Here’s a fascinating question –
Should authors post reviews on Goodreads?
Heidi at Bunbury in the Stacks asks, in a post that was a nice surprise for me!
Anyway, Heidi points out that at least some readers disapprove and at least one author has quit posting reviews in response.
Isn’t that interesting? That never occurred to me.
It’s true that I nearly always post positive reviews about books I really enjoyed, because what if I ran into that author at a convention sometime? I would feel so uncomfortable if I had written a very negative review about his or her book!
Of course I’m not very likely at all ever to bump into Tana French, because I don’t think she is probably going to a lot of SFF conventions. But I actually did carefully avoid Myke Cole at last year’s WorldCon. I really did. So you can see why I hesitate to post many negative reviews!
On the other hand, when I post a glowing review, I really do mean it. Luckily so far all my writer-friends are very good writers whose books honestly do appeal to me! But you’ll notice I didn’t write a review of EMILIE AND THE HOLLOW WORLD, whereas I did for all of Martha Wells’ other books, and if you infer from this that I didn’t love EMILIE, well, what can I say? There are lots of books I don’t review, and that’ll be one of ‘em.
Oh, and can you BELIEVE that authors post five-star reviews of their OWN books on Goodreads? How tacky is that? Just sayin’.
Okay, I’m off to add Patrick Rothfuss and Phoebe North to my daily list of blogs to tour / reviews to track. Life’s too short!
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I definitely agree that a more analytical and specific review is a great thing, and writers often write that kind of review. And thanks for pointing out why some authors might list-and-review their books on Goodreads; I hadn't thought of that, but you're right that that isn't tacky at all.
I do think authors have a responsibility to be more literate and specific than the blogosphere average, and to avoid the cutting sarcasm that can be so hurtful. All of the authors whose reviews I read do this.
By the way, while I think a multi-paragraph 5-star reivew would be tacky, most 5-star ratings that I see are simply from authors who don't know the goodreads platform as well and don't know how to list their books without being forced to give a rating. So not so nefarious.