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At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to cause trouble, I need to ask what seems the obvious question:WHY did some of the authors ask that a reviewer contact them before posting if the review is 3 stars or below?
My guess is that those authors wish to stop anything other than 4-star or 5-star reviews from being posted. This bothers me on many levels, but the primary reason is that these are PUBLISHED books. Correct? And if they are published books, then those authors have told us their books are ready-to-read, a.k.a. finished, polished, edited. Reviews of published books are NOT AUTHOR CRITIQUES. The time for critiques is before publishing. Therefore, there is absolutely NO reason for an author to see any review until it's posted.
An "honest" review is ONLY honest if an author has no interference in its public posting, regardless of whether the review contains five stars or one. If only four- and five-star reviews are ever posted publicly, that gives future readers the false impression that a book is, perhaps, of a higher quality than it truly is.
Although you didn't specifically state the reason those authors wanted to be contacted in the case of less favorable reviews, I can't imagine any other reason other than the one I've stated. And that reason alone would immediately place those authors on my do-not-read list.
Lynda wrote: "At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to cause trouble, I need to ask what seems the obvious question:WHY did some of the authors ask that a reviewer contact them before posting if the review i..."
I couldn't agree more.
What I want as an author, is to know that the quality of my work is of the highest standard. That can only be achieved in two ways:
- you ask for honest reviews (how often those are really honest, who knows)
- ...even better...you wait until some people bought your book and post unsolicited reviews
Dirk
I concur with Lynda's question. I first saw this thread referred to a little while ago but did not have time to comment. I am going to be blunt. For an author to request a reviewer to contact them if a less than 4 or 5 star rating is going to be given is frankly rather pathetic. Realistically most books should fall in the three star rating bracket. Four and five stars should be reserved for exceptional and outstanding books. This has got so out of hand that many readers (and authors) openly state they ignore 5 star (and in some cases 4 star) ratings because they are unlikely to be genuine. My blog post of Sunday 24 November 2013: Reader Ratings - What are they worth? refers. http://www.tanyarobinson100.blogspot....
As an author I only wish to receive realistic and 'honest' reviews AND ratings. Otherwise how am I going to learn? I need to know where I am going wrong (or right) and to understand readers preferences. In fact due to comments received I am in the process of revising my first book. I do not mean I am compromising my writing by bowing to demand but hopefully I will be improving the read for readers. Okay none of us enjoy negative comment but if we are not prepared to listen we deny ourselves the potential for improving.
As an author I only wish to receive realistic and 'honest' reviews AND ratings. Otherwise how am I going to learn? I need to know where I am going wrong (or right) and to understand readers preferences. In fact due to comments received I am in the process of revising my first book. I do not mean I am compromising my writing by bowing to demand but hopefully I will be improving the read for readers. Okay none of us enjoy negative comment but if we are not prepared to listen we deny ourselves the potential for improving.
Agreed. And I if I see a book with only four and five star reviews, I think that it's all friends and family and move on. HONEST reviews are the only way to go.
I think I am about to get myself in trouble again! Firstly, what Amazon is VERY good at doing is blocking friend and family reviews. Their bots pick up clues from Facebook and Google.
Secondly, I really do have misgivings that the whole review thing is deteriorating into a "give me a free book and I will give you a critique" fest.
Waiting for unsolicited reviews is the part of the job that is the hardest and I think the whole "free book" thing is making it even rarer!
Abigail wrote: "Agreed. And I if I see a book with only four and five star reviews, I think that it's all friends and family and move on. HONEST reviews are the only way to go."So what you're saying is, a good review can never be honest, but a bad review can be?
Lynda wrote: "At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to cause trouble, I need to ask what seems the obvious question:WHY did some of the authors ask that a reviewer contact them before posting if the review i..."
Lynda wrote: "At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to cause trouble, I need to ask what seems the obvious question:WHY did some of the authors ask that a reviewer contact them before posting if the review i..."
If you publish a book you must accept that not everyone who reads it is going to like it. It you ask for reviews you must accept good and bad star rankings.
Lance wrote: "So what you're saying is, a good review can never be honest, but a bad review can be?"I always find that to be a judgement call...
If there are only five-star reviews, I'm suspicious but will read through them to see if they have substance. Even if there are four-star reviews sprinkled in, they need to be something more than, "I want to read more of this author! Couldn't put it down!" or some such thing.
If a five-star says the plot was nicely thought out, the characters were colorful, and there were no obvious editing errors, I might be more inclined to believe it's sincere. I'll happily give four and five stars to books I really enjoy, whether they're simply written or timeless classics, but I know there are people out there who think five-star reviews are frivolous and should be reserved for the best of the best of the best. I tend to give four stars if I really liked the book but consider it to be a one-time read. Five stars means I liked/loved it enough that I want to reread it someday. That said, I recognize that there's got to be someone, somewhere out there who doesn't like those same books the way I do. Reviews are, ultimately, subjective, no matter how hard we try to keep them fair and objective.
Lynda -- so much of the reaction to a review is based upon how the writer is approaching book sales. If the entire exercise is a numbers chase, then certainly they are going to fume and fuss if a two-star comes down the pike. I've read so many of these posts -- author: How dare they? -- that I don't really notice them any more. On the other hand, even a less than perfect review of one's work can be very gratifying. I once had a review of my first book come in three stars. The reader had issues with the editing, BUT. The book is set in Ireland. She chose to read the book aloud to a very old Irish woman during the onslaught of Uberstorm Sandy. The listener loved it. That means more to me than almost any five star review I've gotten. It was honest and it was clear that the story actually did its job. I thanked her once I got an opportunity. Didn't raise my numbers, but it raised my spirits!
Richard wrote: "If the entire exercise is a numbers chase, then certainly they are going to fume and fuss if a two-star comes down the pike. I've read so many of these posts -- author: How dare they?"I did a blog post about that once where I marveled at the "five-star = my writing is spectacular" v. "one-star = reader is a moron" trend. (http://ilovetoreadyourbooks.blogspot....)
Raymond Esposito also wrote a post once about how authors mentally rate their reviewers, and it was hilarious.
http://writinginadeadworld.com/2013/1...
If I were an author, I would rather have a genuine three-star review than an exuberant false five-star. We're only lying to ourselves if we think false praise is a good thing. It's like getting a trophy simply for showing up: you know, deep down, that the trophy has no real value.
Natasha wrote: "The Rules are simply that 3 authors will be featured a month and I'm asking everyone who joins (authors included) that..."How does one become a "featured" author?
P.S. I put no restrictions on reviews I receive.
Lily wrote: "I'm a debut in this cut-throat industry. From what i've learned and seen is that good reviews makes good sales going, but again constructive criticism makes a good writer.We need the Constructive ..."
But Lily, do you think it should be the reader/reviewer's responsibility to sharpen your skills? Shouldn't that be the job of a critique partner or beta reader, prior to publishing?
I agree with you, though, on one thing: regardless of how many stars a reviewer leaves, he/she should always tell why it rated as such.
Some of my authors did ask me that if the reviewer rated it a 3 star or below for the reviewer to contact the author before posting. As someone else asked, why? If they truly want an honest review why should the reviewer contact them privately if less than 4 stars? I would never agree to this. My time is worth more to me than any free book. If I have to get author approval before posting a review forget it.
I may be wrong, but don't you have to actually buy a book, or download a free book from Amazon to be able to leave a review on the site?If authors were to deliver the book directly to the reviewer, surely Amazon would not accept the review.
Pearl wrote: "I may be wrong, but don't you have to actually buy a book, or download a free book from Amazon to be able to leave a review on the site?If authors were to deliver the book directly to the reviewe..."
I believe you are mistaken. If the book was purchased from Amazon the review is flagged a "Verified Amazon Purchaser" (or something like that).
I don't have to purchase it on Amazon in order to review it. The only thing you must have is an account with Amazon. Ron is correct. If you purchase it from Amazon you have the option of checking off that "verified Amazon purchase" tag. You don't get it if you bought it elsewhere but you can review it.
Natasha, your group looks interesting but there isn't a DOC to show rules for submission. I write contemporary romance, romance erotia and dark romance - are the latter two categories acceptable on your site or not? How do authors apply? As for the 4 and 5 star ratings: I think it's because some of the sales/reviews sites insist on a 4 star average, so newbies get all het up about their reviews dropping below 4.0.
New authors don't realise those review sites are actually the crappy ones, and that real review sites will take any book they think looks interesting.
My advice is to tell them that Georgette Heyer only gets an Average rating of 3.83 and move on. :-)
I would participate in this but not if I have to pull a three star review because the author doesn't like it. I've gotten three star reviews, and four, and five. I appreciate them all. Then I know which of my books are working and which aren't.
I'm curious what types of books you feature. Do you lean toward a specific genre?
Why do people get obsessed with ratings? I'd be more than happy with a review that makes an honest observation on the book's merits. My only interest is in writing romantic comedy in the style of P.G.Wodehouse (see my website www.michaelwilton.co.uk for more details)- apart from two children's books.mike@thewiltons.net> P.S. My book is called "Save Our Shop" and is written under the pen name of Michael Roll. If anyone is interested in reading it, please let me know and I will send it in any format.
Would appreciate any interest.
The Rules are simply that 3 authors will be featured a month and I'm asking everyone who joins (authors included) that they pick at least one book a month from at least one of the featured authors and review it to try and boost those authors reviews up on amazon. Lack of participation can forfeit the authors name from the list of featured authors.
The featured authors give a free PDF (or if they can a mobi file etc) to the interested reviewer in exchange for their honest review. Some of my authors did ask me that if the reviewer rated it a 3 star or below for the reviewer to contact the author before posting.
I'm hoping that if we all work together we can help each other out! If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. :D
This is the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/67143...