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D.R. Shoultz
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What's your view on Book Reviews? Here's mine.
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I appreciate honest reviews that are upfront about the reviewer's own biases (we all have them), likes, and comments about what worked and what didn't work in the story.But I've also noted a dangerous trend lately, that's very disturbing. There are groups of reviewers who provide negative reviews. Once the reviews are publicly posted, the author receives an approach by "professionals", who are willing to fix the book for a price. This seems to result in glowing reviews which then drive sales up.
Here's the problem with that. If a reviewer (or in some cases, group of reviewers)deliberately trounces a book in order to drive the author to accept a paid service, which then produces positive results -- that's unethical. No reviewer should be trying to connect an author to a editing service, nor should a reviewer be working in cahoots with such a service provider. Reviewers should not be benefitting, financially or otherwise, when they discredit a book. We all know that book publishers pump up the volume on their offerings. It's pretty much the norm. But this new game with indies to shame authors into accepting paid services? Unconscionable. And the worst part is that the paid service providers aren't necessarily the experts they claim to be. But once they load those glowing reviews onto a book page, they come across as having done great things for the author.
Authors who have a modicum of self-respect really do want to hear from genuine readers who appreciate their work. We don't want all these spin doctors manipulating us or our readers into a corner by the threat of the dreaded one- or two-star review. It cheats people who would enjoy the book if it had been fairly reviewed.
As a former librarian, I always counted on the reviewers in the trade publications to tell me about the books they reviewed. They were expected to independently assess a book, compare it to similar works, and tell me whether the public's money was well-spent on a quality piece of literature, from the binding to the content.
These days, the Internet has opened up the world of digital publishing to a point where it's like the Wild West. Anything goes. People can bully, manipulate, and intimidate without accountability for their bad behavior. I'd love to see honest reviewer get together and create a respectable review group that adheres to ethical standards for indie published works.
Indies, unlike traditionally published authors, often have format, font, grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors because we don't have the benefit of the line editors, copy editors, et al. that are utilized in hardcover and paperback book publishing. That's a drawback. It would be nice to have the opportunity to correct minor glitches. I had a situation with my newest book, which I produced as a free novella, in which a couple of passages were in Arial Narrow font, while the rest of the book was in Arial Normal. It didn't show up on my Kindle, but it did on another, older version. I immediately corrected it, along with a couple of other errors because a very gracious reader, who loved the story, tipped me off. Real readers often want the authors they enjoy to succeed. They're worth their weight in gold.
Sara M. Barton, author of "Miz Scarlet and the Vanishing Visitor"
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
Sara wrote: "I appreciate honest reviews that are upfront about the reviewer's own biases (we all have them), likes, and comments about what worked and what didn't work in the story.But I've also noted a dang..."
Wow, that is interesting but scary. I agree with the need for a good review group.
I never read reviews. Never on line, ever. Possibly if they appear in a major print medium (I did read my one review in the New York TIMES!), but otherwise no. It sets me off balance for writing. And there is nothing I can do about a work that is already published. I cannot rewrite a book that's already in print. You could also write to me and complain that my daughter is mean to you. Since she is 25, the time is long past when I can do anything about it. (And since she is a captain in an MP battallion in the US Army, possibly if she is mean to you, you richly deserve it.)
But this should be freeing; people can review at will and never worry about how I will react.
It's a jungle out there. I have been fortunate to have an editor who peruses every paragraph, sentence and word (usage). Without her ingenuity, my first novel would have lack the flow. My editor and I are working on my second dark fantasy novel and again her thoughts are an integral part of fashioning my novel to satisfy readers of epic fantasies. Now if I could find an honest reviewer, I would be thrilled.
Nan Cederman
I tend only to read the bad reviews. 5* and 4* reviews are given out too freely. It devalues the top review.So I look for the low ones and see what the say.
When I review, I do with honesty. Regardless of if I know the author, I tell them before they agree to me reviewing it that I will post the review even if I think it is pretty poor. I won't refrain from posting a bad review just to keep people happy.
I never buy a product online without checking out reviews on it. I buy lots of video games and movies, and those are two products that are very often overhyped by the marketers. If I don't see a few informative and positive reviews on a product, I don't buy.As far as books go, I do lots of exchange reviews. As I was taught at University, literary criticism is about seeking the redeeming value of a book. Anyone can tear a work to pieces. Almost every good agent will indicate how subjective the industry is, and encourage you to get a second opinion when declining an offer. I do my reviews accordingly, and thankfully I have never had to decline posting a review due to the inferior quality of the work. Mostly I end up putting up the best of the author's good reviews.
My parents are members of a book group that has met and read and discussed books together for the past fifteen or twenty years. I gave these sharks my fantasy novel to read and discuss. And of course they tore it apart. None of them were fantasy readers, nor in the age range that I was writing for. It was hard to take a lot of the criticism, but at the same time I didn't take it personally. It can paralyze a writer to focus on sales, reviews, and so on. And with that my friends. it is time to put some ink on the page. ttfn. F.F. McCulligan
F.F., did you try to make contact with any of the reviewers to salvage some constructive criticism? The author is the best judge of what's constructive and what's beatdown. If they're attacking your style, your storyline, your characters or your dialogue, for example, your conscience will let you know if it's something you need to address. Alternately, if they don't like fantasy novels period, then you don't need to fix what's not broken.
We have to distinguish between reviews of published work (which you are not going to rewrite) like say on Amazon or Goodreads, and the beta reading of a work-in-progress. Reviews are not really directed at the author. They are by consumers, for consumers. Naturally you look at the reviews before you buy anything, especially on line. You want to know if the purchase is going to meet your needs; if the vacuum cleaner is actually a wet-vac or if the novel looks like SF but is actually bondage porn, you do want to know this before investing your valuable money and (in the case of free books) time.
Beta reads are very helpful but an entirely different animal. These are purely for the author's benefit, because it is hard for a writer to view the work with a fresh eye. Did you notice that he lights two cigarettes in this paragraph? Um, did you really mean to imply that he murdered her? I think you meant this to be funny, not incomprehensible. The wider reading public will never hear about the beta reads, because the author immediately seizes them and goes back to rewrite, fixing the cigarettes, making the conversation clear, and so on.
And the wise writer selects the beta reader carefully. You want someone familiar with the genre and its tropes, someone who does a fair amount of reading, ideally someone who has read a lot of your work already. If you google around, Orson Scott Card has written a good bit on How To Train Your Beta Reader.
Clearly you cannot do this careful selection with the wider readership. Once you publish (note how the word has the same root as public) it's Katy bar the door.
John Reinhard wrote: "F.F., did you try to make contact with any of the reviewers to salvage some constructive criticism? The author is the best judge of what's constructive and what's beatdown. If they're attacking you..."I agree - it's best not to ask people who don't appreciate your genre for comments.
The very first Goodreads review of my novel was incredibly critical. I mean off-the-charts, claiming it was the worst book she had read EVER. I'm not kidding. As everyone here knows, the very first review is something you anticipate, and I read it while shaking my head thinking, "How can she have hated it so passionately?" I even looked up the reviewer to make sure she wasn't someone I had treated badly in the past. Nope. But as more positive reviews rolled in (hers was the only 1-star review) I began to find her over-the-top evisceration to be entertaining. So much so that I read it aloud at my book launch party in July. And everyone loved it, laughing out loud at the absurdity of the hatred in the language.
Talk about taking lemons and making lemonade!
I've read that it's can be seen as a good thing to get a poor review. It convinces people that not just your friends and family are reviewing you - it helps balance the good reviews. If you're reaching a wider audience, it stands to reason you'll get someone who hates your work. It must be awful to have that as your first review, though.
All we want is an honest review. If a reviewer knows his own prejudices, he will refrain from reviewing a genre he dislikes. Likewise, if he fails to complete a book, he won't write a review. After that, everything is fair game (as long as it's about the book instead of the reviewer's ego). Bad reviews are most often earned, probably more than good ones. A lack of acclaim, not the same thing as bad reviews, is not uncommon for even good authors. I recall reading that Frank Herbert had trouble getting Dune published. Moby Dick was a (financial) failure at first too.
As writers, we must accept that some reviewers will dislike a story just because it doesn't work for them. On the other hand, it may be because there are major flaws in it. If someone points them out, we can hardly kill the messenger.
PS Do not molest reviewers. They are dangerous beasts when riled. Whatever you do, don't debate them.
I think that when you're looking at a string of four and five star reviews, that four-star is going to tell you why the critic didn't follow the crowd. You may get one or two who just don't give five stars out, but most likely the review will indicate why they didn't put the book over with flying colors.
Reviews are one of those things that as a topic such as this it will bring out both sides as you either like em or you hate em, or even in the middle. From a book reviewing standpoint I try to be very honest, I try to tell what I enjoyed and what I disliked. Sometimes one may outweigh the other but I don't slander the author by any means, only did once and even then it left a sour taste in my mouth. As an author who receives book reviews of course I will enjoy and embrace a good review over a bad one. Very seldom that I will embrace and like a bad review i suppose if it gives both good and bad and isn't against me then sure but how many times does that happen?I once saw someone say that book reviews are not for the author but for the potential readers who will decide as to whether or not they wish to read the book based off of reviews. Not everyone reads reviews and not everyone who does read them makes a decision to read a book based off of one. I think a review is for the author in a sense. It gives the author an idea of what people think about their book and it shows them what their readers like and dislike about their writing.
Overall though I find that book reviews are truly a win/lose type of deal. Like I stated and and D.R. said, It's really a love/hate/need relationship. You love them in the sense of you love writing them or enjoy reading what others think, you hate them because you may like the book but yet others rate and review it bad. From an authors standpoint you tend to of course dislike and hate bad reviews and from a need view, you need to review a book so that your showing the author you read it, your giving your credit.
Sara wrote: "I appreciate honest reviews that are upfront about the reviewer's own biases (we all have them), likes, and comments about what worked and what didn't work in the story.But I've also noted a dang..."
that is so good to know, thanks for sharing that. As a new author myself, trying to do anything for reviews and perhaps overly susceptible to these tactics gives me a heads up on their end game.
John Reinhard wrote: "F.F., did you try to make contact with any of the reviewers to salvage some constructive criticism? The author is the best judge of what's constructive and what's beatdown. If they're attacking you..."John has a very good point, if your book is not a genre they like then they may find it difficult to get through, which will no doubt reflect on what they felt for your plot, characters and dialogue. They may have read your synopsis and believed it was something else entirely. Like John said if they don't like your genre and you find perhaps a few bad reviews and many good ones don't fix it, you are ok.
For self pubbers, reviews are crucial. Maybe not so important for other publishing venues. Unfortunately, few people spend money on a book without some reason to think it's worth what they will pay so writers need reviews if they want to sell books. What the reviewer says is not as relevant as the fact that they've said something because most people realize that a review is a personal opinion. But the fact that someone spent the time to give their opinion means something. So, though I personally hate the concept of reviews and seldom read them myself, I realize they are important. Crucial. They can and often do mean life or death for a book's sales.
Mark wrote:"John has a very good point, if your book is not a genre they like then they may find it difficult to get through, which will no doubt reflect on what they felt for your plot, characters and dialogue. They may have read your synopsis and believed it was something else entirely. Like John said if they don't like your genre and you find perhaps a few bad reviews and many good ones don't fix it, you are ok."
Another thing to remember is that we writers have very thin skin, so we react more vigorously to criticism than most other artists. Most of the time we take it as a disparagement of our ability rather than of the work itself. This is why it is important to take a critical view of the criticism itself. Did the detractor mention specifically what they disliked? Did they bring up an issue unlike any other discussed by another reviewer? Did they hit a raw nerve over something we might have already noticed? Sometimes we do well to sit back and 'review the review' in considering the source.
Sara wrote: "But I've also noted a dangerous trend lately, that's very disturbing. There are groups of reviewers who provide negative reviews. Once the reviews are publicly posted, the author receives an approach by "professionals", who are willing to fix the book for a price. This seems to result in glowing reviews which then drive sales up. "
I hadn't heard of this scam yet. It's only a matter of time before someone starts up a review protection racket (the following is to be read in a stereotypical mobster voice): "It's a nice book ya have heeyah, Mista Best. It'd be a real shame to see it get damaged with a bunch of bad reviews. What you need is a little insurance, and I happens to be in the insurance biz..."
Hmmm. Maybe if I don't make it as an author I could start a career as a spine-breaker (book-spines that is) - I am kidding, of course!
I feel like reviews are very important, but it also extremely important to be honest with reviews. There is no point in racking up tons of 5 star reviews on your book. When I ask people to review my book, I tell them to be completely honest with their reviews. I have several 3 stars and lower on my motivational book Win No Matter What: A Guide to Hyping Up Your Life, but you become a better writer that way :)
Nihar wrote: "I feel like reviews are very important, but it also extremely important to be honest with reviews. There is no point in racking up tons of 5 star reviews on your book."That's kind of a double-edged sword. If you're not a renowned author, having a rep for writing bad fiction can be a death sentence. It can be worse for non-fiction authors; poor reviews can make it appear as if you don't know what you're talking about or providing little pertinent info on what you do know.
As someone above has said it's all very subjective. Ask 20 people to review a book and you will get 20 different reviews depending on their individual perspective and mood at the time of reading.Honest reviewers will say what they liked and what they didn't like but it's quite an effort to write these reviews without giving away key spoilers.
You cannot please all of the readers all of the time. I accept that this is the reality.
If you receive a bad review then there is only one thing to do. Remember what they did to Bloby, look at the picture and all will be well again!http://bbc.in/13Q5RuH
Oddly enough, I was just talking to another writer about the subject of reviews, especially pans. You will often get the urge to respond to a negative review. Resist that urge with all your might. You cannot win an argument with a reviewer, and it will only make you look petty (and, depending upon how angry you are, mean). That's not the way to get readers.As many people on this thread have said, not everybody will love your writing as much as you do. Expect bad reviews. As somebody also said, they actually help your credibility: when a potential reader sees that you only five star reviews, they will assume they were all written by your friends and family. The occasional pan among the raves makes you seem much more legit.
I am a mostly free verse poet and I'm not formally trained in any way so honestly I don't review according to forms, which for some people is the only thing they judge. I'd like to say at least with fiction there are even more set genres so for example you don't need to worry I'll review your romance novel, because I don't read romance and my review of such wouldn't be fair. But then again, if you achieve a positive review by someone who doesn't typically like your style than all the better! So that's a double-edged sword as you might want this.
As a reader I don't always pay attention to reviews. If I read a fiction synopsis that appeals to me then I'll probably pick up the book, especially if it's an e-book (cheaper). When it comes to non-fiction however I may pay a little more attention; they can also help with poetry.
All-in-all anything to do with people's opinions very quickly get messy! Maybe you get a bad review because people don't like your characters name or just don't like your subject.
I had to amend my comment here to say that as I writer I am especially grateful to my reviewers and their reviews. They are certainly important to me as a writer. It is great to get feedback and get a chance to see the impact your book has or hasn't made, as well as getting to see your book from another person's perspective.
I think too for writers reviews mean a lot within the community of writing because it enables us a chance to make connections with people we might not otherwise. By requesting reviews and accepting to give them you can meet a kindred spirit through their work. This support and connection is so important for artists of all kind. While as I said I haven't received very many reviews and neither negative, I think they have their place as well and not in that they should invalidate but again they give you a look at your own work from the outside.
eLPy
author of "That Which Lives Within"
www.littlefacepublications