Have We Become Too Nice?

Here's my ranting video on the state of reviewing indie authors and the need for more honesty.


Have reviewers become too nice? Are we suffering from Paula Abdul syndrome? You saw her on American Idol. How often did she turn to someone and say "That hurt my ears."

Let me back and say this: I'm a teacher. It's my job to look at people who suck at something and help them get better. When my students make a mistake I force them to say "Yeah!" instead of "Shoot!".  I encourage to look at their mistakes and missteps as a learning experience, a "what-not-to-do".

And then I look at the indie writing community.  I've seen several books that are very poorly written receive several 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.  I've seen lots of high fives for ridiculous cover art.

So I have to ask myself: Have we become too nice? Should we be more like Simon and less like Paula?

P.S.
I have also read many good indie authors. David James, Helen Boswell, Chris Strange, Travis Luedke, etc. I could go on. I always post reviews for the books I liked but I haven't been posting reviews for the ones I hated. Hence this post.