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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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 am a reviewer also. I believe that one important thing has been forgotten and I will always hear my grandmother’s words in my head and heart: Treat people the way you want to be treated! I would never say anything nasty to someone, because I would not want to be treated that way.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a low rating…..as long as….it is done tastefully! There is absolutely no reason to flame or be nasty to another person. If you don’t like the book than say why in a tactful manner. To me, that is more helpful than the nastiness.

Whether the book is good or bad, the author works hard to write that book and it should not be shredded to pieces. What I may not like, someone else undoubtedly will. Just because I didn’t like it, does NOT make it a bad book.

I think overall, TACT has to be the number one objective to writing a low rated book.

Sorry to carry on….but this is a very interesting subject to me.

Billie Jo

Mel, I don’t know if this was was you meant or not, but I think it’s important to keep in mind why John asks his neighbors, and it’s not just because he’s lazy or doesn’t have easy access to medical journals. Potential patients are going to judge other doctors based on different critera than other doctors might use. My mom told me earlier today that my aunt had good experiences at Target Optical because that’s the type of thing the AMA doesn’t really keep track of (as far as I know, anyway). We all sort of assume that the licensing system works and we aren’t going to lose our eyesight just by going in for an eye exam. What we aren’t so sure about is how we will be treated while we are there.

There isn’t quite the the divide between readers and writers as there is between doctors and patients – not only are writers usually avid readers, but all of us were taught the basics of how to write in school (or at, least, someone tried to teach us at one point). To me, this means that writers and editors are less likely to forget what readers want and that reasonably intelligent readers can weed out the most uniformed reviews.

I’ll read Amazon reviews sometimes when a book sounds interesting, but I’m not certain if it’s good or not. I don’t just go by what the first person says though, I skim them to find one or two that sound reasonably intelligent.

So, I understand writers themselves not caring (or teaching themselves not to care) about silly things like Amazon reviews, but I still think they can be helpful for readers new to the author or series.

But then I might be a bit biased since I’m pretty much asked to give out mini-reviews dozens of times day (at least).