I have long held a skepticism of reviews and review sites. My cynicism about the veracity of many reviews is a combination of comments made to me by reviewers, things read on blogs, and my own observations. In other words, I readily admit my opinion is based on a liberal mix of truth, fiction, and gossip (as most opinions probably are).
On the one hand, I am honestly pleased when an author I know, who has written a book I love, gets a glowing review. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction, knowing someone else recognized the strength in writing, well-developed characters and compelling storyline. There is a validation of not only my own brilliance in recognizing the book’s greatness but also the authors (admittedly greater) brilliance in writing it. But it’s easy for me to comb through the reviews on the books I’ve read, and find the reviews that I believe to be critical, fair and well-written.
The more difficult part, and where my cynicism rears its ugly head, is the books I haven’t read. I often wonder if the review site is writing the review for the author and the publisher, unwilling to give an honest review, but instead searching for the reviewer who will give the book a glowing review. I will acknowledge that there are times a second reviewer should be sought—for instance, the reviewer thought they were going to be reading an inspirational book and instead got an erotic romance, a genre they find not to their taste. That can happen. We all have genre, POV, and storyline preferences. It’s hard—some would argue impossible—to move beyond those and review a book without the color of our own biases. After all, what is the enjoyment of anything, if not subjective?
Why am I cynical of reviews for books I haven’t read? Because I’ve read so many glowing reviews of books that I thought sucked. Poor writing, muddy point-of-view (three in one sentence is too many, don’t you think?), wandering body parts (she has a hand growing from between her legs? Huh), bad editing and inconsistent storyline. In my mind, those things equal a bad book. But as one person said to me “…but the story was different and it was good.” For me, that doesn’t compensate for lazy writing and bad editing, but mine is only one opinion. And boy, when I look at review sites, that’s the way I feel! That mine was the only poor opinion of the book. The reviews glow, they gush, they praise and raise the author to deity level. In short, they aren’t for me. They’re for the author.
There are other things that lead to my inability to trust in a review on a site dedicated to that purpose: past and present reviewers who have reported being told not to write a negative review, seeing, as I skim a list of reviews, no rating lower than a three has EVER been given (why bother having the 1 and the 2 available?), reviewers reviewing books of authors they chat with daily and are, if not friends, than friendly with (it’s more difficult to say honest, not so lovely things about a book than it is to gush far and wide about it, especially when you “know” the author).
But lest I sound biased, let me say that it’s not only formal review sites, but also reviews on places like Amazon I mistrust for a variety of reasons: Authors, editors and publishers posting glowing reviews of their own works under pseudonyms and campaigning for family members and friends to do the same. The aforementioned people as well as others with an axe to grind posting deliberately rude and ugly reviews for specific authors. Reviews being posted by people who have never even read the book (Rainbow Party comes immediately to mind). And sometimes, negative reviews disappearing from listing. As an example; recently, Keishon reported disliking a book and stated on her blog she had given it a negative review on Amazon. Several days later it was mentioned elsewhere that the author had asked Amazon to remove the review—and succeeded in getting it taken down. In its place, 16 glowing reviews appeared, giving the book 5 stars—at least several written by the author’s peers and colleagues. Having not seen the review in question, except as re-written on Keishon’s blog, I can’t speak to whether it should have been removed or not. The author, on a joint blog she contributes to, reported it as a “nasty and mean spirited review” and one which “took the facets of my book that make the romance work and wrote about them as if they were filth.” Again, let me re-state: I did not see the review in question. But, as a visitor to Keishon’s blog commented, sometimes it’s the negative reviews that can drive a person to buy a book. Only 5 star reviews look suspicious. Many readers look for the books that have a balance of reviews.
I doubt I’m the only one who finds themselves turning more and more to other readers’ blogs for reviews and re-caps of books. I think there are a number of reasons for this but I’ll cite two: Bloggers rarely have anything to lose by posting an honest review and they have no one to tell them they can’t say something or have to re-write the review in more positive terms. Although the same can be said of bloggers, it’s even more difficult to know which review site, which reviewer, is giving an honest opinion every time. Is it possible their honest opinion is a glowing recommendation for every book they’ve read? Well…does the name Harriet Klausner ring any bells? Need I say more?
All of this leads me to ask, how do you…as an author, reader, or even a reviewer feel about reviews? What sites and magazines do you trust and which do you avoid? Do you find yourself depending more on blogs or do you still turn to review sites? And for places like Amazon, do you look at the reviews on a book? And in what circumstances do you think an author or someone else should get a review removed?
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This is a very interesting debate and I’ll put my two cents on the matter. I am a regular Amazon reviewer. I also own a bookstore that caters to historical authors (romance or whatever other subgenre said historical novel may have) and am a member of a couple of book clubs. Basically, I am a bibliophile through and through.
When I review a book on Amazon, I don’t write it for the author and potential readers, I write it for my own enjoyment. I write it for no other reason than to share my enthusiasm (or lack thereof) with others. If the potential reader likes my review and buys the book because of it, then great, either way it doesn’t matter to me. As for the authors, I’d just like to say one thing: when I write a bad review of one of their novels, I am just expressing my thoughts on why the book, *in my opinion*, was not to my liking. I may offer constructive criticism and sometimes even be brutal if I think the book was horrible. You are free to ignore the review. (To be honest, I’m relieved to read that some authors don’t take reviews seriously because it is really not meant as a personal attack against them—at least *I* don’t write negative reviews with the sole purpose of attacking an author. I’ve got better things to do than attack someone I don’t know on a personal level or even attack someone I do know.) As I already said, I like some or all of the authors here, write reviews for no one but me, period. I love books and am passionate about reading and I express myself through those wonderful sites and blogs that allow us to do just that.
So . . . to those authors who have e-mailed Amazon requesting to remove a negative review and to those who have e-mailed me to attack me and tell that I don’t “get” their stories (yes, authors have actually sent me not-so-nice e-mails): relax. Most of those reviews don’t influence a reader’s decision to buy the book anyway. I know *I* don’t get influenced by them!
P.S.—I liked MJD’s first post. Very tongue-in-cheek as usual.
I read through most of the posts here and I will tell you all my opinion on reviews.
Good reviews–quote from them on the website and wherever else you want to spread good review news.
Negative reviews–either ask for another review from the same site or ignore. Usually the 2nd asking is result of suspect the reviewer was reading out of their usual genre.
I dont care where reviews come from, authors or readers. I prefer readers actually. If an author reads it, a nice note to tell me they liked the book or a suggestion for improvement (in a nice way, of course) would be fine. Posting bad reviews at Amazon, Fictionwise, or wherever just because one has a grudge is wrong. Posting a negative review because you totally didnt like the book is okay. It happens.
After being in this game for two years or so, I don’t keep account much of reviews at Amazon. As long as it sells and the readers are being entertained, who cares?
What an interesting thread! I’m a lurker when it comes to most blogs, but had to chime in on this one! As an author myself, I don’t *ever* review a book I helped critique or that I edited…it just smacks of duplicity to me (and a bit of the ol’ pat on the back). I *do*, however, review books on my site, but only books I like. Why? Because I don’t have enough time these days to slog through something that doesn’t catch me by the third chapter. If it hits the wall, I’m not going to review it…it’s that simple. I’ll ONLY go to Amazon and post a review if I’m absolutely over-the-top about a book.
As for bad reviews, I’ve gotten zapped a few times myself, and while they do sting
, I’ve grown a thick enough skin over the past few years to roll with the punches.
I cannot begin to tell you how much I agree with the point of having authors ban together and remove a bad review.
I am a published author and know several authors who have had their books on sites rating them, such as fictionwise, and the authors spike those ratings. I have seen numerous requests from groups that I am on where authors are asking for votes. I have a SERIOUS PROBLEM with this. If the book is good it should stand on its own merits without padding by collegues.
To all the comments I’ve read. I agree, and disagree — basically, I take the Amazon reviews with a grain of salt. I do tend to look at a book more favorably when there are mixed reviews — that means it’s not the same old same old. When I write reviews, I always try to be polite, but I don’t always love what I review. If, in my opinion, a book is FABULOUS then heck yes I’m going to gush. If I hate hate hate it, then I probably will weasel out of the review if there isn’t one redeeming factor in the book. Even when I really like a book, but may have had some small problems with it, I make sure to mention what I did like, and what didn’t work well for me. I’m not going to bash an author, though I may recommend staying away from a particular book. Someone liked the book enough to publish it — that doesn’t mean it’s great — but it probably means it’s not trash either. Even on my own site, I don’t always agree with what my reviewers think about a book, but I sure as heck don’t tell them they can’t think it, and I do post their reviews. There have been several books awarded a Perfect 10 (the only # designation we award) and I have not agreed with the reviewer, but, the review still gets posted with the “10″ because that’s the opinion of the person who reviewed it. Other times I will read a book one of our reviewers have read and think “Now that should have gotten a 10″ but I don’t go change the review to reflect my opinion — I just realize that even in our small review community there are a wide variety of tastes and opinions.
I’m also a bit late in the game to comment for this post, but I wanted to add my two cents. I’m a well-known reviewer for a certain genre of books (who wishes to remain anonymous). I do not have a degree. However, I know for an absolutely fact about what I like and what I do not like. I have read thousands of books in my time and I know what works and what doesn’t. I feel it is necesary to speak up when I read a book that is truly awful- bad grammar, ridiculous scenarios that don’t work, etc.
As for MJD and others who posted about not paying attention to their reviewers- that is ridiculous, and an insult to people who actually buy their books. It is an author’s duty to pay attention to what their readers like and don’t like about their books. Otherwise, how do they expect to keep them? Are they suggesting that they know better than 1000’s of people who read the book?
I may not have a degree, but I know what is good and what isn’t. A person who has literally read thousands of books in a genre is a much better source of what is “good” and “bad” as opposed to someone with a degree that hasn’t.
MJD here. I thought about your post all day, Anonymous, and I’m ready to leap upon your sage (yet faceless) advice. I just need some pointers.
Which reviews should I pay attention to? The fangirl ones that assure potential customers that all my books are perfect in every way? The poison pen ones that assure potential customers that I can’t write my way out of a condom wrapper? The ones that complain about no plot? Or the ones that complain about no characterization? Or both? The ones that get all the details of the book wrong, proving the “reviewer” didn’t bother to read the book? Or the ones where the reviewer seized upon one insignificant point and hammered it to death? The ones that complained about the book being too short, or the ones that complained it was too long? (Most of these reviews cover the same book, by the way. How a book can be too long and too short is a mystery to me, but wise Anonymous will be able to guide me. I mustn’t worry about logic, logic is a dust mote on the wind; I must now worry about reviews.)
O wise Anonymous, thank you for pointing out my duty to me. My duty to my readers. I had an entirely different idea of my duty, but those slackass 16 hour days are over, OVER. I will now obey publishing trends (next up: The Baby’s Sheriff’s Incontinent Mommy) rather than writing what moves me. I will forget about staying true to myself (never mind that it landed me on the NYT list twice…duty is all, I must obey Anonymous!) and instead obsess about keeping my readers, keeping every single one of them happy, keeping them, keeping them, oh, remembering my duty and keeping them. At all costs.
Amen.
MJD, I’ve actually favorably & honestly reviewed one of your books, in case you thought I was being a rude person that didn’t like you or something.
Of course you do not need to bother listening to fangirl types, like HK on Amazon, or the people/sites who favorably review everyone. Instead, listen to people on review websites/publications that review both good and bad; Listen to the few people on Amazon and BN (like me) and the others that write clearly and say exactly what they like or don’t like — and are honest.
I can say much, much more on this topic and others related but I honestly think this little argument is slightly ridiculous. If you don’t want to listen to your fans, and you continue to disappoint them, eventually you will lose them. And for some this has already been the case.