What are reviews and who should they benefit?
I left this comment on the blog of one of the new bloggers I follow. She's the strongly opinionated reviewer I mentioned in a previous post, which I enjoy because it means I can follow her recommendations for new books without wasting a lot of time sifting through poor quality ones. So far, her tastes seem right in line with my own. Oh, and she likes the Sky book so far but no, no, no that's not clouding my judgement :)
I've been reading a lot about reviews and authors and the various efforts by authors to reconfigure rating systems for their own benefit. I am an author, and I believe reviews and ratings exist to benefit READERS, not authors. As a reader, I don't want to base my purchase on criteria that exist to benefit authors. I want to know if the book rocked or if it sucked. I will say that, as a reader, I want the reviews to make it clear if they're only reviewing the sample, but most of the time they do.
Authors, especially self-published ones (like myself) can't seem to fathom that some people may not fawn over every word they publish. First, they take any criticism of their work personally and two, they think that most critics are bullies or have some personal vendetta against them. Yes, people can be assholes. Critics are people, too, so yeah, they can be assholes, too. So can authors. But most of the time the one-star reviews, in my experience, come from people who just didn't like the book very much.
These authors also don't hold their potential readers in very high regard, treating them like children who will see a negative review and run away, never to return again. Yeah, it's tough being an independent writer and when you're just getting started a one-star review can feel like a harpoon to the back. The first one-star review I got made me livid. I went through the classic stages of grief. Anger, denial and all the rest until I found acceptance and realized the reviewer was right. Which led me to save my pennies and buy the best editing services (shameless plug for RedAdept editing :)) I could buy.
The solution, as an author, is to keep writing. Publish quality books that attract tons of good, genuine reviews. Take the bad reviews as opportunities to examine what might be wrong with your books and not as attacks on your worth as a human.
I've been reading a lot about reviews and authors and the various efforts by authors to reconfigure rating systems for their own benefit. I am an author, and I believe reviews and ratings exist to benefit READERS, not authors. As a reader, I don't want to base my purchase on criteria that exist to benefit authors. I want to know if the book rocked or if it sucked. I will say that, as a reader, I want the reviews to make it clear if they're only reviewing the sample, but most of the time they do.
Authors, especially self-published ones (like myself) can't seem to fathom that some people may not fawn over every word they publish. First, they take any criticism of their work personally and two, they think that most critics are bullies or have some personal vendetta against them. Yes, people can be assholes. Critics are people, too, so yeah, they can be assholes, too. So can authors. But most of the time the one-star reviews, in my experience, come from people who just didn't like the book very much.
These authors also don't hold their potential readers in very high regard, treating them like children who will see a negative review and run away, never to return again. Yeah, it's tough being an independent writer and when you're just getting started a one-star review can feel like a harpoon to the back. The first one-star review I got made me livid. I went through the classic stages of grief. Anger, denial and all the rest until I found acceptance and realized the reviewer was right. Which led me to save my pennies and buy the best editing services (shameless plug for RedAdept editing :)) I could buy.
The solution, as an author, is to keep writing. Publish quality books that attract tons of good, genuine reviews. Take the bad reviews as opportunities to examine what might be wrong with your books and not as attacks on your worth as a human.
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