asked to review.
That said, because all books start out at 5 stars with me (as discussed in the methodology post), I find that most reviewers are happy with the outcome.
I was asked to read a romance novel a couple of years ago -- by an author who knew I was a walk-away from the genre. I spent a lot of time with a three-star review in my head based on what I was reading -- until her characters did something that astonished and moved me so much that I added a star back on. She was thrilled to receive a four-star review from an admitted walk-away from her preferred genre.
I had one author tell me that he wanted an honest review -- and then was furious when he got one (three stars, because his idea had a lot of potential, but he had major editing problems that I could not overlook).
I have only *once* given a 1-star review to a book I was asked to review (I have never given out 2 stars in a similar situation), to a book that had people doing completely implausible things and used some unfortunate expository devices. The majority of my reviews are 3 to 5 stars in any case (my average is 4.36).
As authors, we naturally hope that everyone will love our books, while understanding that some people will flat-out hate them. The majority of people are going to fall somewhere in between. Looking at reviews for bestsellers shows that reviews are *always* mixed.
I know that was a lengthy answer to your question, but I appreciate the opportunity to elucidate.
Edited to add: There has been a great deal of discussion in the indie book community about people who will post positive/5-star book reviews for a fee. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-la... talks about this at length.
I can't speak for any other author, but I would rather have an honest review that I didn't care for than a glowing one that I bought.
No, that's a great answer. I like your approach. I guess because all writers are readers first, we start off looking forward to the book, and can nearly always find something interesting, a word choice, a new kind of character. But yes, the editing has to be in order or I start to feel cheated!William Doonan
William Doonan
www.williamdoonan.com